D'bi Young Anitafrika

My name is d'bi.young anitafrika and my preferred pronouns are she/her and they/them. I am a Black Jamaican-Canadian Theatre Practitioner. My focus is on African Caribbean performance aesthetics, specialising in Biomyth monodrama and solo-performance. I work internationally as a Dub Poet, playwright/performer and director/dramaturge, particularly mentoring emerging artists. I have garnered three Dora Mavor Moore Theatre Awards in Canada for my work as a playwright and performer and have nine Dora nominations including two for my work as a director.

I have written twelve plays (six of which are published), published four collections of poetry and seven Dub albums. Recently I completed my MA in Performance Making and am now applying for a PhD where my focus will be Methods of Performance Training and Making in the African Caribbean Diaspora. From 2008-2018, I was the founding artistic director of the Watah Theatre in Toronto Canada, a professional theatre company specializing in producing political theatre from a radical queer Black feminist lens. Watah offered tuition-free performance training to emerging and established BIQTPOC artists (2008-2018) using a decolonial performance training method I have been developing over the years.

My work addresses issues of gender, sexuality, race, class and the human experience. Most recently, three plays that I dramaturged and directed, using my method, were published in Canada. The book, Dubbin Monodrama Anthology 1: Black Masculinities in African Diaspora Theatre features the plays ‘Who Am I?’ by Webster McDonald, ‘speaking of sneaking’ by daniel jelani ellis, and ‘11:11’ by Samson Bonkeabantu Brown. These contemporary monodramas from Black male playwrights of Jamaican, Canadian and South African heritage are passionately crafted stories that speak to displacement, colonial legacies, identity, gender, sexuality, home, recovery, and coming into self, through the framework of the Anitafrika Method.

Credits

(Canada)
PERFORMANCE ARTIST, Concrete Jungle, Nottingham Contemporary/Theatre Peckham/Bathway Theatre, 1 night each, 2019
DIRECTOR/DRAMATURGE, 11:11, Theatre Centre, 1.5 weeks, 2019
DIRECTOR/DRAMATURGE, speaking of sneaking, Theatre Centre, 1.5 weeks, 2018
DIRECTOR/DRAMATURGE, Addicted, Aki Studio Theatre, 1.5 weeks, 2018
DIRECTOR/DRAMATURGE, I Cannot Lose My Mind, Crow's Theatre, 1 week, 2018
PLAYWRIGHT/ASSISTANT DIRECTOR/ACTOR, Lukumi: A Dub Opera, Tarragon Theatre, 3 weeks, 2017
ACTOR, For Coloured Girls..., Soulpepper Theatre, 5 weeks, 2017
PLAYWRIGHT/PERFORMER/DIRECTOR, Bloodclaat, The Watah Theatre, 1 week, 2016
PLAYWRIGHT/PERFORMER, She Mami Wata & The Pussywitch Hunt, Theatre Passe Muraille, 3 weeks, 2016
PLAYWRIGHT/PERFORMER, Esu Crossing The Middle Passage, Storefront Theatre, 3 weeks, 2016
DIRECTOR/DRAMATURGE, Oughtism, Watah Theatre, 1 week, 2016
DIRECTOR/DRAMATURGE, Emancipation of Ms Lovely, 1.5 weeks, 2015
DIRECTOR/DRAMATURGE, Who Am I?, Dennis Scott Theatre (Jamaica), 1 week, 2012
ACTOR, da kink in my hair, Hackney Empire Theatre, 8 weeks, 2007

Training

Playwright-in-Unit / Obsidian Theatre / 2016
Coba Dance Apprenticeship African/Caribbean with Bakari/Charmaine Headley / 2016
Three leadership residencies / Banff Centre for the Arts / 2013
Playwright-in-Unit / Tarragon theatre / 2010
Playwright-in-Residence / Canadianstage Theatre / 2009-2010
Bash Program / Canadianstage Theatre / 2008-2009
Professional Development Mentorship / ahdri zhina mandiela of b current theatre / 2007-2009
Playwrights’ Workshop / Canadianstage Theatre / 2007
Arts Academy / Soulpepper Theatre / 2006-2007
Write from the Hip / Nightwood Theatre / 2005
Playwright-in-Unit / Theatre passé muraille / 2003