By Shaundra Selvaggi

Canadian treasure Molly Johnson is gearing up for this week’s Global Cabaret Festival, where she will share the stage with old friend Albert Schultz and her sister, actress Taborah Johnson – she hopes.

“We’ll see if they show.  I’m pretty sure Albert will show up cause he’s gotta. My sister…I don’t know.”  Albert is general director of the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, home of the festival and Soulpepper Theatre Company productions.

“I’m lazy. The more people I can stack in there, it’ll be great,” she jokes.

Swaymag.ca caught up with the bohemian singer-songwriter, and she’s turning over a few new leaves in her life.

The Juno Award-winning vocalist is considering recording singles available exclusively for download and a best of album full of old and new songs for countries she hasn’t been to yet. Like Japan and the US.

And Johnson has more freedom to experience the perks of an international singing career now that her sons have reached the ages of 10 and 13.

“I had to wait until they were of a certain age.  You can’t go to Japan for four days like I can go to France.”   For the past eight years, she’s been flying to Europe on a Thursday and coming home on a Sunday.  And she currently works as host of CBC Radio 2’s weekend morning show. Johnson says this seemingly whirlwind schedule was part of the choice she made to be a constant presence in her children’s lives.

“It’s an interesting curve that children throw into your career. And I just made the decision, having them later in life, to stick around. You gotta make those choices.”

And judging by the open relationship she has cultivated with her young sons, it would appear that choice paid off in spades.

“I can have conversations with them.  There comes a day – if you keep talking to your child like a normal person and always open – when they’re all of sudden responding in clear, completely clear thoughts,” she says with excitement.

“My 13-year-old…total open communication because he’s been doing it since he was 2 years old. I mean, it’s mumbly and a bit foggy. He’s a teenaged boy. But at the end of the day, he tells me the truth and he tells me what’s on his mind.  I think it’s a mom’s job to get boys to speak, to talk about how they feel.”

And today she says the boys are “lovely, stable and happy” children and very supportive of her work, a large part of which is devoted to The Black History Project: Canada, an initiative devoted to updating Canadian history through the inclusion of black contributions and achievements.  She is particularly passionate about getting Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes into the grade 11 curriculum.

“Lawrence Hill is an incredible writer and that book is beautifully researched, and I truly believe that people of colour who come to Canada need to see themselves in the curriculum.

“It’s great to hear the African woman.  You’ve never heard a man write in a woman’s voice the way Lawrence Hill has done.  The character is stunning.  This is a fantastic woman’s story, and I’ve been pushing it forward.  It’s not that hard!  It’s a great book.”

She adds that having Chris Spence as director of the Toronto District School Board is a great step in this direction.

Molly, the daughter of a white mother and black father, recalls a lack of diversity in the days of her childhood.  “When I was a little girl growing up in Toronto in the 70s, there were no black- or brown-skinned kids in my school, never mind in my class.

I’m just stunned by how the colour of this city and the feel of this city has changed.  It’s fascinating and exciting to me.  But we need to address it.”

See Molly in action this Thursday, September 30 at 8:30pm.  Tickets are still available on the Young Centre website.  Saturday night’s show is already sold out.

Photos by George Whiteside and Andrew MacNaughtan