Tag Archives: Wonderfest

New Show Announced: WonderThanks! 

By Kat Leonard on | Leave a comment


WonderThanks: Everything Goes! 

Because everything comes to an end and everything is accepted!
Let’s give a beautiful thankful send-off to The Central for hosting the arts and for helping to build an engaging loving inspiring community all these years! Come out to perform! Come out to hang! Join cozy friends! Meet new friends! Everything Goes! Bring what you will! 
Music, comedy, stories, dance, poetry, jam! Let’s raise our voices in thanks!

Please go to the FB event to sign up if you’d like to perform! 😀

Posted in: performance, WonderFest | Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

WonderFest Panel&Play May 1/16

By Kat Leonard on | Leave a comment

Let’s Make Good Productions’ inaugural WonderFest Panel & Play happened last night at The Painted Lady in Toronto. And it was awesome! Who played along? These guys:

Tony Roost @OneFireMovement
Marc Anthony Sinagoga Insta/Twitter: @notmarcanthony
Signe Miranda Signe Miranda’s Veranda
Dagmar Morgan

Panelists speaking on following your dream and making it happen through DIY careers: Signe Miranda, Tony Roost, Dagmar Morgan, Marc Anthony Sinagoga; facilitator Kat Leonard. The panelists had some insights on the struggles and benefits of doing it yourself.

My takeaways:  It’s not really Do It Yourself. It’s really about finding a community of like-minded individuals who can help and encourage one another. The resources are out there and if your passion is strong enough, you will find a way. The panelists were open and inspiring, funny and endearing. I would love to tell you I could share it with you in our podcast. But as this Do It Yourselfer has learned… I need to delegate the technicals to a technophile. I effed the recording up by pressing one too many buttons. Usually I’m so good at pushing buttons. My deep apologies to all. The Panel & Play Podcast will be live and well very soon! Please stay tuned! In the meantime, please enjoy these still pictures as  a flavour slice of the evening that was… an evening of insights and laughter and community building. More than one strong connection of friendship and future collaboration was made tonight, and that’s what this is about. 🙂

Hosts Arlene Paculan and Kat Leonard. That’s us opening up the performance part of the night!  🙂 Then we performed Jockstrap.

so ir

Comedian Marc Anthony Sinagoga

Marc is a storytelling comic, which I LOVE! He is personable and likeable, funny and open, regaling us with stories from his life with just enough dirt!

Open Micer Chris Veldhoven with Peaches

Chris regaled us of a tale of shepherds and peaches… in the dirtiest of ways. With a sparkly giggle, writer and performer Chris takes it to the spicy side and you like it!

Open Micer Harrison Fine

Producer Harrison Fine of Fine Productions is also a brilliant songwriter and performer. His acoustic bit was beautiful.

Musician Signe Miranda

Signe; musician, author and coach– she exudes such a humble and enthusiastic light. You want to be her friend and have her serenade you with her lovely strumming and honest lyrics. Love.

Open Micer Linda Wallace

Musician Linda Wallace is getting ready to pounce upon the world and she gave us such a wicked taste of what’s to come! Her voice is chilling and her musical storytelling a scene you feel a part of.

spoken Spoken Word artist Dagmar Morgan

Slam Poet champion, writer and motivational entertainer Dagmar took us to emotional levels high and low with her poignant words and epic performance. Totally engaging you can’t take your attention away from her. I can’t wait to see more from her!

Host, producer and musician Arlene Paculan

As always, Arlene Paculan soothes and invigorates us with her silky voice and unique musical expression. Arlene closed the show and topped off a glorious evening!

Stay tuned for more episodes of Panel & Play and the podcast (I swear I’ll make it work)!
If you would like to participate as a panellist or performer, or have ideas for topics you would like to see covered, please email LetsMakeGoodMail[at]gmail.com or visit Let’s Make Good Production’s Facebook page.

Let’s Make Good Productions
Twitter/Insta@LMGProductions

Arlene Paculan
Twitter: @arlene_paculan Insta: @ourleanpea

Kat Leonard
Twitter/Insta: @katbandoo

#SpreadingEmpowermentThroughArt! 🙂

Posted in: interview, performance, WonderFest | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

Call For Artists: WonderFest West

By Kat Leonard on | Leave a comment

wonderfest

***CURRENT OPEN CALL***

Call for Artists! WonderFest-West happens Saturday June 4th , 2016 at Clarke Hall in Mississauga! We invite Mississauga local artists of all mediums to submit! ‪‬

Submissions forms are here:https://fs3.formsite.com/LMGProductions/form1/index.html

***

For updates and details on current shows see Let’s Make Good Productions Facebook page!

To participate as an artist of any type, workshop leader, sponsor, participant, audience member and/or friend, connect on FB, email letsmakegoodmail@gmail.com, or submit here: https://fs3.formsite.com/LMGProductions/form1/index.html

Empowerment through art, everybuddy!
🙂

 

Posted in: Uncategorized, WonderFest | Tagged: , , ,

WonderFest TV Premiere!

By Kat Leonard on | 3 Comments

WonderFest TV:
Spreading Empowerment Through You and To You!

Yahoo! We here at Let’s Make Good Productions are so pleased and proud to announce the world premiere of WonderFest TV September 1st 2015 on Rogers TV Peel! 

(THAT’S TOMORROW!!!!)

WFTV promo

What is WonderFest TV?

WonderFest TV is an extension of Let’s Make Good Productions’ live events that encourage participants and audience alike to nurture creativity and confidence in art and everyday life. WonderFest TV showcases and celebrates various Wonder Women and Super Men who are in pursuit of a positive lifestyle as we explore topics of music, visual art, literature, spoken word, healthy self-esteem, fitness, nutrition, mental health, goal setting, business planning, finance and more. WonderFest TV is an entertaining launching pad to discuss ideas and illuminate resources that may inspire and enable viewers to educate themselves and take action toward their dreams and living their best life.

WonderFest TV with hosts, Kat Leonard Music & Arlene Paculan airs on Rogers TV Peel!

AIR DATES!
Tuesdays starting Sept 1 @ 11:30pm!
Repeat times each week:
Wed @ 7:30 PM
Wed @ 3:30 PM
Sat @ 3:30 PM
Sun @ 9:00 PM

If you are in the Mississauga Peel area you can watch us on Rogers TV! If not, we should have an online link for you soon!

All the best, everybuddy!

🙂

Posted in: WonderFest | Tagged: , , , ,

New Show Announced: August 21st Wonder Women at Hirut

By Kat Leonard on | Leave a comment

aaaawwwwwfrihirut

Let’s Make Good Productions presents Arlene Paculan & Wonder Women at Hirut Restaurant
2050 Danforth Avenue Toronto– just west of Woodbine subway station.

Friday August 21st 2015 Doors 7pm Music 8pm 
PWYC (Suggested $10)

Wonder Women of Music are:
Kat & The MP3 (Hey, that’s me! ;p)
Meghan Morrison
Catherine M. Thompson

Wonder Woman of Artwork is:
Joylyn Chai

Hope to see you there, everybuddy!

🙂

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People Profile: Heather Babcock!

By Kat Leonard on | 1 Comment

Meet Heather Babcock: Writer and Delighter!

Heather Babcock
Heather is a gorgeous ray of sugar and spice from the inside out. Smart, sassy and sweet in a delicious combination, she delights onstage and off. I am so grateful to experience her in both settings. 🙂
From her blog where she is Writing To Exhale… (brilliant!)…
Heather Babcock’s maternal grandmother worked as a housekeeper for Timothy Findley’s family in the 1950s. Heather continues the working class/literary connection by working as a secretary by day and penning her poetry and prose by night. She has had short fiction published in Descant Magazine, Front&Centre Magazine, The Toronto Quarterly, Truck, The Annex Echo newspaper and the Steel Bananas anthology GULCH (published by Tightrope Books in Toronto, 2009) among others. In 2014, Heather Babcock was one of The Toronto Quarterly’s featured poets as part of their Poetry Month celebration. Heather has performed at the Beautiful and the Damned, the Plasticine Poetry series and Lizzie Violet’s Cabaret Noir.
Heather answers…
What is your career? Is it the same as your passion?  What is your passion? 
I always say that writing is not what I do to pay the bills, but it is what I do to make my living. I am lucky that I have a great day job that allows me to focus on my career and my passion: writing.

What are the greatest challenges and greatest rewards of your career? 

When I first started writing, probably the biggest challenge was finding my voice and then, in terms of publishing, finding the right outlets for my voice.  The greatest reward – for any writer I would imagine – is seeing your work in print for the first time. Betty Smith perfectly captured that feeling – one of excitement mixed with pride – in her novel A Tree Grows In Brooklyn when the main character, Francie, publishes a story in the school magazine. Francie shows the story to her mother Katie who tells her that there will be other published stories and that eventually Francie will “get used to it.”  Well, I’ve had a number of stories published myself now and I hope that I’ll never “get used to it.” 🙂
What is your advice to others embarking on similar career?

Toronto has a lot of amazing spoken word, poetry and art events.  I’ve met so many incredible, supportive and encouraging artists through these events.  Often a spoken word or poetry show will have an open mic. Open mics are a great way to “workshop” your writing – what connected with the audience? What didn’t? Everyone’s shy at first but the audiences that I’ve encountered have always been kind and encouraging.

What does it mean to be an artist?

The ability to see beauty where others may not even bother to look. A love for the unlovable. All of the artists that I admire, from writers Toni Morrison and Hubert Selby Jr., musician Paul Simon and painter William Kurelek, display a strong sense of empathy in their work.

5 years ago, did you expect to be where you are today? Why, why not?

5 years ago I read Helen Potrebenko’s 1975 novel Taxi!  Being a working class woman, I could instantly relate to the main character and her experiences as a working class woman.  I admired how Potrebenko unabashedly wrote about class struggle and I realized that I too wanted to incorporate my own experiences as a working class person into my writing.
So 5 years ago was when I started to discover my own voice as a writer.  Since then I’ve had my work published in many different literary journals, featured as a reader at events such as Lizzie Violet’s Cabaret Noir and will have a chapbook, a collection of my short stories, published by DevilHousePress this Spring.

Where will you be in 5 years?

I am currently working on a novel and I hope to have it finished and published by then.
What would you say to your 8-year-old self?

When I was 8, I took the bus to school every day. The bus driver was a tiny woman with a short temper and a nicotine infused voice. She’d constantly yell obscenities at any driver, or kid for that matter, who got in her way. Although I had no idea what they meant, I was fascinated by the passion of her words and incorporated them into my own vocabulary.  I was frequently sent to the principal’s office much to the dismay of my parents who, funnily enough, didn’t know what half the swear words I used meant either.  So if I could go back in time and visit my 8-year-old self, I’d hand her a thesaurus and tell her to find some new ways to express herself.

What would you say to your 80-year-old self?

I would hope that my 80-year-old self wouldn’t be able to hear whatever I would say over the crashing of the waves outside of the cottage that she lives – and writes – in. 🙂
How lucky are you and why?

I don’t know if I would call myself lucky but I am very thankful for the wonderful people that I have in my life.

What would people be surprised to know about you?

Perhaps that I’m very shy.  I can get up on stage and confidently recite the most personal story in front of an audience and yet I’ll hide in the washroom at parties to avoid small talk.
What makes you laugh? What is fun for you?

My cat makes me laugh. She’s hilarious. The best kind of fun for me is just doing nothing with someone you love.

What makes you question humanity?

Deliberate cruelty.  As Tennessee Williams wrote in A Streetcar Named Desire “Some things are not forgivable. Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable.”

Life is so fragile. Human beings are so fragile. We just need to be kind to each other.
What is your favorite quote?

Can I use one of my own?: “‘Working class’ should not be synonymous with ‘poverty’.”
Is there anything else you’re involved in that you’d like to plug or point our attention to? 

I will be performing with Lizzie Violet, Arlene Paculan and Dottie Dangerfield at The Redhead Revue on Saturday, March 21st at Habits Gastropub.  The show – a mix of burlesque, spoken word, poetry and music – will start at 9pm.
Please provide one of your favorite pictures of yourself and a link to something you are particularly proud of being involved in… and/or…. Something originating from someone else that you find particularly inspiring/empowering.
The photo I’ve attached is one that John Oughton took of me at the first Redhead Revue in September 2014.

I’d like to give a shout out to Bereaved Families of Ontario, a donor supported organization that provides free support programs to those who have lost a family member.  When I lost my father and my sister, the mutual support groups at BFO were a safe and supportive space; one where my grief was both acknowledged and respected. I may have been alone in my personal grief but with BFO-Toronto, I was not alone on my grief journey. Their website is: www.bfotoronto.ca
____________________________________________________________________________________
Don’t forget to check out more Heather on her blog HeatherRoseBabcock.tumblr.com
And you can see her live at WonderFest 2015
Thursday March 5 at 3030 Dundas Street West
7:00 Doors 8:00 Show $10
WonderFest2015Poster
Have a glorious day, everybuddy!
🙂

 

Posted in: artist, interview | Tagged: , ,

NEW SHOW ANNOUNCED: WonderFest 2015!

By Kat Leonard on | 1 Comment

WonderFest2015Poster

Let’s Make Good Productions presents WONDERFEST!

To celebrate International Women’s Day we’re rounding up Wonder Women and Super Men to celebrate by spreading empowerment through art!

This WONDERFEST will showcase many artists such as singer-songwriters, spoken word/poets, story tellers, comedians, visual artists and motivational speakers!

3030 Dundas West
Doors open at 7pm
Show starts at 8pm
$10 at the door


We hope you can come out and be inspired to create by seeing all the incredible artists showcased at WonderFest!

Details on artists to come! WonderWomenWorld.tumblr.com

Find our Facebook event here! 

🙂

Posted in: art, inspiration | Tagged: , , , , , ,

NEW SHOW ANNOUNCED! WonderFest Comedy Series

By Kat Leonard on | 1 Comment

wonderfestcomedy

 

HABITS GASTROPUB
1928 College Street, Toronto 

Thursday February 6, 2015
Doors 8:30pm $PWYC (Suggested $10)

Let’s Make Good Productions presents:


Tracy Hamilton
Azfar Ali @azfarsays
Jhanelle Dennis @JhanelleDennis

Kat Leonard & The MP3 (That’s me, eh!)  @Katbandoo

____________________________________________________________________________________
Check us out, yo! Hope to see you there! 🙂 xo

 

Posted in: comedy, performance | Tagged: , , , , ,

New Show announced!

By Kat Leonard on | Leave a comment

Hear ye hear ye! We are two weeks away!

afix

Fri August 29, 2014: Musedy Tag Team, Rando Bando, Kat & The Mp3 at The Black Swan Toronto

 

Musedy Tag Team (Kat & Arlene)

Rando Bando
(An eclectic assortment of comedic performers who delight and offend in relatively equal measure!)

Kat & The Mp3! (That’s me!)

Please join us for a night  full of Music Comedy! We’re also gonna do some musical improv and YOU could be a part of the action!
Suweeeet! Come one, come all!

WHERE: The Black Swan – 154 Danforth Avenue, Toronto-3rd floor
WHEN: Friday August 29, 2014; Doors 8:30 Show 9:00
HOW: Pay What You Can (Suggested $10)

FACEBOOK EVENT LINK

Posted in: comedy, Music, WonderFest | Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Freeing People From Concern: Jim Carrey

By Kat Leonard on | 1 Comment

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 it’s worth another viewing!

ajim

 

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 “free people from concern” 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.

she's listen

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 Delrose’s 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!

awonderfestdelrose

What a beautiful world! Get out there and shine your light, everybuddy!

Love Kat xo

 

 

 

 

Posted in: inspiration, Music | Tagged: , , , , , ,
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