BY AFROTORONTO TEAM
Adrian Leckie brings Scarborough’s voice to the Grand Slam stage
October 15, 2026
Adrian Leckie has spent more than a decade building spaces where Black youth in Scarborough feel seen and heard. On November 21, the Imani program lead and first-generation university graduate takes the Glenn Gould Studio stage as one of 14 finalists at Speaker Slam’s Grand Slam, carrying a winning story about the silence many men inherit and the conversation with his father that broke it.
Adrian Leckie has a habit of turning hard moments into open doors. He is team lead of the Imani Black Academic Mentorship Program at the University of Toronto Scarborough. In that role he connects Black university students with Black youth across seven East Scarborough elementary and high schools. Students in grades 7 to 12 receive tutoring, mentorship and a clear picture of what campus life can look like.
On Saturday, November 21, he steps into a different spotlight. Leckie is one of 14 finalists at the Grand Slam, the year-end championship of Speaker Slam, which bills itself as North America’s largest inspirational speaking competition. The finals take place at the CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio on Front Street West. The title of Inspirational Speaker of the Year is on the line.
He earned his place by winning Speaker Slam’s Identity competition in July with “No Capes Required.” The five-minute speech is about a silence he carried from childhood and the conversation with his father that ended it. This is his second run at the Grand Slam, and the timing fits. The finals land two days after International Men’s Day and in the middle of Movember, a month when conversations about men’s health move to the front of the room.
From Crescent Town to the head of the class
Leckie was born and raised in Toronto and grew up in Crescent Town as an only child in a Jamaican family. He was the first in his family to attend university. His early academic record suggested a smooth ride, and he graduated as his high school’s valedictorian.
University told a different story. Leckie entered the University of Toronto as a biology student, following the path he felt he was expected to take. A disappointing grade in second year pushed him to rethink that plan, and he came close to failing out before changing course.
That pivot shaped everything that followed. He moved into psychology and completed a Bachelor of Science in the field. He later earned a Master of Education in adult and community development, also at U of T. The near-miss became the foundation of his life’s work. Today he lives and works in Scarborough, mentoring students through the same crossroads he once faced.
Inside the Imani program
Imani has been part of student life at UTSC for well over a decade, and its model is simple and effective. Black UTSC students go into partner schools each week from fall through spring. They build relationships with younger students and support both their schoolwork and their personal growth. The program also runs culturally grounded workshops that give participants room to explore who they are and where they want to go.
According to the university, the program’s core offerings include:
- Weekly academic tutoring and one-on-one mentorship
- Afrocentric workshops centred on Black joy, social justice, the arts and healing
- Direct connections with Black post-secondary students
- Campus visits and educational trips across Scarborough and Toronto
- Resources that help students prepare for college or university
Leckie’s role reaches beyond day-to-day operations. He wrote “Breaking Ground: Black Student Transitions in Canadian Higher Education,” a chapter in an open-access Canadian volume on student success programming. The chapter examines the services and resources available to Black first-year students. He has also presented to post-secondary professionals on building Black student programming under the Scarborough Charter, the national commitment Canadian universities and colleges signed to advance Black inclusion on campus.
He has spoken for the Toronto District School Board, the University of Toronto and Black Women in Motion. He has been featured in Now Toronto, Bold Journey and the Toronto Star, and he has appeared on CBC’s Metro Morning.
A speech about what men leave unsaid
“No Capes Required” grew out of Leckie’s lifelong fascination with superheroes and secret identities, but its real subject is closer to home. The speech explores the parts of ourselves we keep hidden to avoid unsettling others. It also explores the relief that comes from finally saying them out loud.
In an interview with Now Toronto, Leckie described growing up with the expectation that emotional struggles should be handled quietly. “You need to be man enough,” he recalled hearing. A conversation with his father helped him see how much of himself he had been holding back. Writing the speech meant coaching himself through the same discomfort he now helps young people work through.
His message has practical weight. Leckie points out that men who are struggling often overwork, go quiet or joke their way through pain, so the ones who appear fine are easy to overlook. The tools he keeps returning to, in schools and beyond, are mentorship, small-group conversations and honest one-on-one check-ins.
A track record on the Speaker Slam stage
Leckie first made his mark at Speaker Slam in 2023. That year he placed second at the Belonging competition with a speech about being stopped by police at 16 while walking home from a homecoming game. As a teenager, he had not had the words to explain that experience. The same season, he advanced to the Grand Slam finals.
In 2026 he won the Identity competition, finishing first in a field of ten. He returns to the finals with a sharper focus on clarity and self-knowledge, and he sees each appearance as a chance to grow. “Every time I go on the Speaker Slam stage, I evolve as a speaker,” he says.
What to expect on November 21
The Grand Slam brings together the top 14 speakers from Speaker Slam’s 2026 season. Each finalist delivers a brand-new five-minute speech on the theme of Catalyst, which asks speakers to explore the moment, person or decision that changed everything. A panel of eight industry judges scores each performance on message clarity, storytelling, transformative impact, presence, entertainment and overall presentation.
Tickets and the full list of finalists are available at speakerslam.com/events. You can watch Leckie’s winning Identity speech, “No Capes Required,” on YouTube before the finals.
Event Details | Information |
|---|---|
Event | 2026 Grand Slam, Speaker Slam’s 10th annual finals |
Date | Saturday, November 21, 2026 |
Time | Doors at 6 p.m., show at 7 p.m. |
Venue | CBC Glenn Gould Studio, 250 Front Street West, Toronto |
Theme | Catalyst |
Tickets | $100 general admission, $25 livestream |
Top prize | $5,000 cash plus a prize package valued at up to $50,000 |
The audacity to be heard
Leckie’s path runs from a Crescent Town childhood, through a near-derailment at university, to a career helping Scarborough teenagers picture themselves on campus. Along the way he has written about Black student transitions. He has built programming that puts Black university students in front of the youth who need them most. He has also taken two deeply personal stories to one of the continent’s busiest speaking stages. Each step has followed the same instinct, which is to speak plainly about the things people are taught to keep quiet.
The Grand Slam will judge one five-minute speech, but the work behind it spans more than a decade. Whatever the result, Leckie walks onto the Glenn Gould Studio stage with the message he shares with every young person he mentors. “There’s nothing holding you back from big dreams,” he says. “You just gotta be bold and throw a dash of audacity in there to go and pursue them.”