little sister is a grassroots, youth-led, youth-focused artist resource centre. we are youth (29 and under), queer, not queer, racialized, living in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area, artists, and many other things.
our mission is to reduce barriers in the arts and entertainment industries for BIPOC + 2SLGBTQ+ youth artists by creating safer performance spaces, providing educational workshops, and developing resources for young artists.
we have run the community-based open mic series hummingbird since 2015, providing 40+ open mic nights for emerging youth artists in the Regent Park community and Toronto/GTA at large.
in 2018 we decided to focus on researching the experiences of young racialized 2SLGBTQ+ artists in Toronto, and later published our findings in the 2020 report “It Feels Like Having a Sugar Daddy. But like in the Worst Way: Thoughts from Racialized 2SLGBTQ+ Youth Artists in the Toronto Arts Scene.”
our team
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kamilah apong
director (she/her)
kamilah (kah-MEE-lah) apong is a queer 90’s babe, and is currently re-watching entire Sailor Moon series for the 49283742rd time. she has some cute tummy rolls and would like to mother a couple alpacas 🦙 🦙 🦙 🦙 🦙. she’s the lead singer for the disco project, Tush, and co founded the hummingbird open mic in 2015, and LIL SIS in 2020.
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alma ahmed
digital media coordinator (she/her)
from a spectator at the first open mic to participating in its current grant and research project, alma has been involved with the hummingbird open mic and LIL SIS since 2015.
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nkechinyem oduh
admin + communications coordinator (she/her)
ink-a-chi-yum is the newest addition to the lilsis team and is a wanted fugitive by the toronto public library because she borrowed the entire peach girl manga series when she was 12 and never returned it. you can find her hiding out at toronto kbbq spots. she's almost finished her teacher's certification, or at least she would be if she could just finish that one research paper.
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belul kidane
events + workshop coordinator (she/her)
stop trying, it’s pronounced “Bae-lou-l”. Belul Kidane is a new member of the LIL SIS team but has been engaged with hummingbird since 2018.
belul@lilsis.ca
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rayan saied
events + workshop coordinator (she/her)
Rayan began her work with the hummingbird team in highschool working to help spread the word out about our first ever youth-centred open mic in Regent Park. as event host and outreach team member, she was closely involved with many of the open mics throughout the years. her role with hummingbird evolved into a research role as we began to focus our work on recording and understanding the experiences of racialized LGBTQI artists and their access to resources and spaces within Toronto.
shoutout to our former collaborators
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suzanna maharaj
(she/her)
hummingbird and the LIL SIS project has had a place in Suzanna’s heart for years.
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mandeq hassan
(she/her)
mandeq is a writer, actress and the programs and acquisitions director for Sisterhood Media. she has been a writer and creator of “The Regent Park Project” and other web series as well as worked on a number of short films.
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jynessa marczuk
(whatever/you/want)
jynessa is a writer living in montreal.
