Lena Recollet

Comedian Don Kelly hosted the night and pop singer Nelly Furtado, who was being honoured with a "Living Legend" award, was in attendance. - Aboriginal Music Week

Hall of fame induction & tribute to the late Russell Means, Living Legend Award to Nelly Furtado and Nominees...Lena Recollet... - NAMA Live

Artist Nominaation Selection Process Underway.14th Annual Native American Music Awards, Commemorating Native American Heritage Month! - Native American Music Awards

Lena Recollet is a talented, driven and vibrant singer/songwriter. Captivating with powerful lyrics, sultry spoken word and her poetry is bold in its lure. What makes her unique is her willingness to push herself beyond her limits, and on occasion rise to the occasional live improvisation. She has had mentorship by established artist in her community such as Digging Roots, Martha Redbone and Buffy Sainte Marie.
- APCMA - Artist Profiles

Black Lily Arts is a grassroots arts collective created by Suritah Wignall in 2009, to provide free art workshops to women and youth of color in underserved communities across the GTA. Black Lily Arts provides a space for Black women/women of color to create, express, dialogue and interact with each other in a safe environment with no judgment. The main focus is to work with women and youth who are survivors, whether it be survivors of violence or any kind of abuse-emotional, physical, or verbal. The goal is to create projects whereby individuals can gain skills, share stories and express themselves in meaningful ways. The collective was created because the director felt that there weren’t enough spaces for Black women/ women of color to go to for healing, for reflecting and for creativity. Through her own past experiences, she wanted to be able to give women what she found so difficult to access and that is a creative space.

Black Lily Arts uses mediums such as mural arts, puppetry, mask making, painting, popular theatre, mosaics, creative writing, sculpture, drumming and story telling. Past projects by the creative director include mask making at The Toronto Rape Crisis Centre, mural design at Upwood Park/ Salvador Del Mundo Co-op, mask making in the anitAfrika @ dub theatre, mask making with women from Nellie’s, mural design at Rivertowne’s Toronto housing complex, mural design at the Red Door Shelter, mosaics with Jimmie Simpson recreational Centre and coordinating a community mural for Amnesty International’s 60th Anniversary.

The collective includes Suritah Wignall, Belinda Ageda and Lena Recollet, three social activists and women rights advocates who has made community work one of their most cherished missions. For more than a decade, Suritah has worked on numerous community arts projects in cross cultural settings across Toronto. She studied in the AWCCA (Assaulted Women’s Child Counselor Advocate program) at George Brown College and a graduate of the entrepreneurship program offered by The Toronto Business Development Centre. Belinda Ageda trained at the Ontario College of Art and Design in drawing & painting, Concordia University in art education and is currently studying towards certification as a Gestalt therapist from the Gestalt Institute of Toronto. She has created and facilitated numerous art workshops for community groups in Toronto, Montreal and New York, over the past 14 years. Belinda creates art projects that use the Gestalt approach to art therapy. Lena Recollet is an Aboriginal Artist who studied theatre at The Centre for Indigenous Theatre and Debahjehmujig Theatre and has been working as a community animator for over 10 years.


- Sweet Like Mango

Juno Nominated artist (2004 – “Sun Again”), Kinnie Starr appears in concert with Amai Kuda, Lenna Recollet (formerly of Red Slam), dance crew Mata Danze and DJ Nik Red at an all ages show in a completely transformed one-night only venue at 25 Cecil Street on April 1... - Toronto Media Co-op

Anishnaabe poet, actress, vocalist and visual artist Lena Recollet has released her first full-length album featuring her mix of spoken word, soul-jazz, traditional native music and folk. Get it on iTunes. - RPM.fm-Revolutions Per Minute

"The following is a list of FULLY registered poets for OIPS 2012, listed alphabetically by stage name." - Ontario International Poetry Slam

Red Slam Collective members Lena Recollet & Mahlikah Awe:ri perform live with Afro-Native American Soul Singer Martha Redbone at the ImagineNative Film & Media Festival in Toronto, at Lee's Palace. Camera Armando De Ortegon PassionOverdoseFilms - NME- First for Music News

TORONTO – A career conversation with an Elder changed Lena Rec- ollet’s life.
“What did you want to do when you were a kid?” she recalls the Elder asking when she sought counsel. “Think way back to when you were a kid? What did you want to do?”
“I wanted to be a singer; I wanted to be a performing artist,” Rec- ollet told the Elder.
“What’s stopping you?” the Elder asked. “What you wanted to do as a kid is what you’re supposed to do when you grow up.”
Recollet credits this advice and supportive parents with helping her successfully launch a career as a multi-disciplinary artist.
Born in Toronto, Recollet recalls having “no idea” about her peo- ple and culture. During a visit to the Native Canadian Centre of To- ronto, she remembers thinking of First Nations people as “not real”.
“My dad got all freaked out and said, “It’s time we move home or else she’s going to grow up lost,’” she says.
With both parents being from Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Re- serve, the move back to Manitoulin Island was easy for them, but not for their six-year-old daughter. She made friends, but there was always the feeling of not fitting in, leaving Lena with a yearning to return to Toronto to pursue her artistic aspirations.
In Wiky she was involved in athletics and the arts -- ballet, jazz, gymnastics, and swimming. She describes herself as “eccentric”, dressing different from the crowd. She joined a choir, participated in talent shows, competed in cross-country running, and expressed herself freely at home.
“She [Recollet’s mother] would always let me draw on the walls,” Lena recalls.
When her mother’s friends questioned the practice, she told them “I could easily paint over them.”
“I’m a visual artist as well as a performing artist,” says Recollet, who moved back to Toronto when she was 19.
Now 31, she is the mother of 4-year-old Ricky, a poet, spoken- word artist, film-maker, hoop dancer, and playwright who has had her films shown at the imagineNative Film Festival and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
A graduate of the Centre for Indigenous Theatre, she received the Cynthia Licker-Sage award for Emerging Talent at the imagineNative Film Festival, and has been a recipient of grants from the Ontario Arts Council. - Anishnabek News--Jorge Antonio Vallejos

"Historical Landmark means many different things to me: mainly our connection to the earth, strength in being a mother, and coming from a culture where mothers are the heart of the community because we give life to the next generation..." Page 10, iAM eMagazine, Lena Recollet - Ontario Council for International Corporation, iAM eMagazine

Anishnaabe poet, actress, vocalist and visual artist Lena Recollet, from Wikwemikong, Ontario, on Manitoulin Island, released her first EP this year – Soul Speaking. A poetry film of the track Historical Landmark premiered at the 2011 imagineNATIVE festival and Lena opened for Buffy Sainte Marie that same week. This is our favourite track from Lena, a spoken word piece about finding her own Personal Power. Be inspired. - RPM.fm-Revolutions Per Minute

As you reflect on the state of your relationships this spring, take this podcast as a collection of new words and sounds to try on. See if they fit, inspire, heal, or if you'd prefer, fling them aside...
- Toronto Sounds Good

Thursday April 12th, 2012. Discussion for National Poetry Month on "How Native is Poetry" - Native America Calling-Tara Gatewood (radio)

Spoken Word by Anishnaabe poet, Lena Recollet and an inclusive interview with Bengali poet Shaunga Tagore... - Black Coffee Poet

Indigenous Waves is a celebration of Indigenous cultures; locally, nationally and globally. Through music, storytelling, interviews, panel discussions, art and humour we explore the diversity of Indigenous Peoples. Interview hosts: Blighty Boo and Kinosh
Editor: Christine McFarlane
Producer: Jamaias DeCosta
- Indigenous Waves Radio

"Well I have arrived back home safely in Wiky last night, with my Mother and my sister. I was so happy for my Mother, she was so proud. How often does something like this happen? It was a huge honour to open for Buffy St. Marie as part of imagineNATIVE’s 12th Anniversary..." - imagineNative Film + Media Festival