Event celebrates, empowers Black voices
Waterloo Region women create online space for a TED Talks-style speaking series
WATERLOO REGION — An online speaking event this Friday hopes to empower the local Black community with stories of resilience from Black leaders across the region.
“So often our narratives get told for us,” said Carla Beharry, one of the organizers behind WOKE WO/MEN, a series of inspiring speaking events for the local Black community.
“This is an opportunity for us to acknowledge these speakers and hear stories from each of these Black leaders.”
Local anti-racism instructor and advocate Selam Debs is also behind this Friday’s WOKE WO/MEN event, called Stories of Resilience + Challenge in WOKE WO/MEN.
Debs said people often turn to Black leaders from Toronto or the United States for wisdom even though Waterloo Region has many inspiring Black leaders.
“There are incredible voices right here,” she said.
The duo’s event Friday evening will feature local speakers as well as a music, dance & spoken word in a tribute to the region’s African and Caribbean cultures and communities.
This is the seventh WOKE WO/MEN event, and the first one that will be virtual. Debs and Beharry wanted to create a space to celebrate and hear from local Black leaders as Black History Month comes to an end.
Debs and Beharry have organized events to empower the local Black communities for years.
“For me as a Black woman who has lived in Kitchener Waterloo on and off since high school, I’ve had a really hard time finding spaces that were not white-dominated,” Debs said.
“I think what Carla and I realized is we just had to create it.”
Beharry said the events are meant to empower the local racialized and Black community, and to create a space for themselves.
“It came to life to find mentors, to not have our stories told through the lens of trauma porn,” she said.
Last June’s Black Lives Matter solidarity march also launched an online resource called the Antiracism Community Collective, where Debs has created a free anti-racism guide available to download.
Debs created the free guide as a basic resource to get people started on how to become antiracist.
Although this collective was formed as a response to last year’s Black Lives Matter movement, Debs has done anti-racism instruction since before the pandemic began.
“The only thing that has changed is that the masses have woken up,” Debs said.
The pair also offer anti-racism workshops for businesses, agencies and other workplaces.
Beharry said it takes more that hiring more Black and brown people to dismantle the overt and covert forms of racism that exist in workplaces.
“How can you educate everyone so we’re no longer doing harm to racialized employees?” she said.
Debs explained that it is difficult and often traumatic to create these antiracism resources. It means reliving her own traumatic experiences with racism in order to help others become anti-racist.
Stories of Resilience + Challenge in WOKE WO/MEN is on Friday, Feb. 26 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
The event is free, but pre-registration is required to access the event through a private link. Register online by going to the website eventbrite.ca and search for WOKE WO/MEN.