decolonize history

SAD ASIAN GIRLS CLUB ART BOOKS  WILL BE AVAILABLE TOMORROW!

Three issues of curated submissions by female Asian artists and writers will be available for purchase tomorrow, as well as one full volume of all three.

Issue 1: Photography and Illustration Issue 2: Poetry, Journal Entries and Essays Issue 3: Film and Mixed Media

Beautifying old buildings of Cairo ©

Beyoncé | 6 Inch | Lemonade

June Jordan | Memo:

Beyoncé | 6 Inch | Lemonade

Foreword by Adrienne Rich | Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan

Beyoncé | Lemonade (Script)

June Jordan | Poem for Nana

Beyoncé | Pray You Catch Me | Lemonade

June Jordan | Who Look at Me

Beyoncé | Lemonade (Script)

June Jordan | Getting Down to Get Over

Beyoncé | Lemonade (Script)

The black power series. Coming sooner than you think

On March 18th 2016, a Friday afternoon, I checked in with my Black Lives Matter Toronto team. The official statement from the Special Investigations Unit had just been released; the officer responsible for killing Andrew Loku would not be charged.

On July 5th 2015, Andrew Loku was shot and killed by Toronto Police Services.

If there are any of you reading this who has ever felt driven to the edge by a loud neighbour, one who constantly bangs on your ceiling, who ignores every effort you’ve made to bargain and plead, who doesn’t care for the days and months of accumulated sleep loss, imagine being in that place again.

Now imagine being executed for it.

Andrew Loku, like many of us before, went upstairs to rebut his neighbour for the umpteenth time on their constant noise. He used a hammer to bang on their door, and banged the hallway and stairway railing as he made his way back down to his floor.

That was just before midnight, by just after midnight he was dead. […]

BLMTO held an action this Sunday March 20th, and began #BLMTOtentcity, an occupation of Nathan Phillips Square that began as a rally. The Toronto Police bullied and threatened arrest. The community, the fire keeping people warm, tents and art were all threatened by police. They were in riot gear, on horses, in vans and in cars.

The occupation moved to Toronto Police Headquarters as planned, provisions were set up, well contained community fires were lit, and the pitched tents were named to represent the gross injustices of Toronto and Canada at large.

The tents were named Alex Wettlaufer, Sammy Yatim’s friend, both of whom were killed by police, Andrew Loku and Jermaine Carby, Francisco Javier Romero Astorga and Melkioro Gahungu, who both died in Canadian immigration enforcement custody in less than a week.

They were named Africville and Afrofest, one a Black settlement that Canada made every effort to erase and another a Pan-Afrikan festival the City of Toronto attempted to demean, just as they did with massive budget cuts to Caribana. Space was held for Sumaya Dalmar, who represents the violence that is inflicted on Black trans women and sex workers, who must maneuver around TAVIS (Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy), and criminalization in order to survive. We don’t believe she died they way they said she did.

BLMTO, our ally team, Toronto’s dedicated community organizers and new converts alike have been keeping #TentCity alive. On March 21st, only one night in, the Toronto Police came and rushed the crowd of peaceful protestors, some of whom were elders and children, kicking, punching and dragging people while their sirens blared and their lights disoriented the crowd.

They attacked mostly Black women. They threw unknown chemicals into the air that landed on people’s clothing and skin. They had agents in hazmat suits pore those same chemicals onto the community fires, and broke and stole the tents.

#BLMTOtentcity is ripping apart the myth of the racial haven of Canada, a myth has been allowed to exist due to, for example, no race-based statistics on fatal police encounters are kept by the SIU, Statistics Canada, Toronto Police, or the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, and its constant investment in its false legacy as the hope in the north, denying its violent history and using language as ‘not as bad as the states’ to hide.

#TentCity is bringing together this country’s legacy of colonial violence, its anti-Black racism and three centuries of enslavement, its mass incarceration of Black and Indigenous people, Indigenous genocide, its racist and deadly migrant and immigration practices, its transphobia and misogyny, its deeply embedded Islamophobia apparent in terrorism implications with our actions.

The lie, one that has caused uphill battles for so many of us who live in Canada, is being exposed.

At this moment, BLMTO is planning to do food drives for homeless and street involved people with excess food donations we have received for our action.

The vision of truth and decolonization, the friendships, the solidarity and coalitions built, the retelling of a truer Canadian history around the community fires, the reclaiming of space, the reimagining of public safety, programming, and the flames lit in each of our hearts will exist long after this action action has concluded.

But we aren’t there just yet. #BLMTOtentcity still stands strong at 72 hours as I write this.

As for what’s next?

Black and Indigenous community connecting through struggle and ceremony. Speaking our prayers into the sacred medicine, tobacco and placing these in the fire. Grateful for this space.#blmtoTENTCITY 

“Artist David Louis Wall brought these protest images from 15 years ago into the space. The Canadian state and police force anti-black long time. #BlackLivesMatterTO #blmtoTENTCITY#blmtoBLACKCITY ”