Exhibitionists·Video

Lido Pimienta is a musical force to reckon with — and she's also a mama and protector

The Polaris Prize winner opens up about internet trolls, life as a mother and her Wayuu heritage.

The Polaris Prize winner opens up about internet trolls, life as a mother and her Wayuu heritage

Lido Pimienta is a musical force to reckon with — and she’s also a mama and protector

7 years ago
Duration 4:28
The Polaris Prize winner opens up about internet trolls, life as a mother and her Wayuu heritage

For the past few years, Lido Pimienta has been making moves in music and in art. And this year, along with releasing her new album La Papessa, she picked up the Polaris Prize and a steadily increasing audience. She's a powerhouse — writing and producing her own material, making her own music videos and creating the visuals you'll see on stage with her at her shows. And not only that, but she's the manager of her own career and has been raising her son.

In short, she's an inspiring character. She's stood up against the rigours of having a multi-tasking life — and more recently, she's also held fast against internet trolls. During a concert she played in Halifax last year, she performed the gesture of asking women to move to the front of the audience, and then she asked the white women to move behind women of colour, gender non-binary people and non-ablebodied people. It's a request that's important to Pimienta, but it also drew the wrath of people on Twitter, some of whom called her things like "reverse racist."

Lido Pimienta at home. (CBC Arts)

In this piece, you get to see what's driven Pimienta's strength — she opens up about internet haters and about the centre of her life: being a mother. And she's not finished — as she says in this piece, "I'm gonna be done when I'm texting regularly with Solange."

See Lido Pimienta on at The Drake Hotel - Underground in Toronto on February 16 and 17

Watch CBC Arts: Exhibitionists on Friday nights at 11:30pm (12am NT) and Sundays at 3:30pm (4pm NT) on CBC Television.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

April Aliermo is a Filipinx-Canadian musician, songwriter, entrepreneur and educator based out of Toronto. She plays bass and co-writes music and lyrics for Hooded Fang and Phèdre. She strives to build conscious communities while having the time of her life.