BLACK LIVES MATTER.

Lindy Hop is a Black American dance.

Black Lindy Hopper's Fund Logo and Link

Here at the Ottawa Swing Dance Society, we recognize we are on unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe Nation and are committed to anti-Black racism work, and to making our space inclusive to all.

Lindy Hop is a Black American dance that was created at the end of the 1920s in Harlem, NYC and it is danced to jazz, a genre of music also created by Black Americans and deeply linked to anti-racist resistance and Black liberation. As lovers of these amazing dance and music, we have a responsibility to listen to and support anti-racist and Black American voices and communities, but also as people, it is important to act in solidarity in the face of oppression and for justice to help create a more just society for all: yesterday, today and tomorrow.

To paraphrase Audre Lorde: We are not free while any person is unfree, even when their shackles are very different from our own.

As much as a break from the daily realities with a weekly dance is needed, it is a privilege to be able to take one. Black people and people of colour don’t have the luxury to take a break from racism.

So let’s take this moment to educate ourselves and take action!

FEATURED RESOURCES IN CANADA

DOCUMENTARY

The Skin We're In (44 min)

Description: Urgent, controversial, and undeniably honest, The Skin We’re In is a wake-up call to complacent Canadians. Racism is here. It is everywhere. It is us and we are it. Following celebrated journalist Desmond Cole as he researches his hotly anticipated book, this documentary from acclaimed director Charles Officer pulls back the curtain on racism in Canada.

The book that followed the film: The Skin We’re In by Desmond Cole

Watch an online talk with Desmond Cole on The Skin We’re In

DONATE TO BLACK LIVES MATTER IF YOU CAN

Haiti Betrayed - a must-see documentary on how Canada’s foreign policy has thwarted the Haitian people’s struggles for freedom & self-determination over the last 2 decades.

A must-read book on institutional racism in Canada: Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present by Robyn Maynard

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

ANTI RACISM RESOURCES

This was compiled after the screening of the film The Skin We’re In and discussion on anti-racism with swing dancers on unceded Algonquin land (Ottawa) in June 2020, and is regularly updated. It is not an exhaustive list and is mainly focused on anti-Black racism and Black liberation in Canada and the US due to the Black origins of swing dancing. Il y a quelques ressources en français sur le Québec à la fin. Feel free to share so we can all learn and act to create a more just swing community and society. Thanks!

UP COMMING EVENTS

Check out Collective Voices For Change events & to take action!


Check out the Ottawa Swing Dance Society for more frequent updates on amazing online events related to dance, history and anti-racism.


Take Karida Griffith’s AMAZING 6-week program for teachers on how to integrate anti-racism in dance classes (write her via her website to be added to her mailing list or follow her Facebook or Instagram to know when she’s giving it again next)

FEATURED RESOURCES

Documentary: The Skin We’re In by Desmond Cole: Watch online for free in Canada

The book that followed the film: The Skin We’re In by Desmond Cole


A must-read book on institutional racism in Canada: Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present by Robyn Maynard


Journey to Justice - Documentary on Canada’s anti-Black racism & resistance to it


How to Argue With a Racist: What Our Genes Do (and Don't) Say About Human Difference by Adam Rutherford (about science debunking racist pseudoscience)

NEW Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racism in America by Ibram X. Kendi (also available in ebook and audiobook format and in libraries)

NEW Stamped: Racism, Anti-racism, and you by Ibram X. Kendi & Jason Reynolds (summary version of the above book; aimed at teenagers but for everyone)

DONATE IF YOU CAN

SOME NOTES FROM A COMMUNITY DISCUSSION ON JUNE 6TH 2020

WHAT CN WE DO IN THE SWING COMMUNITY?

  • Hire more Black teachers, musicians and DJs

  • Create safer spaces for Black people - with policies including language and protocols to deal with racism, microaggressions, with talks around cultural appropriation, etc.

  • Integrate the Black American history and culture of swing and jazz in all classes (specific values, relationality, pedagogy and aesthetics) and host separate talks specifically about Black history (as much as possible hosted by paid Black experts)

  • Host vintage clips online events with historical context and a critical perspective (like folks at the Side Street Swing studio have done)

  • Talking about the music and musicians between songs when DJing (people can wait a bit between songs and learn!)

  • Post about the history of swing and jazz as well as anti-racism resources on websites and on social media - if you love this music and dance, it’s important to care for the communities it comes from, and for social justice in general, since swing is a dance rooted in resistance and Black liberation. Here is a good resource to start with: http://www.yehoodi.com/

  • Projecting & posting images and videos of Black dancers and musicians with names and dates on a wall or screen during dances

  • Create small libraries at swing venues: someone suggested to read Babylon Girls by Jayna Brown

TAKE ACTION

Easy emailing tool to Support the Call to Defund the Police in Your City - for Canada

Email templates to message city councillors to defund the police: For Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver

Appel au désinvestissement de la police de Gatineau

Share the link for The Skin We’re In AND 13th on social media, send it to a few of your friends or family and recommend they watch it and discuss it with you, organize your own event for you friends to watch it with you.

Things to do alongside people in the streets in Ottawa & Canada

Black lives Matter "Ways to Help”

Educate ourselves & others - see more resources below!

Support and amplify Black and anti-racist voices

Act when we witness racism

Donate if you can

Volunteer

Organize outside a collective: have clear anti-racist policies in groups and spaces you are in, hire and pay people of colour to give trainings on anti-oppression and justice (at work, in schools, in other communities you are part of, etc.), host book clubs or movie nights with your friends to learn together, fundraise or give monthly to local Black and/or Indigenous organizations and liberation groups, etc.

Organize in a collective: form or join a collective to organize more frequent and concerted actions to change society.

MORE ACTIONS: Petitions to sign & Organizations to support in Canada

RESOURCES (MUSIC AND DANCE SPECIFIC)

FILMS & VIDEO

Films

NEW How It Feels to Be Free: Six breakthrough Black American female entertainers - Lena Horne, Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln Pam Grier, Diahann Carroll and Cicely Tyson - use their artistry to challenge an industry that was hell-bent on keeping them out.


“T’ain’t Nobody’s Bizness”: Queer Blues Divas of the 1920s


Where We Danced: The Story of American Social Dance

Videos

A Conversation: Black Swing History w/ Shelby L Johnson (a must-see video!)

Lost Heritage From Jazz to Hip-Hop with Prof. Moncell "lil Kozby" Durden of Intangible Roots (must-see!) + more on his website https://www.moncelldurden.com

Lindy Hop is a Black American Dance (this is a good summary video of the history - I would however add that the dance and music were/are about resistance, justice and freedom, not just joy, and that contemporary Black American values and communities are important - not just past ones - and we need to create safe(r) spaces for them)

RealTalk with Chester Whitmore: Real History of Jazz & Blues


MOVE Together ~ Dancing Towards An Inclusive Community & Global Social Justice


Mother Africa with Breai Mason-Campbell, a dance class that consciously & thoughtfully explore the roots of our jazz movement (you might still be able to get the recordings)

Black Lives Matter: Being Anti-Racist in the Dance Community

Jazz Academy

NEW Music Theory and White Supremacy

Latasha Barnes, Tena Armstrong-Morales, Marie N’diaye & more in conversation!

RESOURCES (MUSIC AND DANCE SPECIFIC)

Films

NEW How It Feels to Be Free: Six breakthrough Black American female entertainers - Lena Horne, Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln Pam Grier, Diahann Carroll and Cicely Tyson - use their artistry to challenge an industry that was hell-bent on keeping them out.


“T’ain’t Nobody’s Bizness”: Queer Blues Divas of the 1920s


Where We Danced: The Story of American Social Dance

Videos

A Conversation: Black Swing History w/ Shelby L Johnson (a must-see video!)

Lost Heritage From Jazz to Hip-Hop with Prof. Moncell "lil Kozby" Durden of Intangible Roots (must-see!) + more on his website https://www.moncelldurden.com

Lindy Hop is a Black American Dance (this is a good summary video of the history - I would however add that the dance and music were/are about resistance, justice and freedom, not just joy, and that contemporary Black American values and communities are important - not just past ones - and we need to create safe(r) spaces for them)

RealTalk with Chester Whitmore: Real History of Jazz & Blues


MOVE Together ~ Dancing Towards An Inclusive Community & Global Social Justice


Mother Africa with Breai Mason-Campbell, a dance class that consciously & thoughtfully explore the roots of our jazz movement (you might still be able to get the recordings)

Black Lives Matter: Being Anti-Racist in the Dance Community

Jazz Academy

NEW Music Theory and White Supremacy

Latasha Barnes, Tena Armstrong-Morales, Marie N’diaye & more in conversation!


Podcasts

The Track Podcast episode with (the amazing) Marie N’diaye

The Tap Love Tour Podcast with Travis Knights - there are several great episodes that discuss history, whiteness, blackface, teaching, etc.

Drinking and Dance at the End of the World podcast - especially the ones with Latasha Barnes & Dee Daniels Locke


Readings

Check out the Black Lindy Hop Matters tag of Yehoodi - lots of great content!

It's Time to Listen: Black Dancers and Their Experiences in Swing & Blues

Jazz dance history books and why you should read them, by Shelby Johnson

A Short History of Lindy Hop - compiled on the OSDS website!

What my fellow white swing dancers can do to address systemic racism and support black dancers


Lists & groups

A list of songs swing DJs should think about

Facebook group: Blackness, Whiteness and Blues


A Map!

NEW A Night-Club Map of Harlem (1932) by E. Simms Campbell

PODCASTS & READINGS

LISTS, GROUPS & A MAP

ON RACISM AND BLACK HISTORY IN CANADA

LISTEN & WATCH

Listen

Part 1: Canada's slavery secret: The whitewashing of 200 years of enslavement

Part 2: Slavery's long shadow: The impact of 200 years enslavement in Canada

Movies & videos

NEW Black History Month National FIlm Board Playlist

NEW CBC News - Being Black in Canada

NEW CBC Gem - The Black Stories Collection

It Takes a Riot: Rebellion, Reform (2017) - The 30 min film explores the events of May 4, 1992, their historical context, political impact, and relevance to contemporary struggles against anti-Black racism. With racial injustice, police killings of Black people, and the Black Lives Matter movement on the front pages, this provocative new documentary asks: What does it take for Black people to get justice in this society?

There’s Something in Water - a documentary by Elliot Page on environmental racism in Nova Scotia, Canada based on the book by Ingrid Waldron. Available on Netflix.

Africville - a 2 min video on the Black community bulldozed by the city of Halifax

Haiti Betrayed - a must-see documentary on how Canada’s foreign policy has thwarted the Haitian people’s struggles for freedom & self-determination over the last 2 decades.

How microaggressions are like mosquito bites (2-min video)


An evening with Desmond Cole, author of the Skin We’re In (video)


Fighting anti-Black racism | Combattre le racisme anti-noir The session was recorded, send them a message to possibly see the video.


Black Liberation and Prison Abolition, with amazing Canadian panelists

Reverse Racism Comedy Routine

MTV Decoded - video series on racism and other systems of oppression

Podcasts

Colour Code

The Secret Life of Canada

Media Indigena

READ

Articles

A brochure on Systemic Racism – let’s talk about it! (Quebec specific)

5 charts that show what systemic racism looks like in Canada (short read, June 2020)

In Canada, white supremacy is the law of the land

Author Ingrid Waldron on Africville and the history of environmental racism in Canada

Websites

NEW Black History in Canada - The Canadian Encyclopedia

NEW Anti-Slavery Movement in Canada - Library and Archives Canada

NEW Resources Relating to Black History at the Archives of Ontario

Organizations

NEW Black History Ottawa

NEW Ontario Black History Society

Books (list copied from the two links above)

  • The Black Loyalists: The search for the Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783-1870, James Walker, University of Toronto Press, republished in 2017.

  • North to Bondage: Loyalist Slavery in the Maritimes, Harvey Amani Whitfield, UBC Press, 2016.

  • Canada's Forgotten Slaves: Two Hundred Years of Bondage, Marcel Trudel, translated by George Tombs, Véhicule Press, 2013.

  • Directions Home: Approaches to African-Canadian Literature, George Elliott Clarke, University of Toronto Press, 2012.

  • Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France, Brett Rushforth, University of North Carolina Press, 2012.

  • Ebony Roots, Northern Soil: Perspectives on Blackness in Canada, Ed. Charmaine Nelson, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010.

  • The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal, HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.

  • Emancipation Day: Celebrating Freedom in Canada, Natasha Henry, Natural Heritage Books, 2010.

  • Viola Desmond's Canada: A History of Blacks and Racial Segregation in the Promised Land, Graham Reynolds, Fernwood Publishing, 2016.

  • The Journey Continues: An Atlantic Canadian Black Experience, Craig Marshall Smith, Black Green and Red Educational Products, 2012.

Africville, Shauntay Grant, 2018

25 books about being Black in Canada


On defunding and abolishing the police

NEW Building the World We Want: A Roadmap to Police Free Futures in Canada; assembled by Robyn Maynard, graphics by Sahra Soudi

FAQs on why we must defund the police - by MPD150

Abolish the Police: A Reader

On Reforming v Defunding - an infographic

“Policing Is Fundamentally a Tool of Social Control to Facilitate Our Exploitation”

Justice for Abdirahman - a man murdered by Ottawa police

People Are Sharing All the Ways the Police Never Helped Them

The RCMP was created to control Indigenous people. Can that relationship be reset?

NEW Podcast: Behind the police (highly recommended!)

NEW Running from cops (about the US reality TV show Cops)



ON DEFUNDING AND ABOLISHING THE POLICE

UNITED STATES SPECIFIC

Overwhelmed? Here are schedules to learn for 10, 25 and 45 minutes per day!

Great compilation of anti-racism resources (books, podcasts, films, websites, social media accounts to follow, etc.)

13th – a must watch documentary by Ava DuVernay on the 13th amendment to the US Constitution “abolishing” slavery to today’s prison industrial complex. Now free online.

Two Thumbs Up: Movies and Documentaries to Use (and Avoid) When Teaching Civil Rights

Statistical response to the “black on black crime” deflection (twitter thread in images)

Uncomfortable conversations with a Black man - with Emmanuel Acho

EN FRANÇAIS - SUR LE CANADA ET LE QUÉBEC

NOUVEAU L’esclavage au Canada - Livret illustré par Webster (cliquez et déroulez jusqu’au bas de la page)

NOUVEAU L’histoire des Noir.es au Canada et au Québec avec Webster et Rito Joseph

Ressources sur le racisme systémique par la Ligue des droits et libertés du Québec

Vidéo: Le racisme systémique, c’est quoi? (4 minutes)

Brochure: Le racisme systémique… Parlons-en!


NoirEs sous surveillance. Esclavage, répression et violence d’État au Canada by Robyn Maynard (version française de Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present, Fernwood 2017)

Briser le code: un documentaire qui vise à faire prendre conscience à la majorité québécoise qu'il existe encore en 2019, pour les personnes racisées et autochtones, un code à suivre. Un code pour éviter le plus possible d'être discriminées, un code pour ne pas déranger. En ligne, gratuit.

BD en ligne: Conseils pour être des meilleur.es allié.es dans la lutte contre le racisme


Anaïs Sékiné, la co-propriétaire du studio Cat’s Corner à Montréal, a écrit sa thèse de doctorat sur “Les mondes du Lindy Hop : Appropriation culturelle et politiques de la joie” (en français seulement).


Ressources compilées par Marilou Craft:

Les Brutes: L’histoire des Premières nations enseignée aux enfants, avec Mélissa Mollen Dupuis, co-fondatrice de Idle No More (vidéo)

Une réalité brutale : les Autochtones ont peur des policiers