urbanNOISE Ambassadors 2011: MC King, Brittney Dixon, Arabi Rajeswaran, Flip Watson, Mahmoud Keita, Moyo Monilari
Mentor: community arts educator Dalton Higgins
Brittney “Twix” Dixon
Brittney is a 21 year old Early Childhood Educator and recently received and ESL Position with WE.WILL.NOW Tesol program. This young Seneca College graduate works with youth of all ages and is always giving back to her community by working with different programs. Twix is an after school/summer camp staff with the Albion Boys and Girls Club, and also contributes as a dance Choreographer and special events coordinator. She is also a youth representative with M.T.H.A. In addition, Brittney works with the City of Toronto, Parks, Forestry and Recreation staff at the North Kipling Community Recreation Center. You may have seen Brittney “Twix” Dixon before, she hosted the 2011 STOMP Urban Dance Competition/Showcase this past June at the Sony Center.
MC King Marfo
King was raised in the Jane and Finch area of Toronto. A graduate of the Breaking the Cycle youth Ambassador Program in Rexdale, He is ready to embark on his goals of being an entrepreneur. Growing up as a troubled youth with a rough past, he is now on the right path, helping put together the 2011 Urban Noise festival. Shining light on the positive things going on in troubled neighborhoods is important to him. “The media controls a lot of people’s perceptions and they only come around for negative
things” he states.
Moyo Monilari
As a young girl, Moyo realized that she was capable of accomplishing more than what she thought she could accomplish. As a result, she worked hard academically and achieved excellence by receiving an entrance scholarship to university from the Malton
Black Development Association and York University. She later graduated from York majoring in Criminology and a minor in History. Her desire to remain active in the community propelled Moyo to join Urban Noise. She is moved by nothing because she believes that strength can only be attained through perseverance. She is thankful to God for giving her the opportunity to excel in all areas of her life.
Mahmoud Keita
This 17 year old Montreal native is a student residing in the Rexdale/ Jamestown community attending an all-French high school. Popularly known as Don Mike, making beats is his favorite hobby, which he hopes to turn into a career and one day become a music producer. Mahmoud is quite involved in his community. He has volunteered for the YMCA, the Red Cross, TAVIS, Toronto Public Library and works with REEL Key. In 2010 Mahmoud landed an interview with CBC Radio and Ward 1 Etobicoke North’s Councillor Crisanti for winning the “How Healthy Can you Get” video contest from Toronto Public Health. He was also a part of the realization of Northsidehiphop.ca. He is looking forward to the Battle of the Beatmakers this year, which he hopes will open doors for him.
Flip Watson
I have been really interested in making music for about over a two years now. While on house arrest and completing high school I discovered my talent in something I have a passion for. I write my own music
everyday based on my emotions, what’s going on around me and my past experiences. I grew up in the Rexdale community in Mount Olive from birth until the age of 11, when my father and uncle were shot and killed at the same time. I entered Breaking The Cycle to change my life and to talk to people about my problems because that was something that was really hard for me. At this point I have changed my life around and I’m doing a lot of positive things and stopping the negative. I want to do it for my father to make him proud that I came out to be the star he saw from day one. Besides music, I want to go back to college and take an engineering or radio broadcasting course. I have a lot of dreams that I’m going to
make sure becomes reality.
Arabi Rajeswaran
Arabi moved to Rexdale with her family as an infant and has been living there ever since. She is heavily involved with her community through sports and youth programs. Aside from her role with urbanNOISE, Arabi is currently planning camps for The mcQueen Foundation and is planning on attending post-secondary school for International Development and Kinesiology.
Program Description
A joint production of Expect Theatre and Arts Etobicoke, urbanNOISE provides free arts-based workshops as well as part-time employment and mentorship through its Ambassador Program to youth in North Etobicoke while fighting the popular perception of Rexdale as a gang war zone.
Each year, a team of 6-8 youth are hired from the Rexdale community to help program and promote the annual urbanNOISE Festival. The youth are guided by a mentor with expertise in festival production, and supported by the team of Expect Theatre.
For 8 weeks, the youth ambassadors learn tangible skills in marketing, production, outreach and programming. They work closely with our community partners, build strong relationships with their peers, receive community service hours and get paid!
urbanNOISE Background
urbanNOISE helps foster up-and-coming talent in Canada’s urban music industry. Since some of Canada’s hottest urban music stars have played the festival before making it big – such as Drake and Jully Black – the future of Canadian hip hop just may be found on stage at this years urbanNoise! The roster of talented performers joining the headliners features a multicultural line-up of artists, dancers, poets, hairstylists, activists, graffiti artists and a wide array of music forms from hip hop, dancehall and bhangra to steel pans and African djembe drumming.
