Black History Month is an annual observance that originated in the United States. Canada’s House of Commons has officially recognized February as Black History Month since 1995, and honoured Black Canadians. A number of other countries now also officially recognize and observe the month.
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Black history organizations and educational resources
There are many organizations and educational resources across the country devoted to the promotion and awareness of Black Canadian history. Learn more about Black History Month festivities in Canada, and events that honour the legacy of Black Canadians and their communities, on this Government of Canada website.
Check out the many organizations and educational resources across the country devoted to the promotion and awareness of Black Canadian history.
Black History Month UBC Events Calendar
Check out this BHM events listing for a long list of events hosted by UBC, including student-led activities, opportunities for learning, guest speakers and lectures, podcasts, panels, interviews and more. This rich series offers opportunities for focussed, intentional, and elevated reflection and recognition of Black history and achievement – and the many contributions of Black Canadians, Black British Columbians, and Black students, faculty and staff at UBC.
UBC’s Anti-Racist Teaching Series 2021
This workshop series is for UBC faculty, staff, and educators who wish to cultivate a teaching or facilitation practice that serves as a form of solidarity, and is premised upon research and popular education pedagogy in the areas of anti-racism, equity, and inclusion. Participants will be guided through reflection on their own roles and fears as educators, and develop an introductory understanding of concepts such as anti-racism, privilege, allyship, and solidarity especially in the context of online teaching and learning. This workshop series also includes the identification and intensive unpacking of harmful phrases that can lead to further marginalization of racialized or excluded students. Particular attention will be paid to helping educators with specific teaching strategies, practical tools, and relevant resources for their teaching practice. To learn more, and to register for individual sessions, visit this page.
MET Summer Institute 2021: Anti-racism in Education
MET students: Want to think more deeply about your own role and power as an educator when teaching histories, cultivating ideas, and shaping new and old understanding? Want to be challenged to apply your learning to create and enhance transformative approaches to anti-racism in your online and technological practices? This planned virtual Summer Institute on anti-racism education is about responsibility. Focusing on addressing anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism in education, the questions that surround the reflection and learning in this course centre on educators’ individual responsibility to facilitate and support anti-racist approaches and strategies throughout their practice. It is an opportunity to read, reflect, and develop a more in-depth understanding of racism, how it operates and how it impacts all students in educative spaces.
Watch this space for more details.
Dr. Dorothy Williams, The ABC’s of Canadian Black History, February 5th 2021
To mark Black History Month, the Montréal Council of Women welcomes Dr. Dorothy Williams as a guest speaker. She will be speaking about the online toolkit she and community activist Linton Garner have developed. “The ABC’s of Black Canadian History Kit” is a teaching aid highlighting the contributions of Black Canadians past and present. For more information on this initiative, please register to attend this event! More information is also available in this article published by the Montreal Gazette.
Dr. Bettina L. Love, We Gon’ Be Alright, But That Ain’t Alright: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, February 23rd 2021
In their final event of the speaker series: How to Do Anti-Racist and Decolonial Work in the Academy and Beyond, McGill University’s Department of English is hosting Dr. Bettina L. Love, who will discuss the struggles and the possibilities of committing ourselves to an abolitionist goal of educational freedom, as opposed to reform, and moving beyond what she calls the educational survival complex. Abolitionist Teaching, she argues, is built on the creativity, imagination, boldness, ingenuity, and rebellious spirit and methods of abolitionists to demand and fight for an educational system where all students are thriving, not simply surviving. More information available, and register here.