[LE FIL CULTUREL DE L’ONTARIO FRANÇAIS]
The diary is easily filled this week with all the cultural activities offered in Ontario. Many are linked to National Francophone Immigration Week (SNIF), which ends on November 9. In addition, the Regulation 17 group is celebrating its 15th anniversary in Ottawa, an Acadian artist is visiting Ontario, and a new exhibition is taking place in Toronto.
Musique
Multiple identities in North Bay
The Companions of Francs Loisirs welcome to North Bay two artists from Northern Ontario who have one thing in common, that of having a Franco-Ontarian mother and a father with another cultural identity, Abenaki for Mimi O’Bonsawin and Mexican for Cecilia Rodriguez-Beaudoin, alias Aurel. The event therefore aims to highlight both the NFIS and Treaty Recognition Week, which take place at the same time. The evening will take place Friday at 8 p.m. at the Wildwoods Brewery.
Left; Mimi O’Bonsawin. Photo: Rachel Crustin / ONFR. Right: Aurel. Courtesy of Cecilia Rodriguez-Beaudoin
North Bay, November 8. Tickets on the plateforme Simpletix.
L’animal chic à Hearst
In his song Bothon the album Animal chicMehdi Cayenne describes himself as “pseudo-Maghrebi, pseudo-French, pseudo-Franco-Ontarian, pseudo-Quebecois”. The artist with boundless energy embodies this diversity of French-speaking Ontario. Arriving from Algeria as a child, he is one of the sure Franco-Ontarian values and it is within the framework of the SNIF and Coup de coeur francophone that he was received at the Place des arts in Hearst, as part of of the Hearst Arts Council programming this Saturday.
Mehdi Cayenne at the 2024 Franco-Ontarian Festival. Photo: Rachel Crustin / ONFR
Hearst, November 9. Details and tickets on the platform The point of sale.
Quebec country-folk in Toronto
The Quebec artist, who we saw at Contact ontarois 2024, will return to the province for a show at the Spadina Theater of the Alliance Française in Toronto, this Friday. She comes to present her most recent album, Like beforereleased a year ago. Capable of both gentleness and passion, the artist from Baie-Saint-Paul will captivate the spectators of the Queen City.
Léa Jarry has two albums to her credit, Summer time (2020) et Like before (2023). Photo: Courtesy of the Alliance Française de Toronto
Toronto, November 8. Details and tickets on website of the Alliance Française de Toronto.
Discovering the diversity of Barrie
The Painswick Library in Barrie is also host to a SNIF cultural event. Let’s celebrate the immigrant Francophonie: discovering our diversity will take place Friday, from 10 a.m. to noon. Accessible French-speaking services will be presented and artist Amadou Kienou will give a performance.
Amadou Kienou on the red carpet of the Kilimanjaro Music Awards, in 2023. Image credit: Rachel Crustin / ONFR
Barrie, November 8 in the morning. Details on the SNIF website.
Sudbury’s Rich Heritage
The Contact interculturel francophone de Sudbury organization is organizing the third edition of its Rich Heritage of Ontario event. In addition to a performance by African Harmony, a multicultural dinner and dancing with a DJ, there will be an open mic. Notice to local artists, everyone can get involved. Everything will take place at Canisius Hall at the University of Sudbury, Friday from 6 p.m.
Local artists, it’s time to showcase your talent at the open mic event. Photo: Canva
Sudbury, November 8. Details about the SNIF website.
A showcase in Toronto
The University of French Ontario (UOF) welcomes for a second season the project In windowexhibiting artists who are members of the Le Labo media art center in its premises. Two consecutive exhibitions will be held under the theme Silent resistors. We will be able to see the work of Noémie Roy from February 13 to March 19, 2025, but it is that of Tania Love which has just been installed. The project In window wishes to forge links between professional artists and academia. The exhibition Morphogenesis I will therefore be accompanied by a cultural mediation project developed by Stéphanie Salgo, intern of the baccalaureate specialized in digital culture studies at the UOf.
Tania Love is a visual artist from Toronto who “favors process, slowness and sensoriality”, as we can read on the Labo website. Photo: Pascaline Lebras
Toronto, until December 11. Details about the Lab website.
