I was honoured to be commissioned to develop a logo and visual identity for Rewind/Forward, conceptualized and developed by Alanna Stuart, as part of ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art.

Witness Ace Dillinger, Bambii, Heather “Live Wire” Bubb-Clarke, Nino Brown, and Tasha Rozez: five local selectors (DJs) and soundsystem owners offering audiences a fuller view of local bass music culture across eras, genres, and communities.

Bubb-Clarke established one of the earliest femme-owned soundsystems in Canada after emigrating from Jamaica in the ’70s, and Rozez is one of Toronto’s only women soundclashers; meanwhile, DJs Ace Dillinger, Nino Brown, and Bambii have carved out inclusive nightlife spaces centring queer Black, Brown, and allied people. 

Printed large and loud. Mounted way up on high. Finally, the selectors’ presence match the magnitude of Jamaican music culture’s impact on Toronto. 

Their portraits were captured by Jorian Charlton, an emerging local photographer who specializes in a form of Black portraiture that, through style and gesture, reveals the vulnerabilities and intimacies of Caribbean diasporic family life and community.