Write By The Water 2026

About the program

Back in its eighth year, LSA is proud to offer Write by the Water, a 8-week intensive writing workshop for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) creative youths and adults, ages 18+, to express themselves through storytelling and the written word.

This year, we once again welcome writer, language enthusiast and arts-educator, Jedidiah Mugarura as the program facilitator.

This series invites BIPOC writers of all kinds to explore new works or to fine-tune works-in-progress, in a safer and inspirational environment while being mentored and coached by an industry professional. This year, the program aims to explore diverse approaches to historical narratives, considering how we might delve into archives and/or draw on our own memories to revisit these histories.

Join other writers as we gather every week by the waterfront to strengthen your writing skills and share your stories. With the support of writer, language enthusiast and arts-educator Jedidiah Mugarura, participants focus on their works-in-progress with feedback from a diligent instructor and caring community. This year’s program theme is resistance. As a group, we shall read the late Zimbabwean-Canadian author Yvonne Vera’s novel Nehanda, for its spare poetic prose and its lessons on what it truly means to stand up and resist oppression.

Each in-person session, held (at least in part) by Lake Ontario at Amos Waites Park, shall open with body movements as language embodied before visiting the page.

Program Details

This program runs for 8 weeks.

Dates: Wednesdays, September 23 – November 11, 2026
Time: 5:30 to 7:30PM
Cost: FREE!
Location: In-Person at Lakeshore Arts (2422 Lake Shore Blvd. W., Etobicoke) and by the waterfront at Amos Waites Park.

Who is this program for:

BIPOC Creative Writers: authors, playwrights, poets, rappers, singers and writers of any other medium, ages 18+.

The program will be capped at 15 participants.

If you require more information or help with this registration, please contact Revital Weiss, Programs Manager, at CommunityPrograms@LakeshoreArts.ca

About the Facilitator

Jedidiah Mugarura is a storyteller from Kampala, Uganda currently based in Tkaronto. A writer of Nkore descent, his storytelling seeks to find and reimagine the missing vowels to the songs we once sang before colonial violence, to project a future of agency and possibility for those still negotiating their bodies in empire. His poems and short stories appear or are forthcoming in Brittle Paper, Humber Literary Review, Lolwe, Transition and Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora. His debut poetry collection, Nyamuteza, was winner of the 2025 Sillerman Prize for African Poets and is forthcoming in the Fall 2026 with University of Nebraska Press.

Carmen Ocampo Velázquez (She/They) is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist, curator, and psychologist originally from Colombia. Her experience centres on healing, identity, and social change through collaborative engaged art. Drawing on a clinical psychology background spanning over 30 years, she catalyzes creative processes that foster individual and communitarian resilience and empowerment. Carmen holds a Master’s in Environmental Studies and is the founder of Matiz Project, a transdisciplinary collective harnessing the transformative power of art to deconstruct social narratives and reclaim collective voices. Currently, she serves as an Art & Wellbeing Facilitator and Board Member at Lakeshore Arts (LSA).

Aisha (she/her) is a youth advocate who uses storytelling and art to amplify young people’s voices in civic and community spaces. She is a member of the Canadian Center for Cultural Diplomacy and the King’s Trust Canada Youth Council, where she helps bring youth voices into community conversations and decision-making. She also represented young people in a range of community and leadership forums.

Aisha completed governance and leadership training with Fora Rise on Boards and is joining Lakeshore Arts to contribute to community-based arts initiatives. She is committed to using creative expression to help build more inclusive and connected communities

Akshat Jhaveri (he/him), working in the financial services industry for almost a decade. His ability to connect, communicate and understand the needs of clients is his true passion. Outside the finance world, you might catch him shooting hoops on the basketball court, taking a swim, or hitting the road with a smile while driving his car (blasting music). With a mix of financial smarts and a love for life outside the office, Akshat brings a well-rounded energy to everything he does.

Francis Tomkins (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes animation, collage, zine making, and workshop facilitation. They have a BFA in Cross-Disciplinary Arts: Publications from OCAD University and have worked within the arts and accessibility sectors at Tangled Art + Disability, StopGap Foundation and Toronto Queer Film Festival. Their work has been featured by Toronto Animated Image Society (TAIS), RestFest Film Festival, and Arts Etobicoke. Francis is passionate about how art can be used to create and sustain connected communities.

Renu Indapurkar (she/her) is a Toronto-based portrait artist whose love for art began in childhood, inspired by her grandfather, a painter and art teacher. Growing up around his practice and teaching, art became an integral part of her everyday life and a natural way for her to express and connect with the world.

She works across mixed media, oil, watercolour, oil paint and coffee painting, and specializes in portrait art. For the past five years, Renu has been running her small business RK Artworks, creating commissioned pieces that celebrate people and personal stories. More recently, she launched Live Wedding Painting, where she paints live at weddings, capturing meaningful moments as they happen.

Twenty-five years ago, Charlotte founded Wuthering Bites, a café on the Lakeshore in Mimico that focused on the arts and community. With a diverse background in teaching, research and advocacy, and a passion for writing and visual art, Charlotte is thrilled to now be working with Lakeshore Arts as they launch exciting new initiatives for our South Etobicoke neighbourhood. She is especially thrilled to have a unique opportunity to focus on engagement and programming for seniors.

Annie Katsura Rollins (she/they) is a community arts worker, researcher, and puppetry artist. Finding a sense of much needed belonging in community theatre as a young person, she pursued understanding this feeling of connectedness through the arts with degrees in performance (BFA), theatre performance, direction, and puppetry (MFA) and finally a study in traditional lineages of folk puppetry in China (PhD). She concurrently tested this understanding through over 20 years of professional work in art education, facilitation, and community building.

Since moving to Toronto in 2017, Annie has worked in the community arts sector and co-founded and co-curates with Concrete Cabaret, Toronto’s only experimental puppet slam. Annie is a professor in the University of Connecticut graduate certificate program in puppetry arts. She believes that having the arts in our everyday lives is no longer a luxury but a necessity.

Sin Tung (Steffi) Ng (she/her) explores the complexities of Asian immigration experiences through curation, writing and photography. Interweaving these three artistic practices, Ng seeks to build site-specific exhibitions, public programs and installations that amplify marginalized voices and make space for joyful encounters across diverse cultures. Her works have been featured at the DesignTO 2025, Xpace Cultural Centre, Unit 270 and the Graduate Gallery.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Sin Tung/Steffi is currently based in Tkaronto/Toronto. Her recent interests include AI image-making of demolished architectures, long-distance friendships and Japanese city boy fashion.

Revital Weiss is a queer Jewish arts worker who believes in the transformational power of the arts. Revital works with artists to develop socially-minded arts programming for marginalized communities. She also advocates for opportunities for emerging artists, particularly BIPOC, 2SLGBTQ+ folks, and incarcerated/formerly incarcerated people. Revital has co-curated and supported arts projects at Neilson Park Creative Centre, the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre, FENTSTER Gallery, and King Heritage and Cultural Centre. Revital holds a Master of Museum Studies. In a past life, Revital was an urban planner.

Write By The Water 2026

Black Artists Residency 2026/27

Mimico Arts Jam Exhibition

Carmen Ocampo

Aisha Sidiqi

Akshat Jhaveri

Karen Kew

Francis Tomkins

Renu Indapurkar

Charlotte Sheasby-Coleman

Kadeem Parchment

Annie Katsura Rollins

Steffi Ng

Revital Weiss

Sherry Pom Foreman