Mapping Livable Geographies: Black Radical Praxis Within and Beyond Toronto by Jessica Paulina Kirk A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Social Justice Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Jessica Paulina Kirk 2020 ii Mapping Livable Geographies: Black Radical Praxis Within and Beyond Toronto Jessica Paulina Kirk Master of Arts Department of Social Justice Education University of Toronto 2020 Abstract The mid-to-late-2010s involved radical responses to gentrification, surveillance and police violence toward Black diasporic communities in Toronto. My thesis research examines these realities and conditions of Black life in the city, engaging with the following areas of inquiry: The geographies in which Black community organizing and Black art practice take place in Toronto; How Black community organizers, artists and cultural workers relate to and support one another’s work, and how their work responds to historically and contemporarily absented issues concerning Black people in Toronto. Contextualized through theoretic engagement with Black geographies, Black Canadian studies and Black radical thought, this project offers critical insight through a focus group of local Black artists, organizers and community members in Toronto who refuse notions of belonging within a state founded on Black enslavement and Indigenous dispossession. Instead, they theorize tensions and possibilities for Black radical creative practice to generate livable geographies rooted in care. Keywords: Black geography, activism, Black radical traditions, creative practice, Toronto iii Acknowledgments Dr. hampton, thank you for your thoughtful and generous guidance - it has offered immeasurable solace. Your courses, our meetings, and broader discussions with the Black Studies Cohort have all been integral to my academic journey. Dr. Tuck, thank you for agreeing to be my second reader, and for your consistent reminders to approach this work with humility and care. Thank you to Black Artists’ Network in Dialogue for allowing me to use the gallery and cultural centre, where I facilitated the focus group meeting for this thesis. Every research participant poured so much vulnerability, honesty, and wisdom into this project – I have so much gratitude toward each of you for your contributions. To my family and friends – you have each been incredibly supportive and patient, even amid my moments of self-doubt. I am so appreciative of your illimitable love. Thank you as well, to each reader for finding their way to this thesis1. Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not thank Black Toronto. Despite and in-spite this city’s insufferability, Black presence continues to generate warmth, joy, and communal care – thank you to each of you who hold space for that beauty. 1 I curated a soundscape while mediating the tensions and possibilities for Black futurity within and beyond Toronto. By sharing this playlist (Kirk, 2020), I hope to create alternative means of engaging with the concepts and ideas being explored throughout this thesis. iv Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ iiii List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1: Introduction and Rationale...................................................................................1 Why Black Toronto?...................................................................................................................... 3 Experience with Organizing ........................................................................................................... 5 My Art Practice ............................................................................................................................. 7 Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 2: Empirical Methods ............................................................................................. 10 Research Questions and Design ................................................................................................... 10 Literature Review ....................................................................................................................... 11 Participatory Community-Based Inquiry ...................................................................................... 12 Recruitment of Participants ...............................................................................................................................14 Critical Race Counter-Storytelling and Black Community Creative Praxis .........................................................16 Community Partnership .....................................................................................................................................17 Data Collection and Analysis ..............................................................................................................................19 Chapter 3: Literature Review ............................................................................................... 22 Geographic Context: Tracing Place .............................................................................................. 23 Locally and Nationally Absented Narratives ................................................................................. 29 Spatial Violence ..................................................................................................................................................31 Black Gifts...........................................................................................................................................................33 State-Driven Gaslighting ....................................................................................................................................34 Positionality and Archival Practices ...................................................................................................................35 Black Radical Responses.............................................................................................................. 37 v Journalism, Publishing and Community News ...................................................................................................39 Schooling Support ..............................................................................................................................................39 Black Bookstores ................................................................................................................................................40 Caribana .............................................................................................................................................................41 Black Action Defense Committee and Black Lives Matter .................................................................................42 Black Creative Responses ............................................................................................................ 44 Janice Reid ..........................................................................................................................................................44 Torkwase Dyson .................................................................................................................................................45 Popular Music.....................................................................................................................................................46 Contemporary Black Artist Organizations..........................................................................................................48 Healing with the Imaginary................................................................................................................................49 Narrating Black Futures: Toward Liberation ................................................................................. 50 Chapter 4: Data Analysis ..................................................................................................... 54 Geographies and Place.......................................................................................................................................55 Notions and Experiences of Blackness in Toronto, Canada ...............................................................................62 Black Radicalism, Community Organizing and Creative Praxis..........................................................................69 Black Creative Practice .......................................................................................................................................80 Toward Liberation ..............................................................................................................................................89 Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion .................................................................................. 93 Black Presence and Culture 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