About Us
breaking Down Barriers to Access
Artists Mentoring Youth creates and develops programs in response to the artistic and social needs of women, non-binary and gender diverse youth from equity-deserving communities in the Greater Toronto Area by engaging lead artists, program directors, and artistic mentors who come from similar backgrounds – artistically, culturally, and otherwise – as our participants.
We break down barriers to participation by:
The Land Where We Live and Work
Artist Mentoring Youth and our programming take place in Tkaronto, which is subject to the Dish With One Spoon Covenant, a precolonial treaty between the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe to share and care for the land. We are grateful to all who have cared for this land for generations: the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee, the Wendat, and most recently the Mississaugas of the Credit, and many other Indigenous peoples and communities.
AMY is committed to fostering artistic work that acknowledges and explores our relationships to the land, in creative communities that build and strengthen our relationships to each other.
Performing Arts Training and Programming By Us, For Us
The Artists Mentoring Youth (AMY) Project is committed to transforming the arts landscape by offering free, accessible, affirming performing arts training & creation programs for gender diverse youth and women from equity-denied communities. With the mentorship of professional artists, AMY participants learn to tell their stories with honesty, integrity, and artistic rigour.
AMY understands that inequity in the performing arts industry is rooted in the inequitable systems that shape society. Some young people have the privilege of private lessons, outings to the theatre, and regularly seeing people who look like them in starring roles on the screen and the stage. Others do not. We aim to interrupt the inequities in performing arts industries by creating supportive, dynamic, anti-racist, queer- and trans-affirming, artistically excellent communities with equity-deserving youth of diverse lived experiences.
Spotlighting and Supporting Marginalized Voices since 2005
Meet Our Team
Morgan Davis
Morgan (they/them) is a Black, Fat, Queer, trans masculine-of-center artist, peer supporter, and facilitator passionate about the power of storytelling. In addition to working at Supporting Our Youth (SOY) as a community program worker for over three years, and being their drag persona Chocolate Baby Daddy, you may have seen them performing in Pride TO, Buddies In Bad Times, and Blockorama. Now Co-Creative Director at AMY, they are also the co-creator of Fat Fables, our performance arts creation program for Fat 2SLGBTQ youth. Morgan is thrilled to co-lead the future of the AMY Project and continue the legacy lifting voices and stories.
Jules Vodarek Hunter
Jules (they/them) is of Slavic and Scottish ancestry and a settler living in Tkarón:to. Wearing multiple hats as an organizer, facilitator, stage and production manager, they are also the Co-Creative Director of The AMY Project and co-creator of Fat Fables, a program for Queer & Fat folks to gather together to make art and tell their stories. They have worked in various roles across the non-profit arts sector, including at The Toronto Fringe, Workman Arts, Summerworks Festival and more. Jules dedicates themselves to bringing care, compassion and empathy into theatre and creative spaces. Jules advocates for mental health justice, fat liberation and creating spaces for shared experiences and support.. They are currently going into their third year of training at the Centre for Training in Psychotherapy.
Nikki Shaffeeullah
Board Member
Claire Calnan
Board Member
Julia Hune-Brown
Board Member
Sehar Bojani
Board Member
Bessie Cheng
Program Director
Bessie Cheng (she/they) is an award winning queer Chinese-Canadian writer and actor. She graduated from the Playwriting and Devised Theatre program at York University. Her first play, Dirt, received the Ellen Ross Stuart Award from the Ontario Arts Foundation and was nominated for the RBC Emerging Playwright Award from Playwrights Guild of Canada. She is a recipient of the 2021 Promising Pen Award from Cahoots Theatre and is named one of their theatre-makers that will help shape the next 30 years in Canadian theatre.
Bessie is also a co-founder of Silk Bath Collective, creating the Fringe hit, Silk Bath. Their production, Yellow Rabbit, enjoyed a sold-out run at Soulpepper Theatre in 2018. The collective just closed their world-premiere of their latest show, Woking Phoenix, at Theatre Passe Muraille to critical acclaim.
Bessie has participated in AMY Project as a participant, a headshot photographer, a guest artist, and a co-assistant director. She is thrilled to be co-directing the program this year with Celia!
Celia Green
Program Director
With a practice spanning choreography, directing, writing, performance, and care-work, Celia (they/he) is especially interested in investigating mundane experiences of the human condition that are messy and challenging, pulling apart those feelings and isolating them through performance.
Celia’s work has been supported by English Theatre Berlin, the Toronto Dance Love-In, Toronto Dance Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, The SummerWorks Festival, Dancemakers and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. He was the curator of GOODIE BAG!, a week-long event that offered that offered free massage, tattoos, portraits and acupuncture for transgender and gender non-conforming performers.
Major influences include La Pocha Nostra, Dana Michel, Faye Driscoll, and Jess Dobkin. Near and dear collaborators include Augusto Bitter, Bilal Baig, and Merlin Simard.
Recently Celia was part of this years Conversations on Performance cohort at the Festival TransAmeriques in Montreal. They are currently an artist in residence at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.
Rofiat
Assistant Director
A lover of the arts, Rofiat (she/her) has been drawn to storytelling in various forms throughout her life, whether through theatre or other media. She thrives on challenges, meeting new people, and continuously learning new skills that push her beyond her comfort zone.
Outside of her time in the arts, Rofiat is a passionate entrepreneur, owning and managing an African grocery store that celebrates diverse cultures and traditions. She also has a background as a full-stack web developer and enjoys bringing creativity to technology.
As a previous participant and longtime member, Rofiat admires and cherishes AMY for the everlasting community it gives. She is excited to be part of the Creation Program again – this time as assistant director!