In November 2017, Indigenous and Black community members, scholars, and activists gathered at the University of Toronto to discuss getting elsewhere.   In the spirit of The Henceforward, the elsewhere is lived and created today, as well as a realm of unknown possibilities. Members of the gathering created guided meditations that take us on a walk-through future-day 125th Street in Harlem and invite us to visit places we yearn for.   We invite you to listen closely, perhaps close your eyes, and travel with us into the elsewhere.   Contributors, in the order their voices are heard:   Sefanit Habtom Marie Laing Karyn Recollet Eve Tuck Zoe Samudzi Mistinguette Smith Sandi Wemigwase Susan Blight Chelsea Vowel Shay McLean Andrea Derbecker Stephanie Latty Fikile Nxumalo Danielle Cantave

Episode 26 – Meditating on the Elsewhere

The Henceforward is a podcast that considers relationships between Indigenous Peoples and Black Peoples on Turtle Island. Through this podcast series, we take an open and honest look at how these relationships can go beyond what has been constructed through settler colonialism and antiblackness, we investigate what our mutual obligations and possibilities for contingent collaboration are, and much much more.

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In this episode, Kayla Webber and Paige Grant interview Denise Baldwin, from Ontario, to discuss her experiences of being a Black-Indigenous woman in Canada. The conversation considers the ways that Black-Indigenous and/or Afro-Indigenous identities have, and continue to be, invisbilized in Canada. Some members of these communities have been taught to dishonour their Indigenous and/or Black ancestors who have made it possible for them to be here. Denise draws attention to how she understands and expresses her Black-Indigenous identity. This episode was originally recorded in March 2019.

Episode 29 – Black-Indigenous Identity in Canada

This episode was originally recorded in February 2019. However, it is especially relevant during the COVID-19 virus, given the increasing use of online platforms, and amidst conversations about life following the pandemic. In this episode, Sefanit interviews Nasma Ahmed, the founder of Digital Justice Lab (DJL). Nasma is a Black woman whose work considers surveillance, digitization, and tech justice amidst an everchanging Toronto. She discusses her work with DJL and its necessarily broad scope, as well as the Sidewalk Project and critical questions important to future city building. Who do these proposed “smart cities” account for, and at whose expense? To learn more about the Digital Justice Lab: http://digitaljusticelab.ca.

Episode 28 – “I don’t know if a city… can be liveable”: An Interview with Nasma Ahmed

This episode was originally recorded in October 2018. It remains relevant today, amidst the COVID-19 virus, as we are imagining life following the pandemic. In this episode, Jennifer Sylvester and Jade Nixon interview Alayna Eagle Shield, creator of the Mní Wičhóni Nakíčižiŋ Owáyawa (Defenders of the Water School), which began at the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Camp at Standing Rock. Alayna generously shares her work at the school and speaks to the importance of Indigenous languages and traditions, particularly the Lakota language, for her children and future generations.  

Episode 27 – Defenders of the Water School: An Interview with Alayna Eagle Shield

In this episode, Chris Ramsaroop, Greer Babazon and Nisha Toomey discuss Toronto’s rapid gentrification. We visit the kitchen table to unpack what communities are most impacted by gentrification; explore how gentrification has been, and continues to be, justified by (settler colonial) logics of progress and inevitability; and we speak with a resident of Toronto’s Junction area on the shifted/shifting community.

Episode 26 – Meditating on the Elsewhere

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