Facilitated by Tsholo Khalema | Part of Theatre Passe Muraille's Buzz In-development Series
“A Space for Black Theatre Creation”
VUKA is back! Facilitated by Tsholo Khalema and Uche Ama, VUKA (which means rise or wake in Zulu) is Theatre Passe Muraille’s Black Creation Unit. Focused on Black new career artists, VUKA‘s second cohort invited Juliet Jones-Rodney, Kobena Ampofo, and Aisha Atanda to develop solo shows over the course of two seasons. This showcase will be a public sharing of the cumulative works by Juliet Jones-Rodney and Kobena Ampofo, dramaturged by Uche Ama. Join the VUKA cohort on November 14 and 15 for a night of community and storytelling!
Show Dates
November 14th – 15th, 2025
Running Time: 90 min, with intermission
Accessibility
All shows will have
Relaxed Environment
Location
Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Avenue)
Tickets
Pay-What-You-Can-Afford
$0 | $5 | $10 | $25
Saturday, November 15th at 7:30 pm will be a Black Out Night performance.
Black Out Performances are for Black audiences (inspired by the event of the same name in the Fall of 2019 for Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play on Broadway). The spirit behind this performance is to provide a space for Black theatre-goers to experience theatre in a space made for them.
Black Out performances facilitate a safe environment for a personal and intimate discussion on the work made and performed by Black artists. We are committed to continue offering Black Out Night performances for all Black playwrights and artists in future seasons. We thank you in advance for supporting these artists and Theatre Passe Muraille as we facilitate an opportunity for a community to celebrate and enjoy a performance made by Black artists.
More info here!
Satrday, November 15, 2025 at 2 pm – Mask Mandatory
To be announced
Bonsam Din
Content Warning: Transmisia
Black Girl 101
This show contains themes of sexual assault and racism. Some audience members may find this triggering. Please feel free to take the time you need to put your well being first. This is a judgement free space.
If you would like information on the topics or themes in our productions, or to determine the suggested age for attending a performance, please reach out to our Box Office staff at 416.504.7529 or by email at info@passemuraille.on.ca.
Show Descriptions
Bonsam Din by Kobena Ampofo
What is your name and what does it mean to you?
Pastor Prophet Right Reverend (Jesus) Kweku Bonsam is the Chief Pastor of a thriving church in Toronto. We trouble Ananse to share a tale of how this Pastor encounters the spirits he names in a fantastical adventure where the spirit realm meets our reality.
Black Girl 101 by Juliet Jones-Rodney
What happens when you don’t fit in the box that was drawn for you? When you feel rejected by the community that was supposed to embrace you?
Meet Faith, a young second generation girl from Toronto torn between being authentically herself and conforming to the ideals of what others think “Blackness” should be. Follow along as she navigates trying to find where she belongs.
Credits
Facilitated by
Tsholo Khalema
Facilitated and Dramaturged by
Uche Ama
Performer/Creators
Kobena Ampofo
Juliet Jones-Rodney
For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 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.
Tsholo Khalema is a versatile artist. Born in the rich culture of South Africa and nurtured amidst the sprawling prairies of Alberta, Tsholo’s artistic journey is a testament to his vibrant upbringing and deeply ingrained ancestral
connections. His artistic prowess extends beyond the stage.
Tsholo is the facilitator of the VUKA creation program at Theatre Passe Muraille and marketing manager at Pleiades theatre.
For updated information on his artistic journey checkout: www.tsholovisions.com
Joining the VUKA team this season will be the gifted Uche Ama (they/them) as Movement Director and Dramaturg.
Uche Ama (they/them) 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 Keith Barker & A Deja Vu Revue: Triangle d’Or Cabaret.
They are a performing arts educator and creator and continues to hungrily explore the many pathways that are available in their artistic practices.
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.
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.com