Belladonna & the Awakening

Well-regarded as a live performer in the Toronto, Canada, spoken-word and music scenes, Belladonna’s seven-song EP mixes producer Gerry Sylvia’s crackling hip-hop production as well as complex live jazz, blues and folk instrumentation by The Awakening without seeming forced or thrown together.

Bohemian-influenced flows and turns of phrase that would seem dated or pretentious become fresh and urgent in the lyrical context of "Free-Dom" ("How does it feel when everything you own is plastic/ the government prescribes your mental and your gastric/ Your credit’s solid, but your morals are elastic/ You only know what’s on your mind when they broadcast it"). The Sylvia-produced opener "Uplift Me" ("Down a family, a job or a ham hock/ eating ketchup packages in the parking lot") further exemplifies Belladonna’s gift for alchemy in a variety of sonic constructions.
- Colorlines Magazine

eye - 03.03.05

EXTENDED PLAY
BY DENISE BENSON

"Ever since I was an obnoxious, mouthy kid with more opinions than knowledge, I knew I wanted to be heard," says local wordsmith/vocalist/activist/actor Belladonna.

"I've been writing poetry since kindergarten and now it's just an inseparable part of me. Being able to express myself with words, and then add another layer to that with vocal inflection, movement, connecting to people from the stage -- that's what makes it real."

Growing up in Scarborough "in a West Indian household where everyone's got an opinion about everything, and they aren't shy about sharing it," the natural-born performer learned to value conversation early in life.

She formed drama and poetry clubs while in high school and earned a B.A. in English lit at U of T, all the while developing confidence as a spoken-word artist.

First "coerced onto a hip-hop stage" five years ago by members of the Dope Poet Society ("It was really, really bad -- spectacularly so, but people were encouraging"), Belladonna went on to perform and record with the crew while maintaining her autonomy.

"It's very important to me that I define my image, my sound and my message," she says of going it solo. "When you hear me perform, I want you to know who I am, and what I believe in."

If you've ever seen this dynamo rock a mic in any context, you have some sense of what she believes in: community and communication.

"My aim is to stimulate meaningful conversation and introspective thought. I want to awaken sleeping minds to the fallacy of our separateness," Belladonna manages to say, despite fighting a flu and dealing with distractions while working at Native Earth Performing Arts.

"My primary point is the idea that people are responsible for each other as well as themselves, and my most constant underlying theme is that everyone should care what happens to others, whether it affects them directly or not. So whether that's across lines of class, race, gender or what have you, people should be interested in what happens to everyone else."

The woman certainly puts her time and energy where her beliefs are, performing at politically progressive events benefiting causes and organizations ranging from the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre to PEN Canada, and the March 10 Por Amor party, which will raise funds for the construction of both a school and an orphanage in Haiti.

I last caught Belladonna setting the Buddies in Bad Times main stage on fire during a performance in November as part of the Hysteria Festival, and am thrilled to report that she's now spending time in the studio, recording solo works with producer Gerry Sylvia and laying down tracks with the Awakening, a band that gelled out of jam sessions through the Artists' Play Studio Theatre.

"We are so in synch, and so idealistic, it's ridiculous," Belladonna says lovingly about the band, which includes bassist John Kendrick, bassoonist Jeff Burke, djembe drummers Lai Yee Ho, Michael Clarke and Pierre Mongeon, and trumpeter Pierre Mongeon. "We aren't cool or edgy or anything -- there is probably a 35-year span in the ages of the band members. It's very multiculti, and very sincere but there is so much fantastic communication between us all. I play off of their rhythms and they play off of mine."

"Play" is definitely a word and concept that figures prominently in Belladonna's world. In addition to rapping, singing and speaking, she shares ideas through writing, producing and acting in theatre and by doing sketch and improv comedy through Tim Sims Playhouse, part of Second City. Currently in development are Zizerphus, "a children's play in spoken word," and Yo Mama, a comedy show to be performed by Belladonna's improv crew, Show 'n' Prov, at Tim Sims on May 6 and 7.

"Hip-hop, comedy and theatre -- they're all vehicles of delivery for whatever I'm writing," says Belladonna, who formed umbrella organization New Harlem Productions in 2003 as a means of producing and promoting not only her own works but also those of other artists of colour.

"Starting New Harlem was a big step in my artistic development," she says. "I was forced to look closely at my body of work for a unified, underlying philosophy. I want to come at you from every direction. I like that people are still surprised by things I do; just wait till I really put them together."

Email dbensoneye.net. - Eye Magazine, Toronto (www.eye.net)

In the 1940’s, Malcolm Lowry penned his novel Under the Volcano while living in a squatters shack at the water’s edge in Dollarton, BC. The spot was called Whey–ah–Wichen, “facing the wind” and is now know as Cates Park. The park has been a gathering place for 3,000 years: the Tsleil–Waututh First Nation used it as their summer camp, and thousands of hippies gathered there in the ‘70s for music and arts festivals. Some twenty years later, the Under the Volcano festival would begin there, named in respect for the counter–culture heritage of the site, and the long history of artists, squatters, and First Nations using the forested land

On Sunday August 8th, the park will host the 15th annual Under the Volcano, bringing together 8,000 people in a non–corporate cultural event to celebrate art, music and progressive politics. Fifteen years ago, the first UTV event brought in 300 people. As Meegan Maultsaid, a long–term participant in the UTV collective says, “We must be doing something right.”

...
Belladonna, the MC from Toronto’s Dope Poet’s society, sent samples of her work to Meegan as soon as she heard about the festival. “I think it’s important for artists interested in social change to interact with and reaffirm each other’s work as well as to share and gain new perspectives across the country.” She hopes that, in addition to sore feet from plenty of dancing, her audience will leave with a sense that their opinions, thoughts and actions do have an impact. “I want the audience to walk away talking,” she says, “even if they’re talking about how much they hate me. The point is to open a dialogue, generate ideas, seek solutions.”

For Belladonna, this year’s theme is a strong concept. “Illegal for me is synonymous with undesirable or disapproved. The term ’illegal alien’ comes to mind. The concept of lawfulness is determined by those in power for the greater good of their class and their general interests. I am illegal in that I am undesirable to the current power structure. I think about the strict application of laws governing marijuana use, immigration or something as simple as smoking in bars. Then I think about the inadequacy of our laws governing domestic violence, child sex crimes, police brutality. All of these things are designed to maintain the current power struggle and disregard things which affect the powerless. I hold myself accountable solely to the ultimate law of compassion that makes me lawless in the eyes of the conventional legal system.”

- DISCORDER MAGAZINE (discorder.citr.ca)