Toronto dub poet D’bi.young anitafrika’s fave tomes

Four books that matter to groundbreaking T.O. artist

Toronto artist D’bi.young anitafrika is a Jamaican-Canadian dub poet and multi-disciplinary artist who is featured in this month’s Art Gallery of Ontario First Thursdays event, which explores feminism. 

She was inspired to become a dub poet by her mother, Anita Stewart, a pioneer in the art form. 

“I grew up watching her in the first dub poetry band, called Poets in Unity,” she says. “Dub is a politicized, highly performative genre of poetry that emerges out of Jamaica and is steeped in reggae rhythms. When I grow up, I want to be just like my mother.” Her mother also taught her to read when she was just two years old. 

Here, Young offers up four of her favourite books. 

Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change by Pema Chödrön
Pema Chödrön’s work continues to impact my life tremendously. As a Buddhist nun in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, she inspires me to continue to explore the many ways in which I can grow as a human being sharing the planet with all else.

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
[This] set me on a journey that I am still walking. To deeply know myself, to live truly for the moment I am in, to challenge my fears, to speak up even when it may mean death … these are all experiments in my day-to-day that continue to define and redefine the space I occupy in this cosmos.

The Truth About Stories by Thomas King
[This book] feeds my deep magical love of myths and all stories. I believe everything that I read in that book. And by believe, I mean his work allows me to dream of all the possibilities just like the electrons in the atom.

The Sorcerer’s Crossing: A Woman’s Journey by Taisha Abelar
My own fascination with the idea of other realms of existence gets a fantastical playground in this work, and it’s one that I read over and over again. Actually I read all the books mentioned here over and over again.
 

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