Celebrating our Stories, Strengthening our Spirits South Asian women are celebrating International Women’s Day on Thursday, March 8th at 5:30pm at Bendale Library located at 1515 Danforth Rd. Join us if you want to share the stories of your daily struggles and successes, whether you are a community organizer, a homemaker or a professional…
The Health and Racism Working Group (HaR) is an anti-racist advocacy group made up of community members and frontline workers, based in Peel Region. In existence since 2007, the group is hosted at the East Mississauga Community Health Centre. HaR members have created space for dialogue on intersecting issues of equity, through community events, workshops,…
Richard Fung is a video artist and cultural critic, and an associate professor in the Faculty of Art at OCAD University (formerly Ontario College of Art and Design). He was a co-founder of Gay Asians Toronto in 1980 and his first documentary, Orientations: Lesbian and Gay Asians (1984), explores the intersection of race, gender and…
Rodney Diverlus is a Haitian activist, community organizer, dancer, and actor. Rodney is currently serving his second term as the Vice-President Equity for the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU), and was just recently elected as President. In his capacity as VP Equity, Rodney represents over 27,000 full-time undergraduate and all graduate students at Ryerson. As Ryerson’s first…
Farrah Khan. At the age of 16, Farrah Khan picked up a microphone to speak out about sexual assault and has not put it down since. Named by the Toronto Star as one of 2011′s “People to Watch,” she has spent the last sixteen years working diligently to raise awareness of gender-based violence through art creation,…
Vanessa Ling Yu, MHSc, MA is a health promoter, participatory action researcher, communications consultant, and anti-racism / anti-oppression facilitator with more than 15 years of experience working on issues and actions for equity. She has demonstrated interest and commitment to continued internal growth and external learning for food and race justice in local and global…
Ashley Alexis McFarlane is currently the Program Coordinator at the Urban Alliance on Race Relations for the Making Noise! Gender Violence Community Accountability Media Project. The initiative addresses gender based violence through media literacy, media production, and by training youth workers to support youth experiencing violence. As a media practitioner, Ashley has worked in the areas…
Sheila Sampath has been crafting creative for social good since 2003. Former chair of the board at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multi-cultural Women Against Rape, she has a background in grassroots anti-oppression activism, which she incorporates into her strategic approach to graphic design and popular education as principal and creative director at The Public (www.thepublicstudio.ca)…
Kenji Tokawa is a mixed-race Nikkei writer, artist and arts-educator based in Toronto, Wendat-Haudenosaunee-Anishinaabeg Territory. He came to Canada from Denmark, Japan and Ireland over one hundred years ago. Having coordinated queer- and trans-positive events and programing for racialized youth (Asian Arts Freedom School, GenderFOC) currently he runs his own workshops in silk-screen printing with a…
Facilitator Biography Shakil Choudhury (M.E.S., B.Ed.) Senior Partner, Anima Leadership Shakil, co-founder of Anima Leadership, is a diversity and leadership consultant with 18 years of experience working nationally and internationally. An award-winning equity educator and author, he has a background in anti-racism, conflict resolution and emotional intelligence. Shakil has been leading and building teams…
