When Braving Beauty Cabaret co-curators Toyin Lamas and Marshall Vielle came together to conceptualize the show, they knew that they wanted to share stories: stories from Indigenous artists from Treaty 7, the First Peoples of this land, and stories from members of the African diaspora in Calgary, many of whom have arrived recently by comparison. Between these two groups there are more commonalities than you might think, woven deep into their ancestral traditions and culture – commonalities of storytelling and dance, colour and vibrancy.