Woman Scream was brought to Canada for the first time on Saturday March 30, 2024 at the Alexandra Park Community Centre located in downtown Toronto from 6-9pm. Watch Her Reign in collaboration with Jane Street Speakers featured creatives and local artists from around the city from musicians and poets including a panel centered around the issues focussed on by Woman Scream. The event was emceed by Natalie “Rare” Chattargoon and co-hosted by Maria Guardado. The event encapsulated resilience and collective celebration of women through creative expression of the triumphs, journey and overall issues faced by women in Toronto. We had performances by musicians including, Jessica Williams, Sarah G, POTD, Zebesha, Mel Flower, and Sakako. Our featured poets included D Two Times, Amoya Ree, Rebbecca Artist, Rocky Lee, AMZ the Heartist, and our co-hosts Rare and Maria Guardado. Our performances were diverse and showcased the cultural mosaic that makes Canada-Canada. Beautiful and truly impacting performances. We also featured local women owned businesses including Mara Baking, Crown Silks and Becs Gallery.
Our panel discussion was insightful, powerful and touched on significant issues that prevalent to the relationships between women and the supports to stand up against violence against women, opression and, micro-agressions on any level. We were joined by our panelists with lived experience and expertise in mental health, community building, domestic violence refugee and community activists. Our panelists Katherine Lemus is the Co-founder and CEO of Mujeres in Charge that focused on mental health in Latin communities to break the barriers and stigmas to raise awareness and challenge the status quo. Muriel Francoise Lopez Silva is the Founder and CEO of Jicarx that focuseson support services to the cultural relevance and inclusivity of Latinidad while being an ally to the Indigenous community on Turtle Island. Elif Emre a passionate advocate for women’s rights, t working to build strong communities for women and combat issues such as physical and mental abuse, sexual harassment in the workplace, and women’s mental health challenges. Along with Rare our co-host a multi-factated creative, social worker, and community builder featured a excerpt from her book in poetic literature Rare’s world called “Hurt” on her experience with domestic violence. Overall, the event featured heavy participation from the community and really spoke volumes to what women are capable of together, for one another and paving the way for the next generation of women leaders and activist. The event was organized and co-hosted by Nathan Baya and Maria Guardado with significant support from the community.
The Woman Scream Festival has brought together over 70 countries with thousands of events as a call to action for activists and creatives worldwide to stand up for the voiceless and empower women solidarity from around the world. The festival covers a multitude of themes each year and stands as apart of the UN Women’s Generation Equality intiatives. The Woman Scream Festival’s overarching objective is to raise awareness on the measures of violence that women face day to day. The mission lives on and Canada has now come to the table to continue the good fight to helping achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals paving way for the future.
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