Black History Month Week 3

Monday, February 14, 2022 12:00 am - Sunday, February 20, 2022 12:00 am EST (GMT -05:00)

Black History Month Week 3 Poster

In continuation of Black History Month, Waterloo Architecture continues to highlight affordable events which are available for its community members.

A History of Motown: Virtual Performance with Krystle Dos Santos: Waterloo Region Community Event (Free)
Tuesday, February 15th, 2022 at 1:30PM ET
Waterloo Public Library

Western Canadian Music Award-winning singer-songwriter Krystle Dos Santos and her 4-piece band will take participants back in time to the peak of Motown Music from the late 1950s to 1980s. Krystle’s powerful and interactive medleys of hits by The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations and the Jackson 5 will have students and teachers singing and dancing in their seats! Students will learn interesting facts about these key artists and about the historical and significant impact that Motown music has had on contemporary soul music today.  Everyone welcome.
 

Reimagining Black Communal Care: Lecture (Free)
Tuesday, February 15th, 2022 at 6:00PM ET
Pratt Institute

It has long been time to address care in our communities. Not Radical, for it is practical and a step towards liberation. Not as a red pill or a problem to be solved, for it is about the approach. Not in one sector, as it is wide reaching and intersectional. Not as a buzzword, but as a foundation. Care can be represented in many levels of transience and scales, so we are curating a space for speakers to bring their perspectives on how we can embrace a mindset of care in everything we do. Through the lens of care as play, protest, and all in between, join us in reimagining a world built and designed with black care in mind. This lecture features Justin Garrett Moore, Deanna Van Buren and Chandra Christmas-Rouse.
 

Black History is World History: From Moment to Global Movement: Lecture (Free)
Thursday, February 17th, 2022 at 3PM ET
University of Waterloo

Join us for a special edition of Research Talks featuring Michaëlle Jean, University of Waterloo chancellor, St. Paul’s University College and former Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada.
 

OTHER ARCHITECTURES: Lecture (Free)
Thursday, February 17th, 2022 at 6PM ET
The Bernard & Anne Spitzer School of Architecture

A 2020 Bradford Grant Medal winner in Landscape Architecture and 2017 Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum National Design Award winner, architect, artist, academic, and activist, Dr. Craig L. Wilkins’ creative practice specializes in engaging communities in collaborative and participatory design processes. The former director of the Detroit Community Design Center, he is currently creative director of the Wilkins project, a social justice, strategic design alliance that provides architectural, urban design, and planning services, public interest design solutions, and expertise in engaged public discourse. Dr. Wilkins is also the author of multi-award-winning “The Aesthetics of Equity: Notes on Race, Space, Architecture & Music” (University of Minnesota 2007) and “Diversity Among Architects: From Margin to Center” (Routledge 2016). He is currently an associate professor at the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning, where he teaches courses on design and social justice.
 

(Re)connecting Brooklyn's History: Slavery and Abolition in Brooklyn by Center for Brooklyn History Education: Lecture (Free)
Thursday February 17th, 2022 at 4PM ET
Center for Brooklyn History Education

Brooklyn has a distinct story to tell in the history of social justice. From 1783 to 1865, Brooklyn transformed from an agricultural slaveholding capital to the third largest city in the United States fueled by the business of slavery. Against this backdrop, the city’s anti-slavery activists and radical abolitionists led the struggle for racial and social justice. They created local, regional, and national networks of political solidarity to advance their anti-slavery agenda. Through courage and conscience, the residents of neighborhoods we now know as Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, Fort Greene, Vinegar Hill, Weeksville, and Williamsburg insisted on an immediate end to slavery and demanded legal and political equality for all Americans. In this talk, historian Prithi Kanakamedala will provide educators and students a glimpse of the long history of slavery and anti-slavery activism in Brooklyn and its connections to New York, and the United States through various primary sources.
 

Karen Murray - Central Assigned Principal, Equity, Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression in the TDSB: Live sharing and workshop (Free)
Thursday February 17th, 2022 at 10AM ET
On The Scoop

The Black Land Consortium is an ongoing dialogue, convened by Emanuel Admassu, Jerome Haferd, Curry Hackett, and Jennifer Newsom, to discuss how concerns of Blackness and Land relate to design and pedagogy today. In this live sharing and workshop session, the collaborators will connect urgent questions emerging in their practices and relative geographies to pedagogy and curricula. How can we disentangle architecture and urban design from property? How can we disassemble the exploitative regimes of speculation and displacement that anchor the built environment?
 

A Discussion With Antonio Michael Downing: Musician, Writer and Activist: Waterloo Region Community Event (Free)
Thursday February 17th, 2022 at 6:30PM ET
Waterloo Public Library

Join Antonio Michael Downing, musician, activist and author of Saga Boy and Molasses, as he discusses writing, storytelling and music. Antonio Michael Downing grew up in southern Trinidad, Northern Ontario, Brooklyn, Scarborough and Kitchener Waterloo. He publishes his books under his birth name but explores art and music under a variety of other personas. When he's not writing, he performs and composes music as John Orpheus exploring a wide variety of genres including R&B, punk, blues and hip-hop. He is a captivating and engaging storyteller with a fascinating personal history and an impressive body of work. Join us for a great conversation.
 

Pathways for Addressing (with care) Disclosures of Racism: Student Workshop
Thursday, February 17th, 2022 at 9:00AM ET
University of Waterloo

This workshop is a 101 course for those that are looking to get a baseline understanding of core foundational concepts and frameworks as it relates to anti-racism, addressing disclosures of racism and by standard intervention.
 

Black Presence in Berlin walking tour starting at Kitchener Market: Student Workshop (Waterloo Region Community Event ($25/person)
Friday, February 18th, 2022 at 11:00AM ET
Stroll Walking Tours

This workshop is a series of curated events discussing the practice of social justice within our communities, as experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and George Floyd uprisings. Each month will discuss 1 of the 4 principles of social justice framed around the theme of Covid-19, with community leaders, leading advocates, and creative artists. Along with conversations, there will be opportunities for interactive collaboration amongst attendees and facilitators Many people think that Kitchener’s first Black residents only came here in the 1960s and 70s, but did you know that the first Black person actually arrived in Waterloo region in 1806? On this walk we will talk about Berlin’s connection to the early Black settlers of the Queens Bush settlement. Further, we will visit former sites where Black residents lived, had their businesses and schools in the 19th century and learn about their lives and contributions to our community. You will hear about black teachers, a black lawyer, and black domestic workers. One of Berlin’s black residents even ran for office! Come join us to find out who that was. As we recover and re-tell these histories you’ll look at this town differently and realize that Kitchener’s heritage is more colourful and richer than we thought. breakout groups.

Organized by: 

Waterloo Public Library
Pratt Institute
University of Waterloo
The Bernard & Anne Spitzer School of Architecture
Center for Brooklyn History Education
On The Scoop
Stroll Walking Tours