EDI Moments

EDI Moments: Art as a Catalyst for Change harnesses the expressive power of the arts to provide profound moments of reflection.

EDI (Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) Moments challenge the status quo, encourage self-awareness, and spur change in business and arts organizations alike.

The first season of EDI Moments, titled Unconscious Bias Moments, spotlights unconscious or implicit bias. This pilot project ran from Feb 1, 2024 to Jan 31, 2025.

Through this program, Business & Arts NL members had exclusive access to six original digital monologues, based on real-life experiences of unconscious bias here in Newfoundland and Labrador. Each Unconscious Bias Moments video was accompanied by a series of thought-provoking questions curated to inspire reflection, conversation and action.

This tool was available to be used as a meditative moment to open a team meeting or as a starting point for discussing equity, diversity and inclusion policies.

Artist Collaborators

Director
Santiago Guzmán (he/they) is an award-winning playwright, dramaturge, performer, and director originally from Metepec, Mexico, now based in St. John’s, NL. He is the Artistic Director of TODOS Productions & the Interim Artistic Director for Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre.
Santiago’s work as a writer aims to put local, under-represented narratives and characters on the frontlines, whilst inviting audiences to appreciate the vibrancy of Newfoundland and Labrador from a diverse perspective.
Their work has been supported, developed and/or produced by theatre companies and festivals such as TODOS Productions (NL), Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company (NL), White Rooster Theatre (NL), Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland (NL), Poverty Cove Theatre Company (NL), Rising Tide Theatre (NL), Neighbourhood Dance Works (NL), Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Eastern Front Theatre (NS), PARC (pan-Atlantic), Ship's Company Theatre (NS), Theatre New Brunswick (NB), Boca Del Lupo (BC), Paprika Festival (ON), Banff Playwrights Lab (AB) and the National Theatre School of Canada’s Art Apart Program (QC). He is a member of Playwrights Canada Press's inaugural editorial committee.
His one-person show, ALTAR, world-premiered in 2021 with the Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company and toured across high schools in Newfoundland and Labrador as a digital offering, as well as national presentations at Prismatic Arts Festival, (NS) and Aluna Theatre’s RUTAS Festival (ON). This same production will receive a summer presentation at the Gros Morne Theatre Festival with TNL in 2023, and an Atlantic Canadian tour in 2024. ALTAR received a second production by Theatre New Brunswick in the winter of 2023 and toured their province alongside the world premiere of his new TYA play, S.T.O.P.
Santiago’s play Urn received the Senior Dramatic Script Award of the Newfoundland and Labrador 2022 Arts and Letters Awards & was shortlisted for the NLCU Fresh Fish Award 2022. Most recently, Santiago has been awarded the inaugural John Palmer Award 2022 through the Playwrights Guild of Canada for being a change-maker in the theatre industry with his advocacy in the arts regarding equity, diversity, and anti-racism.
Santiago's work is very gay, very brown, and very real. Representation matters.
www.sguzman.ca
Confronting Unconscious Bias invites the viewer to listen—really listen—about how our own biases create barriers and obstacles for people who aren't seen as the 'norm.'

Social Justice Consultant
Sobia Shaheen Shaikh is a faculty member at the School of Social Work at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). Her community-engaged scholarship focuses on supporting intersectional antiracist-feminist praxes and policy action. Sobia is also an activist and community organizer who has deep ties with racial, disability, social and environmental justice communities across Canada. She has served as a community volunteer in many local and national organizations. Sobia is a founding member of The Quilted Collective of Racialized NL Writers and of The Creators’ Collective NL: Indigenous, Racialized and Migrant Artists and Arts Workers.
Sobia is an emerging creative writer and playwright who centres anti-racist, feminist and social justice in her work. She has published short stories “softly, with niyyat” in Us, Now (2021) and “You-See” in Hard Ticket (2022), and a monologue, “Release” produced for City of Stories (2022). She also serves as a co-curator with TODOS Productions for Confronting Unconscious Bias (2022-2023). She was a Creative Cohort Resident Artist with Stages of Transformation (2022-2023) (an initiative of the National Arts Centre) (2022-2023). Sobia is currently working on a play commissioned by TODOS Productions, Braiding Peonies (working title), which has been featured at the Women’s Work Festival in St. John’s, NL (2023) and the Rumble Theatre Festival in Vancouver, BC (2023).

Why Don’t You Just Leave
Playwright and Performer
Let’s play some A association - Queer AF, neurodivergent, trans, non-binary, writer, wheelchair user, white settler, advocate, volunteer, Counsellor, actor, CPTSD, fat, PTSD, ADHD, anxiety, privileged, marginalized, oppressed, repressed, depressed, pressed for time, dressed for comfort, philosopher, poet, performing, pretending, extending, tending wounds, inside, outside, connecting, seeking, strong, vulnerable, too much, not enough, as is, truth teller, peaceful ease, meditator, mindful, full mind, fast thoughts, in debt, in crisis, physical disability, physical activity, energetic, genetic nerve disease, swimmer, tv binge-watcher, reader, renter, ranter, abuse survivor, sexual violence survivor, patriarchy punching bag, capitalist burden, colonial beneficiary, decolonizer, supporter, safe space, listener, interrupter, rebeller, healing, ill, resting, fighting, engaging, zoning out, time optimist, being, am, living in the in betweens, wisher, magic believer, kindred spirit, grounded, equestrian, dreamer, disruptor, creator, artist, facilitator, withdrawer, wanting to belong-er, they/them, and something else I have no words for, human, Jigme Norbu-Fearless Jewel.

Visibly Demoralized
Performer
Originally from Vancouver, Aedon is an actor, writer, and educator. She has produced, written, and acted in numerous works for both film and theatre. She is a doctoral candidate in Education at MUNL and intends to defend her PhD dissertation in the winter of 2023. Her research interests are children’s/YA fantasy literature, postcolonialism, and feminist poststructuralism. Aedon has also written a fantasy novel for young adults (Mara Roams).
She lives in St. John’s with her heroic husband, divine daughter, delinquent dogs, catastrophic cat, and tragic turtle.

You and I
Playwright
My name is Eldin Husic.
I was born in a country that no longer exists.
A third of my life was spent in Europe, another third in Asia, and the final third here in Newfoundland.
I consider myself a citizen of the World and I do not recognize borders nor divisions.
I strongly believe in the Universe that is taking caring of us and I am doing my best to work with it.
Through my art, my writing, my music, and my life, I teach myself and others that love is better than hate.
My desire in life is to find a way to turn that hate into love…
I am almost there…

Family Dinner
Performer
Enzo Resendiz (Borrego Escritor) is a St. John's based Mexican trans-non-binary person who uses They/ Them pronouns. Enzo's work in the performing arts draws inspiration from personal experience and theory to bring awareness about racialized, immigrant, and LGBTQ issues through poetry that explores different approaches in an attempt not to gatekeep knowledge. Some of their poetry can be found on their social media @borrego.escritor.

Not Worth Caring For
Playwright
Jude Benoit (they/them/ nekem) is a Two-spirit interdisciplinary artist from Ktaqmkuk. They are studying Environmental Leadership at Royal Roads University. They have a passion for environmental justice and awareness of environmental racism in their Mi'kmaq communities. Jude weaves their environmentalism and anti-colonialism activism into each one of their projects whether it's the traditional art of storytelling, painting, sculpting or writing Jude communicates through their work in hope for a better world.

Photo ID: Kelly Lewis, a woman with pale skin and brown eyes, stands against a grey background. She has brown, wavy hair and is wearing a black tank top and pink lipstick

First Assistant Director
Kelly Lewis is a dancer, stage manager and arts administrator who hails from North Bay, Ontario. She holds a diploma in Dance Performance from the Holland College School of Performing Arts where she trained in theatrical dance, music theory, and theatre. She now studies at Memorial University, where she is concurrently pursuing a B.A. in Communication Studies and the diploma in Stage and Screen Technique.
Recent credits include assistant stage manager for The Wild Rovers and Let’s Bop! (Terra Bruce Productions), stage manager for RIG (RCA Theatre), and festival stage manager for the St, John’s Short Play Festival (2021-2023).

Not Worth Caring For
Performer
Leahdawn (she/they/nekm) was born and raised on the west coast of Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). Trained as an actor, director, and dramaturge, their first love has always been writing, which they consider a form of magic – why else would it be called “spelling”? Their first full screenplay, Ruthless, was selected for a Newfoundland Arts and Letters prize in 2020, which explored family dynamics, substance abuse, and the limits of love. In 2021 they directed Petrina Bromley in Elizabeth Hicks’ one-woman short, Hearty at Eighty, and performed at the 2021 Stephenville Theatre Festival in Meghan Greeley’s To the Girls. Their most recent play, Stolen Sisters, premiered in 2022, is historically grounded in the colonial experiences of Beothuk and Mi’kmaw women and girls, and has toured across Ktaqmkuk. Most recently they performed Jude Benoit’s Not Worth Caring For as part of TODOS’ Confronting Unconscious Bias film series. They work as a freelance Indigenous Sociocultural Consultant for the St John’s and Avalon Arts community, working with Artistic Fraud, St John’s Shorts, Persistence Theatre, and the Cupids Legacy Project, among others. L’nuit. Tleiawit Nujio’qonik. (They are L’nu. They have family origins in St. George’s Bay.)

Production Assistant
Lina Makaga is an artist, encompassing the roles of actress, singer, stage manager, and production assistant. Currently,she is pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and a diploma in stage and screen technique at MUN.
Her journey in the world of performing arts started in high school, where she cultivated her passion for acting while studying Drama. In 2021, she successfully completed her training in acting for film and improv with Performing Studio Art. She was then featured in the TV series "Astrid and Lilly Save the World", followed by "Hudson and Rex" in 2022. In 2023, she landed a leading role as "NYX" in a short film. During the summer of 2023 she was part of "NIFCO's Intro to Filmmaking program" where she and her peers collaboratively crafted and edited a short film.
In 2023, She made her stage managing debut with the play "Happy Anniversary," written by Vanessa Cardoso.
Her talents extend to the realm of music, where her journey as a singer began by posting YouTube covers in 2021. She released her single "Battery Low" in 2020. Lina is engaged in ongoing exploration, continually pushing her artistic boundaries as she aspires to improve her live performances.

Family Dinner
Playwright
Maria Dussan (she/her) is a queer, Latine, migrant rights activist, creative writer, and an editor in training based in St. John’s. She is a former co-lead of the Campaigns and Advocacy Committee of the Anti-Racism Coalition of Newfoundland and Labrador (ARC-NL), and a former lead of ARC-NL’s Healthcare for All, a campaign that tackles the inequitable healthcare access of migrants and undocumented people in the province. She currently works creating resources for Community Justice Connect, a conflict resolution service for Indigenous, racialized, and religious minority communities in NL.
As a writer, Maria is interested in exploring the in-between stages of belonging and non-belonging involved in movement and migration. She draws on themes of memory, lineages, liminality, and nature to connect with her experience and animate the reality of her characters. When not working in community or writing, Maria is probably hiding from the world or enjoying one of the many Newfoundland hiking trails.

At First Glance
Performer
I am a multi-racial lover and creator of many forms of art and entertainment. From painting to performing I am a proud creator of things that bring me joy; with the aim of producing a space filled with joy, comfort, relatability, and radical inclusion.
Since my childhood I have always envisioned myself as a performer and began my journey into the performing arts with my passion for comedy, I did my first standup set locally in the Last Comic Standing competition. I’ve been doing comedy ever since. As I became increasingly comfortable with the stage I was drawn to acting for the stage and the camera which I also fell in love with.
When I am not working on new material for standup or reading/writing scripts I can be found saying ‘hi’ to flowers, sketching and painting a variety of art styles, and crafting and sewing decor, costumes and clothing.

At First Glance
Playwright
Situated in Ktaqmkuk/Newfoundland, Rachel Gilbert is an interdisciplinary artist who explores her identity, experiences, and ideas of home(s). Since receiving a BFA in Visual Arts in 2020 and a Graduate Certificate in Museum and Gallery Studies in 2021, Rachel has worked with several local art spaces focusing on community programming, equity, and education.

Visibly Demoralized
Playwright
Tara Nanayakkara is the author of four published novels. She was born in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon). Her father immigrated to Toronto but two years later brought the rest of the family to Newfoundland where they made their home. While being visibly different due to her south Asian background, she had the added challenge of being legally blind in a sighted white world. Among her South Asian peers, she was seen as “the other” due to her low vision.
Fitting in has been a social struggle for Tara. Despite the odds, she became a successful writer, is happily married and the mother of two flourishing young adult children.
When she’s not writing or reading or whipping up her family’s favourite meals, she can be seen cavorting around town, going to craft fairs or teas with her daughter or trying different restaurants with her husband on their Saturday date nights.