McGill and Montreal Black History Month Events Calendar

Birthwork as an Ancestral Practice

Wednesday, February 26 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

680 Sherbrooke West, Room 1825

This event, hosted by Black

History Month at McGill, Black Students’ Network, and the Social Accountability and Community Engagement office of the Faculty of Medicine, will “explore birthwork and reproductive justice from Black and Indigenous perspectives.” Speakers include Ariane Metellus, Hirut Melaku, and Iehente A. Foote.

Our Dance of Revolution Film Screening

Monday, February 24

7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

SGWU Alumni Auditorium, H-110

Cinema Politica and Massimadi Montreal are hosting the Quebec premiere of Our Dance of Revolution, a 2018 film directed by Phillip Pike.

Synopsis: “No, the revolution wasn’t televised. But it was hugged, chanted, marched, and danced into existence. Our Dance of Revolution tells the story of how Black queer folks in Toronto faced every adversity, from invisibility to police brutality, and over a four-decade span rose up to become a vibrant, triple-snap-fierce community.”

This event is Pay What You Can.

The Roots of Step

Saturday, February 29

4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Espace Knox

This is the inaugural show of the

Montreal Steppers. It will focus on the art of stepping and its evolution in the African diaspora. The show will “highlight the resilience and creativity” of the Black community and “the importance of [...] coming together to live, succeed, thrive, and SHINE.”

Adult tickets are $20.00. Guests may attend either the 4:00pm or the 8:00pm show. The proceeds of ticket sales will be donated to community organizations.

Selma Film Screening Tuesday, February 25 6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Douglas Hall, TV Room

The Community Engagement and Equity Committee (CEEC) is hosting a screening of Selma to celebrate Black History Month.

Note: this event is only open to students in residence.

Commemorating Christie V. York, 80 Years On Saturday, February 29

1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Mawell Cohen Moot Court

This symposium will discuss the life and activism of Fred Christie as well as the present-day situation of racism and the law in Canada. Speakers include Mr. Terry Brazill, Hon. Juanita Westmoreland-Traore, Professor Barrington Walker, and Me Marie-Claude Landry, Ad. E.

Coffee Hours February, February 28 1:00 p.m. - 4:00p.m. 3471 Peel

BSN is hosting Coffee Hours, which they describe as as chance to “chill, relax, and have fun with fellow students.”

Rackeb Tesfaye on Broad Science and Intersectional Approaches

Wednesday, March 11

6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Arts 150

The Feminist and Accessible Publishing/ Communications Technologies Series and the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies are hosting a talk by Rackeb Tesfaye, a PhD student in McGill’s Program of Integrated Neuroscience and co-founder of

Broad Science. Broad Science is a Montreal-based “initiative dedicated to making science inclusive, engaging, and intersectional, through audio storytelling.” The talk will “discuss the importance of using storytelling as an effective tool for engaging broad audiences with science and how digital storytelling can be used to empower communities who have historically been underrepresented in science narratives.”

Toni Morrison Tribute Monday, February 24 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. La Citadelle, 3rd floor

Black History Month at McGill, McGill African Students Society, Black Students’ Network, and the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist studies are hosting a talk by Professor Caroline Brown from the Universite de Montréal. Prof. Brown specializes in 20th-century United States literature and culture, women’s studies, and the literature of the African diaspora. The talk will be followed by a discussion and collective voicing of Morrison’s work. Racines 2.0 will also be selling books by Morrison and other Black authors.

NSBE Black History Month: Black Legacy Dinner

Friday, February 28

6:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. La Citadelle, 3rd floor

The McGill chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers is hosting a legacy dinner, which will include panels and speakers from a variety of fields and the opportunity for Black engineering students to network with professionals. Tickets are $10.00.

Black Studies in Translation Conference

Friday, March 13 and Saturday, March 14

Concordia University

The Black Studies department at Concordia Collective is holding its second annual conference. The organizers invite all attendees to think about “the sense of movement, transformation, and possibility that is intrinsically found within Black studies. We are inspired by the multiplicity of symbolic meanings that Black as an identity and a political praxis can hold, and how identity is created and translated across different contexts and scales. At the same time, this multiplicity signals a need for deep engagement, translation, and study, the work of Black studies offers as a discipline and a praxis.” The conference will consist of two plenary lectures, as well as a series of perfomances, workshops, and other events.