It’s a season of big staff transitions! Generator is launching into a new era as many of the staff who have stewarded it for the past several years move on to different opportunities and priorities (you can read a note from Keshia on transitioning out of their role here). The staff have all been so flexible and generous in supporting the needs of the organization in this time of immense transition, and have helped bring Generator into its next phase with care and deep consideration.
We know it’s not goodbye, just a transition into a different form of engagement with Generator—and we’re so excited to see the many ways our paths will all continue to intersect.
After three years of facilitating the Artist Producer Training program at Generator, Sedina Fiati wrapped up work as Training Consultant in June, and has continued working with Generator as a Strategic Advisor throughout 2021.
A note from Sedina
Kristina took a chance on me and welcomed me into Generator at a time when I didn’t entirely believe in myself and was trying to find a space to fit in. The live performance world can be an exclusive space, rooted in scarcity and a lack of generosity and innovation. I had doubts about our collective ability to shift these harmful dynamics. However, the 4 of us, Kristina, Keshia and Annie and I, as well as Generator Generations, were able to create a revolutionary space where we could dream, try things out, bitch and really be ourselves.
During my transformative 3 years at Generator, I solidified my facilitation practise and gained and shared so much knowledge about artmaking with a social justice lens. Skills and ideas that we iterated continue to be a part of my practise as a facilitator, producer and artist.
I am deeply grateful for the 3 cohorts of the Artist Producer Training Program (APT) that I was a part of. They are all such fierce artists and activists making change in the world and I was happy to be a stop in their journeys. A huge thank you to the facilitators and mentors who also supported APT.
I look forward to the next steps for Generator as we continue to push and collectively create the thriving, generous and inclusive industry we want to see. I am thankful to Generator for helping me to continue to believe that transformation is still possible.
Sedina + Kristina in Ottawa, toasting to a successful meeting with Canada Council for the Arts
Sedina + Keshia at the Generator office at CSI Bathurst
Team photo! Staff barbeque (left to right: Keshia, Annie, Sedina + Kristina) in August 2019
The first cohort is always the most photographed! APT 2018/19 was Sedina’s first cohort (of three!) as facilitator. This fabulous group was Tsholo Khalema, Teiya Kasahara, Kitoko Mai, Karthy Chin, Mikaela Demers, and Jordan Campbell—pictured below with Kristina and Keshia (left), guest instructor Christopher Manousos (centre), and playing the traditional round of APT Jeopardy to end the session (right):
“I don’t remember how exactly Sedina first crossed my path when I came to Toronto, but from the moment she did, I knew I wanted to work (and hang out) with her. Sedina is a radically generous, fiercely invested, and deeply creative part of Toronto and Generator’s communities. Her capacity to create new spaces—and let go of the ones that aren’t working, while holding tight and dear the ones that are—has been instrumental in the programs Generator has, and will, create. I am so grateful for these past 3+ years of thinking up futures and laughing through the present. Sedina has been one of my anchors in Toronto, and I am so grateful to her for welcoming me in. ”
The self-guided 2020/21 APT cohort was also the all-Zoom cohort: Avery Jean Brennan, Brock Hessel, Olivia Shortt, Makram Ayache, and Rochelle R
Annie + Sedina at the first staff meeting at the Trinity St. Paul’s office in October 2019
Sedina at SummerWorks Exchange in August 2019 - photo by Andrew Williamson
About Sedina
Sedina Fiati (she/her or they/them) is a Toronto based performer, producer, director, creator and activist for stage and screen. Proudly Black and queer, Sedina is deeply invested in artistic work that explores the intersection between art and activism, either in form or structure or ideally both.
Sedina is currently Artist-Activist in Residence at Nightwood Theatre and proud founding member of the Black Pledge Collective. Sedina was the co-chair of ACTRA Toronto’s Diversity Committee and 2nd VP of council for Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. Sedina has worked with Generator since 2018, focusing on providing mentorship, program development and coordination for the Artist Producer Training Program. Upcoming projects: Switching Queen(s) (devised street performance), Last Dance (a web series).