Freedom: A Mixtape

By Suitcase in Point

Freedom: A Mixtape is a soulful artistic response to recent and historical violence on Black bodies, presented through a collection of original songs, stories, poems, anecdotes, spoken-word pieces, and musical instrumentation from folks living in Ontario's Niagara Region. A community conversation about our complicated relationship with emancipation and the human right to be free, Freedom: A Mixtape is a compilation album that is part protest and part celebration. It is history and the present moment all at once, a reminder that this moment is part of a larger, ongoing movement. Familiar pains are felt deeply in moments both bygone and bitingly present, setting the tone—and stage—for action.

Analog field recordings and soothing talk-radio energy give voice to the residue of intergenerational trauma, the depths of colonialism, resilience amidst oppressive conditions, and a clarion call that joy is a birthright for everyone. With emotional precision and softness, Freedom: A Mixtape offers a radical reminder that in our bleakest moments, we rise up through love of self and community.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
• Release date: Jan 30, 2024
• ISBN: 9780369104793

Suitcase in Point

Suitcase in Point is a multi-arts organization producing original satire and innovative events in St. Catharines, Ontario. Founded in 2001, Suitcase in Point is a courageous ensemble of artists and producers who engage and excite the Niagara community with original multi-arts performances and events, including In the Soil Arts Festival and Suitcase in Point’s comedy cabarets. Through original work and collaborative community projects, we provide audiences with unique perspectives on contemporary life and culture. Our approach and our work aim to challenge perspectives and encourage change, tolerance, and self-awareness with an aim to promote a healthier, more connected community. Suitcase in Point nurtures new generation artists through mentorship and residency programs, provides studio space for development and rehearsal, and creates meaningful connections between emerging and established artists from across Canada.

Book preview

Freedom: A Mixtape

Edited By Marcel Stewart

with Suitcase in Point

Playwrights Canada Press

Toronto

Freedom: A Mixtape © Copyright 2024 by Marcel Stewart

Illustrations © Copyright 2024 by Chance Mutuku, BBBBLANC* Studio®

First edition: January 2024

Printed and bound in Canada by Imprimerie Gauvin, Gatineau

Jacket art and design by Chance Mutuku, BBBBLANC* Studio®

Playwrights Canada Press

202-269 Richmond St. W., Toronto, ON M5V 1X1

416.703.0013 | [e-mail] | www.playwrightscanada.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, downloaded, or used in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for excerpts in a review or by a license from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca.

For professional or amateur production rights, please contact Playwrights Canada Press.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Freedom : a mixtape / edited by Marcel Stewart ; with Suitcase in Point.

Names: Stewart, Marcel, editor. | Suitcase in Point (Arts organization), contributor.

Description: First edition. | A collection of original songs, stories, poems, anecdotes,

spoken-word pieces, and musical instrumentation performed as a dramatic whole.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20230596258 | Canadiana (ebook) 20230596266

| ISBN 9780369104779 (softcover) | ISBN 9780369104786 (PDF)

| ISBN 9780369104793 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCGFT: Experimental drama. | LCGFT: Drama.

Classification: LCC PS8600 .F74 2024 | DDC C812/.6—dc23

Playwrights Canada Press staff work across Turtle Island, on Treaty 7, Treaty 13, and Treaty 20 territories, which are the current and ancestral homes of the Anishinaabe Nations (Ojibwe / Chippewa, Odawa, Potawatomi, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Nipissing, and Mississauga / Michi Saagiig), the Blackfoot Confederacy (Kainai, Piikani, and Siksika), néhiyaw, Sioux, Stoney Nakoda, Tsuut’ina, Wendat, and members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora), as well as Metis and Inuit peoples. It always was and always will be Indigenous land.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), Ontario Creates, the Government of Ontario, and the Government of Canada for our publishing activities.

Logo: Canada Council for the Arts.Logo: Government of Canada.Logo: Ontario Creates.Logo: Ontario Arts Council.Logo: Government of Ontario.Black and white illustration: Shoes are hanging from telephone wires. A bird flies above with a branch with flowers in its beak.

This book is dedicated to those whose tomorrows were taken away . . .

Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Michael Eligon, Eric Garner, Junior Manon, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Albert Johnson, Jamar Clark, Eric Osawe, Bettie Jones, Sandra Bland, Samuel Dubose, Nathaniel Harris Pickett Jr., Richard Perkins Jr., Andrew Loku, Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L. Simmons Sr., Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Myra Thompson, Neil Stonechild, Kaleb Alexander, Marc Boekwa Diza Ekamba, Raymond Lawrence, Darrius Stewart, Alex Wettlaufer, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Terence Crutcher, Deravis Caine Rogers, Jessica Nelson-Williams, Cynthia Fields, Abdirahman Abdi, Botham Jean, Olando Brown, Josephine Pelletier, Stephon Clark, Clive Mensah, Ahmaud Arbery, Eishia Hudson, Nina Pop, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tony McDade, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Rodney Levi, Chantel Moore, Ejaz Ahmed Choudry, Abraham Natanine, Stewart Kevin Andrews, Julian Jones, and so many more.

Tracklist

Foreword by Dian Marie Bridge

Production History

Epigraphs

Intro

Land Acknowledgement

Cypher

Sundown, Composed by Phil Davis, Sung by Phil Davis and Penny J. Bowers

One

Emancipate Yourselves

Kattawe Henry Pt. 1

Barry Stewart Pt. 1

Two

The Limitless Potential of Sugar Cane Plantations

Barry Stewart Pt. 2

Diana Myrie

Vicki-Lynn Smith

The Tides by Tethered The Ghost

Three

Step to the Mic / Arrival for Wha?

Emancipation by Haui

Emancipation by Roselyn Kelada-Sedra

Four

Shoot to Kill

Free / For You & Me, Music and Lyrics by Iain Ellis Lidstone

Barry Stewart Pt. 3

Freedom (The Right to Anything?) by Eve Atoms

Kattawe Henry Pt. 2

Five

Resistance Resistance Resistance

Freedom by Jermaine Marshall

Fly High by Samuel Nkomo