Black Kid Joy
What is Black Kid Joy?
Founded by multidisciplinary artist MelVee X and funded generously through Calgary Arts Development, Black Kid Joy is an initiative to empower Black youth ages 13-19 through artistic development.
Held virtually over Zoom during the summer of July 2020 for a two-week period, this free program for young Black artists created an opportunity for participants to create independent works of art for a youth artist exhibition with the guidance of a professional artist facilitator team. The approach to Black Kid Joy was two-fold: providing a foundational understanding of culturally relevant social issues through a series of co-facilitated workshops and small group work with peer artists led by an artist mentor to develop their concepts and receive guidance from a professional artist.
Due to the physical restrictions of the program, youth were provided artistic tools and supplies of their choosing, which were delivered to them directly through the kind assistance of the dedicated artist facilitator team.
It is the hope and intention of myself, MelVee, that Black Kid Joy will be able to grow and support Black youth in their artistic aspirations and show them it is possible and achievable to develop a rewarding artistic career and practice.
Meet the Team
MelVee X (she/they)- Director, Artist Facilitator
Multidisciplinary artist – Spoken word poetry, burlesque performance and photography
MelVee X is a Black queer multidisciplinary artist. Her primary means of expression are spoken word poetry, burlesque performance and photography; the MelVee trifecta. She’s been a professional artist for over five years and has featured and shared her work locally and nationally. It is MelVee’s vision and guiding principle to empower marginalized people and equity-seeking communities to tell our own stories from our perspectives. She is proudly Black and incorporates Caribbean, African and Black American/Black Canadian cultural themes prominently in her work. The struggle is real, unapologetic and never looked so damn good.
Ebony Gooden (she/her/open) – Artist Facilitator
Digital Media Artist
“There aren’t a lot of stories about what it’s like to be a Black Deaf Woman.
Ebony is the only Black Deaf artist living in Calgary, Alberta. She was originally from Washington D.C. where she graduated from Gallaudet University with a Bachelor in Digital Media and Art.
She has a deep love of transforming pictures by adding special effects or transforming one thing into something different. She also enjoys making short videos as well as v-log (video blog which is popular in the Deaf Community). Her hands are a huge part of her because of her primary language which is American Sign Language and she soon became obsessed with empowering herself by combining animation and ASL.”
To know about her:
Facebook & Youtube: Ebony R Gooden
Devery Bes (they/them) – Artist Facilitator
Gender Performance Artist, Drag King
“Devery Bess has come a long way, having almost a decade of performance experience. Born and raised in Montreal they find themselves now based in Calgary AB. From beaches of Vancouver to the harbours of Halifax, they have had the opportunity to wow and entertain crowds with their charisma, smooth moves, topped with the cheesiest of puns.
They are only known as Devery Bess, and it’s a promise.”
To know more about them:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeveryBessDragKing/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deverybessdragking/
Youtube: DeveryBess
Adetola Adedipe aka aloT of Poetry (she/her/they/them) – Artist Facilitator
Spoken Word Artist is known as aloT of Poetry
“Nigerian roots. Raised in South Africa.
This poet has been a featured artist at events all over YYC from Open mics to Poetry festivals and this November 2019 Slam Champion is not slowing down.
Her first spoken word video for her poem: “Womxn” ( pronounced Woman) was made as a comment on the treatment of womxn in society.
By sharing her anxiety, pain, laughter and love she aims to build a community that encourages loving yourself and being unapologetic about it.”
To know about her:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aloTofPoet/
Youtube: aloT of Poetry
Ajayi Olanrewaju Olabode aka Lanre Ajayi (he/him) – Artist Facilitator
Visual Artist, Fashion Designer and Event Producer
“I started out my artistic career as a teenager. I was making arts and selling them when I was in Nigeria to help some of my friends with financial challenges in regards to their education. Fast-forward after my University degree, I was organizing the Youth Empowerment Scheme to help train youths in my community and ultimately impact them the necessary knowledge needed to start a career for themselves. I organize these bi-weekly training along with a team of my friends across multi-disciplinary skills ranging from Art, Fashion Design, Cooking, Make-Up Artistry, and Computer Literacy. Apart from providing the skills and training at no cost to the participants, I also provide mentorship after their training for as long as they needed me to provide advice and guidance in their chosen fields of endeavour.
Today, I can count many of my protégées then who own their business and are making an impact by paying it forward in providing the same skills I impacted into them to other members of the society in Lagos, Nigeria. To me, this is one of the many achievements that I am thankful for.
As a member of a new community in Calgary Canada, I have been privileged to use my artistic and community building skills to educate, entertain, and provide information to different community organizations. I have worked with traumatized immigrants from war-torn countries, using my art and crafts skills as a therapy to heal wounds inflicted as a result of war especially in children.
As a community builder, I created a not for profit art collective for artists of colour as a way to create the platform for expression and belonging. I use my artistic and community building skills to provide mentorship, guidance, and assistance to members of this group. Recently, one of my protégé started an initiative that is providing opportunities and assistance for Immigrants Artists. It is called the Immigrant Council for Arts Innovation. This idea was a result of the mentorship and many pieces of training I gave in the course of our meetings and discussions over a long period of time.
As a result of my community-building efforts using my art to create an inclusive and diverse society, I received the 2018 Mayor’s Art Champions award for a new Immigrant making our community thrive and beautiful.
Furthermore, I am the host and producer of some major community outreach events on different platforms. Some of them are; My City Speaks To Me, a storytelling project about people, places, and events. A project adopted by the City of Calgary through Calgary Arts Development to showcase happenings within the creative Calgary Society.
The Global Talk-Active Series. An initiative to keep entertaining, educating and engaging the community as we continue to fight the pandemic challenges ravaging our community during this time.
I am also the Artistic and Creative director behind Alberta’s premier Black History Month Festival called Ethnik Festival of Arts and Culture. A platform to celebrate the vibrant and beautiful culture of the Afro-Canadian and the Caribbean.”
Moragwa Nyamao (She/her) – Educational Consultant
“Moragwa is our wonderful teacher consultant for this project. She brings a wealth of experience in curriculum design. She will be working with the mentor artists to develop material that engages and equips our youth with the skills they need to thrive in our community.”