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Blair Imani joked that this story could be titled Muslim author radicalizes black community.

The historian and activist, recently named among the 100 most influential African-Americans by The Root, will be in Vancouver next week to promote her second book, Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and The Black American Dream.

Released in January, just in time for the 50th anniversary of Black History Month, Imani charts the exodus of six million African-Americans from the American south, to northern and western cities between 1910 and 1970. Paired with illustrations by Rachelle Baker, the highly-accessible history book reads like a graphic novel.

But while the SFU Public Square event on Feb. 22 will celebrate Imanis newest work, as well as her ongoing work with the Black Lives Matter movement, it will also feature conversations with Stephanie Allen, Udokam Iroegbu and Olivia Lucas, who will speak, respectively, on black Vancouver history, West African history and Afro-Indigenous history.

Organizer Cicely Blain, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Vancouver, will serve as emcee.

Imani, 26, said she was especially excited to hear from Allen, a real estate developer and founding board member of Hogans Alley Society, which is named for the black community that settled and thrived in Vancouver during the great migration, only to be displaced in the 1970s to make room for the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts.

Making Our Way Home.

Its a common story in Making Our Way Home.

A lot of what I talk about in my book is displacement through gentrification, Imani said. The lives of people of colour have constantly been at the peril of developers.

The history of black Strathcona, which is becoming more widely known across Vancouver thanks to the work of the Hogans Alley Society and other community activists, puts into perspective the notion that everything was trouble-free for black migrants once they came north to Canada.

Its made to seem like Canada is this equal land where everyone is so polite, and oppression doesnt operate in the same way, Imani said.

This false narrative is harmful, Imani argues, as it can discourage black Canadians from fully embracing a history and identity that is theirs. Moreover, Imani says the spotlighting of American history serves to weaponize it against the black community elsewhere.

I found that we were being put on (display) to convey to the people gathered, various groups, that: look at how bad it is in America. Its not nearly as bad in Berlin or London or Vancouver or Ottawa or Toronto, said Imani. It says, look how bad these people have it, you should be grateful for what you have, regardless of how bad it is.

Imani believes the solution is to think globally.

I think that one of the ways that were going to fight for freedom is not to put ourselves in this hierarchy of blackness, or proximity to blackness, or proximity to oppression, but instead to be internationalist in how we fight for freedom.

For Imani, blackness is about more than skin colour. Its a political identity as ones connection to black history informs the ongoing fight for an inclusive, oppression-free future for all.

Its imperative for black folks to be in solidarity with Indigenous folks because often theres a connection, Imani said, pointing out that Indigenous Canadians travelled south to support Black Lives Matter. Its not a big stretch of the imagination to look at the landscape of oppression and liberation and feel like we should fight together.

Imani has had ample time to reflect on the issue of black identity, especially as her public persona has been evolving since her conversion to Islam in 2015, and her 2016 arrest following the shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For a time, that seemed like enough.

When I converted to Islam I felt like I was too many things, Imani said. Im black, Im a woman, Im Muslim, Ill leave it there.

But then Imani came out as bisexual during a heated Fox News interview in 2017 and now, living as she does at the intersection of four marginalized communities, her thinking has evolved. Shes not the problem. A system that tries who limit how we see ourselves is the problem.

I think that its crucial for black people of every generation to know that we are our whole selves, we are a community, we are individuals, we are beautiful, we have ugly parts as well, but we are whole people and we dont need to portray ourselves as perfect entities because we are going to be dressed down by society regardless, she said.

Why dehumanize ourselves when were going to live in a system that does that on a daily basis?

hmooney@postmedia.com

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Activist Blair Imani talks blackness, identity ahead of Vancouver visit - The Province

Meet the three amazing women shortlisted in the Inspiration of the Year category for Stylists second Remarkable Women Awards in partnership with philosophy, then vote for your winner.

Juliet Can, 39, is the founder of Stour Trust, a social enterprise creating affordable workspaces for artists and low-income workers.

Ive had a passion for equality and justice ever since I moved to the UK from Uganda in 1990, age 10. My parents and I left without warning, without a suitcase, without saying bye to my friends, to get away from the civil war. We tried to claim refugee status in the UK but it took a decade for our paperwork to be seen. It meant we were placed in temporary accommodation and moved around a lot. It was unsettling. Then, age 15, I fell into a coma from carbon monoxide poisoning from one of the places we stayed at. The doctors said if I woke up I wouldnt have any brain function, but I went on to get As in my GCSEs a few months later. The experience made me realise I wanted my life to be meaningful and, as I got older, I became more passionate about people having access to a home they can afford and a space to connect with others.

The idea for Stour Trust came about after the Olympics were announced for London in 2005. I was working as a consultant for charities that helped local communities and I felt tensions between the artistic community (who felt their towns were changing), new businesses (who were redeveloping the area) and residents (who felt pushed out). So, myself and two artists decided to convert a warehouse in east London using recycled materials and volunteers into a place where everyone could come together. Its now big enough for 40 creators to use as a work and recreational space.

We named it Stour Space and, in 2014, it became the first UK workspace to be protected, so it cant be demolished. Today, we have four sites across the city that empower locals to work and create, with more in the pipeline. Anyone can walk in at any time to work for free, and private spaces can be hired at less than half the market rate.

In December 2019, Stour Trust worked with developer Future Generation to secure 25% of their space, just down the road from our original Stour Space, at no rent for 150 years. Thats 500 square metres that will be made into affordable workspaces and studios. I wanted to achieve something that lasts beyond my lifetime, and this is it. Ive spent more than 20 years campaigning for people to have the opportunity to thrive. The dream is that everyone in the world can have a roof over their head in which they can learn and live.

To vote for Juliet email remarkable.women@stylist.co.uk with her name in the subject line before 29 February.

Lizzie Carr, 34, founded online community and app Plastic Patrol to educate people about pollution and their environment through adventure.

It started after I went through radiotherapy for thyroid cancer in 2013 I went to the Isles of Scilly and discovered paddleboarding as a low-impact way of exercising. I wanted to continue once I returned home to London but gliding up and down Regents Canal I became more aware of the citys plastic pollution problem. I saw rubbish everywhere, birds nests were full of wrappers, straws and bags, and plastic bottles would tumble onto one end of my board and pop out the other. It was disgusting. I was using the waterways as a place to restore my health, but they were in a worse condition than I was.

So I began collecting data from my paddles; Id log what litter I found and where it was building up. I knew I wanted to help on a wider scale but I also needed to understand more about the issue. In May 2016, I decided to paddle 400 miles from Godalming to the Lake District to find evidence of plastic pollution. Over 22 days I took 3,000 photos, and in each image there were hundreds of pieces of rubbish. I got carpal tunnel syndrome from gripping the paddle every day, but my social media began to grow and I had started to raise awareness.

People were messaging me to see how they could help, so I reached out to an app developer who helped me create the Plastic Patrol app where I could upload all the evidence. Others started doing the same,and now the app has over 300,000 uploads from more than 80 countries. It felt surreal but invigorating that there was a community ready to help, and I was blown away on our first global clean-up day last September when thousands of people from 20 countries went out on the same day collecting litter and logging it on the app for a huge simultaneous data collection on plastic pollution.

Over the past few years, weve also been working with researchers at the universities of Nottingham and Glasgow to help analyse and understand our data, and have just published our first impact report. Its a call to action for industries and government by highlighting the most-found brands and major litter hotspots. There are plans to present the findings to the government environmental policy team.

I work as an environmental consultant and run Plastic Patrol as my passion project. We dont get any government funding, but we accept corporate funding and sponsorship to keep the movement going. When I started paddleboarding, I was dealing with survivors guilt; many people who I met through treatment didnt make it. I felt I had a second chance but I wasnt making the most out of it. Plastic Patrol helped me find a meaningful purpose, and when I see the contributions from people around the world who understand the danger of plastic, it feels like Im making a real difference.

To vote for Lizzie email remarkable. women@stylist.co.uk with her name in the subject line before 29 February.

Kike Oniwinde, 27, is the founder of BYP (Black Young Professionals) Network, which connects black professionals with jobs and other people from their communities.

In the black community theres a saying that we have to work 10 times harder to get the same results. Ive been lucky in that I had a successful athletics career, competing at javelin for Team GB, and great opportunities such as scholarships to study a masters in Florida and work placements at Goldman Sachs. But no matter what I was doing, I never saw anyone else who looked like me.

This frustration came to a head in 2016, during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. I felt like I couldnt change anything. At the same time, I noticed so many companies saying they couldnt find diverse talent, blaming it on a pipeline problem like we just didnt exist. It was infuriating. I had black professional friends who were unemployed for no reason.

So I started BYP, a network connecting black professionals with employers, and each other, to give them access to opportunities. It began as a networking event in London with 100 people coming together to mingle. People told me they wanted more, so I started running events every six weeks, while developing an app to connect our community. It reached 10,000 downloads in six months, and led to a Sky Women Tech scholarship in 2018 worth 25,000. I quit my job and put the money into the app now I have a team of 16 people.

Today, BYP works like a dating app but for careers. We have 40,000 users who match and talk with employers and other professionals to get advice and find jobs. We work with brands such as Facebook, Netflix, Sky and Lloyds, who want access to our talent. Someone recently got a job in tech at Soho House. She told me she never would have heard about it or thought of applying if it wasnt for us. And thats exactly what were about. BYP exists to change the black narrative. I hope there will come a time when we dont have to exist because opportunities will be shared equally. Until then, were shining a light on our community and raising aspirations for

To vote for Kike email remarkable. women@stylist.co.uk with her name in the subject line before 29 February.

philosophy is the wellbeing beauty brand inspiring you to look, live and feel your best, and is the official partner of Stylists Remarkable Women Awards 2020.

Photography: Louise Haywood-Schiefer

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Remarkable Women Awards 2020: It's time to vote for your Inspiration of the Year - Stylist Magazine

There's more than one festival in the New Zealand Festival of The Arts.

Te Ata, a festival within thefestival, will focuson young people and issues of identity, social justice, and postcolonialism through the arts.

Curated by Lemi Ponifasio, Te Ata will be based in Porirua with artists from all over the world coming to perform, teach and engage with audiences.

SUPPLIED

Dance group FLEXN are part of Te Ata, a festival within the New Zealand Festival of Arts 2020.

The public will see performers address issues of social justice, cultural expectations and also talk about the problems they face within their own community.

READ MORE:*New Zealand Festival 2020: Venues, tickets, transport and food*New Zealand Festival of the Arts 2020: Top picks for the Christmas stockings*From the quirky to the powerful: New Zealand Festivalof the Arts 2020 programme release*US artist Laurie Anderson to guest curate upcoming New Zealand Festival of the Arts

Ponifasio said Te Ata wasnot a festival with buzzy words like "youth-led" - it was aboutthe community coming together to give focus on young people, to hear from them, to look and reflect on them deeply, through the arts.

"It is a moment for young people to collaborate and create and find expressions for how they experience life right now as they contemplate and develop their livesintothe future.

SUPPLIED

The group will perform for the public, create conversation, host a dance class for people to express their own stories and take part in a student summit which allows young people to talk about the most pressing social challenges facing them and their families.

"Te Ata is the hope that engagement through the artistic dimension can help us find new ways to listen, to be heard, to be included, challenged and reassured through exchanges and in finding other ways to understand each other and to give new expression to our ever-changing life."

Performing, teaching and taking part in a student summit is FLEXN - a crew of dancers from the very neighbourhoods where the Black Lives Matter movement began to rise.

Using flexing - a form of street dance - the groupexpresses "deeply human and sometimes heart-wrenching stories".

SUPPLIED

Te Ata has been curated by Lemi Ponifasio.

Flexing isa type of dance made up of snapping, pausing, gliding andhat tricks.

Aloalii Tapu & Friendsis alsobringingGoodbye Naughtonto Porirua, whichpays tribute to tara, the South Aucklandsuburb Tapugrew up in.

His parents gave himthe first name Naughton during a time when having a Samoan name caused confusion - Naughton also represented safety and the promise of future opportunity.

Through the show, he rejects that idea - giving himself the space to create his own identity through dance rooted in the Samoan culture he is proud of.

SUPPLIED

Goodbye Naughton pays tribute to tara, the South Auckland suburb Aloalii Tapu grew up in.

Tapu, his friends and singers Chris Taito and Uati Tui, take the audience through the realities of being "the man" from tara, cultural expectations and postcolonialism.

Te Ata ambassador Te Rau Oriwa Mitchell said by having the festival in Porirua, the city's youth would be able to take part in workshops and see performances from international artists they most likely would never get to experience.

With what was going on in the world, these were the type of performances people needed to see, Mitchell said.

Supplied

3 guest curators - 100+ arts experiences - 1000s of conversations sparked.

"Mental heath issues are at an all-timehigh and identity issues definitely contribute to that, it needs to be addressed.

"We need to offer pathways for people to heal people and to understand who they are and where they come from."

* Te Ata opens on February 21 and runs untilFebruary 29 at Te Rauparaha Arena Pataka Art + Museum.

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New Zealand Festival 2020: Te Ata, a festival within the festival - Stuff.co.nz

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Part I: Reactions to the Mayor

The announcement came yesterday from Mayor John Hamilton: the city will not privatize the farmers market in 2020. The Board of Parks Commissioners voted to remain under city leadership by a unanimous vote on Thursday.

Parks Commissioner Lisa Thatcher said at the meeting that the city had greater concerns of protesters at the market than Schooner Creek Farm.

Mayor Hamilton said he will work to improve the environment of the market.

Yael Ksander is the communications director for the City of Bloomington. She agrees saying every constituent has the right to freedom of thought, including Schooner Creek Farm.

Black Lives Matter Bloomington said society is built around cities where mayors wield power that is often unchallenged by state-level authorities. The group said the mayor failed to take any bold measures, prolonging progress.

Both Ashley Pirani and Sean Milligan of the Purple Shirt Brigade agree that the citys handling of Schooner Creek Farms presence at the market has been ineffective.

The Indiana Daily Student reported that Robert Hall of the Grassroots Conservatives said he wants the city to keep protesters in Info Alley, a neutral space for protest, to bring stability to the market.

He said in a Herald Times opinion column that he condemns the mayors acknowledgement of SCF as white supremacists.

He said, It has not helped heal the community when the mayor continues to advance a false narrative.

After the most contentious season the farmers market has seen to date, the future remains unclear.

***

Part II: Outside Input

Sarah Dye said shes a member but not a spokesperson for the American Identity Movement. Again, she denies the group is a white supremacy group. When pressed on this question, Dye asked for a definition of white supremacy.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, white supremacy falls under the blanket of four qualifying tenets, 1) whites should have dominance over people of other backgrounds, especially where they may co-exist; 2) whites should live by themselves in a whites-only society; 3) white people have their own culture that is superior to other cultures; 4) white people are genetically superior to other people.

Yael Ksander said the city thinks it is important to understand the threats tied to white supremacy ideology, however, the farmers market is not the place to solve these issues. This is why Ksander said the city turned to outside help.

Mayor Hamilton contacted representatives of The Divided Community Projects Bridge Initiative at Ohio State Universitys Moritz College of Law In August of 2019. The Bridge Initiative is a conflict consolation project that focuses on hate crimes and incidents.

The project researches local issues and then suggests solutions to local agencies and government. Hamilton asked the Bridge Initiative to help the community understand underlying issues that arose at the farmers market and to provide a structure for leaders to begin a plan for action, according to the report. The full report can be found on the City of Bloomingtons website.

Black Lives Matter Bloomington and the Purple Shirt Brigade criticized the Bridge Initiative.

BLM B-Town and Sean Milligan of the Purple Shirt Brigade said they agree the city needs to listen to members of the community, rather than bringing in outside sources who tell the city what they want to hear.

Milligan said this creates a communication gap between city officials and the community. He said its causing everyone in the community to suffer, including people of color.

***

Part III: People of Color

The city said it met with many community groups to seek solutions.

At the end of the two week period, the market reopened with a larger comfort zone created by two public streets being closed to traffic during market hours, an increase in security cameras, an increased presence of police, market ambassadors to create a welcoming environment, and signage indicating areas for protest and market rules.

Ksander said not everyone was satisfied with their new changes.

The idea of increased police was not met with open arms by Black Lives Matter. The group said an increase of police patrol does not mean a reduction in crime. They said it only increases tensions between marginalized communities and the city.

Black Lives Matter B-Town is a non-hierarchical organization. 3 of the 6-person core council spoke with WFHB. The group prefers to be referred to as a unit, rather than on an individual basis.

BLM B-Town said they criticize not only white nationalists but white liberals in city government who they believe enable white nationalists through inaction.

The group said Mayor Hamilton needs to take action through an anti-racist lens. They said there is a level of white fragility on behalf of city officials.

BLM said the Hamilton administration adopts a message of what they refer to as incrementalism, which means gradual change. The problem with this approach, they said, is that it impedes progress.

Three of the six core-council members agree that they feel abandoned by the city throughout its handling of the farmers market.

***

Part IV: The Contract

In the last episode we heard from vendor Susan Welsand, the Chili Lady, who vended next to Schooner Creek Farms booth in the past outdoor season. Welsand recalled a specific interaction with Doug Mackey which makes her think the issue is not only about freedom of speech.

Ksander responded to allegations of Mackey making such an offer.

Welsand mentioned a day when Patrick Casey visited the market and recorded footage that was later uploaded to the Schooner Creek Farms website entailing white- nationalism propaganda. The issue was that the video included the Citys Farmer Market Logo. Ksander said guidelines have been drafted to ensure this wont be a future problem of the farmers market.

According to the 2020 Vendor Handbook preliminary working draft, Behavior outside of the Market that relates to the Market must not reflect poorly on the Market or the reputation of the City and must be consistent with the mission and goals of the Market.

However, as Ksander addressed, according to the 2019 market season handbook, by posting the video Schooner Creek Farm didnt violate their contract.

Welsand also addressed another incident which we heard in the last episode. Yael Ksander talked about the Schooner Creek Farms stand assistants filing under false names.

Once again, the accused farm was in no violation. The 2020 Vendor Hand book preliminary working draft states, the City does not tolerate vendors or their stand assistants engaging in harassing or discriminatory conduct towards fellow vendors, members of the public or City employees at the Market on the basis of sex, race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, housing status or veteran status.

The Purple Shirt Brigade challenges this narrative. Ashley Pirani said she knows of at least two cases of harassment on behalf of two SCF stand assistants.

Pirani said she knows of a number of complaints filed against SCF, and she said the city failed to address them.

***Part V: American Identity Movement

The Purple Shirt Brigade said last year Casey mocked one of their protesters with a disability on social media. We checked his Twitter account, which was suspended in late summer 2019.

Executive Director Patrick Casey transformed the image and brand of Identity Europa with a suit-and-tie approach to his white nationalist ideology. He is the founder of the American Identity Movement. In a Facebook post, Casey defended Sarah Dye. He said the left considers Dye a threat, and he quoted an American Greatness article, which read Sarah Dye is a victim of a left-wing witch hunt involving Antifa terrorists and the mayor of Bloomington.

Patrick Casey showed up at the farmers market last season. Dye said she didnt invite Casey to the market. She defends Casey, saying hes a law-abiding citizen who rejects violence.

Nolan Brewer

In a 200-page document compiled by the FBI, Brewer said he briefly met with Sarah Dye and Doug Mackey.

In the interview, Nolan Brewer who spray-painted swastikas on a Carmel synagogue, said Sarah Dye and Doug Mackey werent aware of the vandalism before it happened.

Sarah Dye said she believes there were false reports about her connection with Brewer.In late 2018, a mutual friend of Sarah Dye and Doug Mackey arranged for the couple to meet Nolan Brewer and his partner over dinner.

The dinner was after the Brewers spray-painted swastikas at the synagogue. However, Dye said she didnt have any knowledge of the crime committed. She said it was only a week later when she discovered the news.

Nolan Brewer, a 21-year-old from Eminence, Indiana, was sentenced to three years in federal prison for violating federal civil rights laws.

The Transformation

Sarah Dye said it was a slow process for her transitioning from a left-wing activist to a conservative member of AIM. She said she was tired of the hate created by the left. She said she used to embrace the ideas of Karl Marx. She said the left follows political fads without extensive research. Sarah said she was embarrassed to admit her political past.

However, Dye said since her transformation to a member of Identity Evropa and then, she still claims to look at politics objectively.

Sarah Dye cited the U.S. Census Bureaus report that White Americans are projected to fall below half the population by 2044.

While this may be true, the U.S. Census Bureau says today the Bloomington is 83 percent white. The bureau said black residents make up about 4.5 percent of the population.

Dye said people should acknowledge the European history of America.

When asked about colonialism, Dye said she doesnt deny atrocities done to Native Americans during European colonization. However, she said there were atrocities during war in all parts of the world.

All forms of decimation cannot be underplayed. In todays society, protection of marginalized groups is up to the government. In this case, its in the hands of city officials.

***

VI. The Future

Mayor Hamilton announced that the city will continue its 46th year in owning the farmers market. After vandalism, threats, protesters, and arrests, more than 80 vendors sent a letter to city officials requesting them to continue control of the market. The city said it looks forward to improving the market community. Only time will tell the future of the market.

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What the Farmer's Market Part II - WFHB News

The last decade was a time defined by burgeoning activist movements across the globe. Among the most impactful and inspiring is the latest iteration of the centuries-old Black liberation movement, in which Toronto became a significant confluence for organizing and whose influence spread far beyond the city limits.

The 2010s was a time of courageous, fierce and unapologetic activism from communities of Black people tired of waiting for what had been promised for decades. And while I was involved in what was among the most visible movements as a co-founder of Black Lives MatterToronto activists and advocates were working in spaces seen and unseen across the city.

We organized against police brutality and carding until the city of Toronto and the province of Ontario could no longer ignore us. We intervened in anti-Black racism experienced in schools from primary school to post-secondary education. We supported the arts in our communities. We built educational opportunities for children and adults that would teach us what had been taken away from us in the formal education system. We brought attention to the detention of Black asylum seekers and supported families reeling from the violence of anti-Black racism.

The Black liberation movement of the 2010s was visibly organized and led through the brilliance and scholarship of Black queer and trans people to whom countless organizers in movements everywhere owe the deepest debt.

When Pride named Black Lives MatterToronto as the honoured group in 2016, we refused to be used by an organization that simply wanted to benefit from proximity to our cause. We demanded that which would genuinely honour us: a commitment to structural change within Pride that focused on stripping away the anti-Blackness our communities had experienced from Pride for years. That action, built by Black activist and queer and trans groups beyond just BLM-TO, sparked a shift in how Pride organizations engaged with Black and marginalized communities across the globe.

Most importantly, we changed the way mass culture discusses and engages with Blackness. At the beginning of the 2010s, anti-Black racism was an idea most people in power refused to acknowledge. Now, the world cannot claim ignorance in any discussion of anti-Black racism.

We reinvigorated what was possible not only for us as Black people, but for anyone who was willing to listen and learn from our work.

As we look toward the 2020s, we need to build a city (and a country) that refuses to take anti-Black racism lightly, and that refuses to acceptpoliticians who don Blackface and disappear the Black community along Eglinton West in favour of a gentrified condominium corridor.

We want to live in a place that builds permanent Black spaces; a place where Black people who contributed greatly to Toronto and so much of its culture and its sounds are not pushed to the margins. This is the work that we all have ahead of us if we believe in justiceforBlack people.

@nowtoronto

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Decade in review: Black Lives Matter changes the face of Black liberation - NOW Magazine