Edmonton Art Council, AC Awards Artist of the Year 2019 Nominees

IBRAHIM KABBA AKA ZOEZOE2FRESH SIGN WITH RAXXONRAXX RECORD, HE WAS BORN IN SIERRA LEONE

MOVE TO CANADA WHEN HE WAS A BABY.. HE DOES AFROBEAT, HIPHOP/ R&B AND MORE, HE HAS OPENED UP FOR DAVIDO/ 2FACE/ SPICE/ DAMARCO AND MORE, HIS DOING CANADA TOUR RIGHT NOW AND NEXT YEAR HIS GANA BE DOING EUROPE TOUR UNITED STATE TOUR AND JAMAICA.

Tabitha Nyaziel

One of the expensive gift you can share with someone is your time.  Time is one of the many things I have been giving my community. Most of the time I don’t have positions to act upon but a caring heart that sees the needs. Now though, I’m currently volunteering as a youth leader in the Edmonton area.  On the 3^rd of August, we held our very first youth celebration. We honored our youths in their educational journeys. But first we took them back to their roots by teaching them our cultural dances. The practices we did took us almost four months.  I’m now finding ways to officially open a center for our youths so that this amazing work carries on.   We also had been fortunate enough to be part of Africanival. Our youths shared the stage with many other backgrounds.  

A part from community, I also serve at our church.

Here are few things I’m still involved in.

I have been the chair leader for the Nuer Sunday school at Grace Lutheran Church in Edmonton.

I have been the lead coordinator of Sunday school between English and Nuer services.

I have been the leading bible study teacher for children in Nuer service.

I’m currently acting as the head of education/communication. This position helps with bridging the two services together and work together.

Apart from all of that, I’m a mother of two beautiful girls. I’m student currently at Concordia University. I’m pursuing a four year bachelor degree in the field of psychology. I’m also a professional driver. I drive students from home and safely to school. And I love to write songs and sing them.

Dennis Lissa

Dennis came to Alberta in 2004. He first landed in Calgary and later moved to Edmonton AB. As a new immigrant, he also worked in a number of fields before he finally settled in his current job as an operational Analyst with the government of Alberta. In a time as busy as ours, it is natural to think that having one career and perhaps being an Oiler’s fan should be more than enough; but this is not true for Dennis Lissa! Dennis is a man of many talents and interests: a musician, a writer, an academician, and a teacher. Dennis ‘passion for music is no surprise. He comes from a musical family. He was taught to play Guitar by his elder brother at an early age. Later, he picked up guitar, kalimbo, and recently keyboard. Dennis enjoys varieties of Music and he is obsessed with Ethno-musicology.

He loves to know about spiritual dimension of music; and how it shapes the culture. In academia, Dennis also enjoys a wide spectrum of interests. He is a trained economist, an accountant, and a teacher Dennis has accomplished a number of things on his music bucket list. Dennis oversees Sudanese Arts foundation of Alberta – SAFA and teaches music at Multicultural Center for immigrants. According to him, he aspires to bring artistic sides of immigrant’s youth to the spotlight. When asked about the reason for his involvement with the youth, he said, “I do it for fun, exercise, and partially for spiritual reasons”. He has participated in numerous concerts and festivals around Alberta with his organization –including Africarnival and Black history month. Although it seems like Dennis has accomplished a lot with his passion, he has more items on his bucket list to complete. Dennis would like to put on a Drama play that portray lives of Sudanese in diaspora and he would like to write a novel depicting lives of immigrant youth in Alberta.

The most interesting things we learned about Dennis was that if he didn’t need a paycheck, his choice of dream job would be a music producer, writer, and teacher. He still dreams of bringing African music to forefront and rocking Albertan with his cool Rumba guitar riffs. Only Dennis can explain what music can do when it is imprinted in your DNA! We learned Dennis Lissa is an interesting person with many talents and skills, and above all, he has a respectful approach to how he walks through this world and interacts with people in his community and life.

Dhahab warren

If you are wondering who will be the upcoming Edmontonian artist, Dhahab warren can confidently be counted as one. Dhahab started as a dancer in both school and church at the tender age. Later he joined the school choir. Dhahab’s love for music is not a surprise. She comes from musical family. In her family children sing before they start talking. In the last two years, Dhahab has been very active in music scenes around Alberta. She did participate in Africarnival and Anti/racism concert. No doubt Dhahab’s name is on stardom raw!

Herman Sombo 

Hermann Sombo is a French Ivoiro-Canadian rapper, singer and songwriter. Hermann is passionate and grew up in Ivory Coast in a musical environment. He started HIP HOP at the age of 14 as a dancer for popular Ivory Coast Rappers and started to sing and write his own music’s texts at the age of 17.

Hermann is currently living and working as Electrical Engineering and Technologist in Edmonton. Canada, but still singing in different festivals, events and keep working on music projects.

Hermann performed in different Edmonton events such as: Africanival, MiniVariotoscop and the French community festivals.

Hermann is the producer and also an active member of the music band: Loin De L’Autre.

The band managed to release a first album in 2015

In 2019, The band changed their name to Suprême KDH and the band is preparing to release a new album in 2020.