Praise the Ward

4pm @ Lalani-Jennings Gallery - 60 Ontario St.

annais linares (vocalist) and Ben Finley (bass and electronics) are life partners and creative collaborators. Their work together is often rooted in improvisation, song forms, and partnerships with community organizations. Together (as leaders and collaborators in each other’s projects) they’ve co-created things like a community-imagined and -crafted instrument in a neighbourhood garden; improvisations with a pond in the woods and a naturalist; and a series of workshops and collaborations with local artists from different disciplines in Whitehorse, Yukon in partnership with the Heart of Riverdale Community Centre. They are also both facilitators of the Westben Centre for Connection and Creativity’s international Performer-Composer Residency program, which invites music makers from a wide variety of backgrounds to come together to create community and artistic connections and exchange perspectives. They are PhD students in the Critical Studies in Improvisation program at the University of Guelph.