University of Waterloo associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Race, Gender and Performance Naila Keleta-Mae is also an accomplished multidisciplinary artist. Bringing her worlds together, she leads Black and Free, a SSHRC-funded research-creation project involving numerous organizations and over 30 researchers and students. Combining research, exhibition and performance, artistic production, teaching, knowledge mobilization and public engagement, Keleta-Mae’s barriers-breaking project both explores and expresses Black freedom across the arts. Her team is delving into the art of Black freedom in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, and making their own. Focusing on successes and artistic outcomes—from Beyoncé’s boardroom to school gyms, poetry books, galleries, museums and community theatre—they are exploring what a world without anti-Blackness could be. |