The More the Merrier with donna g

Guests: Johannes (Director), Wilhelmina (Writer) and Jonathan (Editor) Vang join me to talk about collaborating on their film Borderline, screening June 4 at ImagineNative Film + Media Arts Festival. Shifting borders and power are at the heart of this comedic short that has its characters moving to and fro in Norway, Finland, and Sweden.imagineNATIVE runs June 2-7, 2026 (Toronto) and June 8-14, 2026 (online). ImagineNative.orgPlus, I do my part to raise money for CIUT 89.5 FM during its Spring Fundraising Campaign. www.ciut.fm

Carly Beath, the brand new Executive Director of Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival and I chat about her new role with the festival and shares details about some of the films that caught my eye this year. Plus a creepy old time radio show about what happens when 'The Enormous Radio' begins to take on a life of its own. archive.orgMusic: 'gendah bendah' by dr. d'bi.young anitafrika and 'Close These Doors' by LAL

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival 2026 coverage continues with guests: director, Kenya-Jade Pinto (The Sandbox) and filmmakers (Let the Mountains Live) multi-award winning director, Hävard Bustnes and Johannes Vang, and Sissel Holtan, a reindeer herder.A lawyer, photographer and first-time director, Kenya-Jade and I discuss the million dollar tech industry of migrant and refugee surveillance and the activists working to provide basic human rights to people in need. What does that mean for you and me? You'll want to find out...The Sámi people of Norway won a supreme court decision recognizing their indigenous land rights, so why are herders in North Fosten still fighting against a major wind turbine company that has built hundreds of turbines on reindeer territory? This David and Goliath story reveals the global contractions built into Truth and Reconciliation documents.Music by Son Aché: 'Celia' played in honour of Cuban Salsa Queen, Celia Cruz being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.Contact Me: www.ciut.fm/tmtm

Calling all talented folks and those who think they're talented! Regular guest, Jade Elektra (government name, Alphonso King Jr, aka DJ Relentless) shares how you could win $100 at Top Star Live (starting April 8) with a little help from your friends, and end up with $1000 and a chance to perform on the 2026 Pride Stage! Jade also shares info on Pink Cinema the monthly 2SLGBTQ+ (and allies) movie club and what it was like for a little Black gay boy doing drag in Tampa, Florida (oh, lord she was a mess!) to the Big Apple and Toronto, Canada.

Focus on T.O. Short Film Festival (March 18-21) with Steve Veale, festival director and filmmakers Catherine Dulude (55 Years Apart) and Jimena Ayala (Homo Plastikus). Tickets: https://paradiseonbloor.comMusic: Tanika Charles 'Parkdale', Ndidi O 'Call Me Queen's, Lynn Olagundoye 'Beautiful', Beautiful Nubia 'Mama Bendel'

Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) celebrates Black History Month 2026 by recognizing Wendy Jones of Pan Fantasy Steel Orchestra as Canada's Ambassador to Steel Pan Culture.In memoriam: Sistah Lois shares the legacy of Sheila 'Lady Pearl' Robinson, the first woman to win the Canadian Calypso Monarch title.Music: Move Away by Lady Pearl

My chat with Tanisha Taitt Artistic Director of Cahoots Theatre and founder of Stakes and Embers Production+ Abigail Whitney actor director producer on her Associate Director role on Eureka Day, the Tony Award-winning play on now at Coalmine Theatre

How and when can you separate the artist from the art? My chat with renowned playwright, Steven Elliott Jackson about his work A Question of Character."Stakes and Embers in association with Minmar Gaslight presents “A Question Of Character” at the Aki Studio at Native Earth, January 17-25, 2026.Following such critically acclaimed works as the lightning-in-a-bottle The Seat Next To The King and the multi-Dora nominated Three Ordinary Man, playwright Steven Elliott Jackson returns to Toronto with the critically lauded 2025 Hamilton Fringe hit, A Question of Character.In 1977, a film journalist knocks on a door in Paris, eager to interview a famed director whose skill she admires. On the other side of the door, awaiting her arrival, is Leni Riefenstahl. They have time. They have tea. Things go as planned until they don’t in thiunpredictable historical drama, directed by Alice Fox Lundy and featuring Paula Wing and Tanisha Taitt."https://nativeearth.ca/shows/all-shows/a-question-of-characterUntil January 25, 2026

I don't often get a chance to play more than one or two selections of music so I'm happy to have the chance to share this curated cross-genre selection of music and spoken word with you. Enjoy!

Poetry Roundtable re: 'Up:Rising: A Collection of Rebellious Imaginings from Authors with Lived Experience of Mental Health & Addictions'KELLY PFLUG BACK (editor)https://www.textandtextiles.ca/aboutKelly is a writer, textile artist, and educator/instructor. Their fiction, poetry, and journalism have appeared in places like the Toronto Star, Ideomancer Speculative Fiction, Briarpatch, Goblin Fruit, Strange Horizons, and many others. Her first full-length book of poems, The Hammer of Witches, was published with Caitlin Press/Dagger Editions in 2020.NADJA LUBIW-HAZARDhttps://www.nmlhazard.com/copy-of-tizzy-meNadja is the author of the adult novel The Nap-Away Motel, and the children's chapter book Tizzy and Me: Fifteen Ways to Love a Mink. Her short story collection The Life of a Creature, and her second children's chapter book, Tizzy and Me: The Incredible Adventure of Moondog's Eye will both be published in 2026. Her work has been published in numerous Canadian literary magazines including Room, The Fiddlehead, Understorey, Event, Plenitude, Canthius, Prairie Fire, The Dalhousie Review, and The New Quarterly. Prior to turning to full-time writing, Nadja worked as a veterinarian, most recently at the Toronto Humane Society. She is currently working on several picture books about animals, and a second novel, Saving Seraphina. Nadja is a trained creative writing workshop facilitator, and has worked with Firefly Creative Writing, The Writers Collective of Canada, Workman Arts, and CAMH Collaborative Learning College (CLC). She is passionate about the role narrative medicine and storytelling have in healing, especially as it relates to grief. Her CLC workshops focus on pet-loss grief, eco-grief, and the grief of mental illness. Find out more and sign up here. A life-long animal-lover and long-time vegan, her writing often explores themes related to the more-than-human world. She lives with her wife, their two daughters, and a feisty, fluffy cat in Toronto. ALTHEA KNIGHThttps://altheaknight.com/index.php/about-althea/Born in London, England, to Jamaican and West African lineages, Althea Knight is a Canadian poet, artist, and educator living on unceded Algonquin territory in Ottawa. She has led workshops across cultures and communities, nurturing creative practice, self-discovery, and wellness. Her poems and visual art have been featured in galleries, museums, and community spaces, and published in Love Dimensions, Recipes for Sustainability, #WeBelieveSurvivors, and Up:Rising. She continues to create work that witnesses what was silenced, questions inherited narratives, and reclaims and tends what was disrupted across personal, ancestral, structural, and relational life.ALEXANDRA C. YEBOAHhttps://acyeboah.com/Alexandra C. Yeboah is a Brampton-based writer, storyteller and creative facilitator whose work often drifts between the heartfelt and the hilariously human. A quiet observer with a mischievous curiosity, she writes stories exploring identity, discovery, belonging, and life’s awkward corners. Her nonfiction and poetry appear in Back Where I Came From, UpRising, and The Art of Solidarity anthologies. Alexandra is a second-generation Canadian with Jamaican and Ghanaian ancestry who is passionate about people, history, and culture. When not writing or facilitating, Alexandra can be found pretending her life is musical, daydreaming, or writing somewhere outdoorsy or by the light.

Conductor, composer and Artistic Director of the Upper Canada Choristers, Laurie Evan Fraser and producer and singer, Jacinto Salcedo (UCC/Cantemos) join me to talk about the joys and sorrows of the holidays and how audiences can take comfort in the inclusivity of UCC's Dec 5 concert, This Little Child. https://www.uppercanadachoristers.org

Two-time Dora Award Winner, Kanika Ambrose joins me again to talk about her second play running this month in Toronto, Moonlight Schooner.Then I'm joined by drag performer, Jade Elektra, who hosted my fundraiser 'Mingle with The More the Merrier'. I co-hosted the event and was very happy to have Sistah Lois our my special guest. Thank you John Allan for allowing me to use your recording.

Directors Min Sook Lee (There are no words) and Timothy Yeung (Finch & Midland) talk about their respective films screening at the 29th Reel Asian International Film Festival. The festival runs Nov 5 - 15 (in-cinema) and Nov 10 - 17th on-line. www.reelasian.com