Catching up with Venesha Cardwell-Thomas

On a bright September day, we caught up with Venesha Cardwell-Thomas at a park close to where she grew up in Toronto’s west region. It’s been a few years since she appeared in Tenant LOOP’s 2020 fall edition as an Investing in Our Diversity Scholarship program recipient, but she remains active and committed as ever to community work and leadership. 

Today, Venesha is working as an equitable city-building researcher, and recently completed a residency with the Reaching Intelligent Souls Everywhere (RISE) arts program. RISE gives young performance artists the opportunity to express themselves in a positive way. One of the highlights for Venesha was performing spoken word, a type of poetry which uses voice and physical movements, to bring attention to youth employment law and rights. 

Venesha has also been involved in a project called “Firgrove Mixed-Media Oral Narratives,” a collaboration between young artists and community leaders in Firgrove with a team from York University to develop an exhibit for York University’s 2023 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. This project featured the works of community artists in various media formats, like virtual reality or graphic design. The purpose of the work is to celebrate history, heritage, and culture, amidst the current TCHC Firgrove revitalization.

In explaining the exhibit, Venesha said that someone walking around the room with a VR (virtual reality) headset on will be able to see that “there are places that we are no longer physically able to visit because they’re gone. So, we would enter a virtual world where many are often met with feelings of nostalgia; it brings back memories and is something familiar where multiple people are able to connect.”

Venesha is very grateful for the opportunity to try her hand at spoken word, meet other talented artists and to work with her mentors. As she looks back, she says “it was years ago that I was the recipient for one of the scholarships through TCHC and I’m really blessed that it benefited me in my final year of post-secondary studies. It’s nice to have the opportunity to share where I’m currently at today.”

Learn more about RISE and scholarships

To learn more about the RISE program, visit riseedutainment.com. To learn about the different types of scholarships that TCHC offers, visit
torontohousing.ca/scholarships.