CELT and partners bring together TMU community to celebrate Black Queer Joy in special Black History Month event

The space on the 7th floor of the DCC gradually filled with attendees as lyrics from Mary J. Blige’s Family Affair echoed throughout the room, pieces by Toronto photographer Jeremiah Mondesir’s collection An Ode to the Negro Renaissance carefully curated along the walls. Virtual guests started pouring into the digital space before Renée Ferguson, Educational Developer at the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, took to the microphone to introduce the event, urging folks to grab food and make themselves comfortable before getting right into the crux of why the crowd was gathered.

The event, There is nothing optional about the 'Black Experience': Teaching and Black Queer Joy in the Classroom, was centred around a discussion with Mondesir about Black pedagogies, fostering Black studies, and addressing anti-racism, punctuated by reflections about the artist’s work. It was premised on the fact that these discussions are necessary - not optional.

“So this is a Black History Month event,” she began. “You know we always have questions about whether we should be doing Black History Month events versus doing the work all throughout the year. And we should be doing both.”

Ferguson pointed to the work that she and CELT are building on around supporting Black focused pedagogies that engage with and affirm Black life and Black freedom, while also troubling eurocentric ideas of teaching and learning.

She further highlighted the challenges to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in this political moment, focusing particularly on the continued violence towards the Black Queer and Trans communities, and how art, like Jeremiah Mondesir’s photography, demand and sit in a kind of freedom that acknowledges Black Queer lives in Toronto and beyond.

Curtis Maloley, Director, Teaching Development and Digital Learning at CELT, spoke briefly about this commitment and the Centre’s partnership with Dr. Grace-Camille Munroe, Interim Director of TMU’s Black Scholarship Institute, and Dr. Annette Bailey, in launching a new funding initiative devoted to Black scholarship and the development of Black-focused pedagogies

“We are currently working with an Advisory Committee to launch a $70,000 fund that will be devoted to supporting pedagogical research and innovation that advances Black Studies curriculum and addresses anti-Black Racism in the classroom,” says Maloley. “These funds will support Black scholars and students to create a campus environment that is conducive to Black flourishing and that celebrates Black excellence.”

Dr. Yvonne Simpson, Curriculum Specialist at CELT, was then invited to deliver the land acknowledgement, touching on the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Black populations in Canada.

“I am here today not as a settler. For while Black people in Canada have been in this country for over 400 years and we have been beneficiaries of elements of colonization in many ways, we are not its purveyors. We as African peoples have not violently dispossessed Indigenous peoples by imposing our legal systems, institutions, and our customs. We have not forced assimilation on Indigenous peoples into our culture, religions, and or social practices. Given that Canada's colonial conquest of Indigenous peoples and lands was largely funded, through the spoils of enslaved African labour, this reframing of relations is part of the project of reconciliation, and reparations. This acknowledgement also reminds us that we each have different relationships, to the land that we live on, and depending on our ancestry and where we sit in relation to the struggles for justice occurring on this land, we must acknowledge our place in its protection in a way that is true for each and every one of us.”

Dr. Simpson then passed the microphone to M Dougherty, Educational Developer at CELT, who spoke about the work on decolonizing curricula and creating more supportive environments for students with relationships to the classroom that may be fractured by colonialism, racism, and other forms of discrimination. Dougherty announced the upcoming development of a new Live Actor Simulation that is focused on Black and Queer students in the classroom which will be informed by anonymous survey responses.

Following the event’s introduction, Toronto photographer Jeremiah Mondesir joined moderator Danielle Taylor, Internship Coordinator for The Creative School and Co-Chair of the Black Faculty & Staff Community Network.

Taylor began the discussion with a simple question. “What do you want us to know about your work?”. Mondesir started by thanking the crowd for their presence before providing an equally simple yet powerful answer: “Better is possible, better worlds are possible, and I hope that my art reflects that world for you all to see.”

Mondesir reflected on the multifacetedness of Black communities, the idea of troubling white spaces, and what Black Queer Joy looks like.

“I think for me, Black Joy is freedom in a lot of ways. It’s the ability to just be without any kind of burden of racism, of sexism, of discrimination…of these forms of oppression that have been manufactured,” says Mondesir.

Mondesir talked briefly about their post-secondary experience. How they attended the University of Ottawa for Sociology and Communications and Carleton University for Sociology and Law before dropping out due to the lack of Black faculty and race-based classes in Sociology.

“I was really disappointed. I was studying Sociology so how can we not study race?”

They eventually went on to complete a culinary program at George Brown College, opting for more creative outlets for their self-expression, which was when they picked up a camera and started delving deeper into visual storytelling.

“I like photography because it gets to the point,” says Mondesir. “You have a whole entire story behind this. This is what you look at. This is what I’m aiming for.”

Mondesir elaborated on the value of creative outlets, referring to Ursula K. LeGuin’s essay Why are Americans Afraid of Dragons before asserting boldly “Imagination is the first step to liberation”.

They then took the audience through some of their favourite pieces from their collection. The first, JERK 2023, shot at the bi-annual experimental Caribbean and global club music rave: 1800JERK. The second, Sundress Shawty, drawing on influence from Yoruba and Haitian Cosmologies, and inspired by Beyoncé’s Hold Up music video. And the third, Afro Punk, showcasing the subject adorned in chain jewlery and bright red hair in front of a red backdrop.

As the event drew to a close, Dr. Yvonne Simpson was once again asked to say a few words. “I have this practice of reading from this book,” Dr. Simpson said while flipping through a copy of Ancestors Said by Ehime Ora, before settling on a page. “I leave you with these words as we come together again to express our power of change. ‘Your heart is counting on you to take good care of it from this moment forward. Never stray too far from love’, because if we take love with us, it’s the great unifier. Nothing can destroy us.”

Dr. Grace Camille Munroe was then invited to deliver the final word of the event. She expressed her excitement about future opportunities for partnership and collaboration with the Centre and other groups across campus, saying “I want to highlight this concept of Black flourishing and creating the environment necessary for us to thrive because when we thrive, we all thrive. Don’t forget that a lot of the work that we’re doing is not just for the Black community, it’s for all of our communities here.”

The Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching wishes to thank the Black Scholarship Institute, The Creative School, and the Black Faculty & Staff Community Network for their sponsorship and support in delivering this event. We wish to also thank Jeremiah Mondesir for their participation.