In response to increased inequality, dispossession and violence, scholars, artists, students and community members from North America and the Caribbean will gather in Toronto from Oct. 24 to 26 for an event series titled “Decolonization, Social Movements and Performance in the Caribbean and Canada 1968-1988.” The events, co-organized by York University Associate Professor Honor Ford-Smith, will explore decolonization between 1968 and 1988 through the lens of performance and ask what this period’s repertoire of knowledge has to offer decolonial visions and struggles in the present.
The events will take places as follows:
Hands-on performance workshop with Diane Roberts, PhD candidate, Concordia University
“The Arrivals Legacy Project: Navigating Loss, Reviving Stories of Recovery and Return”
Oct. 24, 1 to 3 p.m., Dance Annex, 527 Bloor St. W.
Hands-on performance workshop with Camille Turner, PhD student, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University
“Slavery Happened Here: An Afronautic Research Lab”
Oct. 24, 3:30 to 6 p.m., Media Commons Theatre, Robarts Library, 130 St. George St., University of Toronto
Opening reception and book launch of The Coup Clock Clicks by Brian Meeks
Featuring readings by Carol Lawes, Lillian Allen, Canisia Lubrin, Oonya Kempadoo and more.
Oct. 24, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., A Different Booklist, 779 Bathurst St.
Keynote by Erna Brodber, Jamaican novelist and activist
“After the Looking Glass: Blackspace and Emancipation”
Oct. 25, 6:30 to 8 p.m., George Ignatieff Theatre, Trinity College in the University of Toronto, 6 Hoskin Avenue
Panels and roundtables
Program available on the event website.
Oct. 25 and 26, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 305 Founders College, York University
All of these events are free and open to the public.
The events are sponsored by: the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora, York University; the deans of the Faculty of Environmental Studies and Education, York University; the Chair of the Department of Humanities, York University; the Centre for Research on Latin America & the Caribbean, York University; the Centre for Feminist Research, York University; the African & African Diaspora Knowledge Initiative Project, Brown University; the Humanities Research Institute, Brock University; the Women & Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto; the Graduate Program in Theatre & Performance Studies, York University; and Reclaiming Justice: Memory and Memorialization of Violence.
The events were organized by: B. Anthony Bogues, director of the Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice, Asa Messer Professor of Humanities and Critical Theory, Brown University; Ronald Cummings, associate professor of English, language and literature, Brock University; and Honor Ford-Smith, associate professor, cultural and artistic practices for social and environmental justice, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University.
For more information about the events, visit decolonization.info.yorku.ca.