Date & time
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Meetings, Conferences & lectures
Share this event:
Wellness spaces for Black men: About safety, survival, or both?
Join us for the fall 2024 season of the University of the Streets Café
Speaker(s)
Moderator: Elise Ross-Nadie; Guests: Philippe Koffi and Jamilah Dei-Sharpe
Cost
This event is free
Organization
Office of Community Engagement
Contact
Where
Never Was Average
7422 rue St-Hubert, Suite 301 (Jean-Talon metro)
“Wellness” evokes thoughts of care, intention, and attending to one's mental health. It is undeniably a concept often associated with women. Within the Black community, women have been able to access and create mental health spaces much more easily than men. In solidarity, women are now working to create caring spaces for men as well. However, when creating a wellness space for a group outside of your own, the levels of care and safety for the intended audience can become blurred. In addition, societal racism has created an environment where many Black men are in survival mode, making it challenging for them to feel comfortable accessing wellness spaces—even those specifically designed for them.
How can we create spaces where men feel safe and supported in their wellness journey? What are the connections between wellness and safety? How can we ensure that men, particularly Black men, feel secure enough to be vulnerable? Join us in a public conversation to explore how to build inclusive wellness spaces together.
Guests:
Philippe Koffi is an accredited mediator by l’Institut de médiation et d'arbitrage du Québec (IMAQ), and a certified trainer and negotiator. He has over ten years' experience in psychosocial intervention, facilitation and coaching. In addition to his work in conflict management, Koffi, as everyone calls him, coordinates various projects at the Chalet Kent, a youth centre in Côte des Neiges and also sits on the boards of two community organizations.
Jamilah A.Y. Dei-Sharpe is a Canadian sociological researcher and educator. She is currently a PhD candidate in Sociology at Concordia University, specializing in Black masculinity studies, Black Canadian studies, popular music studies and the impact of colonialism on Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). She is a SSHRC-Joseph Armond Bombardier Award recipient for her doctoral research which spotlights how Black men in Canada navigate and combat mainstream stereotypes and oppression.
Moderator:
Photo by Selena Philips-Boyle
Élise Ross-Nadié is passionate about the nodes and intersections between digital cultures, literature and dreams. She also has a keen interest in free software, the decolonization of knowledge, dating apps, romantic-sexual encounters and Afrofuturism. Her adventures have given rise to all kinds of artifacts: Wikipedia articles, a wild rose identification guide, an extraordinary literary tour, a collective work between Canada and Cuba, a collection of feminist texts and numerous dance sessions.
To find out more: Black men's mental health and the healing power of community
About University of the Streets Café
As a flagship program of Concordia University’s Office of Community Engagement, the public bilingual conversations are free and open to participants of all ages, backgrounds and levels of education. Since its inception in 2003, University of the Streets Café has hosted over 400 bilingual public conversations.
Follow us on our Facebook page or visit us at concordia.ca/univcafe to learn more about our programming and last-minute scheduling updates.