Since last October New Dawn Enterprise’s popular monthly speaker series Ideas: Powered by Passion has celebrated the creativity of local leaders while encouraging “outside of the box” thinking through speech and music. The series aims to uncover the passions of our people through the sharing of their stories.
This Thursday, March 18, 2010 from 7-9pm, the series returns to the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design on Charlotte in Sydney with featured speaker Joella Foulds. In addition to being the Artistic Director and the driving force behind the world-renowned Celtic Colours International Festival and the Chair of the Nova Scotia Arts and Culture Partnership Council, Joella is also an artist, a leader, and a family-woman. She will discuss what inspires her to preserve our cultural heritage and continually give back to our community.
Also speaking will be Dr. Richard MacKinnon, CBU Professor of Folklore and Canada Research Chair in Intangible Culture. Dr. MacKinnon is passionate about all aspects of the cultural heritage of Cape Breton Island and has been researching, writing about and teaching it for more than twenty years. His recently released book Discovering Cape Breton Folklore discusses a variety of topics including chapters on local folksong, piano styles, architecture, humourous nicknames and the Cooperative Movement in Tompkinsville.
Musical entertainer for the evening, songstress Billie Yvette Rogers, describes herself as being, “a tad weird, very loving, minimalistic, and a deep-minded individual”. Yvette’s passions include dance, visual art, social development, culture, and Cape Breton Island. She works as the Outreach Coordinator for the Celtic Colours International Festival and sits on the Board of Directors for the Cape Breton Stage Company and the Transition House Foundation.
The format for the event generally goes as follows:
- One or two community members offer a short presentation about an interesting project they are working on.
- The musical entertainer follows, performing and discussing her art form, and the meaning behind the songs.
- Next is the keynote speaker who conveys their life’s passion, what inspires them to do what they love to do, and why.
- A lively question and answer session generally ensues and conversation then spills over to the final portion of the evening where the guest speakers and audience are invited to continue the dialogue in a more informal manner at a local venue.
Attendees are asked to bring a friend, a smile, and your favourite mug to fill with complimentary organic, fair trade coffee or tea.
