# D'bi.young anitafrika

d’bi.young anitafrika is a Jamaican-Canadian feminist dub poet, activist, and singer for the band D’bi and the 333. Hxr work includes theatrical performances, four published collections of poetry, twelve plays, and seven albums.

## Early life and education

d’bi young anitafrika was born on December 23, 1977, in Kingston, Jamaica to dub poet, Anita Stewart, and community organizer, Winston Young. Young spent much of hxr childhood in Jamaica watching their mother perform dub poetry. In 1993, shx moved to Toronto, Canada, to join their parents where they completed high school.

## Career

Young's early career included the role of “Crystal” on the Frances-Anne Solomon produced sitcom Lord Have Mercy! (2003), theatre work with Black Theatre Workshop and Theatre Passe Muraille, and artist residencies with Soulpepper Theatre, CanadianStage, Obsidian Theatre, and Banff Centre for the Arts. In 2001, hxr breakout role as “Stacyanne” came through Da Kink in My Hair, by Jamaican-Canadian writer Trey Anthony, for which shx were nominated for a Dora Award. Badilisha Poetry X-Change has ranked d'bi young anitafrika in the top ten poets.
Young's early poetry, including hxr first dub poem entitled "once dere was a mxn" written in 1988, followed the foundational aesthetic of dub poetry's form, style, and content. In 2013, Young was one of the headline names for the 2013 Human Rights Concert in Harare, Zimbabwe. There, shx collaborated with Zimbabwean musician Victor Kunonga on a song called Ruvengo (Hate) off Kunonga's album Kwedu.

### Key works

Young's works, The Sankofa Trilogy, The Orisha Trilogy and The Ibeji Trilogy, explore the psychological and ideological impacts of colonization to capitalism on people of African descent, from a Black Feminist perspective. They are triptych dramas.
The Sankofa Trilogy are the stories of three Jamaican women, Mudgu Sankofa, their daughter Sekesu, and their granddaughter Benu. Each play uses the women's familial bond to tell of their respective journeys of revolutionary self-determination, and transformative self-expression. The Orisha Trilogy is a series about the experiences of women characters of the past, present, and future who survived the transatlantic slave trade. In each time period, the women grapple with power, gender, and sexuality through oppression and social unrest, under the help and protection of the Orishas. The Ibeji Trilogy are three biomyth dramas about Black love as it evolves in the midst of major life changes, from friendship to romance, between mother and son, and deep self-love.

### Publishing and theatre

Young established the micro-press Spolrusie Publishing, a publishing house to support the work of emerging black writers, and BQTIPOC and feminist works.
From 2008 to 2018, shx also created and ran The Watah Theatre, the only black-focused performance art school in Canada. The Watah Theatre offered tuition-free professional development programs. Between The Watah Theatre and Yemoya Artist Residency, they mentored some of Canada's up and coming young black creatives and international artists of color including Amanda Parris, Kim Katrin Milan, Titilope Sonuga, and photographer, Che Kothari.
Young's style of theatre practice developed draws from their upbringing in the performative and political environment of emerging Dub poetry in Jamaica of 1980s. They use Jamaican language and idiom as nation language, as opposed to colloquialism. Shx work extensively with monodrama and biomythography, or “biomyth monodrama.”
They appeared on the 2021 FreeUp! The Emancipation Day Special.

## The Anitafrika Method

Young's work recognizes the connections between identity and community as both inextricable and sacred. The Anitafrika Method initiates self-recovery through a creative process of performance that grounds broader notions of identity, community, social constructs, and metaphysical concepts, and focuses them into an embodied performance experience. The Anitafrika Method stems from the Dub theory of their mother, Anita Stewart. Shx have applied the method in a variety of disciplines and with practitioners in health care, social justice, art, and leadership development.
From January to June 2015, Young applied the method in a special collaboration with the Women's College Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada: The Black Womxn's Health Research Project.
In 2018, Young began work in postgraduate studies in the Praxes, Politics and Pedagogies of Black Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London.

## Personal life

Young is non-binary and genderqueer.

## Selected works
### Plays

| Year(s) | Title | Notes |
| 2018 | Once Upon a Black Boy | |
| 2017 | The Orisha Trilogy | Featuring: Esu Crossing the Middle Passage, Mami Wata & the Pussywitch Hunt, & Lukumi: A Dub Opera, |
| 2016 | Lukumi: A Dub Opera | |
| 2016 | Esu Crossing the Middle Passage | |
| 2016 | Mami Wata & the Pussywitch Hunt | |
| 2013 | The Sankofa Trilogy | Featuring: Benu, Bloodclaat, & Word! Sound! Powah! |
| 2011 | The Sankofa Trilogy (Featuring: Benu, Bloodclaat, & Word! Sound! Powah!) | Tarragon Theatre |
| 2010 | Nanny Maroon Warrior | Summerworks, Lower Ossington Theatre |
| 2010 | Word! Sound! Powah! (Part 3 of The Sankofa Trilogy) | Free Word Centre (2010), Summerworks Theatre Festival (2010), Toronto Fringe Festival (2010), Canadian Stage Theatre (2010) |
| 2008 | She | Buddies in Bad Times Theatre |
| 2007 | Benu (Part Two of The Sankofa Trilogy) | Summerworks Theatre Festival, Theatre Passe Muraille |
| 2006 | organ-eye-zed crime | Hysteria: A Festival of Women, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre |
| 2006 | Domestic | Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts |
| 2001-2016 | Bloodclaat | Watah Theatre (2016), Tarragon Theatre (2011), The Rhubarb Festival (2010), University of the Western Cape (2010), Firehall Theatre Vancouver (2010), GCTC, Magnetic North Theatre Festival (2010), Firehall, Magnetic North Theatre Festival (2008), Theatre Passe Muraille (2006), Solitary, b current theatre (2001) |
| 2003 | Androgyne | Buddies in Bad Times Theatre |

### Theatre (actor)

| Year | Title | Role | Theater | Notes |
| 2017 | For Colored Girls | Lady In Red | Soulpepper Theatre | |
| 2012 | In Search Of My Father | | Nu Century Arts | |
| 2008 | Have You Seen Zandile | Zandile | African Theatre Ensemble | |
| 2008 | Three Sisters | Olga | Soulpepper Theatre | |
| 2008 | Three Penny Opera | Ballad Singer | Soulpepper Theatre | |
| 2007 | Da Kink In My Hair | Staceyanne/Claudette | Hackney Empire London | |
| 2006 | Da Kink In My Hair | Staceyanne/Claudette | San Diego Repertory Theatre California | |
| 2006 | Da Kink In My Hair | Staceyanne/Claudette | Princess Of Wales Theatre Toronto | |
| 2003/2005 | Da Kink In My Hair | Staceyanne/Claudette | Theatre Passé Muraille | |
| 2001 | Da Kink In My Hair | Staceyanne/Claudette | Toronto Fringe Festival | Role debut |
| 2003 | Anowa | Badua | Artword Theatre | |
| 2002 | Stuck | Womban | Black Theatre Workshop | |
| 2002 | Three Parts Harmony | Body | Tarragon Theatre | |
| 2001 | And Girls In Their Sunday Dresses | Mime | Artword Theatre | |
| 1999 | Tooth And Nail | Sifiso | Mcgill Theatre | |

### Film and Television (actor)

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2003 | Lord Have Mercy! | Crystal | |
| 2024 | Village Keeper | Dr. Anitafrika | |

## Compilations

| Title | Producer | Release Date |
| When Sisters Speak Live | Dwayne Morgan | 2008 |
| Love Equality Freedom Revolushun. | CBC Poetry Faceoff | 2004 |
| Blood And Animal Farm | Lost Tribes Of The Sun: Renewal | 2003 |
| Ain’t I A Woman (In Dub) | Ribsauce: Words By Women | 2001 |
| Revolution | La Vache Enragee. Planete Rebelled | 1998 |
| Johnny. Wordlife | Revword. | 1998 |

### Books

| Title | Year | Publisher |
| Dubbin Theatre: The Collected Plays of d'bi.young anitafrika | 2021 | Spolrusie Publishing |
| Dubbin Poetry: The Collected Poems of d’bi.young anitafrika | 2019 | Spolrusie Publishing |
| Oya: Collection Of Writing | 2014 | Spolrusie Publishing |
| Shemurenga: Black Supah Shero Comic (Book 1) | 2013 | Spolrusie Publishing |
| Rivers And Other Blackness Between Us: (Dub) Poems Of Love. | 2007 | Women's Press |
| Blood.Claat | 2006 | Playwrights Canada Press |
| Art On Black | 2006 | Playwrights Canada Press |

### Essays

| Essay | Date | Publication | Publisher |
| Black Plays Matter: Watah Theatre, Creating Safe Space for Black Artists in These Dangerous Times | 2016 | Canadian Theatre Review: Equity in Theatre | University of Toronto Press |
| R/Evolution Begins Within | 2012 | Canadian Theatre Review: Manifestos | University of Toronto Press |
| Love Equality Freedom and Revolushun | 2007 | Theorizing Empowerment: Canadian Perspectives on Black Feminist Thought | Inanna Publications |
| Revolushun III and Letter To Tchaiko | 2007 | Wasafiri Magazine | Open University and Routledge |
| Dubpoetics and Personal Politics | 2007 | Notes From Canada's Young Activists: A Generation Stands Up for Change | Greystone Books |
| Dubpoetics and Personal Politics | 2006 | Talking Book | Cumulus Press |
| Blood, Dub and Holy | 2002 | Contemporary Verse: The Canadian Journal of Poetry and Critical Writing | Canadian Magazines Publishers Association |
| Ain’t I a Woman (In Dub) | 2007 | A Canadian Anthology of Words by Women | Véhicule Press |

### Poetry

| Poem | Date | Publication | Publisher |
| Love Equality Freedom and Revolushun | 2007 | Theorizing Empowerment: Canadian Perspectives on Black Feminist Thought | Inanna Publications |
| Revolushun III and Letter To Tchaiko | 2007 | Wasafiri Magazine | Open University and Routledge |
| Blood, Dub and Holy | 2002 | Contemporary Verse: The Canadian Journal of Poetry and Critical Writing | Canadian Magazines Publishers Association |
| Ain’t I a Woman (In Dub) | 2007 | A Canadian Anthology of Words by Women | Véhicule Press |