New Show Announced: She’s Listening!
You heard it here, folks! She’s Listening at the Beaver! Are yoooooou? đ Hope to see you in the new year! Join Kristine St-Pierre, Heather Hill, Jessica Speziale and Angela Saini and me at The Flying Beaver Pubaret as we once again raise some funds for Ovarian Cancer Canada– this time flying high at the Flying Beaver in Toronto! Come have some amazing food and fun-loving fundraising entertainment all rolled into one evening extravaganza! Ya! đ
Freeing People From Concern: Jim Carrey
At the ass-crack of dawn this morn I listened to Jim Carrey’s speech to the 2014 graduating class of Maharishi University of Management and gleaned from it the wise tidbits mulled below. You may have seen the speech or portions thereof by now. I think itâs worth another viewing!
I strive in my life to optimize the affect I have on others. I wish for everyone around me to laugh, to dance, to dream, to feel loved and to feel confident, to take risks and to empower themselves and others into optimistic drive. Like Jim Carrey, I desire to âfree people from concernâ in the moment I’m with them. I wish for people to be critically aware that we indeed only have this moment we’re in, and that our entire lives are made up of these moments. This moment is all we have, and in each moment we make a choice to either be asleep at the wheel of our own lives or to dream and steer our lives on the course of our purpose. What is your purpose? Stop and listen and it will become clear what talent you have to share that affects others in a profound and positive way. It is what feels so good you can almost taste it like the sweet morsel at the end of a satisfying meal with your favourite companions. We were not put on this earth to play small, or to choose fear disguised as practicality. We were born to shine our lights and to encourage those around us to do so. Only then will we be free of the darkness.
I am fortunate to surround myself with likeminded souls who are talented, kind, creative, generous and courageous, and I was so pleased to be involved with four and more of them to help raise funds for Ovarian Cancer Canada last week with She’s Listening II. I am very grateful to my dear friends and forces Angela Saini, Jessica Speziale, Heather Hill, and Melanie Peterson for shining their lights with me and to Delrose for capturing the splendour of sight and sound! Check out Delroseâs recap of She’s Listening II here!
And speaking of Delrose and empowering, you can check her out tonight along with Iman Wain and Noah Solomon at the WonderFest Music Series! Thank you to Arlene Paculan for keeping lit our  ever-growing WonderFest community empowering through art!
What a beautiful world! Get out there and shine your light, everybuddy!
Love Kat xo
She’s Listening II success: funds raised for Ovarian Cancer Canada!
She’s Listening II was a great success last week; they listened and we raised applause and funds for Ovarian Cancer Canada.Â
Thank you to my wonderful co-horts and beautiful friends (from left to right) Angela Saini, Jessica Spezziale, Heather Hill, Melanie Peterson
Photography: Cate McKim
And thank you to Life With More Cowbell for this recap of the show!
What exactly does Ovarian Cancer Canada do?
Ovarian Cancer Canada is the only registered Canadian charity solely dedicated to overcoming ovarian cancer. They provide leadership by:
- Supporting women living with the disease and their families
- Raising awareness among the general public and health care professionals
- Funding research to develop early detection techniques, improved treatments and, ultimately, a cure.
Ovarian Cancer Canada is funded by donations of the generous public and they could use your support. If you’d like to help, there are many ways to get involved; check them out here.  Among the ways: you can donate directly, volunteer, create an event such as She’s Listening, participate in a hike, dance or walk.  The annual Ovarian Cancer Walk of Hope happens this year Sunday September 7th in cities all across Canada. Find one near you and register on the website.
Keeping giving, everybuddy!
Let’s fill the world with kindness and hope.
love Kat xoxox
She’s Listening II!
She’s Listening, and so is The Harlton Empire! They mentioned us in their blog!
The Harlton Empire promotes creative works by independent artists in the arts/entertainment industry and you should definitely check them out; learn about what’s going on in the community and make contact if you’re a lover of the arts!
Also you should definitely come check out She’s Listening II this Wed June 4 at 8pm at The Cameron House Toronto!
Yippee!
xoxox
Come! She’s Listening II June 4, 2014
She’s Listening II happens Thursday June 4 at Cameron House in Toronto!
Experience Angela Saini, Jessica Speziale, Heather Hill, Melanie Peterson and moi!Â
Ovarian Cancer Canada and the lives it improves could use your help! Please spread the word! Read more about ovarian cancer and the risks due to do lack of symptoms here on Heather Hill’s post Knowledge Is Power. Please help RAISE AWARENESS and RAISE FUNDS! Hope to see you at the event but if you can’t make it please support from afar! Thank you!
Upcoming Events: Sunday May 25: Climb For Cause
I am very proud to be a part of this fundraiser! I’ll be hosting and singing a couple ditties!
Tom Gancarz is on a mission to raise funds to provide clean water in Tanzaniaâs community, and heâs doing it in a unique and elevating way! Please check out the story here, connect and support any way you can! Climb For Cause
“THE WORLD IS A BOOK AND THOSE WHO STAY AT HOME READ ONLY ONE PAGE.”
WonderFest Report-Day 1!
WONDERFEST IS HERE!
What a wonderful kickoff!
WonderFest Day 1 was a huge ball of fun and success! Â It started out with Arlene and I interviewing and performing on Rogers Daytime Peel! Arlene and I both wore turquoise– and we didn’t even plan it! Â Sonia our host wore boots to match us– again not even planned! Â We were meant to be on Daytime on this day to spread empowerment through art as well as hues of blue! đ
Yukking it up with Sonia Sache on Daytime Peel!
Yes, that’s empowerment being spread by those gyrations!
Even my socks and the rim on Arlene’s boots matched the Daytime set! I mean, come on! Â What a wonder! đ Â You can watch our video segment here: Kat & Arlene on DayTime!
In the evening we headed to The Central for the first free workshop of the week: Business Planning for Artists with Heather Hill! We had an intimate group of lovely attendees! Â Heather Hill is an easygoing and compelling workshop leader with engaging personal anecdotes and effective tangible knowledge to share. The tools and advice shared by Heather is applicable to all business types, and the information was soaked up by the mix of musicians, filmmakers, massage therapists and producers alike!
With our fearless and funny leader Heather Hill!
Alissa Vox Raw (L), Ty Hyland, Lisa Sciannella, Christine Battiston, Angela Saini (centre)
I couldn’t be more proud to be part of such a great evening and start to a wonderful week of wonderment at WonderFest! We still have 3 more free workshops and 2 concerts to celebrate during WonderFest!
Tonight we meet at The Central again for a night of collaboration and open mic performances! Sign up is at 7pm. Â Hope to see you there!
Happy WonderFesting, everyone! Â May you always feel empowered to make all your dreams come true!
For full details on WonderFest’s events, visit: www.WonderWomenWorld.tumblr.com
love KAT
What does empowerment mean to you? Â What word can describe it for you? Â Freedom? Â Choice? Â Doritos?
Help us spread empowerment through art one word at a time!!! Pick a word, and take a picture with it in as creative a manner as you like! Spread your word! Â Here’s how! xoox
Meghan Morrison: A Force of Love
-photo by Lizzie Violet
Meghan Morrison at Velvet Underground Canadian Music Week
This week pulsed with remarkable moments, and many of those moments were made extraordinary because they involved Meghan Morrison. Meghan Morrison is a force of love. I adore her. I challenge any live being (big or small, furry or bipedal) to spend any amount of time in her company and not adore her. She is the light in a dark cave, she is the first giggle you hear after being submerged in the humdrumity of daily life, and she is the sweet gentle breeze that cradles and invigorates you.
My first Meghan Morrison event this week was co-hosting her cyber jam webcast. Featured this week were Angela Saini (CD release April 4th at The Drake!) and Supertash! I could gush for pages on how much fun I had with these fireballs and how wonderful I think they are, but I think you should go to their websites and find out for yourself! It is always a blast to tune in to the webcast and participate in the chatroom. I encourage you to check out the next live webcast and also peruse the archives for a plethora of unique and inspiring local artists! This is Meghanâs glorious website: www.meghanmorrisonmusic.com
My second Meghan Morrison event this week was her performance at Velvet Underground for CMW (Canadian Music Week). Her set was enlightening in a rock-and-lightning kind of way.  Her music is groovy and ethereal. Her voice is uplifting and haunting. Her presence and passion gave me heartrush and goose bumps! Itâs fitting that the title of her album released last fall, Lark, is a conjunction of the words Light and Dark. It makes so much sense! And you can feel the love and enjoyment emanating from the stage off of each band member; a palpable force of love with Meghan Morrison at the vortex. They are all amazing.
-photo by Lizzie Violet
Kelly Lefaive,Stuart Everitt, Meghan Morrison, Evan LeBlanc
Meghan also made cupcakes for the entire room. I had two, âcause there was one dude at the bar who didnât look like heâd have a cupcake while drinking beer. This is one of my favourite Meghan Morrison songs, Hush. I hope to do a cover of it one day! LifeWithMoreCowbell was also a big part of the fun– as always, enhancing everything with her involvement.
-Jessica Speziale, Kat Leonard, Lily Cheng, Debra Alexander, Heather Hill, Lucy LeBlanc, Champagne Charlie
CMW brought me much joy time with many friends (new and already cherished). I feel blessed and am already looking forward to next year! One of the brightest highlights of CMW for me was partying with Seymour Stein! He signed The Pretenders, The Ramones, Talking Heads, and is the founder of Sire Records and– Oh, yeah, THAT Seymour Stein who signed Madonna!!!!! To put the importance of this to me into perspective for you: Christians have Jesus and I have Madonna. I wouldnât be the person I am today without her existence, her example of innovation, balls and dance grooves. You cannot imagine the rate at which my heart pumped when I heard the words, âSeymour Stein is sitting in the corner right there.â Oh Em Gee! Okay, so I didnât actually PARTY with Seymour. Okay, okay, he may not have actually been aware that I was THERE. But this Kat was at a wee private hotel room party at which Seymour Stein sat in a chair listening to the same intimate acoustic set I was listening to. And I did escort him to his room afterward. Okay, okay, so he didnât actually KNOW I was escorting him⌠but I did. I followed him out and meandered with stealth amongst the human clamour he undoubtedly endures most everywhere he goes. And I got a blurry picture of him from behind and faraway and I will cherish this photo by myself.  Because thatâs the kind of stalker I am.
What a week! Now letâs start the next one!
Hope you enjoy yours!
KAT LEONARD 