By: Chiamaka Emeadi
February marked the annual celebration of Black culture, history and heritage. This year, KCI had an interesting lineup to celebrate Black History Month. While retired police officer-turned-speaker Jeff A.D. Martin returned to KCI for another workshop, the African Heritage Club attended two special conferences, as well.
Mr. Ashely is the teacher sponsor of the African History Club, and one of its core founders: “[The founders were] myself and Mrs. Pinnock; she was a French teacher here a couple of years ago. Both of us are of Jamaican Heritage and of course, of Africa Diaspora Heritage,” he told The Edge. “A number of students, years ago, asked if we could have a Black Student Alliance club. Of course, never having that opportunity when I was in high school, we were very open to it.
It was he and a handful of other teachers who pitched the idea to introduce Black Brilliance Month, as another way to honour the Region’s Black achievements. Mr. Ashley noted, “Myself and Ms. Pinnock got together and said, ‘we need to do something more- not just once a year- like twice a year!’ The Black Brilliance came out of our idea to the School Board and the Equity Department. We have a conference in October (this year was in December). We do a local one in December and a university one in February.”
KCI’s teachers happened to help coin the term ‘Black Brilliance:’ a Region-wide celebration of Black achievements, innovation and culture. Mr. Ashley said, “It was a Catalyst of myself and Ms. Pinnock and Ms. Hughes and another lady named Deepa. We went to them and said ‘hey, here’s a project that you guys can do, something that’s needed.”
For the remainder of this school year, Mr. Ashley plans to orient the club’s focus on his students’ lives after high school. “At this point in the year, I shift my focus to post-secondary, academic goals. Again, I’m always here for the students if they have any questions in any subjects,” he noted.
The Edge also reached out to Alexandra Hawthrone, a grade 11 student and member of the African Heritage Club for three years now. Having moved from the more diverse Toronto to Kitchener in Grade 9, Alessandra remembered feelings of isolation as a student of Afro-Caribbean descent: “You can imagine the culture shock I faced moving to a city like Kitchener and changing schools to an environment where it seems predominantly white.’”
She revealed to The Edge that her interest in the AHC stemmed from the feeling of community during weekly meetings, saying, “I decided to join the African Heritage Club hoping to surround myself with more people who looked like me and could potentially relate to the struggles I was facing. I wanted to join in hopes of finding a safe space and a community with other black students here at KCI.” Alessandra added, "We also chill listening to music from the African Diaspora and do anything that can ensure the club is a safe space!”
Mr. Ashley also proceeded to discuss the origins of Beating the Odds, one of the Region’s major conferences for Black Brilliance Month. “We were contacted by Laurier University; they did the Beating the Odds conference years ago- so that’s kind of actually how it started.”
Beating the Odds is an event that gathers Black-identifying high school students from around Waterloo Region. As usual, on February 9th, the AHC was among them.
To students such as Alessandra, the Conference was much more than an annual gathering of students from the African Diaspora, but an effective way to boost aspirations to achieve a higher education: “This conference is a way to combat the statistics of racialized students having a 70% dropout rate in the Waterloo Region, followed by a number of workshops and panel discussions by professionals,” she told The Edge.
Both Mr. Ashley and Alessandra also invited non-black students interested in the club to continue to visit: “To all the allies..and other people of colour on the fence on whether they should join the club or not, the club is welcome to EVERYONE as it gives everyone the opportunity to learn new things about our community and overall have fun sharing and learning about the African Diaspora!” Alessandra explained. Mr. Ashley added, “The door is always open. It’s always here.”
For students interested in the African Heritage Club, join their Google Classroom using this code: hvo5k6w