With your generous donation you will be helping Red Pepper Spectacle Arts produce this beloved commercial-free grass-roots celebration that
transforms the streets of Toronto’s historic Kensington Market.
This
event beckons the return to light on the eve of the winter solstice,
every December 21st. On this longest night thousands of decorated
revelers take part, with hand-made emblematic lanterns, encountering on
route, tented-theatrical scenarios of shadow play, rooftop masking
antics, roving giant puppets and stilted dancers with eclectic musical
accompaniment. All are illuminated by the glow of fire breathers and
spinners, a Fire Finale in Alexandra Park, and a community feast for the
numerous volunteers harkening the return to light.
Even a small or medium donation will help us pay for things like - artist fees, production and design costs, administration, rentals, permits, materials and much more.
![]()
Mara Catu Nunca Antes dancer Bear puppet in the parade in the parade
Festival Collaborators - The Kensington BIA, City of Toronto Woman’s Residence, St Stephen’s Community House, Cecile Street Community Centre, local residents, the Native Men’s Residence, Native Child and Family Services, the Native Canadian Centre, the Centre for Indigenous Theatre, Spirit Wind and Eagle Women Traditional Women’s Hand Drum, Eagle Heart Big Drum, Shadowland Theatre, Clay and Paper, Gaa Dibaatjimat Ngashi Youth, Alexandra Park Community Centre, Scadding Court Community Centre, Pedestrian Sundays (BIA), Samba Squad, Maracatu Mar Aberto, the Arhythmics, Solsticks, La Befane Hags, Circle Sing, Richard Underhill’s Community Band, Central Technical Colligate’s ESL Theatre Students and the Kensington Community School, Native Women in the Arts.
Background - Red Pepper Spectacle Arts co-creates and facilitates multi-disciplinary collaborative arts engagement cross-culturally and primarily within the First Nations/Métis/Inuit Community. We work in collaboration with social service agencies, various communities and other arts organizations towards greater social justice, accessibility and equality in cultural production. We pursue the highest standard in artistic practice and create an environment where all skill levels have access and opportunity to achieve significant results and creative success with a wide variety of media.
![]()
Lantern making for festival
Vision - Red Pepper believes it’s artistic vision is evolutionary and informed by the community’s vision, through the collective generosity of spirit in creative collaboration. Each project is unique and is shared in reciprocity, in the conceiving and formation of each endeavor. We believe the practice is alive and all involved contribute to the resurgent creative process and innovation. Red Pepper’s relationships have been developed over the years through a wide-range of multi-disciplinary communal activity, relationship building, networking, and resource sharing. Our programming is intergenerational, enables a sense of belonging, creates new productive uses of underutilized spaces, encourages creative problem solving, promotes space for cross-cultural dialogue, encourages collaboration in a democratic creative process and provides a safe haven to learn new skills and express oneself.
We believe in and have respect for the inherent creative abilities we all possess and we are motivated to encourage it’s emergence. When we are engaged within the communal context our individual selves are connected to a synergistic dynamic of mutuality and empowerment. This work challenges the notion that only a select few of us are gifted or solely in possession of genius. We believe in the inherent creative ability within each of us to generate exceptional creative power, and it’s realization in the collective whole. Genius exists in the diversity of all our voices in collaboration.
Commitment - We are committed to skill sharing, mentorship and career placement and internship opportunities within all our projects, particularly for Aboriginal youth and emerging Aboriginal artists. It is our mission to provide arts access, resources, development and mentorship opportunities in the context of high quality arts programming in Aboriginal organizations and communities locally and on-reserve in the north.
Our mandate is to:
- Demonstrate the power of art through celebration, storytelling in order to move, unite, empower and educate people.
- Provide a safe, supportive, creative environment where all people can share and collaborate while promoting acceptance, accomplishment, social awareness and positive change.
- Committed to delivering the transformative power of participatory, multi-faceted art activities to the diverse communities of Toronto and Northern Ontario.
Give voice to misunderstood and misrepresented members of our community.
- Committed to skill sharing, training and collaborative exchange with its individual and community partners.
- Promote economic development.
- Preserve and promote Indigenous art and culture through self-representation.
- Respect and encourage all traditions, languages and cultural practices in the process.
- To work inter-generationally, with a particular focus on children and youth.
Arts Practice - We work to provide arts practices that bring about connection to one’s own creative heart and are on a continuum envisioning ways in which collective engagement is generated. We strive to ensure full inclusion and access within all aspects of research, planning, designing, execution, installation, celebration and remuneration. We value the relationship to community development that supports underserved communities.
Inspiration - We are informed and draw inspiration from the various media and methods we utilize. For example, our mosaic art practice presents it’s sparkling, reflective light, illuminating concrete efforts to restore and inaugurate personal testimony and cultural pride. It’s work is a pulling the pieces together, a joining of forces and building alliances and consensus.
We know that our work in community gives rise to engage in critical thinking, and speak about ways we can affect change rooted in a political commitment to resolving social injustice and conflict. Our work is the site to build solidarity through sharing our stories. We respect the creative process and regard it as a ritual that advances stages of self-awareness, and finding one’s own voice.
Pride - Red Pepper takes pride that we are a mobile organization and that we can activate a positive atmosphere in any environment. We animate unconventional spaces such as shopping malls, parking garages, laundry-mats, and urban street-scapes with arts activities. Red Pepper often operates in the environment of basic needs establishments such as, social service facilities, drop-in centres, homes for the aged, health care facilities and cultural centres.
Community - Red Pepper recognizes that the creative communal act is a source of spiritual connection, a sacred recognition of our interconnectedness that invites participatory involvement and suggests a passion of experience and remembrance. It is a meeting place of reflection, re-imagining possibilities, initiating support, and encouraging hope. We strive to be inclusive of diverse perspectives and locations and accommodating the complexity therein. We have witnessed the rise of community arts as a social movement and reflect on its continued growth as a testament of our inherent collective determination to participate in needed positive change and creative transformative involvement.
Solstice Activities - We have been effective in offering public workshops in lantern making, shadow puppetry and mask making to organisations that share common goals and foster festival participation.We have established a festival advisory group that includes members of the community, artists, local businesses and representatives of partner organisations who have relevant expertise providing valuable support, advice and resources to project staff. Red Pepper continues to broaden community involvement and ownership, contributing to cohesion and enhanced participatory value.