As the founder of the Black Daddies Club, I first got introduced to the Ecoversities Alliance in 2015, when I connected with them at Tamera in Portugal, and the idea of Un-conferences and un-learning really spoke to me. Most importantly, the idea of re-imagining education really resonated to me as a community activist here in Toronto, where community based education approach is something that Black Daddies Club has been doing since our inception in 2007. Meeting folks from all around the world and finding out more about how we differ but more importantly what do we have in common, made me think about the opportunity to network with like minded folks and to grow the work that I wanted to do, ever since then I have been apart of the network.

Fast forward to 2021, and I am on the planning committee for the first North American Turtle Island Ecoversities Gathering taking place on January 22nd to 24th 2021, which is taking place virtually due to Covid-19. You can see the schedule here and register for the free gathering by filling out the short form. For folks who are interested in hosting a session over the weekend, you can do so by filling out this form.

Also a part of this weekend’s gathering will be the Black Daddies Club co-presentation of Sunday Dinners virtual discussions (The Black Liberation edition), the online forum will focus on Blackness, Gender and Race. This special session will be open to the general public and not only to Black men, which the Sunday Dinner online gatherings are usually known for. This special edition of Sunday Dinner is a collaboration with Michael Roberson Maison-Margiela (New York) and Twysted Miyake- Mugler (Toronto). In 2016, Black Daddies Club partnered with Michael and Twysted to co-produced the Journey to Black Liberation Symposium and the Black Liberation Ball, which was held at the Harborfront Center in Toronto. In 2021 we will be collaborating with quarterly online conversations a part of the Sunday Dinner conversations, these conversations will look at various entry points into the Black communities, to register for the Sunday Dinner taking place Sunday, January 24th 2021 from 5pm to 6:30pm, you can register at this link.