Performer's Café
Open Mic Night at The HIVE
January 30th - 7PM
Headliner: Amber Goodwyn
Amber Goodwyn’s poems have recently appeared in Arc Poetry Magazine, Briarpatch Magazine, and BAD DOG Mag. She is an interdisciplinary artist and award-winning musician.
For her music project, Natural Sympathies, Amber works in concept album cycles with expansions into performance art and other disciplines. Natural Sympathies has won several awards including the 2021 Golden Sheaf Award for Performing Arts & Entertainment from The Yorkton Film Festival, the 2020 Best Web Series award at Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards, the 2018 Electronic Music Artist of the Year at the Saskatchewan Music Awards, as well as two SK Arts Independent Artist grants, and various other accolades.
Amber’s films and videos have screened at several festivals including Images Festival of Independent Film & Video, Antimatter [Media Art], Montreal Festival de Nouveau Cinema, The St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival, among others.
Amber has lived in different places, including Montreal and Nassau, and resides in oskana ka-asastēki (Regina, Saskatchewan), Treaty 4 territory where she works as the Artistic Director of the Regina Folk Festival. Amber is currently working on a chapbook manuscript as well as a new album with her band Natural Sympathies.
February 27 - 7PM
Headliner: TBA
March 27 - 7PM
Headliner: Project 104
Project104’s Writing Collective is a group of high school youth who meet weekly to grow as writers. From ideation to publication, with laughter, tears, sandwiches, revisions, and edits, the team thrives on expanding its creative boundaries. Project 104 is made up of authors, songwriters, poets, and spoken word artists. Team members have been published provincially and nationally, in Windscript and the Claremont Review.
April 24 - 7PM
Headliner: Dash Reimer
Dash Reimer is an artist and educator based out of Treaty 6 territory in Saskatoon. He is Saskatchewan's 5th Youth Poet Laureate. He works within the worlds of poetry and hip hop and has a decade of experience performing on stages across Turtle Island, North Africa, South Africa and Turkey. He is passionate about community care, grassroots neighborhood movements and baking his friends tasty treats. Dash has been an avid collaborator in playwriting, chapbook making, jazz combos, improv troupes, rap crews and everything in between.
May 29th - 7PM
Headliner: Artie Balkwill
Artie Balkwill is a songwriter with a roots and blues heart that bridges traditional and indie influences. The music he writes is deeply rooted in the soil of Saskatchewan and nurtured by worldly travels.
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The rare authenticity of his soulful melodies are set to the backdrop of the adventures that have pulled him away, and pieces of home that have kept him coming back. He has also followed his passion for music around the world. Which included a two-week span in Granada, Spain, the birthplace of Flamenco guitar, where he spent the majority of his waking hours in a literal cave, studying flamenco techniques.
When he isn’t busy playing venues in and around Regina, Artie has been performing at events such as Frost Fest, the Kenaston Hillbilly Boogie, Aloha Festival, Vintage Vinyl’s 25th Anniversary show, and the Northern Lights Bluegrass and Old Tyme music festival, as well as three separate promotional appearances on the Global morning news.
The Performers Café has been running for a number of years and is a free open mic at a local café in Moose Jaw for emerging and established artists. We feature ‘headliners’ who are intended to serve as mentors for aspiring musicians, writers, storytellers, etc.
The Performers Café provides local artists with a venue to showcase their talents while also allowing new artists to gain experience performing in front of an audience, and an opportunity to network with one another. It is a non-judgemental forum with the goal of encouraging the expression of creativity with no barriers due to age, gender, race, religion, artistic discipline, or sexual orientation.
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If you would like to be considered to be a headliner for the next season, please send an example of your work to performerscafe@festivalofwords.com.