Images and Sounds from MOBA's Artists and Archivists in Dialogue

On September 21 and 22, 2023 the Mapping Ontario’s Black Archives (MOBA) Team co-produced Artists and Archivists in Dialogue (AAD), a Social Sciences Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection Grant-funded two-day speaker series and creative showcase that was held at Toronto Metropolitan University’s ILC and Toronto’s Tranzac Club.

The event also launched MobaProjects.ca, an open-access public resource that enables visitors to connect to archives across Ontario with Black collections. If someone has artifacts, images, or documents that they would like to donate MobaProjects can facilitate the process of donation.

MobaProjects is in the early stages of becoming a digital archive. This will enable us to document, store, and make searchable digital assets such as photographs, images of objects, scanned documents. Stay tuned for more!

As our inaugural speaker series and creative showcase, the two-day extravaganza featured artists, archivists, academics, scholars, and performers. Day One (September 21, 2023) centred archivists, librarians, academics, researchers, historians, artist-researcher, oral and visual storytellers and Day Two (September 22, 2023) showcased dancers, filmmakers, actors, activists, public historians, student-artists, and creatives. Over the course of two days, over 100 people attended AAD!

Attendees experienced academic papers, dance performances, short films, spoken word, and art entanglements with the archive. Attendees also got the opportunity to delve into thought-provoking panel discussions led by storytellers from various disciplines. Here’s what TMU’s The Creative School thought of our event.

Source: **MobaProjects**
**Day One, Session 1** | Dr. Cheryl’s Opening Remarks before, ”Why didn’t you think of us?’ A Conversation Between Archivists and Black Researchers.” CHAIR: Melissa J. Nelson. PRESENTERS: Mathew Fells, Leslie Thomas , Aaron Francis, Anthony Gebrehiwot, Andrea Fatona, Katrina Cohen-Palacios

Dr. Cheryl’s team (Dr. Karen Cyrus, Lucy Wowk, Enna Kim, Mel Racho, and Megan Judd) worked through the summer of 2023, we curated the schedule, contacted speakers, solicited bios and descriptions for their sessions, and we worked tirelessly to ensure the process was smooth and effortless on their parts. We also hired and held a series of co-creation meetings with Q30 Design. Together, we co-created the MobaProjects concept, they built our website and the content management system, and they created the MOBA brand. We could not have done this without them so thank you Q30!

We did not request any details in advance from the speakers or artists and we did not ask the dancers to rehearse. We trusted their process, and they trusted ours.

As visual artist Charmaine Lurch said during her presentation on Day One: Session 6 [“One Story Is Not The Only Story”], “we invited the artists to showcase their work, and to have a seat at the table to engage in discussion, too.”

Source: MobaProjects

Day One | Attendees engaging with Michaëlle Sergile’s artwork during a break

Academic participants and attendees at universities and colleges comingled, exchanged ideas, and broke bread with public historians, independent scholars, public sector educators, and in turn, dancers and choreographers, filmmakers and actors, visual artists, musicians, spoken word artists, and playwrights engaged with, and were entangled among academic participants and attendees, historians, independents scholars, students and academics. It was knowledge exchange at its best!

Source: MobaProjects

Day One | Attendees and presenters engaging in conversation, food, and exchange

On Day Two, discussions and films were integrated with dance performances, workshops, intimate conversations, and up-close-and-personal glimpses into the creative process.

People cried (Dr. Cheryl included!), laughed, sang, screamed in call and response, banged drums, moved their hips, hands, and hips!

Source: MobaProjects

Day Two, Session 11 | “Navigating Documentation / Archiving the Arts from an African Diasporic Perspective: Challenges, Opportunities and Future Imaginations.” CHAIR: Kevin Anthony Ormsby. PRESENTERS: Kevin Anthony Ormsby, Charmaine Headley, Collette "Coco" Murray, Ronald Taylor

Artists and Archivists in Dialogue left us with so much joy. We produced a catalogue of the event including the schedule, bios, and abstracts that can be found here.

This event was born out of years of hard work and dedication on Dr. Cheryl’s part to find better ways for researchers, students, and artists to access Black histories in the archive. Here are some of her concluding words:

Source: MobaProjects

Day Two | Dr. Cheryl’s closing remarks just before the tears rolled down. It was an emotional two days and her heart was overflowed with joy, warmth, and much appreciation.

We hope to see you at the next event! Leave a comment if you were there and/or if you like what you see!

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