About Janice
Multi-arts queer folk artist
Janice Jo Lee (she/they) is a contemporary musician, composer, sound designer, spoken word poet, actor-clown, director, facilitator and educator born and based in Toronto. Her artwork explores climate grief, antiracism, loneliness, workers rights, anticapitalism, queer joy, and her Korean heritage. She is a collaborative and engaging artist, composing with guitar, trumpet, vocals, and jjangu drum. As a professional educator, she has facilitated arts and anti-oppression workshops for 15 years. She works as the DEIA Coordinator for Folk Alliance International.
Contact Janice to collaborate and design projects together in film, theatre, spoken word and education. Janice Jo Lee is a member of: ACTRA, League of Canadian Poets, Associated Designers of Canada, SOCAN
COMPOSITIONS FOR THEATRE
Hope in Hot Times (2025) |
Sound Designer | Play Play Clown Collective | Hamilton, ON |
|---|---|---|---|
| Late Company (2024) | Sound Designer | Green Light Arts | Kitchener, ON |
| 3 Fingers Back (2022, Workshop) | Sound Designer, Composer | lemonTree Productions / Tarragon | Toronto, ON |
| This Is How We Got Here (2022) | Sound Designer, Composer | Green Light Arts | Kitchener, ON |
| Apocalypse Earth: Workshop (2022) | Producer, Director, Co-Deviser/Creator, Composer | Sing Hey Arts | Toronto, ON |
Shaded (2022) |
Sound Designer, Composer |
Cosmic Fishing Theatre |
Kitchener, ON |
|
I Don’t Know (2021)
|
Sound Designer, Composer |
Theatre MADA, Presented by MT Space |
Kitchener, ON |
|
Suitcase (2020)
|
Sound Designer, Composer
|
Theatre MADA, Presented by Theatre Passe Muraille |
Toronto, ON |
Suitcase |
Sound Designer, Composer |
Theatre MADA |
Kitchener, ON |
|
Will You Be My Friend (Remount) (2018)
|
Solo Performer, Writer, Composer
|
Presented by Theatre Passe Muraille, Produced by Green Light Arts |
Toronto, ON |
Will You Be My Friend: A New Musical (2017) |
Solo Performer, Writer, Composer |
Green Light Arts |
Kitchener, ON |
Naked Joy (2015) |
Performer, Co-creator, Composer |
The Studio Players |
Kitchener, ON |
The Other End of the Line (2013) |
Principal Vocalist/Composer |
The MT Space |
London, ON |
|
The Fear Project (2011)
|
Principal, Creator, Composer |
The Studio Players |
Kitchener, ON, IMPACT Fest |
|
Rooted: A New Musical (2009) |
Writer, Composer, Director |
RainDance Theatre |
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON |
COMPOSITIONS AND PERFORMANCE FOR FILM
Forge Future (2023) |
Composer, Sound Designer |
lemonTree Productions |
Siwat Piedra (2021) |
Co-Composer, Musician |
Irma Villafuerte / Caminos Fest |
Racial Capitalism (2021) |
Composer, Musician |
Toronto Metropolitan University |
The Ocean Calls (2021) |
Voice over, singer |
Brown Bag Films |
We Are Wiser (2021) |
Voice over, Composer |
New Harlem Productions |
|
The Legend of Sing Hey (2018)
|
Lead Performer, Co-Writer, Co-director, Co-editor, Producer, Composer, Lyricist |
Hard Femme Productions
|
How do we fall (music video, 2017) |
Singer, Instrumentalist, director, editor, producer, Composer, Lyricist |
Fight and Flourish |
Belonging (music video, 2016) |
Co-Director, Producer, Co-Composer, Co-Lyricist |
Bridges to Belonging |
Folk Myths of Kitchener: Videopoems (2015) |
Writer, Composer, Singer, director, editor, producer |
City of Kitchener |
It's About Time: Gendered Violence at WLU (doc, 2015) |
Featured Spoken Word and Music Performance |
Laurier School of Social Work |
Garbage Isn't Garbage: How Recycling Works (short doc, 2014) |
Lead, Producer, Writer, Editor, Director, Composer |
Alternatives Journal |
DIY Beekeeping (short doc, 2014) |
Lead, Producer, Writer, Editor, Director, Composer |
Alternatives Journal |
I lost my darlin (music video, 2013) |
Lead, Producer, Composer, Lyricist |
Fight and Flourish Records |
Asians Don't Sing the Blues (short film, 2012) |
Performer, Writer, Co-Director, Composer, Lyricist |
Toronto International Reel Asian Film Festival |
EDUCATION and TRAINING
- Certificate, Cinematic Music Composition with Timothy Williams 2026, ELVTR School
- Pig Iron Theatre School Summer Mask Intensive, Philadelphia, PA, 2024
- School for Comedy Beasts, Clown Intensive with Deanna Fleysher, Bellingham, WA, 2023
- Noteworthy Program for Composers and Lyricists, Musical Stage Co, 2023
- Bouffon Intensive, with Nathaniel Justiniano, Naked Empire Bouffon Company, 2023
- Clown Fundamentals with Kevin Krieger, The Idiot Workshop, Los Angeles, Virtual 2022
- Spoken Word, Media and Career Development Mentorship with Ian Keteku, 2021
- Clown Character Intensive with Deanna Fleysher, School for Comedy Beasts, June 2020
- Drag King Clown Comedy with Deanna Fleysher, Sweet Action Theatre, May 2019
- Spoken Word and Leadership Mentorship with Lillian Allen, 2019
- Indigenous Storytelling Protocols, with Kevin Wesaquate, Oct 2019
- fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre, Multidisciplinary Theatre Creators Residency, May 2019
- Bouffon Intensive, with Adam Lazarus, Playon Theatre, Dec 2017
- Intermediate Korean Drum, with Jin Kim, Principal, Korean Culture Community, Mar 2017
- Advanced Devised Theatre Training at the MT Space. Director: Fadhel Jaibi, Tunisian National Theatre, Dec 2016.
- Banff Spoken Word Program, write-study residency with faculty: Tanya Evanson, d’bi young anitafrika, Jean-Pierre Makosso, Christian Bok, and Alexis O’Hara, April 2013
- Bachelor of Arts, English and Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU), 2010
- Royal Conservatory of Music, Piano and Theory, 1994
“A poet, theatre maker and anti-oppression facilitator, Lee brings much diversity and sincerity to her art that surrounds community, empowerment and societal change. She cites Ancestor Song as her best work yet, and it’s hard to argue with that.” - Tom Haugen
— Take Effect
Artist Statement
What I aim to do in the world
I am a folk artist. An artist of the people! A storyteller. It is my responsibility as a folk artist to affirm our contemporary stories, emotions and ideas through art and carry these stories onward. Art is my tool to build just and joyful communities that are as free as possible from systemic oppression. My art comforts the struggling and challenges political complacency. As a writer and performing artist, I combine my literature, music and theatre background with my political activism to create art that engages through its truth, comedy, lyricism and power. Genres and artistic disciplines do not limit me when creating songs, poems, scenes and stories. On stage, it is important for me to demonstrate power in embodied performances, unrelenting honesty, rhythm and humility. I aim to create an energy with an audience that is electric and connected, leaving us aglow.
Artistic excellence to me is rich poetics, rooted presence, irresistible rhythm that engages our bodies, and melodies and stories that move a person through its truth and feeling.
I am constantly learning and thinking critically about my position and cultural context within systems of oppression. I aim to decolonize myself and my art practice from oppressive ideas and practices. My art is subject to criticism and conversation. I do my best, allow room for error, and try to be kind to myself. As an artist and role model, I listen to and strive to be accountable to my community.
I seek communities and audiences where my best self, vitality, spirit and art are life-affirming. I want what I offer as a person to act as a spark or opening to emotional truth, social truth, untapped or forgotten joy, and self power. I seek to create an open space which reminds us that human connection is full of beauty, wonder, and a life worth living