The fourth annual Inclusion Day conference, a one-day event looking at creating inclusion, will feature a host of speakers and will include a performance by dub poet and Dora Award- winning actor and playwright d’bi young.
The Creating For Inclusion conference will take place on Inclusion Day, Thursday, Jan. 31, starting at 11am, with registration at 280N York Lanes, Keele campus. Everyone is welcome to attend one or all of the sessions at this free, accessible event hosted by 
the Centre for Human Rights. To RSVP, click here.
d’bi young
Poet, novelist and York Professor Priscila Uppal will deliver the lunch keynote speech at 11:30am, followed by two panel sessions and a breakout workshop with d’bi young.
In one of the day’s sessions – “Blanketed by Blame, Empowered by Support” – student Sahar Zaidi will perform a skit about a Muslim woman facing abuse and needing help. The 
character, Shalina, turns to people in her community for help and then to professionals, and each time she is refused support.
Priscila Uppal
In the session, “Children’s Literature, Ethics and Genocide: The Residential School Experience”, Jeffrey Canton, who teaches in York’s Department of Humanities in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, will explore the role of Canadian authored books in providing non-Native children and teens with first-hand insight into the trauma of the residential schools on Aboriginal peoples.
In “Sketching Voices: Calligraphy, Calligraffiti, Artivism”, student Lucile Cremier will introduce the role of calligraphy and writing in the history of political activism, social movements and state politics. She’ll show how language and visual techniques can be used to create powerful and meaningful 
expression, and guide the group through collective thinking to create art pieces using different languages, styles, alphabets and typographies.
At 5pm, there will be a talk and then a tour of artist Deanna Bowen’s exhibit Invisible Empires, currently showing at the Art Gallery of York University. Invisible Empires is billed as a bold exhibition that presents a view on the Ku Klux Klan both during the American Civil Rights Movement era and its century-long history in Canada.
Klan Poster: Klan U.K.A. Rally (Macon, GA), 1964, part of Deanna Bowen’s Invisible Empires installation
At 6pm in the CIBC Lobby, Accolade East Building, refreshments will be served, followed by an evening performance by d’bi young in the Price Family Cinema, 102 Accolade East Building, at 7pm.
For a complete listing of sessions and times, visit the Inclusion Day website.