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| COBA's ' Mande Variations' will be featured in "Moving Blackness: Identity, Hope and Love," March 23-25 at Aki Studio in Toronto. Photo credit: Yoseif Haddad |
MIGRANT DREAMS: Screening and Teach-in
Monday, March 20, 6-9 pm at Nexus Lounge, OISE, 12th
Floor, University of Toronto.
Join us for a film screening and discussion
of Migrant Dreams, a locally
produced documentary that tells the untold story of migrant agricultural
workers who are struggling under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
Four panelists, including Dr. Eve Tuck and filmmaker, Min Sook Lee, will
discuss the politics of migrant labour on Indigenous land. What can be done to
fight abuses faced by those who harvest our food? How can Indigenous theories
of land help inform this fight?
2017 Call for the Jamaican Canadian
Association. Board Members Recruitment. Accepting
applications now till March 20. Open
positions: vice president, executive secretary, director of fundraising,
director of communications and director-at-lare. Contact: 416-746-5772 Ext.
220. jcaboardinfo@gmail.com
Urban Alliance on Race Relations invites you to attend its Annual
General Meeting & Public Forum to recognize the United Nations’
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Tuesday, March 21, at
Council Chamber, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street West.
Annual General Meeting: 6:00 p.m.-6:50 p.m.
Public Forum in partnership with the Toronto
and York Region Labour Council – “UNITE to STOP HATE,” 7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.
Speakers: Catherine Brooks, Indigenous Elder
Imam Ibrahim Hindy, Imam, Dar Al-Tawheed
Islamic Centre
Anthony Morgan, Lawyer and advocate
Kristyn Wong-Tam, Toronto City Councillor
Hassan Yussuff, President, Canadian Labour
Congress
Moderator: Nigel Barriffe, President, Urban
Alliance on Race Relations
Entertainment: ECHO Women’s Choir with
Annabelle Chvostek, Moyo Rainos Mutamba, TC3 Drummers.
RSVP for the AGM: yumei@urbanalliance.ca or call
416-703-6607 Ext. 0
# Unite To Stop Hate
RSVP for the event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unite-to-stop-hate-tickets-32272472835
Collective of Black Artists (COBA) presents “Moving Blackness: Identity, Hope and Love,”
March 23-25, 8pm at Aki Studio, 585 Dundas St. East, Suite 120, Toronto.
If all lives matter, what stories do we carry
as we celebrate blackness in a changing world? Where do we find identity,
associations, hope and love?
COBA presents a Season of Dance focused on
the lived experiences of persons with a connection to blackness in the Canadian
and Africanist realities. This expression is suspended in physicality of
movement, music and contemporary traditions.
Moving Blackness: Identity, Hope and Love, explores the language of the body, social and political change in
celebration of the importance of the African-based influence on music and dance
in three intriguing dance pieces featuring one world premiere and the
reimagined work of “ Meme: #OurLivesMatter, and the remount of
Mande Variations which incorporates
‘urbanography’ , a dance style of urban Africanist choreography.
(Voted best dance company in NOW best of the
City 2013 and with a technique rooted in the African Aesthetics of presentation
COBA’s versatility in choreographic themes and music
"makes you sit up and take notice for
all the right reasons"Deirdre Kelly, Globe & Mail.
The Season of Dance choreographers choose to
investigate the loss of collective social consciousness and awareness in a
world where the potential and its relevance today how can many stories help in
creating one voice to tradition, history and purpose of future.
Given the focus on human trafficking and
abuse, “ Meme: #OurLivesMatter ” which
saw its premiere in 2015, has been developed
further in a response to the consistent
assault on Black bodies globally. Initially
prompted by the abduction of the Nigerian school girls by the Boko Haram, the
"Bring Back Our Girls" campaigns, choreographer Charmaine Headley
realized with the national and international violence against Black bodies in
space, resulting in the online call “Black Lives Matter,” further exploration
was needed, and as an artist/choreographer, she has a responsibility in
creating work that addresses social concerns. These are indeed global stories!
These have inspired actions and activism
bringing awareness to the historic and cyclical violence, abstracting the
struggles and fears of unprecedented, at times, non-aggravated assaults on and
of the rights of Black people. Initially created on an
all female cast, this iteration is reimagined
with a mixed cast.
The work includes original composition by
N'dere Nimon Headley-Lindsay.
Mande Variations shatters the pre-conceived
notions of what traditional African music can look and sound like. With the use
of the Kora, a complex harp-like stringed instrument, the dancer juxtaposes
notions of classical and traditional movement. The dynamism of this piece also
expands upon modern forms of movement with the use of ‘urbanography,’ (coined
in the studio) – a dance style of urban Africanist choreography.
COBA, Collective of Black Artists is
dedicated to the preservation of the cultural
traditions of Africa and the African
Diaspora. The company presents traditional West African dance, music and
folklore; Caribbean indigenous dance, music and rituals; and contemporary works
centered on African movement aesthetics expressing modern social themes.
At the front of dance education, preserving
and innovating on Africanist movement aesthetics for over twenty years COBA has
the distinction of being the only company in Canada with a specialized training
method developed in Toronto in the 21st century.
Choreography by Bakari I. Lindsay and Charmaine
Headley, Co-Artistic Directors of COBA
Musical Composition by N’dere Nimon Headley
Lindsay, Uqbar
Performers: Kadeem Faustin, Alistair
Graphine, Dammecia Hall, Bakari I. Lindsay,
Aisha Nicholson, Melissa Peter, Debbie
Nicholls-Skerritt
Costume Design: BaKari I. Lindsay
Tickets $25-$35 (children, seniors and
students)
plus $3 service charge
FOR TICKETS, VISIT: http://www.nativeearth.ca/boxoffice/
CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals will celebrate creators and change makers in the community at its CEE Gala on March 25, reception at 6pm,
dinner at 7pm at National Event Venue, 1000 Finch Ave. W., Toronto.
Tickets: $100. Sponsor a table: $1000. Tickets at www.ceetoronto.com. Formal attire. MCs:
Mark Strong and Lola Lawson.
United Achievers’ Club – Brampton presents its 20th
annual Celebrity Chef - Men Who Cook
2017 event on Saturday, March 25, 6pm at Century Gardens Recreation Centre
Auditorium, 340 Vodden St. East, (at Rutherford), Brampton.
Community Information Event for newcomers and
immigrants on Sunday, March 26, 10:30
a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Darul Arqam Islamic Centre, 585 Trethewey Drive, Toronto.
Call 416-253-2729 Ext. 6250. Email s.gris@jobstartworks.org
Please note the mosque is a
scent free environment.
Public lecture: “50 years ‘Beyond Vietnam’: Dr.
King’s Revolutionary Dream Against Our Neoliberral /Neofascist Nightmare” by
Robin D. G. Kelley, Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History,
UCLA on Saturday, April 1, 5pm at Bloor
United Church, 300 Bloor Street West, Toronto.
Professor Kelley is the
author of Hammer and Hoe; Race Rebels; Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional: Fighting the
Culture Wars in Urban America; Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination;
Thelonius Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original; Africa Speaks,
America Answers!: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times.
Opening with Lee Maracle,
author, instructor and traditional teacher, and Faith Nolan, celebrated social
justice activist and musician.
Free and open to the public.
Wheelchair accessible. ASL provided.
Sponsors: A Different
Booklist; Caribbean Studies; Academic Initiatives Fund; New College; Women and
Gender Studies; African Studies; Geography and Planning; Centre for the Study
of the United States, at the Munk School of Global Affairs; Diaspora and
Transnational Studies; Equity Studies; Hart House; History; MVS Proseminar; and
the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto.
The African Canadian Mental Health strategic planning session will be held
on Saturday, April 1, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. at Ryerson University (Room to
be confirmed.) Contact tabonoinstitute@gmail.com for more information.
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