Black Works at TMU
Images from left to right: Young women’s group | The March on Washington for for Jobs and Freedom, Aug. 28, 1963, credit: Library of Congress | Cover of Spear: Canada’s Truth and Soul Magazine, August 1972 | Black Carpenters & supporters demonstrate in the Labour Day parade, Toronto ON, 1971 | Stan Hardy, Henry Wright, Cy McLean and Al Meyers, Late 1930s
Black Works at TMU
The purpose of this section is to highlight and celebrate the research, creative work, and advocacy done by Black TMU faculty, staff, and students. It's also meant to show the depth and breadth of Black Studies and allow members of the Black community at TMU to find points of connection and opportunities to collaborate. This list of works is by no means exhaustive and we will continue to add to the collection as we learn more.
Mapping Ontario's Black Archive
On January 28, 2022, Dr. Cheryl Thompson & Dr. Karen Cyrus spoke at the Amherstburg Freedom Museum about their project: Mapping Ontario's Black Archive.
Talking Black Studies
In February 2022, The Creative School and The Faculty of Arts, in collaboration with The Catalyst, hosted the 3rd Annual Black History Month celebration. The first event in this co-collaboration, was Talking Black Studies: a virtual fireside chat featuring Black faculty and allies at Toronto Metropolitan University who will be teaching courses in the Black Studies minor.
A Map to the Door of No Return at 20
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Dionne Brand's "A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging", Professor Darcy Ballantyne reads passages from this important work.
Black Oculars
Under the leadership of Principal Investigator and project convener Dr. Idil Abdillahi, this five-part monthly speaker series from September 2022 to January 2023 brought together researchers, artists, front-line practitioners, and community members for the purposes of knowledge exchange and dissemination.
Black Canada & the Great War
In March 2021, the Black Canada and the Great War symposium brought together a vibrant group of researchers—family and community historians, academics, veterans and active-service personnel, and museum curators—who are recovering the stories of Black Canadian participation in, and contributions to, World War 1.
The Akua Benjamin Legacy Project
The Akua Benjamin Legacy Project focuses on anti-Black racism and resistance. It seeks to instill a sense of history and pride for the significant contributions of Black Canadians to the younger generation of activists and/or activists-to-be.
Walls to Bridges
Walls to Bridges (W2B) is an innovative educational program that brings together incarcerated and non-incarcerated students to study post-secondary courses in jails and prisons across Canada. Several TMU faculty members are involved in the project, including Dr. Rai Reece.
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The Harvest Collective and Learning Circle is a Black Food Sovereignty initiative at the Urban Farm. Launched in 2021, the Harvest Collective and Learning Circle aims to engage Black students, faculty, staff and the broader community through the sharing of food, from farm to table.
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The Black Planning Project aims to amplify Black voices and perspectives in city and community building, planning, and development. Their goal is to reshape planning practice and facilitate more sustainable and resilient communities.
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A booksmart kid from Toronto, Eternity Martis was excited to move away to Western University for her undergraduate degree. But as one of the few Black students there, she soon discovered that the campus experiences she'd seen in movies were far more complex in reality. Using her award-winning reporting skills, Eternity connects her own experience to the systemic issues plaguing students today. It's a memoir of pain, but also resilience.
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This annotated bibliography is an extension of a Community Engaged Learning and Teaching initiative, developed by Dr. Anne-Marie Singh and Dr. Reena Tandon, for CRM 206 Race, Ethnicity and Justice. The project created a collaborative space for students to critically examine racially segregated schools in Ontario and Egerton Ryerson’s role in developing legislation that made the legal exclusion of Black children from public education possible.
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Started by Charmaine Gooden in 2021, the Black Fashion Canada Database is a platform that aims to preserve, document and celebrate the contributions of members of the Black fashion and beauty industry. The collection consists of biographical profiles, photographs, media clips, and relevant archival materials.
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Grace-Edward Galabuzi is an Associate Professor in the Politics and Public Administration Department at TMU and a Research Associate at the Centre for Social Justice in Toronto. He is also a Fellow at the Broadbent Institute, Canada's leading progressive, independent organization championing change through the promotion of democracy, equality, and sustainability.
Colour of Birth (external link, opens in new window)
There is a stark, historical under-representation of the working lives of women and, in particular, the work of midwives of colour who lived in early settlement communities during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Colour of Birth brings together historians, researchers, archivists, and storytellers to examine the hidden histories of Black midwives in Canada, and create a virtual collection of artifacts and birth stories.