At the core of what he does, Montrealer Kidel Reid’s goal is to promote safe spaces for all people to thrive in. A community worker and the Executive Director of The Multicultural & Diversity Project, Reid prides himself in promoting wholistic development in an equal and equitable fashion.
“Things seem to repeat themselves,” he recounts to the CONTACT. “My parents told me about the racism they experienced back then, I had my fair share of that and unfortunately my son had his own experience too, and this made him stop playing hockey.”
For Reid and Multicultural and Diversity Project the goal remains to provide Quebec’s BIPOC and greater Canadian multicultural communities with the necessary tools to break down the barriers of racism and discrimination. They do this through various ventures that ensure the holistic development of mental, social, physical, educational, financial and civic aptitudes of youth, adults, seniors and families.
In keeping in step with this he thought it would be important to highlight the work that minority language artist (Anglophones) in Quebec have done and are continuing to do despite the laws not necessarily being in their favour. With funding from the Canadian Heritage, Reid together with Director Nkosi Phanord and a team of others they sought out Anglophone artists in different spheres from Quebec and documented their stories.
“We ensured that we had public participation on who to feature, we asked people to nominate and so we went ahead and interviewed the top ten anglophone artists as chosen by the public.”
The documentary, aptly titled, Multicultural Artistry in Montreal, gives a keen look at ten unique artists and their journey and how they navigated not only being a part of a minority ethnic group (BIPOC) but also a minority language group.
The documentary features artists such as: Miro Laflaga a creative director and co-owner of a design management firm; Carolina an Argentinian born crochet artist who makes bespoke pieces of wearable art in Montreal: Brandon Hecht aka Anu Budz a musician, content creator and 3D jewelry designer from Cote- St. Luc: Seydee Bien-Aime a visual artist from the West Island: Marcus Troy a creative entrepreneur from LaSalle: Fatima Wilson a steelpan performer and instructor from Montreal: Tattoo artists Jazz from Prana Tattoo a BIPOC tattoo and piercing studio: Hong Kong born George Fok who is a multi disciplinary artist based in Brossard: Rapper Troy Dunnit from Montreal: and Event Organiser and Music promoter Rickey D.
The documentary wasn’t easy to put together, but as Reid explains his family often motivates him to keep pushing.
“I do this for my kids, I think about my son and his experiences with racism at such a young age, and I am motivated to do these things to leave something for them.”
“We had a short amount of time to do everything so it was stressful but thanks to Nkosi who is the director of the documentary and other team members we did it.”
Reid had a private screening for the documentary at the Segal Centre, where some of the artists featured could come and watch with their guests and appreciate their artistry.
“Its all about appreciating them,” he adds.
The documentary, Multicultural Artistry in Montreal was funded by Canadian Heritage and is available on YouTube and can be found on the Multicultural & Diversity Project YouTube Channel.
