When Toronto’s b current Performing Arts Company brings Freedom: A Mixtape - Live and Unplugged back home to Niagara’s Suitcase in Point Theatre Company’s space on February 23, Niagara-on-the-Lake multi-disciplinary artist Howard J. Davis’s words will be part of the production.
The blend of original songs, stories, poems, anecdotes, and spoken word pieces from artists around the Niagara Region had its premier in Ottawa on February 1. But its genesis goes back four years ago when b current’s Marcel Stewart was interning at Suitcase in Point.
“It started out to be something historical,” Stewart told The Local recently. “We thought about recreating some historical moments that were central to St. Catharines, starting at Harriet Tubman’s (BME) Church and ending at city hall for the Emancipation Day flag raising.”
But just after Stewart received funding for the idea, the Black Lives Matter movement arose in response to the murders of several Black men in the US. The project pivoted to something bigger, and that’s where Davis got involved.
“I was invited by Marcel to participate in this project about emancipation,” Davis says. “I had written this piece of poetry, and the Stratford Festival had done a cabaret on freedom and they put my poetry to music in that show. It also inspired a piece of artwork that will be exhibited in Toronto this spring. And now the poem is published, and it’s being performed by a really talented group of individuals from the Niagara Region.”
Born in the UK to his Cuban-Jamaican father Kelly and his European mother Claire, Davis refers to himself as of mixed heritage. That diverse background has informed much of his work through the years.
The family moved back and forth between British Columbia and the UK through the years, but he now lives with his husband, Shaw Festival actor and director Peter Hinton Davis, in NOTL.
Davis’ nom d’ art is HAUI, both a play on his first name and an acronym standing for Hybrid Artist Unique Interpretation. Though he originally studied and worked as an actor, his work encompasses so many aspects of creativity that it’s difficult to pin him down.
“Often the stories will tell me which form they want to be shared in,” Davis says. “I know that sounds a little artsy, but it’s true that I’ll be guided by narrative and story and composition. The stories will then demand the form that they need.”
That is very much in evidence through his recent and upcoming projects, each of which tells a story of Black or LGBTQ+ history.
Davis recently returned from Los Angeles, where his short film Private Flowers was screened at the Pan African Film Festival.
“Within the footnotes of Canadian history, I stumbled upon the story of this soldier being killed in 1852 for being with another man,” Davis says. “That was buried amidst the frame of 80 documented cases of criminal acts of sodomy within the military. Part of my initiative was to tell the whole truth about certain parts of our past so we can change and move forward conscientiously.”
In this case, Davis says the story of Private Flowers needed to be told via dance.
“When talking about private, intimate acts between people, those moments are very visceral and physical,” he adds. “That became the entry point for this piece. We had support from the National Ballet of Canada for a residency. I worked for a week with two dancers there.”
Jera Wolfe and Rodney Diverlus bring the soldier’s tale to life through graceful, sensual movement.
“They had never worked together, which was shocking to me,” says Davis, who knew both dancers before meeting them for the film. “They danced so wonderfully with each other. It was really nice to be the glue to bring them together.”
Private Flowers follows his previous film, 2020’s award-winning Mixed Up, the one Davis calls his “manifesto of what it means to be someone who occupies multiple spaces,” being both BIPOC and LGTBQ+. The film features Canadian Indigenous actor Tantoo Cardinal and includes home movie footage of a young Davis and his parents interspersed with his voice reciting his original poetry,
The Toronto gallery exhibition coming up this spring is a reframed photograph of his great-grandmother Mary that he has dubbed Black Athena.
“I’ve scaled the piece in this very ornate, baroque frame,” says Davis. “It’s a frame that you would see very classical European artworks in, but here it’s framing this beautiful Jamaican woman. It’s very poignant to see a photograph that would often be lost in a wallet looking so grand.”
And this summer Davis will be spending a great deal of his time at Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company working on his libretto for a new work about the life of Black Canadian contralto Portia White.
“Ironically in her life, she could not perform on opera stages,” Davis explains. “It felt very right to share Portia’s story in the art form that rejected her throughout her life. She is talked about in many circles but largely forgotten. We have a responsibility as Canadians to uplift and share the stories of these people.”
Davis promises that his collaboration with composer Sean Mayes will “not be your grandmother’s opera,” as it will include elements of classical, rhythm ‘n’ blues and hip-hop music in its score.
And you will hear a lot of rhythm ‘n’ blues and hip-hop at Suitcase in Point’s Freedom: A Mixtape - Live and Unplugged this Saturday, February 23 at 9 p.m. at 36 James Street in St. Catharines.
“What a life that has had,” Davis says of Friday’s performance. “I’m really proud of Marcel and though I’ve never really spent a lot of time with him in person, I feel connected to him and I’m happy I had a chance to work on this project.”
