Our Purpose

The Walking Griot is a collective dedicated to the facilitation and production of art and programs about Afro-Caribbean culture geared towards young Black audiences and communities.

The collective was created to fill a gap we saw existing within the Toronto theatre community. This is space for Black children to engage with stories that are rooted in their cultural mythology, Caribbean knowledge systems, and embodied experiences.

The stories we create are interwoven with cultural and traditional elements and invite audiences into African and Caribbean culture, while creating art that (re)connects and educates and keeping culture and traditional storytelling art forms alive. While living in underserved communities, it’s a vital goal for us to bring theatre to those areas so that children and youth can participate, not just as audience members, but be their own creators and storytellers. .

Our Team

Sashoya and Najla met while being mentored in residency at The Watah Theatre and moved into roles at Watah as the Associate Artistic Director and Residency Coordinator respectively.

They work well together and bring their experiences facilitating and producing dozens of plays over three years at The Watah theatre as well as skills developed through investing in work in Food justice, event coordination, program development, advocacy, mentorship, legacy building and archiving.


  • Founder | sashoya@thewalkinggriot.com

    Sashoya Simpsonis a storyteller, writer and theatre practitioner, of Jamaican lineage, based in Toronto, Canada. Her artistic work embodies Caribbean folklore knowledge and cultural practices through theatre performance, visual and literary art. She has appeared in Known to Police by Nomanzland (Young People’s Theatre, 2012), Zero Visibility by the Artist Mentoring Youth Project (Summerworks Festival, 2013), To The Kid That I Was by Expect Theatre (Nuit Blanche, 2015), Bleeders by d’bi.young anitafrika (Summerworks Festival, 2016) and Lukumi (Tarragon Theatre, 2017).

    Her work has been published in Black Solo: Watah Anthology of Contemporary Canadian Monodrama Volumes 1, 2 & 3 as a playwright and in From The Root Zine as a storyteller/poet. She’s the award recipient of the ArtReach Pitch Contest (2016), Emerging Arts Finalist for the Premier’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts (2017), Simminovitch Playwright Protege Finalist (2023) and her work has been shortlisted in the CANSCAIP Writing for Children Competition (2023).

    Her voice work includes The Journey Prize Stories (Penguin Random House Canada, 2023), San Souci and Other Stories by Dionne Brand (Penguin Random House Canada, 2023) and The Love Booth and Other Plays (Gailey Road Productions, 2023).

    Her stage play, LULU, was recently mounted in the Hamilton Fringe Festival 2024 and her first children’s picture book, The Instrument Maker, is set to release in 2026.

  • Producer | najla@thewalkinggriot.com

    Three time graduate of The Watah Theatre & alumni of bcurrent's mandiela rAiz’n in the Sun ensemble, Najla Nubyanluv is a queer, Black mother, multi-disciplinary artist, producer, educator, and doula. During her 2017 Spolrusie Arts Fellowship at Watah, her play I Cannot Lose My Mind received Individual Creation funding from Canada Council for the Arts. After four years of study of the Anitafrika Methodology with d’bi.young anitafrika, I Cannot Lose My Mind World Premiered in The Watah Theatre Double Bill co-produced by The Watah Theatre, Crow's Theatre, and Najla Nubyanluv in February 2018. During her residency her research focused on holistic recovery of Black Women through Theatre and afrofuturism. Najla also served as the residency coordinator of the Watah Theatre. 

    In 2023, Nubyanluv completed a ThisGen Producing Fellowship at Why Not Theatre, as well as 3 years working at Why Not as a producer. She was the co-lead producer of Sunny Drake’s Award winning audio drama series Climate Change & Other Small Talk and a workshop production of Quote Unquote Collective’s UNIVERSAL CHILD CARE. Nubyanluv is the author & illustrator of I Love Being Black, a children’s book and I Cannot Lose My Mind published by Spolrusie Press. She was featured in a number of publications including the OCHUN anthologies published by The Watah Theatre and The Peak Magazine. During this time, Nubyanluv sang background vocals in D’BI & THE 333. As an associate editor for With/out Pretend, Nubyanluv supported dozens of women writers. She was a co-curator for Black Wimmin Artists of The Feast: A performative dinner in the AGO marking the inaugural meeting of a virtual network of 100 Black Wimmin Artists founded by Anique Jordan in 2016. She is also a founding member of OCAMA Doula Collective, Nubyanluv strives to create art and celebrations with a compassion-first practice. This is demonstrated through 19 years of community development and activism work including work with 2SLGBTQ+ communities, incarcerated women, newcomers, survivors of violence, youth and other diverse equity seeking communities through workshops, programs, performances, and presentations. 

    To date, Nubyanluv has facilitated DEI workshops across Southern Ontario while maintaining a holistic, passionate doula practice and a multi-disciplinary professional arts practice. Her work extends across the frontline to leadership social services roles. Traditional Indigenous African and Caribbean intuitive principles direct her doula work supporting expecting parents and those who experience infertility, miscarriages, abortions, stillbirths, and traumatic birth. She’s grateful to have mentored and supported many youth and artists in various capacities and she is passionate about laughter and happiness in life balance and creating sustainable futures where everyone lives joy filled lives. Most recently, Nubyaluv has been teaching at Sheridan College in the Musical Theatre Conservatory and the Theatre program since 2020. She is a member of The Walking Griot collective and has recently co-producing and starred in The Walking Griot’s production of “LULU” in the Hamilton Fringe Festival in July 2024.