In honour of International Women’s Day, and in no particular order, here are seven women (or groups of women) who stand out for their contribution to local arts and culture.
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Marva Wisdom — Preposterously prolific as a community organizer, Wisdom is the founding chair of the Guelph Black Heritage Society and director of the Black Experience Project. Her other accomplishments are too many to list.
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Sadsadderdaze — Guelph fine arts grads Emma Green, Alison Postma, Elana Shvalbe, and Emma Welch have been working hard as a collective over the last couple years to bolster their individual practices and put their names on the map. It’s paying off — Welch and Green have helped shape the look of the local music scene with their poster designs, while their recent show at Y+ contemporary in Scarborough hints that big things are ahead.
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Emma and Sara Bortolon-Vettor — The Bortolon-Vettor sisters perform driving, heart-on-sleeve rock as Bonnie Trash — they also host shows with their friends from the Electric Eclectics Festival under the name Fuckpop, and teach tweenage girls how to shred at the local Girls Rock Camp.
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Truth Is… — A member of Guelph Spoken Word, Truth Is… elevates spoken word and slam poetry to a higher plane with her laser-focus on linguistic and historical detail. Her fiery performances leave you stunned.
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Jenny Mitchell — What doesn’t Jenny Mitchell do? As the volunteer and mobile studio coordinator at CFRU, Mitchell empowers folks in all corners of Guelph to produce their own radio content. She runs a label (Label Fantastic), what might be the best local karaoke night (Golden Throats), and a mobile art space in a big golden bus. All that is on top of performing her own music under a variety of names.
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Karen Houle — One of the bonafide rock stars of Guelph’s philosophy department, Houle can bring philosophy to life like few others, with inspired and wild lectures that sometimes border on performance art. She’s also the author of two books of poetry, Ballast and During.
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Hayley Kellett — Kellett rose to the top of the Toronto improv scene before relocating to Guelph, where she’s now in charge of education at The Making-Box Comedy Company, an apt home for her whiplash reflexes, wit, and generosity. For many recent initiates to the local comedy scene, comedy means Kellett.
Photo by Alora Griffiths/The Ontarion