Dwayne Morgan
Curator
It is a great pleasure to be back with the Toronto International Storytelling Festival for another year, bringing Spoken Word into the mix. This year, I wanted to challenge the artists to get outside of their comfort zones and work collaboratively on a single theme. Each artist has accepted the challenge, and what we will see is a unique poetry performance with each poem adding to a greater narrative.
Biography
Dwayne Morgan is a two-time Canadian National Poetry Slam Champion. He 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.
Morgan made the 2022 Shifter Magazine list of outstanding Black men in Canada, while also winning the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Celebration of Cultural Life award, and the 2018 the Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award for Career Achievement in the Spoken Word. Morgan was a 2016 finalist for the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, and in 2013, he was inducted into the Scarborough Walk of Fame. Morgan has received both the African Canadian Achievement Award, and the Harry Jerome Award for Excellence in the Arts.
Dwayne has performed for the former President of the United States, Barack Obama, the former Governor General of Canada, Michaelle Jean, the late leader of the NDP, Jack Layton, and has shared the stage with many of Canada’s top artists including Russell Peters while opening for international artists Alicia Keys, and recording with Canadian artists, including Drake.
Morgan has published fourteen collections, including two children’s books, and an inspirational memoir. In 2009, Morgan’s work was translated into French, culminating in the book, Le Making of d’un Homme. Morgan has ten albums to his credit, including a spoken word Christmas album, Silent Night.
To further explore his creativity, Dwayne collaborated with Driftwood Studios to film, Three Knocks, a ten-minute film, which premiered in Toronto’s Reel World Film Festival. Morgan produced two TV shows, Poetically Speaking, and Write in Toronto. Morgan’s one-man play, Grade 8, now appears on the CBC’s PlayMe Podcast. In 2012, Morgan performed at Super Bowl 46, in Indianapolis, Indiana, and in 2019, he founded and co-produced the inaugural Toronto Spoken Soul Festival.
As a member of the Spoken Soul Collective, Morgan was a 2021 curator for ArtworxTO, responsible for the public art inside of the Scarborough Town Centre. Morgan’s photography has been featured in ArtworxTO and the Contact Photography Festival.
Dwayne’s work ethic has taken him across Canada, the United States, Jamaica, Uganda, Turkey, Trinidad, Bermuda, Barbados, England, Scotland, Belgium, Budapest, Germany, France, Norway, Ghana, 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.