Singer / Songwriter, Anela & The Early Hours
Listening to music in full blast isn’t the only thing Anela does whole heartedly. She's also a singer/songwriter and is the front-woman of an indie rock band, Anela & The Early Hours. Over the years, she has performed across southern Ontario and has worked with Juno Award recipients including Dan Brodbeck. When Anela isn’t under the spotlight, she works for Watson Entertainment, a Toronto based artist management company. Despite being a recent graduate from Fanshawe College’s Music Industry Arts program, Anela has always had the desire to work in the music industry, whether it's behind the scenes or rocking out full blast on stage.
Co-Editor-in-Chief, The Muse
Katherine is a third year student in the Bachelor of Health Sciences Program at McMaster University. She is one of the Co-Editors-in-Chief of The Muse, McMaster’s first medical humanities magazine. In 2018, she shared the magazine’s vision at Creating Space VIII, a national medical humanities conference, in Halifax. She is the 2018 recipient of the ALPHA Historical Advocate Award for her spoken word poem, silent wings, surrounding the comfort women in the Asia-Pacific War. Her creative works has garnered numerous awards from Hamilton Youth Poets and Hamilton Public Library.
Theatre Maker / Multimedia Artist
Claudia is a Hamilton-based theatre creator and multimedia artist. Over the last six years, she has worked on over 30 theatre pieces in the area: as a performer, a playwright, a director, a sound designer, an assistant stage manager, and a producer. Claudia’s work is primarily centered around anti-oppression, with a focus on body art, mental illness advocacy, eating disorder awareness, sexuality, and queer identity. Outside the theatre, Claudia creates film, photography, and graphic design pieces; her video work ‘I Know Girls’ was showcased at Hamilton Community Foundation’s Women 4 Change conference, and nominated for an Emerge Media Award in 2017. This August, Claudia will be directing her version of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night with Tottering Biped Theatre, transforming an old story into a modern tale of queer and trans liberation, discovery, and self-acceptance.
Owner, Threshold Recording Studio
Michael Keire is a successful music producer, mixer, and engineer from Hamilton, Ontario and the proud owner of Threshold Studio. Some of Michael's previous clients include The Dirty Nil, Arkells and Ellevator to name a few.
Program Coordinator / Instructor, Hamilton Music Collective
Eric is a recovering rock star and dad-in-training who has seen it all, done it all, and lived to tell the tale. As a coordinator / instructor at Hamilton Music Collective, he manages programs including Open Jam for Kids, a unique initiative that provides an outlet for youth to perform with a band. Prior to his role at Hamilton Music Collective, he worked with Cleveland Opera as an artist services coordinator and toured all over the world as a drummer for bands including The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs and Crash Kelly. But despite his brushes with near-fame (and infamy), nothing compares to the joy he feels when sharing his love of music with his students.
Co-Editor-in-Chief, The Muse
Nikki is a third year Bachelor of Health Sciences student at McMaster University. In 2016, she joined The Muse as an editor to follow her passion for healthcare and storytelling. As Co-Editor-in-Chief, Nikki manages and oversees the various subcommittees in The Muse. Besides working with The Muse, she also volunteers at a cardiology clinic and dabbles in short prose and poetry in her spare time. Nikki recently published, Lessons of Love, an anthology that aims to capture all the subtleties of love.
Comics Artist / Writer / Editor
Georgia is a comics artist, writer, and editor living in southern Ontario. She is entirely occupied by the intersection of health and art--making music, comics, and facilitating workshops from this point of fascination. She is best known for her debut graphic memoir, Dumb: Living Without a Voice (Fantagraphics 2018), the chronicle of her severe vocal injury and sustained vocal condition which causes her pain from using her voice. This difficult experience lead her to work as a Cranial Sacral Therapist, a meditation facilitator, and as an improvising musician, blending elements of healthcare, body awareness and creative expression within constraints. She has extended her love of the voice into the community with a project called MAW Vocal Arts, a live event series showcasing the breadth and depth of creative voice practices.
Pick up your name badge + grab some coffee, tea and snacks.
6.00 - 6.30 PM
Katherine Kim / Nikki Wong
Spoken word performance by the Co-Editors-in-Chief of The Muse followed by their talk in empowering the hidden voices of healthcare.
6.30 - 7.00 PM
Eric Ryder Costello
Music performance by Hamilton Music Collective's youth participants followed by a Q&A to learn more about how they are using music to transform the lives of children.
Anela / Claudia / Georgia / Michael
Performance by panel members followed by a discussion in how they got started and the journey behind their successes.
Connect with fellow attendees by chatting, exchanging and discovering new books.
