Jowi Taylor: Six String Nation

Cultural entrepreneur, award-winning broadcaster and progressive patriot. “The story of Canada as you’ve never held it before.” Jowi’s audacious Six String Nation project distills stories of diverse cultures, communities, characters and events from every province and territory of Canada into a single guitar called Voyageur – an object that is at once touchstone, talking-stick and living instrument. Jowi’s presentation goes beyond Canada’s cultural clichés, galvanizing audiences with a story that is as deeply personal as each individual in the room and as vast as the country itself. It’s a wonderfully compelling story about building a guitar using pieces of historical and cultural material from every part of Canada. His presentation is more than a story about a guitar, but rather a story and lesson about our country. The Voyageur guitar represents and holds pieces we treasure across the country and tells of geography, history, pride and more: one of the seat boards from Massey Hall, a tiny bit of gold from his Maurice Rocket Richard’s Stanley Cup ring, and tells a moving story of one of the most rare and revered trees in Canada that embodies the spirit of a nation.