This year's theme is "Shaping the Change We Need: #BLM and African Nova Scotian Histories of Resistance"
Week 1: Why are people protesting all over the world?
This week provides an overview of what happened after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.
Guiding questions: Why did so many people all over the world rise up in protest? What is historic and unprecedented about this moment? What has changed since May 25? What are the demands organizers are making? Introduction to #DefundThePolice and the politics of abolition. This is the beginning of a conversation about these terms and ideas.
Educators: Rachel Zellars and El Jones
Week 2: Who are we?
This week focuses on the long, brilliant history of African Nova Scotian organizing against state violence and systemic racism throughout history in their communities.
Guiding questions: Who are we? How long have African Nova Scotians been organizing? Who are some key historical figures and ancestors who have organized against state violence? What are their legacies?
Educators: Kim Cain, Malik Adams, and Wendie Poitras Wilson
Week 3: How do we shape the world we want to live in?
This week offers ideas, inspiration, and tools for students to move forward with by providing examples of work being led by Black youth in Nova Scotia and throughout North America.
Guiding questions: What can be done right now? In a year? Over a lifetime? How do we move through fear and resistance in the service of our people? What does it mean to be a leader?
Educators: Karen Hudson, Marsha Hudson-Ash, Venessa Brooks
Week 4 : What does this moment mean for our people?
This week provides an overview of the history of policing in North America and unpacks the demands organizers are making to #DefundThePolice within a local context.
Guiding questions: What is “state violence”? Who are the police? What does “defunding the police” mean? What is abolition, and why does it matter to Black people? Why do these concepts scare some people? What organizing demands have been met since the protests began on May 25, and what is possible in Halifax and Nova Scotia?
Educators: Rashida Symonds, TBD
