Ideas about Black women: how can art shift perspectives?

Samia Dumais is a community worker, public historian and a PhD candidate (ABD) in Montreal Black Women's History at Concordia University. She is a member of the Montreal History Group, for which she acts as the coordinator. Samia also serves as an archivist for the afro-feminist community organization Harambec and as a volunteer for Sankofa Archives and Collections. She has collaborated with numerous organizations and institutions such as Relais-Femmes, Breast Cancer Action Quebec, Histoire Engagée, Ingenium Canada, the Quebec Network for Feminist Studies and the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. Her writings have been published in the Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, the Canadian Historical Review, HistoireEngagée.ca and the book Le sujet du féminisme est-il blanc? Tome II : Luttes et savoirs actuels.

Teeanna Munro, granddaughter of Joyce King, grew up among performers—or rather, entertainers: singers, dancers, actors, musicians. Rooted in this lineage of storytellers, memory-keepers, and magic-makers, Teeanna became a spoken word artist, tender of the family archive, a scrapbooker by inheritance, and most recently a PhD candidate at Concordia University whose project, The Things We Keep, explores how her Black family has carried and handed down memory.

A treasure hunter at heart, Teeanna works with what her family has kept and what it has lost, shaping photographs, heirlooms, and half-remembered stories into poetry, performance, and living archive. Her work Harlem Nocturne, published in The Great Black North and Geist, toured nationally in IT’S ABOUT TIME: Dancing Black in Canada 1900–1970, curated by Seika Boye. Her widely sampled poem “Burn Scars” led to a commission from Creme of Nature. A Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity spoken word resident, she lives by her father’s advice: never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Dian Marie Bridge is a creative director, curator, writer, producer and theatre maker with a passion for community-bridge building, inter-arts collaboration and mentorship. Her artistic career weaves together works in theatre, visual arts, film/digital arts, arts education and advocacy. She is currently Artistic Director at Black Theatre Workshop in Montreal, where she founded the Club Zed Playwrights’ Festival. Her work as Associate Artistic Director at Luminato Festival Toronto included overseeing the Artists in Residence program. Dian was assistant producer on the Stratford Festival’s Forum Series, artistic director intern at Obsidian Theatre, artist-in-residence at Necessary Angel Theatre, founding artistic producer of Cric Crac Collective, and member of the Stratford Festival’s Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction.