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Conversations with progressive artists, curators, writers, scholars, students and critical thinkers about art, culture and community. Collaboratively developed with the Office of Diversity and Human Rights, University of Guelph.
Episodes
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Kosisochukwu "Kosi" Nnebe is a Nigerian-Canadian visual artist raised in Gatineau, Quebec, currently based in Ottawa. Her work aims to combine critical theory and visual arts practice, and explores the role of art as an interactive and disruptive force. This two part interview includes a conversation with Nigerian-Canadian curator and co-host Liz Ikiriko and addresses the challenges of growing up Black in predominantly white communities (Nnebe in Gatineau, Ikiriko in Regina). Together, they reflect on the concept of "home-going" and the impact of African-American culture on Black communities in Canada and the wide diversity of cultures within the African Diaspora.
www.colouredconversations.com and Instagram @colouredconversations
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Artist, activist and proud Grandmother, Gloria Swain speaks frankly about her inseperable practices of art and activism advocating for Black and Indigenous lives, for those living with mental illness and against ageism in the arts. A recent MA grad from York University, Swain reflects on growing up during segregation in the southern United States before moving to Toronto (via Brooklyn, New York). An unapologetic voice of love and resilience, Swain continues to be a powerful presence in the community and a mentor to a new generation. Kosisochukwu "Kosi" Nnebe (featured in in Black Lives Rooted episode #1) joins the conversation with Swain.
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Dr. Charmaine Nelson, the only black Professor of Art History in Canada (McGill University, Montreal), is currently the 2017-2018 William Lyon Mackenzie King Chair for Canadian Studies at Harvard University where she continues to deepen her research on Canadian fugitive slave advertisements, while teaching courses in Canadian Art and on the Visual Culture of Translatlantic Slavery. Having taught a class about the Visual Culture of Slavery for more than a decade at McGill, Nelson has seen hundreds of students come through her classes with no idea that Canada has a history of slavery. Nelson speaks candidly about her research, her father Maxwell B. Nelson's Ontario Human Rights Commission victory over the Durham Board of Education for discrimination on the basis of race and colour (1990), and her own experiences of anti-black racism in education, including at McGill, a university founded by a wealthy slave owner.
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Anique Jordan and Camille Turner in conversation reflecting on their work, the role of art as activisim, absence and erasure of Black history in Canada and the country's "national amnesia" (Turner). Both artists speak about their relationships to family, Trinidad (Jordan) and Jamaica (Turner), and engaging with history, the archive and performance. Jordan (in Trinidad) shares her current research into, and participation in, Carnival while Turner addresses her ongoing creative research on the history of slavery in Canada.
www.aniquejjordan.com & www.camilleturner.com
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Charmaine Lurch is an arts researcher and interdisciplinary artist. She is influenced by a wealth of cultural experiences, academic studies and formal art education. Charmaine’s present research involves an examination of how anti-black racism creates a climate of invisibility and erasure of the experiences and agency of racially marked subjects in society. Most notable is her work with Inner City Angels, an art education charity bringing innovative approaches and awareness around social justice and environmental issue to Toronto schools. Lurch speaks of her recent work, family and her love of bees.
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Monday Mar 12, 2018
With family roots in the Dawn Settlement (founded by the fugitive slave Josiah Henson in 1841), Reighen Grineage grew up within the only Black family in Dresden, Ontario (an historically Black community). A 7-8th generation Canadian, she speaks about anti-black racism, family, and her experiences as a university student. A two part conversation with Andrew Hunter (AGG Senior Curator) & Petura Burrows (Master in Media in Journalism & Communications).
In this interview Reighen mentions her work at Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site.
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Born in Hamilton, Ontario, artist Jan Wade's father’s family is African/Native American from the southern United States and her mother’s family is of European decent. When they decided to marry in 1951, they were detained and questioned by the Hamilton Police Department under the city's Miscegenation Law. Wade speaks about being raised within a close-knit-segregated community experiencing, witnessing many of the dramatic changes brought on by the advent of the Civil Rights Movement, and the importance of the Black Church. She has researched both African-diasporic and European spiritual, cultural, intellectual practices and their interplay within slave cultures. This research has been an inspiring and pivotal point in the on-going development of her art.
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Monday Mar 12, 2018
In this extended interview, influential artist, activist and educator Syrus Marcus Ware talks about being an artist (visual and performance) and activist, his family in Montreal, Toronto and Memphis Tennessee, being a twin and a parent, Black Lives Matter Toronto, the founding of Blockorama and Pride Toronto, and working at the Art Gallery of Ontario. A powerful narrative of love in the face of homo- and transphobia and anti-black racism, Ware projects an intensely compassionate commitment to social change.
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Canadian artist Jamilah Malika and curator and educator Felicia Mings in conversation from their current homes in Chicago. Malika is currently an MFA candidate at the Art Institute of Chicago while Mings is the Inaugural Coordinator of Andrew W. Mellon Academic Programs at the Art Institute of Chicago. Malika and Mings speak about their work, their experiences in Canada and the United States, and the dominance of African American culture on ideas of Blackness in Canada and globally.
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Artist and arts educator Sean George was born in Brooklyn, New York, has lived in Trinidad, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto. From 1995 to 2010, he worked at the Vancouver Art Gallery in the Public Programmes and Education Department, facilitating school and adult programmes. Now based in Barrie, he emphasizes public engagement, continuing to work with communities historically marginalized by arts institutions and with a strong commitment to mental health issues.