Black Canadian studies the focus of symposium

This image is from a poster publicizing "Thinking Blackness North of the 49th Parallel: The Work to be Done." The event aims to stimulate discussion on issues related to Black Canada. Photo by Wayne Salmon.

by Mary Ann Horgan

EVENT AIMS TO INCREASE SUPPORT FOR NEW RESEARCH CENTRE AT YORK UNIVERSITY

York University will be hosting a one-day symposium on Black Canadian Studies on Saturday, Nov. 14. The symposium is free of charge and open to the York community and the general public.

The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Harry Crowe Room, 109 Atkinson College. It is called "Thinking Blackness North of the 49th Parallel: The Work to be Done," and it is being organized by York University professors Rinaldo Walcott and Leslie Sanders.

The organizers say they hope that the symposium will start a discussion about the kinds of research and writing that need to be done on Black Canadian culture, both by people working inside the University and in the community.

"In the United States, scholars and scholarly works dealing with African-American culture abound," said Sanders. "But as yet very little has been written about Blacks in Canada and their work. We hope that this symposium will get more faculty and students interested in doing work in this area, and also that it creates ways for people working outside the university to join in that work, and to share their work with other scholars."

The symposium is part of the efforts on campus to drum up support and interest in the founding of a Centre for the Study of Black Cultures in Canada at York University, said Sanders. "We are working towards establishing a centre here," said Sanders. "The establishment of such a centre would be important, because there are little bits of work being done all over the country on Black Canada, but there is no real concentration and coordination of the work being done. We want York to be the place where people from all over the country, and also from other parts of the world, can come and begin to develop a knowledge and understanding of Black Canadian history and culture, and Black Canada's place in the African diaspora."

With one of the largest concentration of students of African descent in Canada, York is well suited for a centre of this kind, Sanders added. "The University's reputation in Canadian Studies is well known, but less prominent is the work already ongoing in multicultural Canadian studies, and Black Canadian studies in particular."

She said the centre's aim will be to encourage dialogue and study ­ in what is virtually a wide open, interdisciplinary field of work ­ among established scholars, graduate students and undergraduates. "There is an endless amount of research still to be done in this area, and we really hope to encourage students both at the graduate and undergraduate level, to begin the work and to have the discussions that need to occur. It's really exciting and mind boggling."

On the day of the symposium, (Nov. 14), things get rolling at 10 a.m. with a panel discussion. Leslie Sanders, who teaches African American and African Canadian literature at York's Atkinson College, as well as teaching English in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, will chair the session. Panellists are: Peggy Bristow and George Elliott Clarke (Duke University); Afua Cooper and Kwame Dawes (University of South Carolina, Sumpter); and Rinaldo Walcott, York Faculty of Arts humanities professor and the author of the book, Black Like Who?

The afternoon sessions feature two roundtable discussions, one focused on humanities and the other on the social sciences. Speakers include: Writer and filmmaker Roger McTair; York graduate students Peter Hudson, David Chariandy, and Kass Banning; Ted Chamberlain (University of Toronto); independent scholar Adrienne Shadd, Akua Benjamin (Ryerson); and graduate students Awad Ibrahim (OISE) and Gamal Abdel-Shehid (York University), and others.

The day ends with the launch of Wheel and Come Again, an anthology of reggae poetry edited by Kwame Dawes and published by Gooselane Editions, with readings by some of the poets in the collection; including: Lillian Allen, Afua Cooper, Ramabei Espinet and Pam Mordecai. The book will be launched at 5:30 p.m., also in the Harry Crowe Room.

For more information, call Prof. Leslie Sanders at (416) 736-5208 ext. 66604 or (416) 736-5343, or send an email note to: leslie@ yorku.ca.