WORKSHOPS

DAY 1 - WOKSHOPS

VIRTUAL ONLY

Title: Understanding Impacts of Abuse on Black Women, Their Careers and Well-Being (Gender Based Violence)

Presenter: Titi Adebanjo

This workshop aims to shed light on and bring awareness of violence and abuse and its impacts on employment as well as the intersection of discrimination, false narratives and societal, cultural, familial or individual real or perceived pressures. Many black women have expressed experiencing racism and discrimination, be it in the workplace, housing, education sector, or relationships. Lack of representation in some of these spaces with the pressures to go above and beyond what is required of others, or faced with the pressures of code-switching have caused feelings of loneliness, stress and trauma. Coupled with other forms of trauma, such as violence and abuse, it pushes women deeper into isolation, unable or unwilling to seek support, counselling and other support due to an understandable lack of trust and discouragement. In addition to understanding the impacts of trauma, this workshop will look at best practice recommendations to assist black women in overcoming the impacts with supportive methods. We will also look at the need for specialized services and representation that promote Black/African health and well-being for black women with the support of our community and find environments, relationships, and careers that validate her and align with her values.

Title: Roots & Culture – a view from gendered lens

Presenter: Nadine Lewis Agard

Purpose:   To share some psycho educational tools used in UN Women’s Foundations: strengthening approaches to address gender-based approaches in the Caribbean.  Excerpts from this manual will be used to allow participants to examine and dismantle some social and cultural notions that enable a culture of rape.   The facilitator will guide participants as they review  at a selection of music and imagery in the African Diaspora that echo social and cultural beliefs around women’s bodies and men’s access to it.  Issues on the context and origins of these beliefs will be discussed.  The session will also guide participants on designing gender lens activities which will allow them to engage in culturally-relevant discussions on gender, gender discrimination and how it impacts on the prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence in their communities. 

Implications:  In many societies, the efforts to end sexual violence are usually targeted towards women adjusting their behavior to reduce their risks.  We now know that these tactics are unhelpful and they can also strengthen the beliefs that victims are responsible for the attacks they have endured.  Many social justice activists find it frustrating to convince some audiences that social beliefs, practices and messages play a significant role in promoting a culture of rape.  The UN Women Foundations programme has developed tools that allow for the safe exploration of these issues.

Methods: The facilitator will create an interactive workshop atmosphere by using music, imagery and printed text to demonstrate how ‘rape culture’ is promoted and sustained.  Participants will also be engaged in developing ‘psycho-educational’ activities that will seek to dismantle some of the harmful messages examined. 

Results:  The participants will:

• Examine how messages around sex and sexuality are conveyed through the media

• Be aware how some harmful  notions around gender can enable a culture of rape

• Participate in psycho-educational exercises that allow an analysis of some sectors. 

Title: Beyond Black Resilience for RESToration & SELF-PreSERVation

Presenter: Aina-Nia Ayo'dele

Purpose:

In all the diversity and intersectionality of Black identities, customs, cultures, there are indigenous African knowledge systems which can enable wholesome living, even within these colonized, patriarchal and White supremist systems. Our purpose is to support conference participants to re-member indigenous African ways that restore and preserve our Black bodies, minds, emotions and spirit. Aina-Nia Ayo’dele intends to ignite introspection and intentional commitment to personal and collective Black health and well-being.

Methodology: 

Aina-Nia will masterfully engage a decolonized indigenized methodology as she takes participants on a learning journey by creating a brave, loving space which prioritizes belonging. The experience will feel of a community conversation circle. While she will name the effects of racial trauma on Black bodies (mental, emotional and physical), she does not stay there. Instead, she quickly and gently shares practical solutions for restoration through the wisdom of our African ancestors.

Outcomes:

The Beyond Black Resilience for RESToration & SELF-PreSERVation experience can be presented as a 40mins keynote presentation or 90-120 mins workshop. Whichever the format, participants will:

1. Explore African indigenous practices that support wellness of mind, emotion, body and spirit

2. Learn how to employ basic principles such as balance, boundaries and self-love

3. Access simple practical tools to protect personal peace and power within Black liberation movements 

4. Be inspired to disrupt a culture of ‘Black resilience’ and turn their focus to self-caring/stewardship

Title: Exploring the Erotic through Collective Reflection 

Presenter: Toluwani Roberts 

The practice of storytelling is liberation in action. Storytelling, using M. Jacqui Alexander’s words, sparks “shifts in consciousness [that] happen through active processes of practice and reflection. Of necessity, they occur in community” (2005, p. 283). This practice of communal reflection has led to the publication of two key texts in the lineage of Black/African Feminist scholarship: The Sex Lives of African Women: Self-Discovery, Freedom and Healing by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah (2022) and She Called Me Woman: Nigeria’s Queer Women Speak edited by Azeenarh Mohammed, et. al (2018). Ethnographic studies of Black African queer women have been few and far between until recent years. Together, these books contain 57 narratives from women who, consciously or unconsciously, embody the feminist mantra that the personal is political and embrace Audre Lorde’s call to utilize the power of the erotic in our lives; women whose sensuality bridges the spiritual and the political. Therefore, I invite conference attendees to reflect on the uses of the erotic in their lives, providing writing prompts such as: How has your relationship with sex (solo or with others) changed over time? What is your political orientation? Which sacred rituals do you incorporate in your daily life? Attendees will have the chance to share their answers, if they choose, and reflect on excerpts I will have pulled from the above texts, as a way of healing, building community through vulnerability, and tapping into the “power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling” (Lorde, 1984, p. 53).