Playlist Storytellers

We have this theory that every song has two lives — the one before a song is released and the one after. The first life is the story of the artist and why they decided to write the song. The second life is all about how the song shows up in our lives and what role it played for us.

​​​Playlist Storytellers is a live show that explores the second life of songs.

Over the past two months we’ve found four people with amazing true stories about a song that changed their life. You’ll hear the stories and then we’ll all listen to the song after.

​​​Four storytellers. Four stories. Four songs.

​​​​​”It doesn’t matter what a song is about, what matters is what it means to us. We never forget the songs that made us feel something”

Gavin Sheppard — @gavatista

• Gavin is an innovative cultural entrepreneur who uses art and music as tools for youth inclusion and economic growth. In 1999, he co-founded The Remix Project which has been an important creative incubator ever since.

Dae The Poet — @daethepoet

• Dae is a multi-hyphenated artist of Jamaican and Bajan descent, born and raised In Toronto, Canada. The actor-dancer-poet-singer has been mentored through the Ada slaight foundation by artists such as Mustafa the Poet.

Christel Bartelse — @cbartelse

• Christel is a Toronto-based performer, director, and teacher who trained extensively in acting, comedy, improv, and Pochinko clown, earning multiple Canadian Comedy Award nominations for her acclaimed solo shows performed at festivals across Canada, the US, and UK.

Zak Jones — @zakjones

• Zak is the author of Fancy Gap, a dual Canadian-American writer, literary scholar, and US Army veteran who grew up between rural North Carolina and Toronto, winning the 2023 Bronwen Wallace Award and the 2023 Norma Epstein National Award for his short stories. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate studying veterans’ narratives in American Literature.