Rodney Diverlus, co-founder, Black Lives Matter Canada
Rodney Diverlus, co-founder, Black Lives Matter Canada
Black Futures Month: The artist and activist has a monumental year planned for Black Lives Matter By Kelsey Adams
Samuel Engelking
Before the federal government launched CERB, Black Lives Matter-Toronto adapted to COVID by running an emergency fund to help out-of-work Black Torontonians cover daily living expenses. This mutual aid model is something Rodney Diverlus, one of the group’s founding members, sees as integral to the way we build back after the pandemic. Diverlus calls himself an “artivist,” creating work that exists at the intersection of art and activism. He is the director of Wildseed Centre, a multi-purpose co-working space for the city’s Black community to organize, meet, create art and heal. He feels we’re on the precipice of a Black renaissance, laying the groundwork for sustainable organizing for generations to come.
NOW Magazine
Renee Jagdeo, student at the University of Toronto
Black Futures Month: First-time political candidate pushes policy change to benefit the city’s youth By Kelsey Adams
Feb 4, 2021
Renee Jagdeo made headlines when she ran in the Scarborough-Agincourt by-election earlier this year. The 19-year-old was the youngest person in the race of over 25 candidates. Her platform included improving green and recreational spaces, free Presto cards, supporting businesses, workers and renters during COVID-19 and developing accessible and affordable housing. She didn’t win, but the University of Toronto urban planning student isn’t deterred from pushing for policy changes that reflect the needs of young Torontonians. She knows the future is theirs to inherit and she wants to make it more equitable.
Black Futures Month: 2021 will be a pivotal year in the fight against anti-Blackness
Meet five Black Torontonians doing the heavy lifting to make lasting change By Kelsey Adams
Feb 4, 2021
From left to right: Rodney Diverlus, Renée Jagdeo, Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, Cheyenne Sundance and Paul Taylor
Black Futures Month challenges Black people to push for collective liberation. With the pandemic and continued police violence galvanizing more people to call for change, Black Torontonians are seizing the moment to demand a more just future.
Black futures are indelibly linked to Black histories. Within the contexts of colonial and imperialist violence, Black people have always looked to the future. This innate impulse to imagine a more just, equitable and free future is what has propelled Black resistance for centuries. We know what hasn’t worked and what isn’t working. Anti-Black racism remains an endemic and systemic impediment to an unshackled reality for Black people ev
Cheyenne Sundance, urban farmer and founder of Sundance Harvest
Cheyenne Sundance, urban farmer and founder of Sundance Harvest
Black Futures Month: Food justice advocate is teaching a new generation to farm all year By Kelsey Adams
Feb 4, 2021
Sundance Harvest is an urban farm near Downsview Park, with an emphasis on food justice. At the helm is Cheyenne Sundance, a 23-year-old farmer who empowers other youth to start their own food and land sovereignty movements. Following in the tradition of countless Black women like civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, Sundance prioritizes putting agency back into the hands of the most marginalized and providing them the necessary tools to feed themselves.
NOW Magazine
Paul Taylor, executive director of FoodShare Toronto
Black Futures Month: Toronto needs to do more than charity to end food insecurity By Kelsey Adams
Feb 4, 2021
Paul Taylor is a man about town, embedded within many social justice communities but primarily focused on food security. As executive director of FoodShare, he leads city-wide initiatives that provide food insecure people with fresh produce, partner with school student nutrition programs and advocate for the right to food. Taylor is thinking about the immediate future following the fallout from the pandemic and he hopes we’ll see the conversation move beyond food banks to long-term policy change addressing human rights inequities.