BIO [short]
MOTION is an award-winning screenwriter, playwright, poet and emcee. Her work has been featured across Canada, the U.S, Caribbean, Europe and Africa. She is a writer and Supervising Producer on TV series Coroner (CBC/CW), Diggstown (CBC/FOX) and The Porter (CBC/BET), and co-writer of the Canadian Academy Screen Award-winning feature film Akilla’s Escape with director Charles Officer, which premiered at TIFF 2020. She is also a writer and Co-Executive Producer on Revenge of the Black Best Friend (CBC Gem). She is an alumna of the Canadian Film Centre, writer of Oraltorio: A Theatrical Mixtape, author of poetry collections Motion in Poetry and 40 Dayz (Women’s Press), and creator and Course Director of Griots to Emcees: Culture, Performance & Spoken Word at York University.
BIO [mid]
MOTION is a playwright, screenwriter, poet and emcee, fusing word, sound & drama for the stage and screen. The Canadian Screen Award-winning co-writer of feature film Akilla’s Escape with director Charles Officer, Motion is a writer and Supervising Producer on dramatic series such as CBC’s hit drama series, Coroner (Back Alley/Muse), the groundbreaking Diggstown (CBC/FOX) and renowned historical series The Porter (CBC/BET+). She is a writer and Co-Executive Producer on new CBC Gem original series Revenge of the Black Best Friend. She is also developing series with production companies Circle Blue Entertainment, Darius Films, and Sphere Media. A Canadian Film Centre alumnus Motion is the co-writer of Akilla’s Escape (Canesugar Films), a feature film with director Charles Officer, to be released in 2020, and the writer of ReelWorld Award-winning short film A Man’s Story (Bravofact) which has screened in film festivals in London, Ghana, Belgium, Zanzibar and Toronto.
Her recent productions for the stage include the Dora-Award nominated Oraltorio: A Theatrical Mixtape (NNNNN’s in NOW) with DJ L’Oqenz (dir. Mumbi Tindyebwa). Premiering to critical acclaim, it has been remounted at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre and Obsidian Theatre, CINARS in Montreal, and the groundbreaking Chale Wote Festival in Ghana. Her other works include Aneemah’s Spot (Summerworks), Loveleigh’s Logue (50in50/Billie Holiday Theatre, NYC), and the Dora-nominated co-creation Nightmare Dream (IFT Theatre/Obsidian Theatre). She is also published in her two poetry collections Motion in Poetry and 40 Dayz (Women’s Press), as well as Everything Remains Raw (GooseLane), and The Black Notes (Insomniac Press).
BIO [long]
MOTION | Playwright | Poet | Screenwriter | Emcee
“Moving the soul, like she rocks the mic, Motion is a true testament to the power of words.” -Toronto Star
Wendy MOTION Brathwaite’s aural/sonic works span the realms of word, sound and drama. Her lyrical agility has taken her to the stages of Manifesto, the Caribbean International Literary Festival, Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, CBC Television, Illinois Hip Hop & Punk Feminisms Symposium, Trinidad & Tobago’s Cascadoo Festival and HBO Def Poetry Jam. Her theatrical works have been staged at Soul Pepper Theatre, Factory Theatre, bcurrent’s Rock.Paper.Sistaz Festival, Buzz Festival at Theatre Passe Murialle and Obsidian’s International Black Playwrights Festival.
An alumna of the CFC (Canadian Film Centre) Writer’s Lab, Motion has also been Obsidian Theatre’s Playwright-in-Residence, and a resident of the Banff Centre for the Arts’ Spoken Word and Playwrights Colony, where she developed the dramatic suite 4OUR WOMAN. Her award-winning theatrical production ANEEMAH’S SPOT debuted at Summerworks 2012. She went on write the critically acclaimed site-specific theatrical co-creation NIGHTMARE DREAM (IFT Theatre), which premiered in the TD Then & Now Festival. The 2nd work in the Nightmare Dream trilogy – MOTHERLAND (developed with Obsidian Theatre and Ottawa’s National Arts Centre) – will premier in 2021. Her inter-disciplinary play ORALTORIO: A Theatrical Mixtape with DJ L’Oqenz premiered at Toronto’s Theatre Centre (Riser Project) and was nominated for a Dora Award. Film and TV projects in development include SOUNDGIRL, and collaborations AKILLA’S ESCAPE (w/Charles Officer) and PANDORA (w/RT!, Charles Officer, Calum DeHartog).
Motion has been published in her two collections – Motion in Poetry and 40 Dayz (Women’s Press). Her work has also been featured in Give Voice (Playwrights Canada), The Great Black North (Frontenac), and In the Black: New African Canadian Literature (Insomniac). She is also published in Everything Remains Raw (Gooselane). Her latest print feature is in the collection The Black Notes, released in 2019.
Inspired by her initiation as a co-founding member of the legendary and longest-running Hip Hop radio show – The Masterplan Show on CIUT89.5 FM, as well as music program leader with the groundbreaking Fresh Arts Organization Movement, Motion is currently course director of Griots to Emcees: Performance, Culture & Spoken Word at York University.
Founder of MotionLive Ent., she continues to develop young and emerging talents through her writing, filmmaking and performance workshop presentation series in community, creative and educational spaces: such as South Africa’s Africa Expo Symposium, the Black Futures on Eglinton Project, Regent Park Film Festival (Writing the Web Series), Tapestry Theatre, the AMY Project, Trinidad & Tobago’s Cascadoo Festival, Toronto Public Library, and the TDSB. Motion is also a writer and facilitator with the Hip Hop Curriculum Project in Rhymes to Re-Education (A Different Publisher).
Motion’s work has been supported through the Chalmers Award Fellowship, as well as TAC, the OAC and Canadian Council of the Arts.
Connect:: http://www.motionlive.com
