Events & Workshops

 

Please be mindful of your time zone as all times listed are Saskatchewan time. Find your time zone here: https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter

 

This event will be recorded and made available for 30 days on the SWG YouTube channel following the event: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRAIIcrpQW0NcY6ZM0GGSzw

 

To register, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kaJmUEURTsC55An9jlwlVQ

 

Every February, from the 1-28^th, people in Canada are invited to participate in Black History Month/Black Futures Month festivities and events that honour the legacy of Black Canadians and their communities.

 

The (USA) Black History Month 2023 theme, “Black Resistance,” explores how "African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression, in all forms, especially the racial terrorism of lynching, racial pogroms and police killings," since the nation's earliest days. The Canadian Black History Month 2023 theme is “Ours to tell”. This theme represents both an opportunity to engage in open dialogue and a commitment to learning more about the stories Black communities in Canada have to tell about their histories, successes, sacrifices, and triumphs.

 

Join Peace Akintade-Oluwagbeye and K. P. Dennis in conversation around what it means to take up space as a Black artist, what it means to be successful, and other important aspects of art and life, and especially, reflect and respond to these themes: “Black Resistance” and “Ours to tell”.

 

This event will open with Adijat Bunmi Adekunle, a Mental Health Therapist and the Clinical Director of Heartfire Medicine, who will share strategies to navigate the complexities of our contemporary world.   

 

We’ll end our event with a book draw and book recommendations by Black authors to help you experience the richness of their work.

 

Join us for Forging Futures: A Black History Month and Black Futures Month Reading where we celebrate and amplify the talent of Black writers in Saskatchewan and Canada, and demonstrate wholeheartedly that #blackwritersmatter then, now, and into the future.

 

Mental Health Segment with Adijat Bunmi Adekunle

Settler colonialism, white supremacy, neoliberal capitalism, and cis-hetero-patriarchy maintain dominance by exhausting and depleting any who resist or seek liberation. Mental Health, rest, and self-compassion aren't only personal priorities — they're political. The future we’re forging comes with a long struggle.

 

See more about Heartfire Medicine and its incredible services here and watch their 15-second introduction video here. Find them on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

 

Resources

Black Futures Month was established in 2015 by the Movement for Black Lives. It is a “visionary, forward-looking spin on celebrations of Blackness in February.” Black Futures Month is a time to uplift the ongoing movement for racial justice, celebrate the achievements and contributions of Black individuals, and remember and learn from Black history.

https://m4bl.org/black-futures-month/

 

(Canada) Black History Month: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/black-history-month.html

(USA) Black History Month: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-month#:~:text=The%20Black%20History%20Month%202023,since%20the%20nation's%20earliest%20days

 

Book Giveaway!

Register and attend the event live to be entered into a draw for one of three copies of “Welcome to the Cypher” by Khodi Dill (Annick Press) See more about this important piece of literature here: https://www.annickpress.com/Books/W/Welcome-to-the-Cypher

 

 

Presenters

 

Adijat Bunmi Adekunle (she/her) is a Mental Health Therapist and the Clinical Director of Heartfire Medicine. Adi co-founded Heartfire after a winding road paved by countless experiences of racism, prejudice, microaggressions, performative allyship, and "culturally competent" professionals. She works with BIPOC clients daily in the psychological and emotional impacts of racism and racialization, but she's also intimately familiar with the struggles as a client, and seeker of support as a Black Woman herself. Seeking and accepting Mental Health support is a powerful form of resistance. We resist when we rest, regenerate, and cultivate resilience. 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace Akintade-Oluwagbeye (she/her) is an African-Canadian Interdisciplinary Poet, Public Speaker, Chorus-Poem Playwrighter, and Thespian residing in Saskatoon Saskatchewan. Organically from Yorubaland Nigeria, Peace explores the intersectionality of the artist community from an explorer's perspective, dipping her honey-stained fingers into poetry, dance, performance art, critical research, and the theatre world. Recipient of the 2022 RBC SaskArts Emerging Artist Award. 2020-2021 Youth Poet Laurate, 2022 READSaskatoon Poet Laurate, and currently finishing her Poet-in-Residence with SEDA. In 2021, her play "Madness with Rocks" was chosen for the 21 Black Future Project with Obsidian Theatre and CBCGem. "Painted Elephant" was shortlisted for the IBPOC 2021 Persephone Theatre Commission and debuted with the Black Theatre Workshop in Montreal. In 2023, she will be continuing her Artist Cohort with the Remai Modern Gallery for the Here and Now: Live Arts Initiative bringing accessible poetry workshops to the general public. When she is not contemplating the wonders of humankind, she can be found in the nearest cafe, people-watching and writing quirky questionnaires.  

 

 

K.P Dennis is a Black and non-binary theatre creator, writer, and interdisciplinary artist. Their work is rooted in social justice as a daily practice, hope as an active choice we make, and revolution as a habit that starts in the home. Their work uses sci-fi/fantasy, afro-surrealism, memoir, and bio-mythology to explore the magic and spirituality inherent in all of us, connection across the digital realm, and the joys we must embrace, and the sacrifices we must make to liberate our futures.

 

K.P Dennis was the 2016 Youth Poet Laureate of Victoria, the 2017 recipient of the VACCS (Victoria African & Caribbean Cultural Society) Community Recognition Award, and in 2020 they received the Witness Legacy Award for Social Purpose and Responsibility Through Art.

 

 

 

 

---

 

Funding provided by:

 

           

 

In proud partnership with: