Joy Mwandemange

MA Student

Thandizo Joy (Joy Mwandemange) is an Ottawa-based performing artist, director, playwright, producer and arts administrator of Malawian heritage. Her multidisciplinary work moves between musical theatre, RnB, rap, spoken word and storytelling, with a confessional, memory-driven approach. She holds a Bachelor Honours degree in musical theatre voice from Carleton University and is the Vice President of Lost Baggage Musical Theatre, which she joined in 2019. She also co-founded Upstage Studios, a family-run entertainment company, and teaches musical theatre at SOPAC. Thandizo is a first-year student in the M.A. in Music and Culture program, where her research looks at Malawian traditional and informal musical traditions as pedagogy. She hopes this work will shape how she builds an arts school in Malawi that centres Malawian and broader African musical traditions in postsecondary arts teaching.