Honey Jam founder Ebonnie Rowe walks it like she talks it

22:30Honey Jam founder Ebonnie Rowe walks it like she talks it

If you've ever sung along to one of Nelly Furtado's iconic hits or gotten chills listening to Jully Black's powerful voice, you have Ebonnie Rowe to thank.

As the founder of Honey Jam, Canada's first artist development program for female musicians, Rowe has helped launch the careers of countless women in music, including Lu Kala, Haviah Mighty and Savannah Ré. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the program, and in recognition of all she's done, Rowe has been appointed to the Order of Canada.

To this day, Honey Jam continues to foster new talent in Canada, but when Rowe started the program in 1995, she says there was no plan or grand vision for what it would become. "I'm making it up as I go along," she quips in an interview with Q guest host Garvia Bailey. "I have no experience or training in any of it."

When Rowe hosted Honey Jam's first concert in a small Toronto bar owned by Dan Aykroyd, it was just supposed to be a one-time thing.

"There was no big Canadian Black superstar to aspire to be at that time," she says. "It was a gift to the community. There was no sponsorship…. It was only supposed to be one time, and then people said, 'When's the next one?'"

Everything changed after Rowe was invited to host another concert at Lee's Palace for a crowd of 700 people. A reporter from the Toronto Star heard the music from the street while riding by on her bicycle, and decided to write a full-page story about the event.

But for Rowe, Honey Jam was never just about finding the next big thing — it was about creating a safe space for talented young women looking for advice about how to navigate an often predatory and misogynistic industry.

"I just felt that mama bear vibe," she says. "We need to protect [these women]. We need to set something up where people from the industry who have no untoward motivation will share their knowledge because they want them to win and for no other reason."

Though Honey Jam is celebrating a big milestone this year, it's also facing a significant funding shortfall, which has made its future uncertain.

After it was announced that Rowe was to be appointed to the Order of Canada, she wrote on the Honey Jam website, "It's all hands on deck walk it like you talk it time."

"I feel like it's about to be Hunger Games, you know, fighting for scraps as the funding starts to shrink," she tells Bailey. "I don't believe that any of us in this non-profit space, in this community space, need to be struggling because there are enough of us who have ascended to places of prominence, connection, wealth. And I think it's them that I'm speaking to. If that's part of your brand, then walk it like you talk it."

The full interview with Ebonnie Rowe is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Ebonnie Rowe produced by Vanessa Greco.