An electric crowd at this year's sold out JAYU Slams at the Ace Hotel; photo by iAM Program Alum Joy Adeyemi

JAYU Slams Brings out a Full House!

This year's JAYU Slams poetry competition brought together a full house at the Ace Hotel with featured poet Eddie Lartey taking the stage. 13 slam poets performed and Rudie Jay was crowned Slam champion.

"JAYU Slams is a testament to what JAYU represents: community spotlighted through storytelling. It's an event that reminds me of the power of words to move us. The poets were incredible; I hope everyone who came left feeling as inspired as I was! - Desiree McKenzie, iAM Program Manager, Poet, and JAYU Slams Host

4 Films Explore Local and International Issues

We screened 4 duos of feature-length and short films at this year's festival. Each doc pairing was followed by a thought-provoking discussion.

"The 2023 edition of HRFF+ brought together an amazing group of artists and activists to discuss local and international issues. It was refreshing to witness the work being done to build the society we all want to see as we welcome a new year. Special thanks to the incredible programming team (Dawnalda Brennan, Dylan Freeman-Grist, Huipeng Li, Ben Whyte, Carolyn Dunk, Imran Babur, Alicks Girowski, Ellen Reade and Selina McCallum) and all of the volunteers and participants who made this year so special." - John Debono, Manager of Content and Programming

You Said It: Your Film Takeaways

"It was great to see all these movements that have taken place...not just political rallies but also creative and artistic movements fighting in tandem." - Chetan after watching Hong Kong Mixtape

“It’s hard to be authentic, whether under political persecution or just being queer in a very homophobic world.” - Jackie after watching Coming Around

“My takeaway was many people live in two different worlds with the reality and possibility of losing their home. I don’t know how that feels--I can only imagine it.” - Winnie after watching Hong Kong Mixtape