Toronto Urban Music Festival 2009

Tuesday, January 26
Black Lotus Media in association with Urban Music Week
Acoustic Soul Tuesdays (open mic)
Trane Studio, 964 Bathurst St. (8:00 p.m.)

Hosted by Hajile Kalaike and featuring Poet Dwayne Morgan and A.K.A. Subliminal, Accoustic Soul celebrates five years of some of the City’s freshest talent on stage along with a hot five-piece band.

Admission: $10 at the door.

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Dwayne Morgan began his career as a spoken word artist in 1993. In 1994, he founded Up From The Roots entertainment, to promote the positive artistic contributions of African Canadian and urban influenced artists.

In 1998, Morgan received both the African Canadian Achievement Award, and the Harry Jerome Award for Excellence in the Arts. He is also the winner of 3 Canadian Urban Music Awards (2001, 2003, 2005). In 2005 he was recognized as Poet of Honour at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in Vancouver, and in 2008 Morgan’s contribution to the Arts and Canadian society were recognized on the Official Black History Month poster.

Dwayne has performed for the Governor General of Canada, The Honourable Michaelle Jean, and has shared the stage with many of Canada’s top artists including Russell Peters, Kardinal Offishal, Jully Black, K-OS, and Nelly Furtado, while also opening for international artist Alicia Keys, Mutabaruka, Ursula Rucker, and Saul Williams.

Dwayne has published 4 books, most recently, Le Making of d’un Homme, by Maelstrom ReEvolution in Brussels, Belgium/Adage, Montreal, Quebec (2009), which has followed The Making of A Man (2005), The Man Behind The Mic (2002), Long Overdue (1999), and chapbooks, The Revolution Starts Within (1996), and Straight From The Roots (1995). His albums include, Another Level (1997), The Evolution (2001), Soul Searching (2003), A Decade in the Making (2004), and Mellow Mood: The End of the Beginning (2007). In 2008, Morgan released a commemorative DVD entitled, Dwayne Morgan The First Fifteen.

To further explore his creativity, Dwayne collaborated with Driftwood Studios to film, Three Knocks, a ten minute film based on his domestic violence poem of the same name, which premiered in Toronto’s Reel World Film Festival. In March 2008, Dwayne hosted his first photography exhibit, The Sum of Her Parts, which explored female body image. The National Eating Disorder Information Centre has used one of Dwayne’s images for a PSA. Dwayne has also filmed a video for his poem, E-Males, while also premiering his one man show, Grade 8, at the 2008 Hamilton Fringe Festival.

Dwayne’s work ethic has taken him across Canada, the United States, Jamaica, Barbados, England, Scotland, Belgium, Budapest, Germany, France, Norway, and Holland. His emphasis on quality has driven his success, and has made him a well respected component of Toronto’s urban music community, as well as the North American, and Global, spoken word scenes.

See Dwayne Morgan at Urban Music Week 2010