Last night I had the privilege to attend, “The ARTivism Lab,” which consisted of four different activists. Each person who presented spoke about how they aspire to create social change in their distant communities. From all their individual stories, I was able to see through the lens of people who come from different racial backgrounds, sexual orientations, and personal experiences. You could truly see that they each thrived for change and are continuing to spread awareness on certain issues.
Dr. Audrey Hudson is an artist, educator, and researcher who currently works at OCAD University. She mentioned that she has worked as an artist educator for half of her life. She admires Hip-Hop and the stories that one could express through this form of dance. She works towards black and indigenous youth relationship-building through Hip-Hop. Her work at OCAD consists of teaching her students about the history of Hip-Hop, and to create art through Hip-Hop. When she was speaking, one thing that drew my attention was they way she talked about her students. It was evident that she made personal 1-to-1 connections with her students by the way she described their work to us. She goes on to say that she wishes to help other teachers facilitate knowledge and to create classroom environments that go against neoliberalism.
Dr. RM Kennedy is a labour activist, dreamer, Ontario College Faculty Division Chair, and a professor at Centennial College. He spoke about his hand in the 5-week strike that took place this last fall with the colleges in the district. His whole speech was on the idea of dreaming big and not letting people stop you from standing up for what you believe in. To Dr. RM Kennedy and for many others, proper pay and secure jobs should be in place. Then all those who were part of the strike, nothing was going to stop them from reaching that initial end goal. In a video he shared with us he mentions that it is ironic for students to get a good job if their own teachers do not have a good job. He mentions that there was this idea that people who were in power acted that under no circumstances would professors be able to teach, speak, or dream without approval. Dr. RM Kennedy goes on the say, “The reason why the strike was so successful was because we did dream big.”
Dr. Sandra Jeppesen studied and became a biomedical engineer, and later returned to school and worked for a masters in creative writing. She talks about different social issues that she feels passionate about, one being #MeToo movement. #MeToo deals with slut-shaming and rape culture. Using this hashtag, people who were sexually abused are able to speak up about their stories. She thrives and works to see a change from the idea of victim blaming to the fact that actions should be done with sober consent. She talked about other social justice movements including the #BLM-TO movement. There was a story she said about seeing her students one night at a pub who read their #MeToo poems which touched her heart. Just like Dr. Audrey Hudson, you could tell that Sandra cared about her students as well.
Susanne Nyaga is currently the president of the Ryerson Student Union and a senior student at Ryerson. What I found interesting about her talk was her idea that when it comes to address social change, social media is a nice starting point but it should not end there. She goes on to say that if we keep the talk going on social media, ideas clash and people will feel comfortable with expressing hate since it is not a face-to-face conversation. She also talks about her focus on anti-black and how she believes no black student should be harassed in any school environment just because they are black. She also wishes to help students who are not able to pay for their tuition, specifically at Ryerson, with the hidden funds that Ryerson holds.
During the talk, I was hoping to learn what makes an activist and activist. My idea of an activist has been blurry and these speakers have done an excellent job of clearing up that definition for me. Even though there may be aspects that I do not fully understand or ideas that I am not able to grasp just yet, I admire all speakers for their work. I hope my future self will be able to dream big instead of looking at the world in such a small lens.