On Feb. 1, an opening ceremony with keynote speaker Dr. James Jones marked the lineup of events for McGill’s fifth annual celebration of Black History Month. In an email to students, Principal and Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier and Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Christopher Manfredi acknowledged that the work of McGill’s Anti-Black[Read More…]
Tag: Black Students’ Network
McGill launches bicentennial celebrations with hour-long kick-off event
McGill kicked off its bicentennial (1821-2021) celebrations on March 31 by broadcasting its centrepiece event, “Celebrate 200: Launching Our 3rd Century,” live from the university’s bicentennial website. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, MD ‘18, a frontline healthcare worker and professional football player, and Heleena De Oliveira, U3 Arts and president of the Black[Read More…]
BSN believes McGill’s plan against anti-Black racism has room for improvement
The Black Students’ Network (BSN) believes that McGill’s Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism is a good start to addressing systemic and anti-Black racism, but that the group will continue to work with members of McGill’s Black communities and the administration to ensure its effective implementation. On Sept. 30, McGill[Read More…]
Campus Spotlight: #TakeJamesDown
Anti-Black racism at McGill is institutionalized, and the work of Black student activists is vital in demanding systemic changes on campus. A summer of Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the continued police brutality and murders of Black people have brought increased visibility to Black activism around the globe, including[Read More…]
Black Lives Matter at McGill too
Danielle Geathers, MIT’s first Black woman student body president, and Nicholas Johnson, Princeton University’s first Black valedictorian, inspired my recent Facebook post reacting to the news that I would be serving as one of the very few Black presidents in the Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) 112-year history. I[Read More…]
Celebrating Black history in the new decade
On Feb. 3, the Office of the Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic), the Black Students’ Network (BSN), and the McGill African Students’ Society (MASS) commenced McGill’s fourth annual Black History Month (BHM). Under the theme “Rooted”, this year’s celebration aims to continue the tradition of bringing together students, staff, and community[Read More…]
Black Student Network aims to pass ‘Black students’ Bill of Rights’
McGill’s Black Student Network (BSN) is working to pass a motion this year through the McGill Senate that would establish several rights that Black students would be entitled to on campus. The BSN aims to shed light on the distinct experiences and barriers that Black students face at McGill. The[Read More…]
Black Students’ Network holds first-ever ‘Black Grad’
On May 29, the Black Students’ Network of McGill (BSN) hosted their first annual Black Graduation ceremony. Held in collaboration with the McGill Black Alumni Association (MBAA), the Joint Board-Senate Committee on Equity (JBSCE), and the Subcommittee on Racialized and Ethnic Persons (REP), the event aimed to foster community and[Read More…]
McGill’s first all black play tackles injustice with poetry without mincing words
“I was missin’ something,” begins Munyaradzi Guramatunhu’s note, introducing her rendition of the play for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf in Tuesday Night Cafe Theatre’s (TNC) black and white program. “Something so important, something that ought to exist.” Though the words were adapted from the play’s[Read More…]
Desmond Cole addresses the logic of white supremacy
On March 27, Toronto activist and journalist Desmond Cole spoke as the Debate Union’s David A. Freedman Speaker for 2017. The title of his talk was, “The Language and Logic of White Supremacy.” There were about 150 people in the audience, and over 2,000 people watching over the Facebook livestream.[Read More…]
