UNITY FESTIVAL
Operating since 2007, Unity is an organization that uses dance, spoken word, live music, DJ’ing, and graffiti-based art forms to improve the lives of young Black, POC, Queer, and Indigenous youth giving them an artistic platform for professional and artistic development.
The UNITY FESTIVAL is a four day city-wide event that is the organization’s most important community initiative taking place at highly visible and accessible venues across the downtown Toronto core.
While past years were dedicated to primarily rap, breakdance, and graffiti art forms, I expanding Unity’s traditional hip hop arts programming to showcase new dance forms, interntaional music, original short film work and projection installations, exposing on average 300 emerging artists annually to over 5000 new and existing audience members.
This role relied heavily on maintaining relationships with other multi-disciplinary non-profit organizations such as Manifesto, Artscape, Art Starts, Vibe Arts, R.I.S.E. The Remix Project, Black Owned Unity, and recognized institutions like Redbull, TIFF, CMW, & NXNE.
Forging close bonds with these groups was essential to successfully manage large-scale events in established locations like Dundas Square, David Peacut Square, Nathan Phillips Square, and Underpass Park.
As the lead event and promotions coordinator, I used a wide range of mass media, social media networking, advertising, and public relations to promote continued growth and sustainability of awareness with the public, sponsors, and community partners.
EVENT COORDINATION
GRAPHIC DESIGN
VIDEO EDITING
UNITY FEST 2016
2016 Festival Recap Video Shot By Abid Virani. Editing And Titles By Andrew Gavin Hicks 
The 2016 festival kicked off on Wednesday July 20th with an opening celebration at the Super Wonder Gallery featuring artwork by some of Toronto’s most prolific artists, anlongside music and dance performances. Polaris prize winner Lido Pimienta headlined the event in addition to drum-talk poet Mahlikah Aweri, R&B singer Adria Kain and the dance crew The Moonrunners.
In partnership with R.I.S.E., day two showcased Toronto youth practising emcee’ing and Spoken Word. Artists were encouraged to share their stories of success, struggle and and survival through word and song. Award winning founding member of R.I.S.E., Randell Adjei headlined the show alongside R&B singer Amalia Mamalia, and respected Afrohouse legend Rahan Boxley from San Fransisco.
On the third day at Super Wonder Gallery, we combined Unity’s signature dance event with the beatbox exhibition. and for the grand finale, Unity once again hosted a free outdoor concert at Yonge-Dundas Square, featuring a live graffiti wall and a projection of Howie Shia’s film Bam: a co-presentation with the NFB. Los Angelas native and purveyor of all things funk, Dam Funk headlined the live performances alongside Toronto favourites Zaki Ibrahim, The Soul Motivators, Sacha Williamson, and Above Top Secret.
Through Facebook And Instagram Campaigns, We Reached Over 9000 Facebook And 3500 Instagram Users. A 2500 Ten-Page Booklet Was Distributed To All After School Drop-in Programs, Local Music Festivals, and Culturally Related Events Throughout The Greater Toronto Area.
UNITY FEST 2017
In 2017 I expanded Unity’s presence inside the Bloor-Mirvish Village area at David Pecaut Square, home to both Toronto Fashion Week and The Luminato Festival, Underpass Park (a new urban space inside the Waterfront/Corktown Corridor), and Geary Lane (a part of Dovercourt Village area).
Partnering with Vibe Arts and Sketch we started the 2017 festival with the Spoken Word exhibition at Gerald Lane, a new Toronto hub for culture and creativity who’s aim is to build a strong bond with a diverse community of local creatives. Instead of hosting an art show, Unity’s lead graffiti artists spent several days painting a large mural the entire length of the venue that served as the visual backdrop for the event.
On Day Two we were very excited to host the annual Dance & Beatbox exhibition at Underpass Park. We were one of the first institutions to hold a major event in one of the most extensive parks ever built under an overpass in Canada, and the first ever in Toronto.
For our free outdoor concert showcase we relocated to David Pecaut Square to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the legendary hip-hop group Main Source’s album “Breaking Atoms”. Both Large Professor and K-Cut played before an audience of over 5000 attendees alongside newcomers ToBi, Los Poetas, The Sorority, Jayd Ink and Ebhoni.
3000 8-Page Booklets Were Distributed At Several Festival and Concert Events. 3 Paid Facebook Event Listings Reached Over 8500 Accounts With 2200 Event Views And 1000 Post Engagements. On Instagram, 53 individual Artist Posts Were Created With An Average Of 1000 Impressions Per Post.
UNITY FEST 2018
In 2018, I went to great lengths to partner with more artist organizations who do the same work work as Unity. These partnerships included Manifesto, Black Canvas, The Remix Project, Black Owned Unity, Redbull Canada, & Artscape .We also focused heavily on bringing our events into communities and spaces where our youth audiences live and practise their art.
Once again the festival started with a visual art exhibition alongside the spoken word show inside the former Margins of Era Gallery, a multidisciplinary arts space dedicated to showcasing the work of new generational artists who live and work on the margins. On day two we returned to Underpass Park for the annual Dance and Beatbox exhibition highlighting not only breaking and hip-hop dance but also hustle, dancehall, house, wacking, and popping.
Instead of hosting our free outdoor concert inside one of Toronto’s outdoor performance spaces, we took over the entire venue inside and around Artscape Daniels Spectrum: a community cultural hub in Toronto’s Regent Park, home to many outstanding arts-based and community focused organizations.
Between 3 PM - 8 PM we hosted a number of workshops on dance, spoken word, beatbox, and graffiti while Black Owned Unity curated a marketplace with local back-owned clothing, jewellery, and food vendors. At night we focused on our first 19+ event with live performances by local Toronto favourites Zaki Ibrahim, Witch Prophet, Just John, The Sorority, Adria Kain, and one of my personal favourites, beatmaker and producer Monte Booker from Chicago.
2018 Festival Video Shot By Anthony Gebrehiwot. Editing and Titles By Andrew Gavin Hicks 
5000 Double-Sided Flyers Were Distributed At Several Major Festivals, Clubs, Community Hubs, And Over 1000 homes In The Regent Park Neighbourhood Near Daniels Spectrum. Six Individual Paid Event Pages Were Created With A Total Reach Of Over 20.5 K Accounts And Over 2500 responses and engagements.
LEAD COORDINATOR
Andrew Gavin Hicks
SUPPORT STAFF
Michael Prosserman
Rebecca Harrison
Rajni Sharma
Clinton Ghosh
Bob Veruela Jr.
Catherine Turcotte
Mahad Shoaib
Adrian Chan
Ella Avila
Diamond Osoteo
Jesse Pacho
MArcel DaCosta
Kieon Bisnath
Mel Hart
Michael Crichton
Kevin Reigh
Tafiya Bayah
Bidhan Berma
GRAPHIC DESIGN & VIDEO EDITING
Andrew Gavin Hicks
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Abid Virani
Anthony Gebrehiwot
PHOTOGRAPHY
Anthony Gebrehiwot
SPONSORS
Tangerine
TD
Mastercard
Royal Bank
Tim Horton’s
Clear Channel Canada
93.5 Move
Canadian Heritage
Ontario Arts Council
Branded Cities
Gregory Signs
Pizza Pizza
Art Starts