Category: News

Welcome Danielle!

We are delighted to welcome Danielle Licorish to the Xenia Concerts team as a Summer Research Assistant. This position is made possible through a partnership between Xenia Concerts and Toronto Metropolitan University through the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Health Equity and Community Wellbeing.

About Danielle

Danielle Licorish is an interdisciplinary writer and creative from Scarborough. Through her passion for storytelling and community engagement, she hopes to facilitate transformative change in the world.
 
Danielle has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Professional Communication and a minor in Sociology. She is a skilled communications practitioner with experience producing effective textual, visual, and oral communications within organizations. Since 2018, her academic, professional and volunteer pursuits have focused on accessible community outreach programming for equity-seeking students and groups.
 
Danielle’s lived experience as a Black, queer, disabled femme informs her vision of community, belonging, and access for all. Critical Discourse Analysis, Critical Race Theory, and Critical Disability Studies most commonly influence her research.
 
Regardless of the role or medium, Danielle strives to create bodies of work that inspire, educate, and spark critical thought.
 
As Xenia’s Summer Research Assistant, Danielle is able to combine her love of learning and disability justice with her appreciation for music and the arts. This role is a shared partnership between Xenia Concerts and the Canada Excellence Research Chair – Health Equity and Community Wellbeing.
 
[Image Description: A woman smiles toward the camera, wearing a black top and jeans. She is standing in front of a colourful wall painted yellow.]
Two young audience members dance and smile at a Xenia Concert.

Xenia’s Case for Support & Strategic Plan

Two young audience members dance and smile at a Xenia Concert.

Happy New Year! As Xenia Concerts enters 2024, we’re pleased to present you with our detailed Strategic Plan and our Case for Support. 

Xenia Concerts is in a phase of growth and discovery. Having continued to deliver exceptional programming during the COVID-19 pandemic and emerged stronger than before, our organization remains financially stable, with solid, trusting partnerships, and a pool of talented musicians who love performing for our audiences. 

Now at the beginning of 2024, Xenia Concerts is well positioned to lead the way to a more accessible and inclusive future in the performing arts.

Read on to find out more about our plans in 2024-2025!

Strategic Plan

Our Strategic Plan is a roadmap of how Xenia will evolve over the next two years to expand our impact and further our Mission and Vision. After identifying Xenia’s unique strategic position, the Strategic Plan lays out our Objectives, Key results, and Initiatives, along with explanations of how the organizational structure will evolve over the next two years. If you want to know where Xenia is headed in 2024-2025, this is a great place to find out.

Strategic Plan

Case for Support

Our Case for Support outlines Xenia’s mandate and highlights key facts and statistics about our organization. It tells the story of why the work we do is so important and explains our unique position in the arts landscape. You’ll also find useful facts and figures, including the number of concerts we present and how many people attend, feedback from audience members and artists about our programs, a financial overview, and more. If you know a person or an organization that might be interested in supporting the neurodiversity and disability communities through Xenia Concerts, please share the Case for Support with them!

Case for Support

Introducing our Accessibility Accelerator Co-Designers

We’re very excited to introduce the members of the Xenia Concerts Accessibility Accelerator! Working with Xenia’s Accessibility Advisor, Kaylce Carter, the members of the AccA will help develop implementable, sustainable design adaptations that support accessibility. Xenia Concerts will use these learnings to develop and share resources with the broader arts community, to support the inclusion of disabled and neurodivergent individuals across Canada, both onstage and off.

This is an important step for Xenia Concerts, as we continue to improve our own accessibility practices while helping fellow artists and organizations develop a more accessible performing arts landscape across Canada. The Accessibility Accelerator will run for 18 months, from October 2023-April 2025. Watch our news posts and social media channels for updates on the process. 

The Co-Design Team

Fatima Adam (she/her)

Picture of Fatima, a light-skinned Black woman, facing the camera and smiling. She has short curly black hair, parted down the middle. She is wearing a long sleeve, dark green shirt, and standing in front of a blue and gray backdrop indoors.
Fatima Adam (she/her) is a Toronto-based producer, writer and, performer. Passionate about creative collaboration, she has worked with a variety of organizations and collectives to develop her artistic practice. READ MORE

Mabe Kyle (they/them)

Mabe Kyle a white person with brown hair and brown eyes is smiling standing in front of a large fallen down tree with a light blue shirt with white suspenders, white bow tie, and trans pride colour earings. There is long brown grass and green trees in the background.
Mabe Kyle (they/them) Expressive Arts Therapist in Training. Peer support worker in practice. Maker of poetry, pottery, and photography who loves being creative. READ MORE

Vanessa Ng (she/her)

Vanessa is wearing a black blazer with a white shirt underneath, and she has short black-brown hair. She is holding a trombone at her side and smiling at the camera. There are trees in the background and they are blurred out to put Vanessa in the spotlight.
Vanessa Ng (she/her) is a music educator, activist, and graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. She is currently attending the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto for her Masters of Teaching. READ MORE

Hannah Sullivan Facknitz (they/them)

Hannah, a white femme with round black glasses and curly dark brown hair, stands in dappled sunshine in front of a bookshelf with a very faint smile. Their blue green eyes are prominent as they ruffle their hair.
Hannah Sullivan Facknitz (they/them) is a queer disabled cultural worker and care-mongerer living on the unceded, stolen lands of the xʷməθkʷəy ̓əm, səlilwətaɬ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh peoples. READ MORE

Jasmine Noseworthy Persaud (they/them)

 [Image Description: Jasmine Noseworthy Persaud, a mixed race Guyanese person with light brown skin and dark curly hair smiles wide with teeth showing and hand holding their face. They are in front of an emerald green wall and wear a brown-black tie-dye shirt.]
Jasmine Noseworthy Persaud (they/them) is a nonbinary, mad and multiply disabled, digital media artist of Guyanese and English descent living in Treaty 13 territory. They are interested in where community arts meets community health. READ MORE

Taylor Stocks (they/he)

Taylor Stocks (they/he) is a trans crip artist, activist, and researcher whose work focuses on the intersection of trans identities and chronic illness. They manage a severe and stubborn form of ulcerative colitis and inflammatory arthritis. READ MORE

Thanks to Our Funders

The Accessibility Accelerator is made possible by funding from the Toronto Arts Council, The Azrieli Foundation, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Xenia’s New Brand Identity

Check out our new look! Xenia is refreshing its branding to align it with our current mission, vision, and values. 

A bright pink ribbon-like emblem that resembles the Greek lowercase letter "xi," with the words "xenia concerts" to the right, written in lowercase black block serif font. The two words are stacked vertically.
The new logo for Xenia Concerts

[ID: A bright pink ribbon-like emblem that resembles the Greek lowercase letter “xi,” with the words “xenia concerts” to the right, written in lowercase black slab serif font. The two words are stacked vertically.]

Why change?

  1. It improves accessibility. The new branding materials are accessible for people with low vision and reading-related disabilities. Colour contrast, font choice, font size, and the way visual information is presented all affect the accessibility of our materials. We want as many people as possible to be able to access our materials!
  2. Xenia Concerts is evolving. Xenia’s Mission and Vision have evolved in recent years, and our strategic plan involves new activities that are better represented by this new brand identity. It’s an ongoing process.

What does the brand identity represent?

The new Xenia emblem is a stylized version of the Greek letter “xi,” the first letter in the word “Xenia.” The ancient Greek practice of “Xenia” involves welcoming new people into your home and your community, and celebrating their arrival. By paying tribute to the concept of Xenia, we are celebrating the joy of inclusion and paying homage to the founding principles of our organization. We hope you love our new look as much as we do!

Special thanks to Parth Shah (@typechronicles) for his amazing accessibility-focused design work. Thank you, Parth!

What does the new logo make you think of? A ribbon? A dance move? A musical gesture? Let us know! When you see materials like the mock-up images below, you’ll know that’s us.

A mock-up of a person sitting on a chair with a Xenia Concerts branded tote bag over their shoulder
Tote bags coming soon!
Four pin-on buttons. Two of them are facing towards the viewer with the new Xenia Concerts emblem on them and the words "Xenia Concerts" in small writing at the bottom.
Pick up a button at your next concert!
A mock-up of nametags using the new Xenia Concerts logos and branding colours
You’ll be able to recognize Xenia staff and volunteers by our nametags.
A mock-up of a young woman wearing a white t-shirt with the pink Xenia Concerts logo on it.
Xenia Concerts t-shirts coming soon!
The pink Xenia Concerts "xi" emblem on a black background
Black, white, and pink are Xenia’s new colours.
A mock-up of Xenia Concerts branded stationery, including envelopes, business cards, a pen, and a CD.
Keep an eye out for Xenia stationery and business cards in the future!

Welcome to Our 2023-24 Season!

Join Xenia Concerts as we launch our 2023-2024 Season!

We’ve got a packed season this year, filled with lots of chances to enjoy our signature adaptive concerts. From September through May, we’ll be featuring an array of talented artists bringing with them the excitement of their music to our Xenia community!

Our first concert of the year features the Sisu Ensemble on September 23rd at Meridian Arts Centre. They bring their joy of music to audiences of all kinds, carefully curating programs that are entertaining while evocative. This concert will feature songs of love and longing from across 300 years of music history. This concert is presented in partnership with TO Live and One Health partners – which means that there will be THERAPY DOGS!

2023-24 Season

 

Fireside Chat for Autistic Youth: Social Justice and You

Fireside Chat for Autistic Youth: Social Justice and You

with Kayla Carter

Are you an Autistic person/person with autism between 14 and 24 years old, with an interest in social justice? Join us for an online fireside chat with disability justice advocate Kayla Carter!

When is it?

Wednesday July 26, 5 PM ET

What can we expect at this event?

This online “fireside chat” will be focused on intersectionality and social justice. During the chat, we will delve into the following questions:

  • What is social justice?
  • Equality vs. Equity
  • What is intersectionality?
  • What is allyship?
  • Turning the gaslight off

More specifically, through the chat council members will get a better understanding of the intersections of race, class, and gender. The chat will be a space where the council members can ask questions in a judgment-free zone. There will also be room for discussion on their place within social justice and how social justice and intersectionality can better help them understand themselves in the world. Additionally, the council members will discuss ableism, what it is, the social model of disability, and how it operates in our society. Through this conversation on ableism, they will understand how ableism affects their lived experiences, and that they are not “wrong” but there is a wider society that disenfranchises disabled people as a whole. Finally, the council members will have time to ask me questions about my experience as an autistic person and ample room to vent and be affirmed about their frustrations and their experiences as an autistic person/person with autism.

Who can sign up?

If you identify as an Autistic person/person with autism and are between the ages of 14 and 24, you are welcome to sign up.

REGISTER




About Kayla Carter

Accessibility Coordinator, Xenia Concerts

Kayla Carter is a Tkaronto-based facilitator, writer, consultant, and community educator. Kayla’s work focuses on disability justice, anti-racism, co-design, curriculum design, collective care, and unpacking the institutional, social, and material effects that race, gender, disability, and class and their intersections have on our collective lives. With over 10 years of experience as an internationally acclaimed facilitator, consultant, writer, and educator their approach to their work has been by engaging with equity, diversity, and inclusivity from a disability justice, anti-racist, and trauma-informed practice. Their deep love for all things policy and policy accessibility has allowed them to work with universities and not-for-profits across the country on revising accessibility, sexual misconduct, and anti-racism policies. Kayla has merged their lived experience as a Black, disabled, queer, femme, and their M.A. in Critical Disability Studies, to create a career that is rooted in nourishing, fostering, and amplifying the voices and experiences of those who are institutionally, structurally, and systematically silenced. Kayla merges their love for music, performance, storytelling and accessibility as the Accessibility Coordinator for Xenia Concerts.