To mark Black History Month in February, the Vancouver Maritime Museum has partnered with the National Congress of Black Women Foundation (NCBWF) to present Changing the Narrative, a virtual workshop about teaching the history of Black Canadians in British Columbia. The workshop will take place on February 12 at 10:00 am.
The two-hour workshop will include:
- the screening of a short video
- panel discussion with three prominent Lower Mainland community members
- question-and-answer session
- quiz that educators can use in their classrooms
For over 35 years, the (NCBWF) has been an instrumental link in connecting Black community members that includes but is not limited to people from Africa, the Caribbean, Canada and America. The organization continues to promote and facilitate activities and programs that foster the advancement, recognition, health and education of female/female-identifying people of African descent and their families.
This workshop is ideal for educators looking for Black history resources for their classroom and for anyone interested in learning about the immense contributions Black Canadians have made in this province.
Tickets for Changing the Narrative are $20 for educators and adults and $10 for students.
A portion of the proceeds from this event will go towards the NCBWF Fall 2021 scholarship/bursary fund which will award 2021 students $1000 to go toward their education.
About the Panelists
Chantal Gibson (chantalgibson.com) is an award-winning teacher-artist living on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish Peoples. As a visual artist, her work confronts anti-Black racism and colonialism head-on, undoing racial stereotypes and imagining BIPOC voices in the spaces and silences left by cultural and institutional erasure. Her art has appeared in cultural institutions across Canada, including in “Where do we go from here?” currently at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Most notably, in a national response to the Black Lives Matter movement, Gibson’s altered text “Who’s Who?” currently sits in the Senate of Canada Building until June 2021 as part of the first installation of work by Black artists.
As an arts educator, Gibson has delivered key-note lectures, public talks, and decolonizing curriculum workshops to students, teachers and administrators across Canada and parts of the US. Her community-centered practice encourages educators and institutions to reflect on the impacts of systemic racism in the classroom. Her latest workshop, The Other James Baldwin uses the voice of Black intellectualism to support conversations around diversity and inclusion.
As a literary artist, Gibson published her debut book of poetry, How She Read (Caitlin Press) in January 2019. Currently, on curricular readings lists across the country, HSR is Gibson’s creative response to her own encounters with racism in the classroom. “The book she wished she had in school,” this grammar insurrection celebrates Black womanhood in Canadian art, literature, history and pop-culture as it unpacks settler-colonialism in the fill-in-the ____ lessons she consumed as a child. Winner of the 2020 Pat Lowther Award for best book of poetry by a Canadian woman and the 2020 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for best book in BC, How She Read was shortlisted for the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize. Named one of CBC Books 24 Canadian Writers on the Rise in 2020, Gibson is an award-winning teacher in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at SFU.
Joy Walcott-Francis, Ph.D is an avid believer of giving back to the community and in helping others and has always been passionate about community work and volunteering to make a difference to one’s community. In her home country of Jamaica, Joy spent her time volunteering with organizations in inner-city communities working on peace initiatives, facilitating workshops on sex and gender violence and hosting remedial literacy classes for adults already in the workplace. It therefore goes without saying that the same amount of fervour for community involvement accompanied her when she moved to B.C. in 2007 to pursue graduate studies. The challenges of living and working in B.C. were, however, more complex. They were now coupled with racial discrimination and marginalization – being forced to notice the Blackness of her skin—being the only Black person in classes, in workshops, at the gym and the only person on transit with an empty seat next to them. These are the experiences that have and continue to fuel her passion for engaging in research and community work in Black communities in B.C.
While being a student at SFU, Joy was an active member of the African and Caribbean Heritage Students’ Association. She volunteered for several years with the African Canadian Soccer and Cultural Association and currently serves on the Board of the African Women’s Health Services Society, BC.
Joy holds a Ph.D in Gender, Sexuality and Women’s from SFU. As a Black feminist, scholar, educator and researcher, Joy’s primary interests are focused on post-colonial and anti-racism work, in particular on the ways in which Black folks are impacted by systems of health inequity.
When not busy with work, Joy enjoys hiking with friends in some of the most beautiful B.C. trails.
Adam Rudder was born in Vancouver and completed his Master of Arts degree in history at the University of Victoria. He is co-chair of the Hogan’s Alley Society, which seeks to preserve and promote the historical, cultural, societal and economic contributions made by Black settlers and their descendants.