some of my favourites
I stand in complete solidarity with education workers as they strike and push back against years or disgusting treatment and the devaluation of their NECESSARY work. Education and healthcare are THE MOST important and need to be invested in. These systems are deeply founded in ableism, and to deny workers (especially those who support disabled children) of equitable pay that supports their ability to show up healthy with the full capacity to support all the youth that need them perpetuates ableism. The staff on every level need to be supported and paid wages that match/ surpass the work they are putting in. Service workers do the jobs we need, that many do not want to do. Pay custodians, janitors, PSWs, porters, EAs, ECEs and CYWs. They deserve safe work environments, they deserve job security, paid sick leave and vacation time. These are unimaginably hard jobs and they deserve to rest in order to best serve and show up for children everyday. Doug Ford and Steven Leche must be held fully accountable and must back down. One millisecond in one of the former jobs and they’ll sing a different tune. Thank you to waged labour workers for your resistance, please rest when you can, we love and support you. Seeing you stand up feeds my hope for another day.
"She Burns" A piece inspired by listening to jazz music for weeks on end, feeling warm, safe and connected to those before me.
From the river to the sea, Palestine WILL be FREE! 🗝 Black and Palestinian liberation is one that has been historically intertwined. Land back and peace for Palestinian children, elders & communities as a whole🇵🇸 There is no forgetting, cease fire did not cease the violence. We keep going until Palestine is free. Please support Palestinians voices and artists: @jas.Hawamdeh @palestinianartists @bayandahdah @noriflayhan @abeer.m.anabtawi @aya_mobaydeen
This piece is inspired by Black Energy, its movement, its flow, its light, its dance with life, future, past and present. It simply highlights the importance of an Afroglobal approach to resistance and the connectivity of Black people everywhere! Here’s to the everyday forms of resistance and a future that is no longer characterized by how much suffering we have endured.
Black American Sign Language (BASL) • Black American Sign Language History. BASL is a dialect of American Sign Language. Developed by Black & deaf people in the 1800-1900 during segregation. “American School for the Deaf” was created in 1817. However it only started admitting Black students in 1952 • Black ASL was born out of that exclusion • “Biggest difference between BASL and ASL is BASL has seasoning” • E.g. BASL uses both hand a lot more than and ASL • information brought to us by TikTok creator and educator Nakia Smith @itscharmay Canadian Black Deaf Community • The Black deaf community in Canada is very much here and seeking more race-based data, a large research effort to archive their history and support for their community • Thank you to “Jenelle Rouse, first Black Deaf woman with a PhD in applied linguistics in education in Canada, James Etheridge, ASL professor at Ryerson University in Toronto and president of the newly established organization Black Deaf Canada and freelance ASL instructor Abigail Danquah, who described BASL was a way for her and her friends to understand each other through their own language, slang and inside jokes that no one else understood. At the time, she didn’t understand where the language was coming from” Thank you to the entire deaf community and activists who have been advocating for themselves without the necessary support for too long. * Please check out the Black Deaf Canada facebook link in my bio to learn more about BASL & the Deprogramme Edu- Directory for more resources.
Loved creating this piece for @bekareemto “Where Black Boys Bloom”
Air Colonialism This is a satirical piece depicting the realities many Caribbean immigrants face through their time in Canada. The piece illustrates a Caribbean family arriving in Canada for the first time, with the posters representing some of the systemic inequities many Caribbean immigrants face. Consequently, the piece highlights the historical role that colonialism has played in destroying Caribbean countries through the exploitation and displacement of millions of Caribbean people. Western first-world countries in the international arena are considered to be successful and superior to other nations. However, that success was built from the dismantling of the Caribbean and other African diasporic countries. The privileges that many Canadians enjoy is owed to the remnants of colonialism and neo-colonialism. Caribbean, African and many other racialized immigrants seek refuge from the colonial violence enacted against them, such as economic destabilization, environmental degradation, familial displacement and destruction, cultural erasure and the imposition of external hegemonic ideologies. Overall, the performative celebration of multiculturalism is exposed in this piece; diverse communities do not see tangible supports in Canada; instead, they face systemic barriers and discrimination.
