Dinner and a Show: Towards Youth, Back to School Special

In a school year like no other, this edition of Dinner & a Show is a dose of hope in hard times, honouring and championing young people who keep braving extraordinary circumstances. You'll learn about, and have the chance to support, an new amazing program that is changing the lives of young people across the city.

Hosted by the Dora Award-winning stage and screen icon Ngozi Paul, creator and star of Da Kink in My Hair and The Emancipation of Ms. Lovely. Enjoy a gourmet meal and bottle of wine at home, before tuning in to the premiere screening of a new Canadian short documentary, and a lively discussion with some of Canada's top thinkers on education.

The evening kicks off with the premiere screening of the 22-minute documentary Finding Radical Hope, which focuses on Dr. Kathleen Gallagher’s (UofT) remarkable study on drama classrooms -- the inspiration behind Towards Youth, the Project: Humanity/Crow’s Theatre co-production from 2019.

The night will feature a number of special guests alongside Kathleen, including a group of TDSB students who resume their drama class this month, a youth culture researcher and author Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly (Carleton University) and Maureen Johns, Director of Education at Pasqua First Nations (Saskatchewan), who was recently profiled by CBC The National for her innovative approach to in-person learning this fall.

Audiences will learn about Project: Humanity’s COVID-19 Artist Partnership Program (CAPP), which pairs youth in the shelter system with professional artists for 1:1 weekly online mentorship sessions in the art form of the youth’s choosing. With a roster of 160 artists across 30 artistic disciplines, CAPP is aiming to fund 62 mentorship pairings by June 2021.