SPEAKING
Art. Memory. Culture. Possibility.
TIKA is an artist, communications strategist, cultural producer, and creative director whose speaking practice explores the intersections of creativity, identity, leadership, belonging, and cultural transformation.
Drawing from her work across music, film, cultural production, community-building, and organizational leadership, she brings artistic inquiry and lived experience into conversations about how we lead, how we relate, and what becomes possible when we imagine beyond inherited expectations.
Her keynotes, workshops, and facilitated conversations invite audiences not simply to think differently, but to feel, question, reflect, and imagine new possibilities together.
SELECTED KEYNOTES
HOLDING TWO TRUTHS™
On complexity, belonging, and the courage to hold more than one reality.
An exploration of the contradictions we carry as individuals, communities, and leaders. Through personal storytelling, embodied reflection, and cultural inquiry, TIKA invites audiences to consider how seemingly opposing truths can coexist—and how our capacity to hold complexity can deepen empathy, connection, and understanding.
THE COST OF SILENCE™
On voice, power, and what becomes possible when we speak.
Silence can protect, but it can also preserve the very conditions that prevent transformation. This keynote explores the personal and collective consequences of remaining unheard, examining the relationships between voice, identity, institutional power, and the courage required to challenge established narratives.
THE SOUND OF SAFETY™
On the body, belonging, and the environments we create for one another.
What does safety sound like? How does it feel in the body? Drawing from TIKA's interdisciplinary practice in music, community-building, and cultural production, this keynote examines the relationship between sound, emotional experience, and collective care.
An invitation to consider safety not simply as the absence of harm, but as something we can actively cultivate through attention, listening, and intentional cultural practice.
DREAMS WE WERE NEVER GIVEN™
On imagination, representation, and the freedom to envision different futures.
What happens when we are finally safe enough to dream?
Through reflections on childhood imagination, cultural memory, and representation, TIKA explores the worlds we inherit, the possibilities we are taught to imagine, and the futures we might create when we move beyond the limitations of existing narratives.
A meditation on imagination as a form of cultural agency, collective possibility, and creative freedom.
WORKSHOPS & CREATIVE LEARNING
Spaces to question, experiment, reflect, and imagine together.
TIKA designs and facilitates creative learning experiences that bring together artistic practice, embodied awareness, cultural inquiry, and collaborative exploration.
Working across educational institutions, arts organizations, creative communities, and interdisciplinary environments, her workshops encourage participants to approach creativity not simply as a skill, but as a way of understanding themselves, their relationships, and the world around them.
REST AS RESISTANCE™
Reimagining rest, productivity, and the conditions for sustainable creativity.
An exploration of rest as an essential part of creative and collective well-being. Participants are invited to question inherited expectations around productivity, examine their relationship to rest, and consider how care and restoration can become integral to artistic and organizational practice.
CREATIVE SOVEREIGNTY™
Ownership, artistic autonomy, and the freedom to define success.
A workshop exploring what it means to develop and sustain a creative practice on one's own terms. Through reflection and dialogue, participants consider artistic identity, authorship, ownership, and the systems that shape creative opportunity.
SOUND, SOVEREIGNTY & ACCESS™
Exploring the relationship between sound, inclusion, and creative agency.
An interdisciplinary learning experience examining how sound and creative environments can influence participation, belonging, and access. Participants are encouraged to consider whose experiences are centred, whose needs are overlooked, and how more responsive creative practices might be developed.
BEYOND NOTATION™
Expanding the language of music and creative expression.
An exploration of musical expression beyond conventional notation and formal systems of knowledge. Drawing from TIKA's practice as an artist and composer, this experience invites participants to investigate sound through intuition, experimentation, memory, and personal creative language.
MUSIC FOR SCREEN
Storytelling, composition, and the relationship between sound and image.
A creative learning experience introducing participants to the role of music in film and television. Exploring artistic direction, emotional storytelling, and the relationship between composition and visual narrative, this workshop offers insight into music as a collaborative storytelling practice.
Additional workshops and facilitated conversations can be developed in response to an institution's audience, objectives, and cultural context.
SELECTED ENGAGEMENTS
TIKA's speaking, facilitation, and creative leadership work has brought her into conversation with universities, arts institutions, cultural organizations, and interdisciplinary communities internationally.
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Keynote Speaker · Performer · Facilitator
ACCUTE Conference, Concordia University
Opening Keynote
Berklee College of Music
Featured Workshop Facilitator
University of Toronto — Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Guest Lecturer
Global Leaders Institute
Faculty Lecturer · Executive Leadership Panels
Canadian Film Centre
Film & Creative Leadership Speaker
Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)
Celebrity Host
Additional engagements across Canada, Ireland, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
STRATEGIC ADVISORY
Creative thinking for complex cultural and institutional questions.
Beyond the stage, TIKA collaborates with founders, creative leaders, cultural organizations, and institutions navigating growth, transformation, and change.
Her advisory practice brings together cultural intelligence, systems thinking, creative strategy, and community-centred approaches to leadership.
Working collaboratively, she helps organizations examine established assumptions, clarify their vision, strengthen relationships, and imagine new possibilities for their work.
Areas of focus include: Creative Leadership · Cultural Strategy · Institutional Design · Community Engagement · Public Narrative · Partnership Development · Artist & Founder Development.
INVITE TIKA TO SPEAK
Every meaningful conversation begins with the possibility of seeing something differently.
TIKA by Kadeem Ellis.
TIKA is available for keynote presentations, moderated conversations, panel discussions, workshops, guest lectures, and selected strategic advisory engagements.
Her work is especially suited to institutions and communities exploring creativity, culture, leadership, belonging, artistic sovereignty, and the futures we have yet to imagine.
Each engagement is approached with care, curiosity, and an understanding that the most meaningful conversations are shaped by the people in the room.