Megan Aubin

Megan (she/her) is a facilitator and a budding seamstress. Having previously worked in the non-profit sector with a focus on community development Megan has extensive experience in facilitating cross-sectoral partnerships with the goal of supporting communities that care for each other and the planet.

In March 2020 she was diagnosed with a hearing impairment which helped her understand why she had struggled with music in the past. New to the music scene in Ottawa she first attended Pique in the summer of 2022 and was immediately drawn to the community, and the respect and safety she felt. Having recently completed an EDI-specific facilitation training with Bakau Consulting she hopes to support the Debaser team in continuing this type of work."

Sarah Conn

Sarah Conn (she/her) is a performance director, producer, and curator. Sarah’s performances, installations, and live art have been presented by galleries and festivals across Canada, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, England, and Germany. Her practice centers on interdisciplinary and socially-engaged collaborations activated in site-specific contexts and non-traditional venues, including the digital space. Sarah is the creative director of Trophy, an award-winning interdisciplinary art collective that creates porous work for non-traditional spaces. The collective’s work is characterized by modularity, scalability, and a multiplicity of entry points for engagement. Current projects include Remixed, a hybrid digital/in-person immersive listening party during which audiences interact with a custom progressive web app, generating personalized playlists that explore how we instigate change individually and collectively. The collective is also touring the self-titled Trophy, a performance installation comprised of 1-150 architectural tents that celebrates diverse communities’ stories of transformation. Committed to new creation, Sarah is the Artistic Associate of the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund, and the recipient of two Rideau Awards, the 2016 Siminovitch Protégé Prize for Directing, and the 2018 Ontario Arts Council Pauline McGibbon Award for Directing. She holds an MA in Performance Curation from the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance, where her research focused on curatorial strategies as collaborative frameworks, both within interdisciplinary creation and any process bringing people together across difference.

Felicity Joan Hauwert

Felicity Joan Hauwert (she/they) is a photographer, video artist, sociologist, and community organizer living, learning, and working on unceded Algonquin territory. As a person, Felicity is deeply invested in convening and its role in future building. Her aim is to see the merging of community organizing with public arts to build better, more nourishing futures. Felicity’s approach to their artistic practice explores their experiences of relationality with the Land, her loved ones, and self. Occupied by the deep ties across the Black Atlantic, Felicity seeks for their work to push them to better understand their history in relation to their present. Her specific creation-based research praxis is influenced heavily by her family’s practices of storytelling and aims to merge the visual with the oral.

Pauline Mousseau

Pauline (she/her) is a senior policy analyst and strategic policy advisor in the federal government working in portfolios that are Indigenous focused. She is currently a lead on the Indigenous Relations Unit working specifically on Indigenous Homelessness. She also consults on Indigenous engagement and facilitations with Indigenous communities, leadership and rights holders. Pauline is of mixed Mi’kmaq and French Canadian ancestry from Ottawa and Millbrook First Nations in Nova Scotia.

In 2013, Pauline was a founding member of the collective Girls+ Skate 613 which was envisioned as a community-minded collective who provide opportunities for people of all ages, identities and abilities to learn to skateboard in an encouraging, inclusive environment. In the first 8 years of G+ our vision and mandate was to provide a welcoming, non-­judgmental atmosphere for those wanting to learn how to skate. The purpose was to help ensure that individuals of all ages, abilities, and identities in Ottawa have the opportunity to empower themselves through skateboarding.

Pauline is currently serving on one other board of directors in the Ottawa area. Her mixed-background, urban Indigenous experience, and traditional knowledge are an integral part of her life and work.

Tsenu Zelleke

Tsenu Zelleke (he/him) is a policy wonk turned media consultant and music editor. His expertise in public affairs and policy management, strategic public opinion, and policy analysis has allowed him to excel in a variety of roles, from a Public Affairs Intern for the United States Embassy in Ottawa to a Communication Officer for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.

With a strong set of competencies, Tsenu has proven time and time again that he can overcome challenges with his interpersonal skills, creative problem-solving, and excellent relationships with clients, peers, and management. His eagerness to expand and challenge himself has led him to participate in crucial leadership programs like the Reelworld Black Entrepreneurs Program from Reelworld Screen Institute and Black Diplomats Academy from Developing Young Leaders of Tomorrow Today (DYLOTT).

Currently, as a Media & Communications Consultant at the Canadian Media Producers Association, Tsenu assists the Communications, Marketing, and Membership team with internal and external communication activities, including media monitoring and social media strategy, while supporting CMPA advocacy campaigns.

Additionally, his passion for art and culture has led to an opportunity as the Music Editor for Apt613, an award-winning blog dedicated to uncovering the best of Ottawa’s arts and culture. Tsenu continues to connect with artists and creatives in the hope of attracting partnerships and consultations from grassroots organizations to larger regulatory bodies, with the aim of attaining bottom-up style policies that put creatives in the forefront of cultural policy.

Brodie Conley

Brodie Conley (he/him) is a music industries worker and artist living in Ottawa, ON. He has worked across a variety of areas including research, artist management and community music initiatives, as well as in program and policy development within government.

He is currently the operations and governance lead at Water & Music, a research and intelligence network for the new music business, where he works on projects exploring the intersections of music and technology.  

In the past, Brodie was an artist manager with Kelp Management, where he supported the careers of multiple Canadian artists (Andy Shauf / Lido Pimienta / Ada Lea / Foxwarren). He also worked as the Festival Manager for the annual MEGAPHONO Music Festival and Conference, which brought music industry professionals to Ottawa, and provided an opportunity for local and regional artists to expand their reach, cultivate new knowledge and catalyze export opportunities.

Brodie is and continues to be a motivated advocate for the Canadian independent music community and hopes to continue to work on and support new opportunities and knowledge development for emerging and underserved artists across Canada.

Kate Day

Hailing from Saint John, NB, Kate (she/they) spent the better part of 10 years in Halifax, NS before relocating to Ottawa. She graduated from Carleton University in 2018 with a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies and is currently working at Inuit-Crown Partnerships and Policy with the federal government as a Social Policy Analyst. She is passionate about language, sounds, staying curious, and fostering positive change through community.

Kate has experience in both non-for-profits (Avalon Sexual Assault Centre) and community based programming through various university committees. She continues to be an avid supporter of the arts and is looking forward to deepening ties within the community through her work with Debaser to provide meaningful, joyful experiences in Ottawa and beyond.

Kate can often be found at local shows, galleries, on her bike, playing around with her sewing machine, or beating her friends at cribbage.

Chris Love

Call me Chrissy! (Pronouns they/them). I've been making music and putting on shows in OTT/MTL for 10 years, mainly through my band Pith but also during my time running a house venue circa 2014 through 16, then upon moving to Montreal, running a tiny little promotion collective and a shared studio space. I was lucky to catch the tail end of the 2010s there, gigging and frequenting beloved DIY spaces like La Plante and Poisson Noir. I was in Montreal cause I was going to law school at McGill, then I graduated and moved back here, where I now work in environmental regulation. Feels very full-circle coming home and joining up with Debaser; some of my first shows were some of the first Debaser shows at Mugshots back in the day. A decade later, it's so cool to be welcomed back to my hometown scene and use my lawyer training for something useful; stoked to be a part of the Ottawa valley renaissance!

Elsa Mirzaei

Elsa Mirzaei is a current MBA Candidate at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business in Montreal, Quebec specializing in Business Analytics. Prior to starting her Master’s, she graduated from the University of Ottawa in General Sciences in 2016 and completed 1 year in Electroacoustics at Concordia.

Her past work-life has spanned DIY event production to artist management. From 2016-2020, she founded and produced Ottawa-based underground festival, DIY Spring, which featured the work of emerging and established local and regional artists.

In 2018, she moved to Montreal where she was a core part of Envision Management’s team, helping raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for export-ready artists like Kid Koala, Hua Li and many more. She has also independently consulted on artist management and fundraising strategy for emerging Montreal talent such as Cyber and Honeydrip.

She is passionate about sustainable business development for not-for-profit organizations, and placed second in the International Community Outreach Program’s annual case competition at Concordia in 2023.

Linh VH Nguyen

Linh VH Nguyen is a queer Vietnamese-Canadian artist currently practising on unceded land of the Anishinaabe Algonquin people (National Capital Region). Using a variety of methods including historic photographic processes and digital manipulation, they mesh and combine elements together, both physically and virtually, to explore themes of healing, identification, inter-temporality and inter-locality.

They draw inspiration from their Vietnamese heritage, movement practices, and other artists such as Mieke Bal, Sara Cwynar, Michiko Kon, Lana and Lilly Wachowski. Their work has been exhibited at the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, and other public and private galleries in Toronto and Ottawa. They are grateful to have received funding from the Ontario Arts Councils as well as from The School of the Photographic Arts Ottawa.

Mars Souleil

Mars Souleil aka DJ TRINIDADDY is an Indo-Trinidadian Odawa based and Tkaronto born DJ, musician, & overall multidimensional artist/human. As a queer and trans femme in the DJ & music community, they aim to make party & gathering spaces more safe & accessible for QTBIPOC and hope to inspire & create community through their work & sounds. They have organized parties for the queer and trans BIPOC community in Odawa since 2018, and hosted workshops & community spaces for youth in the arts to skill-share & connect with like-minded folks who look like them since 2019. They are on a journey of creating more space for Indo-Caribbean queer and trans creatives in the music community at large. They are also on a new journey of recording & releasing their own original music, as well as hosting community healing spaces for BIPOC and QTBIPOC which include sound therapy, movement, and all other art forms by drawing on their ancestral connection.

Shannon Whiteduck-Odjick

Shannon is a proud Algonquin First Nation woman from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg located north of Ottawa and Gatineau.

With an educational background in public relations and communications, Shannon has applied her skillset by working with urban-Indigenous communities, non-profit organizations, and major music festivals in Ottawa. Presently, Shannon manages an Algonquin-owned printing business, Anishinabe Printing.

When she’s not working or attending events, Shannon practices her culture and learns traditional knowledge through various workshops, events, and activities. Shannon is passionate about Indigenous community, culture, as well as protecting land and waters. Residing in her community, Shannon is an active member of a Land, Water, and Animals Advisory Committee that aims to protect the wellbeing of the territory. In her down time, Shannon loves to explore different music genres and artists.

Shannon aims to increase the profile of the richness and diversity of First Nation, Inuit, and Métis music and arts in the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin nation, the Ottawa-Gatineau area. Shannon is committed to keeping spaces inclusive while bringing an Indigenous lens to the programming of Debaser.

Contra

CONTRA is a multidisciplinary artist who navigates the Canadian arts and culture landscape as a musician, director, curator, and creative strategist. Her most prominent project to date is through her work in Cartel Madras, an expansive and experimental music project now signed under Sub Pop Records. As a founding member of the FOREIGNERZ art & production house her artistic journey has also brought her into the world of art direction, filmmaking, and creative strategy. Challenging cities, industries, and narratives to allow new voices in is at the very centre of how Contra pursues all her creative endeavors; furthering culture and allowing art to thrive.

Using her eclectic professional background within the creative sector, Contra has been able to combine her artistry with business strategy and marketing acumen with initiatives through her collective and work with other Calgary based arts organizations. Through her work in Cartel Madras, she has developed counter-culture showcases for new artists while touring extensively within Canada & The United States giving her an immediate, essential and thorough pulse of the underground across Canada. In 2021 she expanded her expertise into overseeing the creation and production of art exhibitions, digital series and documentaries and was the curator of the inaugural Arts Commons Incubator program for its 2021-2022 season. Since 2021, she has worked with BUMP Festival in creative strategy, programming & marketing. In 2023, she is working on her debut LP with Cartel Madras and will be releasing two short-films that she wrote and directed under the FOREIGNERZ banner."

Ben Compton

Ben Compton is an artist and administrator working in time-based media. With a grounding in music and performance art, Ben often explores the physical presence of audiovisual culture–how sounds and images are tied to objects, people, architecture, and land. Ongoing projects include a hybrid theatre/cinema production using live video, and a spreadsheet tracing the history of white staircases in pop culture. Ben has worked at The Canada Council Art Bank, The Fine Arts Reading Room, and The Canadian Film Institute, where he currently helps with logistics and programming for their festivals. Most recently, Ben launched Everyone Archives, a community organization supporting people in their archiving projects outside of major institutions.

Rachel Weldon, Director

Rachel Weldon is a music curator, event producer, and project manager living on Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (so-called Hull). Since founding Debaser in 2013, Rachel has led the development of the organization from a volunteer-run ad-hoc collective producing DIY events into a leading non-profit music presenter with five employees. Throughout this growth, Rachel has steered Debaser to remain true to its core values of supporting underrepresented and experimental artists, offering thoughtfully curated event experiences, and promoting diversity, accessibility, and inclusivity.

In 2021, Rachel founded Pique, Debaser’s quarterly building-wide music and arts event series that takes place at the Arts Court complex in downtown Ottawa. Rachel has led the conception, development, and creative direction of Pique since its launch, supporting its growth into what is now a vital creative event in Ottawa that welcomes approximately 1,500 attendees to each seasonal event. 

Previously Rachel worked as a manager at Kelp Management, where she worked with artists Lido Pimienta, U.S. Girls, and Andy Shauf. During her time at Kelp, she also helped produce MEGAPHONO for three years as festival manager. As a freelance consultant, she has managed projects for the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Folk Music Ontario, l’Association des professionnels de la chanson et de la musique, and Artengine. 

She has been an invited speaker by events and organizations such as the National Gallery of Canada, BIME (Bilbao), Reeperbahn (Hamburg), POP Montreal, Music New Brunswick, Sled Island Music Conference, Music Calgary, Creative Mornings, Carleton University, and Algonquin College, and has served on juries for the Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Ottawa, the National Campus and Community Radio Association, and Arts Network Ottawa. She was an active member of the community radio community from 2012-2021, hosting programs on CKCU, CHUO and CKUT, and currently DJs under the moniker Pink Veil. 

Sandra Ngenge Dusabe, Programming and Development Coordinator

Sandra Ngenge Dusabe (gen-geh doo-sa-beh) is a painter, curator and cultural creator based in Ottawa, Canada. After completing her BFA at the University of Ottawa, she’s taken the knowledge and passion cultivated from her time in school and transferred that dedication and care to program conceptually coherent and authentic experiences catered to Black and Femme artists located on Turtle Island. While being raised and conditioned to continuously balance the advantages and drawbacks of making art in Canada, these challenges have yielded a continuous streak of successful events and exhibits presented through The Moving Art Gallery, her personal curatorial initiative. Her work at Debaser as their Programming and Development Coordinator has enriched her creative compass to continue to serve underrepresented communities in the Nation’s Capital. 

Katie Manners, Programming Manager

Katie Manners is an arts coordinator and cultural historian with a decade of experience in the non-profit sector. She has coordinated programming and events for several arts organizations across Ontario and Quebec, though her love for the arts really manifests online. 

During the pandemic, she found community dancing at Zoom raves, the Internet's DIY answer to quarantine's impactful shutdown of in-person arts spaces. Her curiosity led her throughout the digital underground, where she became one of the first journalists to cover the emerging hyperpop scene in 2020. And in 2021, she founded cat scratch magazine, an online blog and ongoing archive of hyperpop artefacts that platforms queer and neurodiverse youth. 

As a hyperpop/digicore consultant, she’s been interviewed by Rolling Stone Magazine, written for PBS: Soundfield, and is currently writing a book about pandemic-era hyperpop and what happens when an online scene transitions from URL to IRL.