"Art in Action: Poetry and Collage, in Dialogue towards Peace and Social Justice" + "Education for Peace and Social Justice: Theory, Research and Praxis Art Exhibition"

The 2024 Mcgill’s Education Graduate Student Society conference included two Arts Based Segments this year. This year’s Conference theme is Education for Peace and Social Justice, a loud and timely echo to an aspect of equitable, diverse, and inclusive pedagogy and educational praxis. The Art segments specifically, which will engage with artistic responses to the conference theme, speaks directly to several SDs. Indeed, this EDI initiative is entirely student-led and geared towards the engagement of students, faculty, and all other attendees, in EDI and social justice-focused conversations surrounding Education through the use of mixed-media. It is a space intentionally curated for the impactful expression of our students’ lived experiences and understanding of what Education for social justice looks like while engaging through means that are usually only accessible to students within specific programs. Our student body is made of thousands of students from innumerable backgrounds and circumstances. The potential magnitude of holding such space is priceless: it may unlock a deeper layer of what Education looks and feels like to our student body in times like now. The Art segment of the EGSS conference is structured in 2 parts: a workshop (held on March 21st) and a student art exhibition (March 22nd). Art Workshop: “Art in Action: Poetry and Collage, in Dialogue towards Peace and Social Justice”. A group of four Teaching Artists, Jason “Blackbird” Selman, Melanie Garcia, Wellysanè Minyangadou Ngokobi and Melissa-Ann Pereira Ledo, facilitated a workshop that guided participants through the foundations of mixed-media poetry and collage in response to the themes of Peace and Social Justice. Participants were invited to reflect on their relationship with current events and be invited to respond through creative means. These four Teaching Artists guided participants through poetry and collage exercises using ready-made poetry, photocopies of newspaper articles, and images from the newspaper, to make personal commentaries on Social Justice issues and questions of Peace. We reflected on the questions: What does Social Justice and Peace mean to me? Why is it important to share my voice? What do I want people to pay attention to? How have current events made me feel? The work created during this workshop was also exhibited at the art exhibition, alongside curated work. Art Exhibition: 16 undergrad, masters and PhD students/artists (from 3 universities) work was showcased. Applications can be viewed. These artworks respond to the question of Education for Peace and Social Justice: Theory, Research and Praxis. In light of the current conflicts in various regions across the world, the artists reflected on this topic as part of the crucial need to come together to discuss how education theory, research and praxis can contribute towards peaceful change and justice in our societies. The event was opened with a welcome by the Dean and an incredible performance by Jason accompanied by Melanie’s collages.

These initiatives were funded by Faculty of Education Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee (FEEDIC).

SDGs addressed through this project: