VUKA (“To Rise”) Creation Program
VUKA (meaning “to rise” in Zulu) is the genesis of creation, where stories are shared and truths are told, no matter the circumstances. In VUKA, we create in a supportive community where stories form organically through a collaborative process that welcomes devised creation. Deeply rooted in oral African traditions, VUKA is a place where your truth begins.
For the 2024/25 season, VUKA continues to support multidisciplinary arts practices, encouraging the spirit of investigation, discovery, experimentation, and trust. Back to welcome its second cohort, this paid creation program invites Black self-identified artists to develop a one-person show over the course of two seasons, starting from their own disciplines.
Submissions for VUKA have closed. Read below for our 24/25 cohort!
Join us in VUKA and rise with us!
Lead facilitator and creator of the VUKA program, Tsholo Khalema (he/him).
Tsholo Khalema (he/him) is a multi-hyphenate artist and the co-founder of Amava Collective. With over 25 years of experience in the arts across Canada, Tsholo is dedicated to creating inclusive and dynamic spaces where diverse voices can thrive and be heard. A Black, neurodiverse storyteller, Tsholo’s artistry is deeply rooted in intersectionality and social justice. Whether directing, producing, acting, or facilitating, he approaches every project with authenticity, vision, and heart. Passionate about rewriting narratives, amplifying marginalized voices, and bridging communities through art, Tsholo envisions a future where storytelling fosters understanding and connection. Through VUKA, Tsholo is proud to support artists in finding their unique voices and reimagining how stories are told. Grounded in humility and confidence, he believes that art is not just a medium but a movement, one that unites us in our shared humanity.
Joining the VUKA team this season will be the gifted Uche Ama as Movement Director and Dramaturg.
Uche Ama is a Black queer theatre arts and vocal performer born on the stolen Indigenous land Tkaronto. Deeply passionate about cathartic art that intrigues, creates discomfort and makes you ask questions, they are an anti-oppression facilitator , a 3 time Dora nominated graduate of the Music Theatre Performance program at St Clair College and an alumni of the prestigious ‘Broadway Theatre Project‘.
Previous performances include 3 Fingers Back (LemonTree Creations), Sweeter (Cahoots Theatre), 21 Black Futures (Obsidian Theatre with ‘CBC Gem), The Negroes Are Congregating (Piece Of Mine Arts), Obeah Opera- Luminato Festival & South African Tour (Asah Productions) and The First Stone premiere in Toronto and Ottawa (New Harlem Productions). Direction credits include Apology, My By Kieth Barker & A Deja Vu Revue: Triangle d’Or Cabaret.
She is a performing arts educator and creator and continues to hungrily explore the many pathways that are available in her artistic practices.
The Cohort
Aisha Atanda (they/them) is a Yoruba multidisciplinary artist, performer, researcher, archivist, and knowledge worker born and raised in Southwestern Nigeria; they currently live in Toronto, Ontario. Their work focuses on ancestral connection and veneration and the diversity in afro-diasporic knowledge systems. Their experience under intersecting systems of oppression, as a Black, queer immigrant greatly informs their work. Atanda actively writes about and researches on knowledge systems in the Black diaspora, including how they function and thrive under systems of oppression. Through their work, they explore storytelling, indigeneity, ancestral connections, (im)migration, and Black Diasporic cultural elements. Their work takes inspiration from the natural and metaphysical world, textile making traditions, as well as cultural touchstones. They are interested in exploring how Black knowledge systems encode meaning through semiotics, dance, and storytelling through a wide range of mediums.
Juliet Jones-Rodney (she/her) is a singer, songwriter, actor, playwright and producer from Toronto. In 2021 she began her journey as a professional artist with her performance in the Lacuna Collective for Toronto Fringe’s Next Stage Festival. During that year she also wrote her first play Forest for the Trees, which was showcased as part of the Paprika Theatre Festival’s 20th Season. In 2022 Juliet followed up with her debut single Free Falling and her second play Just Us, which was selected as one of five plays workshopped at the Groundswell Festival, the culmination of Nightwood Theatre’s Write from the Hip program. In 2023 she released two more singles Signs and Distance and began cultivating relationships with creatives around the city across art forms. In 2024 Juliet released her singles With You and Slingshot. She is focused on releasing more music and connecting with audiences and creatives around Tkaronto.
You can follow her as she continues her artistic journey on Instagram @ConstantJuliet or connect with her through her website www.JulietJonesRodney.ca
Kobena Ampofo was born on a dark Tuesday morning in Kumasi, Ghana. They grew up there and have since also lived in Accra, South Bend, Chicago, and now Toronto.
Kobena’s formal artist journey in Canada began with their exploration of Shadow Work in the Shadowmancer series in 2020. This digital performance piece showcased the embodied journey of encountering the darkness within. Since then, Kobena has explored his craft through various residencies and had the opportunity to connect with various histories and explore a variety of practices and crafts. These have informed their artistic practice in a quest to encounter and commune with spirits within and beyond their body. Kobena’s experience of collecting stories on the history of the Ghanaian coast during a residency with Saman Archive, especially oral and spiritual histories from elders and townspeople was incredibly eye-opening and a major inspiration in developing their “Notes on Making Jollof” collage series, which was exhibited at the 2024 Toronto Outdoor Art Fair. The pieces in that series explore themes of identity, power, relationships, spirits and witchcraft.
Kobena’s current practice is experimentational, playing between discipline, form and genre. They hope that the process of developing this craft will lead to becoming a better storyteller and communal resource for the stories they are collecting from elders, ancestors and spirits. Their work can be viewed on Instagram @nipazeen.