Jennifer Holness and Jennifer Hosten to discuss black creativity, white spaces during February 28 event
TORONTO, Feb. 9, 2024 /CNW/ - On Wednesday, February 28, join Jennifer Holness, Jennifer Hosten and Dr. Cheryl Thompson in discussion for Black Bodies, White Spaces, a free event set in an intimate venue in Toronto's Davenport neighbourhood. The event honours Black History Month, female creatives, and their expression.
Sixty years after the US Civil Rights Movement, many Canadian artists, writers and culture workers still contend with the power dynamics of "white spaces" that discount and devalue Black creativity and marginalize nonwhite histories and narratives.
In an event co-produced by Sutherland House Books, Hungry Eyes Media, and PEN Canada, award-winning filmmaker Jennifer Holness and author and 1970's Miss World winner, Jennifer Hosten, will discuss the challenges of negotiating these spaces during their professional lives. With the evening moderated by Dr. Cheryl Thompson, the two women will reflect on what these challenges have taught them about the complex intersections of race, art and culture in the 21st century.
The discussion will begin at 7 p.m., with doors opening a half-hour before, at Action Potential Lab at 451 Christie St, in Toronto. The event is open to the public, and tickets are limited. Advanced registration is required: you can RSVP here on pencanada.ca.
Jennifer Hosten, a native of Grenada, trained with the BBC and worked as a broadcaster and airline hostess before winning the 1970 Miss World competition. She later enjoyed a career in diplomacy, trade negotiation, and international development.
Jennifer Holness is a writer, producer, and director. She is the first Black woman in Canada to win a CSA (Gemini) for Best Writing, is the 2021 Indiescreen Producer of the Year and a 2022 WIFT Creative Excellence Award winner. Her feature doc Subjects of Desire won numerous festival awards and was a 2021 TIFF Top 10 Film. Most recently her doc series BLK: An Origin Story won 5 CSA awards, including Best Director for her episode.
Dr. Cheryl Thompson is an assistant professor in performance at the Creative School at TMU, the director of Black Creative Lab, and lead investigator on the Ontario Early Researcher Award-funded project, "Mapping Ontario's Black Archives: Building an Inventory through Storytelling" (2021-26). Dr. Thompson is also author of Uncle: Race, Nostalgia, and the Politics of Loyalty (Coach House Books) and Beauty in a Box: Detangling the Roots of Canada's Black Beauty Culture (Wilfrid Laurier Press).
PEN Canada is a nonpartisan organization that celebrates literature, defends freedom of expression, and assists writers in peril at home and abroad. The English-language Canadian centre was founded in 1983 and is proud to be one of over 100 chapters of PEN International.
Sutherland House Books was founded in 2017. As a new Toronto-based publisher of non-fiction books for global English-language audiences, it specializes in narrative works of biography, memoir, history, business, culture, and current affairs, all with broad appeal.
Hungry Eyes Media is co-founded by award-winning filmmakers Jen Holness and Sudz Sutherland, who bring a fresh, authentic perspective to telling powerful, thought-provoking stories. As a company with its own distinct mission plan, Hungry Eyes seeks to inspire and entertain!
SOURCE PEN Canada
Media contact: Eilish Waller, Communications Coordinator, PEN Canada, [email protected]
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