Kayla Webber is a Doctoral student in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, specializing in women’s and gender studies. Her research interests are housing precarity, Black and Indigenous communities, models of wellness, anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism, Black affirmation, sexualized violence, and transformative justice through the lens of storytelling and hood feminism (an intersectional approach based on the premise that true equality and inclusivity means seeking to lift all women, including those of colour). Webber’s ancestors and bloodlines are from Trinidad, Grenada, and Nova Scotia, but she was born and raised in the Eglinton West Little Jamaica community in Tkaronto. Webber is an 1834 Fellow alumnus, co-chair of the Indigenous Education Network, co-founder of Auntie’s Place, and vice-chair of the For Youth Initiative (FYI), a non-profit that helps Black, racialized, and newcomer young people navigate the unique barriers and challenges they face as they transition to adulthood.
Keywords: healthy, cultural, healing, connective, communal, and generational space – housing as a home, not a structure. Black, Afro-Indigenous, and Indigenous communities.