To celebrate International Women's Day, GuelphToday is featuring the six women being honoured as this year's Guelph Y Women of Distinction.
From art to advocacy, everything Kween has worked toward focuses on creating opportunities for representation and healing.
“No matter what walk of life you are as a BIPOC community member, you have to also be in a space of activism because we’re fighting for our lives everyday,” she says, “and I think that’s translated in my art, one, as a big piece of healing.”
The dance teacher, singer, actor and activist is heavily involved within the Guelph community and the Guelph Black Heritage Society, where she led the Guelph Black Lives Matter march in solidarity in June.
“The week of the protest was really incredibly hard for me because the loss of Regis Korchinski-Paquette hit real home,” says Kween, “But I didn’t have time to grieve because I was too busy protesting and fighting to make sure another life wasn’t taken.
“When I had no space to grieve, when I got into the studio that’s where I could heal, so that I could continue.”
Because of her work as an artist and advocate, Kween is one of six women selected as as a Guelph Y Women of Distinction 2021.
While Kween is proud of the work that the GBHS has done in 2020, she says she can’t just sit back now that she has been recognized.
“This work never ends, we always have to give our 110 per cent to it.”
Kween says her path to dance began with her involvement in the performing arts in high school. She recalls being lost as a teenager with a lot of misplaced energy. Struggling in school, her English teacher recommended Kween try singing as she was failing the class.
“I was put into either getting suspended from school, or joining the choir,” she recalls the choice, “So I did and I really fell in love...I fell in love with the space that allowed me to heal.”
Taking part in productions across Guelph and Waterloo Region, Kween says she was dreaming of going to the Randolph Academy of Performing Arts, which she went for after her life took a spin.
“I got really sick, like really sick,” she recalls, later diagnosed with endometriosis, gastroparesis and fibromyalgia.
“Things started to take a turnaround and I thought, ‘You know what, I have to follow my dreams,’” she continues.
After going to the University of Guelph, she got into Randolph with no formal training and graduated as valedictorian. After graduating, Kween went to work for two dance companies, Carnival Spice and Army of Sass, before co-founding The Heels Academy.
Not bad for someone who was told at Randolph she would never be a dancer.
“I think that really drove me to want to do better,” Kween recalls about her experiences in a predominantly white space, where she says she continued to not see herself.
“I went in a singer and came out a dancer and fell in love with telling my stories, and other stories, through that.”
Now, Kween is a 2020/2021 artist in residence for Guelph Dance. Much like her activism, her work focuses on representation, as she and a group of dancers are creating a dance routine focusing on the trials, tribulations, but also, the successes and joys of BIPOC stories.
“It was really important that the residency wasn’t about me,” she says, “I’m only one voice in our community and we have to work to amplify each other.”
