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There is nothing optional about the 'Black Experience': Teaching and Black Queer Joy in the Classroom
Jeremiah Mondesir, The City Never Sleeps. From An Ode to the Negro Renaissance (ONR). © Jeremiah Mondesir 2023
There is nothing optional about the 'Black Experience'
Teaching and Black Queer Joy in the Classroom
Event Information
DATE
Monday, February 26, 2024
TIME
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, with the artist talk and Q&A from 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
LOCATION
Hybrid/DCC 707/709
This Black History Month, the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) is excited to expand on our commitment to nurturing Black pedagogies, fostering Black studies, and addressing anti-racism, particularly anti-Black racism. Join us for our event, "There is nothing optional about the 'Black Experience': Teaching and Black Queer Joy in the Classroom," as we talk with Toronto photographer, Jeremiah Mondesir about critical pedagogies of Black queer joy and art within the post-secondary classroom, punctuated by an exploration of their photography series, An Ode to the Negro Renaissance (ONR).
An Ode to the Negro Renaissance (ONR)
An Ode to the Negro Renaissance (ONR) is a celebration of Black Queer joy, love, and community. In the words of poet Toi Derricotte, “Joy is an act of resistance.” During a time of increasingly Anti-Queer and Anti-Black rhetoric and policy, along with a lifetime of prosecution, the continued existence and therefore resistance against white supremacy by Black Queer folk is firmly ingrained in our ability to sustain joy and love throughout our communities. Across time and space, Black Queer folk have never forsaken art. Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance and American artist LaToya Ruby Frazier, this photo series aims to mend the gap between theory and praxis by creating and believing in a world where Black Queer joy is not only radically transformative but also a path to healing.
ONR is an invitation to take a glimpse into this world of Black Queer Joy, and the magic that it beholds. For this series, Mondesir has chosen a final set of 20 photographs that paint a portrait of Black Queer Joy in Toronto. To create a juxtaposition of contemporary and classical, they surround the studio portraits with scenes from Toronto’s Queer nightlife shot on 35mm film. The goal of this juxtaposition is to create an experience that combines the old and the new to create something more. As Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality,” Black Queer folk experience the world with interweaving and overlapping systems of oppression. Therefore, the resistance to this must also be multifaceted and interconnected.
"This series serves as an active attempt to build and preserve the legacy of Black Queer Canadians. Art is key to documenting the social conditions of our era. This is why my work centres on Black Queer folk, as a direct opposition to the agents of white supremacy. The erasure of Black, Indigenous, and Queer livelihood is one of the greatest architects of white supremacy. In the face of this, we must memorialize our legacies through art. To memorialize our communities is to engrave ourselves on the face of history."
Jeremiah Mondesir, Afro Punk 2, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. While coined in 2003 by filmmaker James Spooner, the Afropunk has been a figure in Black American history long before Elvis. To resist and to create new life from this resistance is an ability that Black people have sustained up to this very day. Whiteness acts to define itself as the “centre” while working to “other” all things that do not fit the ever-changing conditions of Whiteness. The Afro Punk resists this marginalization and instead creates a world in which Blackness, Queerness, and Love are at the centre.
Jeremiah Mondesir, Afro Punk 1, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. While coined in 2003 by filmmaker James Spooner, the Afropunk has been a figure in Black American history long before Elvis. To resist and to create new life from this resistance is an ability that Black people have sustained up to this very day. Whiteness acts to define itself as the “centre” while working to “other” all things that do not fit the ever-changing conditions of Whiteness. The Afro Punk resists this marginalization and instead creates a world in which Blackness, Queerness, and Love are at the centre.
Jeremiah Mondesir, All in a Gaze, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. Intimacy is held in the small moments. It is sometimes the small acts of love that mean the most to us. How do we as queer people show our love with our gaze? They do say the eyes are a portal to the soul.
Jeremiah Mondesir, Babe Next Door 1, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. This is for all the tender babes. Imagine a world in which our softest parts are praised and nurtured. Babe Next Door is a direct response to the hyper-independence projected on to dark skin queer folk. This babe is a call to all Black Queers to come as you are. While a white supremacist society may cast you aside, you are worthy of love, you are deserving of connection. You are enough. Dark skin queer folk are never afforded the privilege of “fragility”, so what does it look like when we reclaim our soft parts?
Jeremiah Mondesir, Babe Next Door 2, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. This is for all the tender babes. Imagine a world in which our softest parts are praised and nurtured. Babe Next Door is a direct response to the hyper-independence projected on to dark skin queer folk. This babe is a call to all Black Queers to come as you are. While a white supremacist society may cast you aside, you are worthy of love, you are deserving of connection. You are enough. Dark skin queer folk are never afforded the privilege of “fragility”, so what does it look like when we reclaim our soft parts?
Jeremiah Mondesir, Blockobana 2023, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. Shot at Block-o-bana event by Blackness Yes! and Blockorama. Created in 1999 due to “lack of representation during mainstream Toronto pride,” Blocko has grown into the longest running event for ACB queer folk in the country. Block-o-bana is a space for queer Caribbean folk to engage in all their identities fully with no shame. @blockorama_to on Instagram for more events.
Jeremiah Mondesir, Circus Halloween 2023, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. Shot at Pep Rally’s circus event.
Jeremiah Mondesir, Community Love, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir
Jeremiah Mondesir, Disco Ulysses 1, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. An ode to all the divas out there. May your curls stay moisturized, your edges laid, and your body loved. Disco was a time of big hair, big personalities, and big plans. Make the adventure to a Brave New World, one where our smiles know no bounds. A world where our hips sway in constant motion to the beating sound of our hearts in sync. A world Queer in all its facets, one that has left the shackles of White Supremacy behind. That imagines liberation as the ability to be free from persecution, to be able to live, not just survive.
Jeremiah Mondesir, Disco Ulysses 2, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. An ode to all the divas out there. May your curls stay moisturized, your edges laid, and your body loved. Disco was a time of big hair, big personalities, and big plans. Make the adventure to a Brave New World, one where our smiles know no bounds. A world where our hips sway in constant motion to the beating sound of our hearts in sync. A world Queer in all its facets, one that has left the shackles of White Supremacy behind. That imagines liberation as the ability to be free from persecution, to be able to live, not just survive.
Jeremiah Mondesir, Guarding the Gate, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. In honour of all the Studs holding it down, and keeping us safe at night. Though the girls like to tussle after a couple of drinks, we appreciate all the work you do. To create community is also to cultivate a feeling of safety. In dreaming of our new world we must be also to defend our love.
Jeremiah Mondesir, JERK 2023, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. Shot at the bi-annual experimental Caribbean and global club music rave: 1800JERK The host Bambii writes “This is a love letter to the Caribbean Diaspora past and future in all its sonic forms” @1800.jerk @bam_bii on Instagram for more events.
Jeremiah Mondesir, She's THAT girl, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. It’s not the diamonds, and it’s most certainly not the pearls. This babe has got star power.
Jeremiah Mondesir, Sundress Shawty 1, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. This is an homage to all the lovers. Drawing on influence from Yoruba and Haitian cosmologies, join this Shawty in their sacred dance. Each footstep in time with the march of the drums, the sundress is a symbol of warmth, fluidity, and joy. Inspired by Beyoncé’s Hold Up music video, I wanted to display grace in its glory. Sundress Shawty invites you to show up as your most free self and asks you to dance, for that is the purest expression of energy.
Jeremiah Mondesir, Sundress Shawty 2, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. This is an homage to all the lovers. Drawing on influence from Yoruba and Haitian cosmologies, join this Shawty in their sacred dance. Each footstep in time with the march of the drums, the sundress is a symbol of warmth, fluidity, and joy. Inspired by Beyoncé’s Hold Up music video, I wanted to display grace in its glory. Sundress Shawty invites you to show up as your most free self and asks you to dance, for that is the purest expression of energy.
Jeremiah Mondesir, The City Never Sleeps, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. Captured at the STACKT Market, this photo serves to position the series though a Tkaronto lens. An Ode to the Negro Renaissance seeks to explore how spaces are formed and sustained through formal (/or informal) policies. In the tradition of Sherene Razack, this series understands this city to not just have emerged but was rather created and sustained through colonial means. Yet in spite of this, Black queer folk survive by carving out our own pockets of space that are antithetical to the white colonial project. Nightlife has always been and continues to be an important source of community building and opportunity for creation. Fortunately for us, the city never truly sleeps.
Jeremiah Mondesir, The Laugh of Medusa 1, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. Based on the Hélène Cixous essay of the same name, this is an outright rejection and denouncement of white supremacy and its agents. How can we as Black people, as QUEER people, truly know ourselves with a language that cannot even begin to convey our multitude of being? It is imperative that we write our own stories. Ones with happy endings, with coming out stories that spark hope. Take hold of your imagination and create a world that has yet to be written.
Jeremiah Mondesir, The Laugh of Medusa 2, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir. Based on the Hélène Cixous essay of the same name, this is an outright rejection and denouncement of white supremacy and its agents. How can we as Black people, as QUEER people, truly know ourselves with a language that cannot even begin to convey our multitude of being? It is imperative that we write our own stories. Ones with happy endings, with coming out stories that spark hope. Take hold of your imagination and create a world that has yet to be written.
Jeremiah Mondesir, The Sisters 1, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir
Jeremiah Mondesir, The Sisters 2, from An Ode to the Negro Renaissance. © Jeremiah Mondesir
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About the Artist
Jeremiah Mondesir considers themself a storyteller, who is able to use different art mediums to weave tales. At 23 years old they love to discover and create stories that are kept from the canon of what we understand to be Black history. Being born in the United States to two Haitian parents, and then moving to Canada at the age of 10 has allowed them a unique perspective on Black culture and more importantly Black joy across North and Central America. As a Black Queer artist, their work reflects their hopes and dreams for a world that is better than the one we currently live in. They believe that art is key to documenting the social conditions of our era. That the erasure of Black, Indigenous, and especially Queer livelihood is one of the greatest architects of white supremacy. In the face of this, they aim to join the fight to memorialize Black Queer legacies through art.
Follow Jeremiah Mondesir on Instagram (external link)
Photo by Anthony Gebrehiwot or TonyxTones.
This event was planned in partnership with the Black Faculty and Staff Community Network and is sponsored by:
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