Sheniz Janmohamed – Spoken Word Artist

Sheniz Janmohamed is a poet, spoken word artist and freelance writer. She holds an Honours BA (with Distinction) in Religion and English Literature from the University of Toronto. She is currently in the second year of her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph.

She is also the founder and president of Ignite Poets, an initiative that allows young poets and spoken word artists to collaborate and work together for worthy causes. Ignite’s second show, Ignite II: Unite (2004), raised funds for The World Partnership Walk. In addition to having her own spoken word initiative, Sheniz is also a promotions officer for Toronto Poets (www.torontopoets.com). Sheniz has shared the stage with Canadian idol hopeful Devika Mathur, saxophonist Sundar Viswanathan and “The Tabla Guy”, Gurpreet Chana. She has also collaborated with a number of UK based fusion musicians, including The Mosienko Project.

She has performed her spoken word at various events, the largest being The World Partnership Walk, in front of an audience of 5,000 people.

Sheniz has completed a manuscript of ghazals in English, one of which has been put to music and sung by classical singer Tanya Mohammed Jacobs. Sheniz currently writing a creative non-fiction manuscript that addresses her multiple identities as a Kenyan, South Asian and Canadian.

She is the executive editor for South Asian Living magazine (www.southasianliving.com) and book reviewer for City Masala Magazine (www.citymasala.com).

As a journalist, Sheniz has conducted interviews with countless artists, writers and entertainment personalities: film director Richie Mehta (Amal), actress Seema Biswas (Bandit Queen, Khamoshi), Sitara Hewitt and Zaib Shaikh (CBC ‘s Little Mosque on the Prairie), Booker nominee Mohsin Hamid (The Reluctant Fundamentalist), author and playwright Anosh Irani (The Cripple and His Talismans, Bombay Black), musical maestro Nitin Sawhney, The Bilz, actress Purva Bedi (American Desi), and musical producers Vishal & Shekhar.

She has also been featured on OMNI 2’s Bollywood Boulevard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivDl8LedZWE