Black students in Windsor-Essex embrace event honouring culture, arts
Windsor-Essex students come together for Black Joy, Black Excellence symposium
3 hours ago
Duration 1:40
Hundreds of local students gathered for an event Tuesday celebrating Black culture and creativity.
The Greater Essex County District School Board hosted its second annual Black Joy – Black Excellence Student Symposium at the St. Clair Centre for the Arts.
"It's only once in a lifetime that you get to have something like this, everyone come together under one roof to really enjoy and celebrate something that you can't really do anywhere else," said Jalen Hamilton, a grade 12 student at Kennedy Collegiate Institute.
Hamilton was among the more than 500 students the school board said would attend the "Express Yourself"-themed event.
"Our students asked for something to be done this year in the format of arts and movement and theatre and different things like that, so we made sure that that happened," said high school teacher Natalie Browning-Morgan.
Browning-Morgan, who serves as the board's graduation coach for Black, African and Caribbean students, said last year's inaugural event was smaller and focused on speaking with students about what was happening in their schools.
But this year's symposium featured spoken word poetry, art, dancing and a resource fair, among other things. "The students need to hear the positive things about what it means to be Black, African, or Caribbean and we're just enjoying that," she said.
Hamilton said the event was "on a whole different level" compared to last year.
"We have so many more guests, so many more kids here that can finally express themselves thoroughly," he said. "It's a night and day difference."
Alaa Ebrahim, a Grade 11 student at Riverside Secondary School, said this year's event was much more student-led. "Everything altogether just really made this event this year so much better because the student voice is really heard," she said.
Ebrahim, one of the event's emcees, said it's important for younger students to "get the chance to see themselves in places that they might not see themselves normally."
One of the symposium's other highlights was a fashion show that included both casual and cultural attire. Hamilton, a model in the show who got to wear his own pieces, called it "absolutely incredible."
Hamilton, who was also a keynote speaker for the student panel, said Tuesday was about embracing the positive.
"For a very long time, people that have looked like me haven't had the opportunity to fully express themself due to our very, very tainted and dark history," he said.
"But today is the day to not even highlight that, but to highlight what joy can come, what happiness can come, what empowerment we can bring to the youth."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
21 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has a book out this fall, ‘Independent'
NEW YORK (AP) — Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has a book out this fall that promises a close look at President Biden's decision not to run for reelection and calls for thinking beyond the two-party system. Jean-Pierre herself has switched her affiliation to independent after working in two Democratic administrations, according to Legacy Lit, a Hachette Book Group imprint that will publish 'Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines' on Oct. 21. 'Until January 20, I was responsible for speaking on behalf of the President of the United States,' Jean-Pierre, the first Black woman and openly gay person to hold the position of White House press secretary, said in a statement released Wednesday. 'At noon on that day, I became a private citizen who, like all Americans and many of our allies around the world, had to contend with what was to come next for our country. I determined that the danger we face as a country requires freeing ourselves of boxes. We need to be willing to exercise the ability to think creatively and plan strategically.' Jean-Pierre, 50, succeeded Jen Psaki as press secretary in 2022 after previously serving as deputy press secretary and also working as a senior adviser during Biden's victorious 2020 campaign. During President Barack Obama's first term, she was a regional political director. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. Jean-Pierre was criticized at times for being evasive about Biden's physical condition. Wednesday's announcement from Legacy Lit says that she will take readers 'through the three weeks that led to Biden's abandoning his bid for a second term and the betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to his decision.' 'She presents clear arguments and provocative evidence as an insider about the importance of dismantling the torrent of disinformation and misinformation that has been rampant in recent elections and provides passionate insight for moving forward,' the announcement said.
CBC
a day ago
- CBC
From Hamilton to Edmonton: Ice from NHL players' hometowns used to resurface rink for Stanley Cup final
When Darnell Nurse of the Edmonton Oilers takes to the ice in Rogers Arena Wednesday, a little part of his hometown of Hamilton will be underfoot. Rogers picked six Canadians on the team — including captain Connor McDavid and forward Evander Kane — and collected ice from rinks where they grew up. Then they transported the ice to Edmonton and used it to resurface the NHL ice ahead of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final. It's the first time the company has done it — and a neat way to give "home-ice advantage" to the Oilers, says Ryan Kinsella, rep director for the league that plays at the Hamilton arena where Nurse's piece of ice comes from. On Saturday in Hamilton's Flamborough region, Rogers scraped the ice at Harry Howell Twin-Pad Arena to honour Nurse. The 30-year-old defender started playing at Bill Friday Lawfield Arena on the Hamilton Mountain when he was four years old, but that arena is closed for the summer, Rogers Communications spokesperson Victoria Ahearn said in an email. Nurse is the brother of professional women's basketball player Kia Nurse and cousin to professional hockey player Sarah Nurse, who's also from Hamilton. "I think [this] gives a real good feel to the minor hockey players … knowing some of their ice that they play on a regular basis is going to be part of the Stanley Cup," Kinsella told CBC Hamilton. Flamborough Hockey plays games at Harry Howell. Kinsella, who was born in nearby Waterdown, played for the Flamborough Sabres and now has three boys who play hockey in the community. Harry Howell is one of the city's busiest rinks, he said, hosting hockey teams, coaches and a skating club. The ice rink initiative will hopefully help inspire kids to reach for their goals, Kinsella added. "Little initiatives like this help to keep those dreams alive." Ice transported by thermos Rogers worked with the rinks to scrape ice into sealed thermoses. Those were transported to Edmonton where, on Monday, they were poured into the ice making tank of the Rogers Place Zamboni, Ahearn said. Other rinks Rogers took ice from are: The Magna Centre in Newmarket, Ont., where McDavid played for the York-Simcoe Express AAA organization from about age 10 to 15. The Rink in Winnipeg, where Calvin Pickard practices during the off-season. North Shore Winter Club in Vancouver, where Kane started playing minor hockey at 14. Burnaby Winter Club in Burnaby, B.C., where Ryan Nugent-Hopkins played minor hockey from 2006 to 2008. Confederation Leisure Centre in Edmonton, which is affiliated with the hockey program Stuart Skinner played with while in high school. "Hockey's biggest stage should reflect where the game truly begins — in hometown hockey rinks across Canada," Terrie Tweddle, chief brand and communications officer for Rogers said in a statement. He said the initiative, called This Is Our Ice, is about celebrating "collective pride in Canada's game as the Oilers play to bring home the Stanley Cup." Other Hamilton-area players are competing for the cup, too The Oilers are having a rematch with the Florida Panthers, the defending Stanley Cup champions who beat them 2-1 in Game 7 of the final last year. Then, there were four players in the final with connections to the Hamilton-area: Nurse and Adam Henrique of the Oilers and Carter Verhaeghe and Brandon Montour with the Panthers. Verhaege brought the Stanley Cup home to Hamilton's Waterdown area in August. In July, Montour — who now plays for the Seattle Kraken — brought it home to Six Nations. Henrique is from Brantford, Ont. WATCH | How the Oilers playoff run helps newcomers find community: How the Oilers playoff run helps newcomers find community 5 days ago Duration 1:55 Within a week of landing in Edmonton, a group of young newcomers is getting introduced to the Oilers and Rogers Place. As CBC's Travis McEwan reports, some advocates say the playoff run creates a great opportunity to find community. When asked if he'd rather see Nurse or Verhaeghe bring the cup to Hamilton this year, Kinsella laughed. "It's a bit of a torn situation," he said. Kinsella has met Nurse's dad, and worked with some of the same coaches as him, but said he also appreciates Verhaege. Ultimately, Kinsella said, his middle child is a huge McDavid and Oilers fan, so Kinsella will be rooting for them. "Hopefully we can see a Canadian team bring it home."
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Emotional edge
Sahel Flora Pascual's dance career has taken her all over the world: Ballet Manila, the School of American Ballet in New York City, Ballet Austin in Texas and, for the upcoming 2025/26 season, London City Ballet. In April, it brought her to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Pascual, 22, is a choreographic fellow in the Pathways to Performance Choreographic Program at MoBBallet (Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet), which links ballet companies to Black choreographers and those of colour so they can engage in a meaningful way. Ryan-Rogocki photo Choreographer Sahel Pascual leads Aspirants students through her new piece. Pascual was commissioned by the RWB to choreograph an original work for the students in the Anna McCowan-Johnson Aspirant Program in the Professional Division at the RWB School. The piece will be performed as part of On the Edge, the Aspirants' mixed-rep showcase this week. Pascual participated in the inaugural MoBBallet Symposium in Philadelphia in 2019 as a dancer. Lately, though, she's been considering ways she could contribute to her art form as a choreographer. 'I've always seen choreography as a way, not only to create my own artistic vision and exercise my own authorship of my voice and my idea of what art can do, but as also a way to facilitate growth within the artistic community, whether that's through creating more holistic dance spaces for mental health or for diversity's sake,' she says from London, England, via Zoom. The as-yet-untitled work she created on the Aspirants was inspired by the barrier-breaking American-born French dancer, singer and actress Josephine Baker. It's a dialogue, she says, between Baker's legacy and her own experience, informed by her African American, Jamaican and Filipino heritage. 'My choreography draws from my own positionality as an expatriate artist and emerges as a physical meditation on displacement, trauma, discrimination and the reverberations of the colonial gaze,' she writes in her choreographer's note. 'What was really important to me was the piece itself is not a re-creation of her in any way, but it is a meditation on the things that were important to her, the parts of her that were significant, through the shared language of human emotion,' she says. Working in the studio with the Aspirants in the spring was 'truly just a beautiful experience.' 'They're young dancers, they're dancers of a lot of different backgrounds, and they want to engage. Something that was just lovely was that each one of those dancers wanted to engage with this work,' Pascual says. 'And it's difficult, because one would say, 'How can a group of dancers that does not have African American or Black heritage work within this framework that centres a Black woman?' And my response to that was,' Yes, it is about a Black woman, but each one of us, through whatever part of our life, can empathize in certain ways with her rebellion, with her love of not only people but of animals, of community, with her fieriness, with her desire to change things, with her desire to care and to break down barriers.'' Founded in 2015 by consultant, educator, advocate and former ballet dancer Theresa Ruth Howard, MoBBallet is an archive that preserves, presents and promotes Black ballet history. The RWB joined MoBBallet's Cultural Competency and Equity Coalition (C2EC), a membership-based organization that will see peers work collaboratively to become anti-racist, in 2022, and has previously commissioned works by MoBBallet Pathways fellows Meredith Rainey and Portia Adams. That commitment stands in contrast to what's happening south of the border, where many organizations are rolling back anti-racist and DEI initiatives. 'It's important for us to keep this relationship, because I have worked very hard on building that trust so when we bring choreographers in — it's a little bit cliché — but it's a safe place to be,' says Tara Birtwhistle, the RWB's associate artistic director. The fact that Pascual is working with the next generation of dancers on the precipice of their careers in the Aspirant Program is also significant. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. 'We talk a lot about changing the culture of ballet, and we can't just talk about it anymore. We have to do something about it, and really, to lean in to these young people who have so much to teach us and guide us through a different lens,' Birtwhistle says. Pascual would agree. 'Why it's important that these kinds of stories that choreographers like myself are being engaged with is because we are the art that is current. We are the people who are dancing. It is the population that we are dancing for,' she says. 'If you think about ballet's audience now, there are many conversations about how it's diminishing, and although that in some ways is true, I think what we've seen from the dance world and the art world as a whole is an understanding that the audience must be broadened, and that the art that is being encountered, that is being created, must reflect the world as a whole.' Jen ZorattiColumnist Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the weekly newsletter NEXT. A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the Free Press in 2013. Read more about Jen. Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
