Black History Month 2025
Celebrating the Mosaic: Black is Limitless
In celebration of Black History Month 2025, Sheridan proudly presents our theme “Celebrating the Mosaic: Black is Limitless”. This focus invites us all to explore the richness of Black people and cultures in totality – as a limitless, ever-evolving collection of both personal and collective experiences. It calls on each member of our vibrant community to examine their own personal relationship and connection to Black History, cultures and identities.
The statement “Black is Limitless” serves multiple purposes. First, as an affirmational reminder that Black people and cultures have been and continue to be trailblazers in our communities and world. This theme invites us to explore the diversity within Black history, from social change and justice movements to art, culture, health, wellness, tech, and beyond. In recognizing the contributions of Black folks across a variety of disciplines, facets of life and moments in time, we can approach our exploration from an expansive, intersectional and inclusive lens.
With this in mind, we unite as a community for
Black History Month 2025 with a focus on:
Celebrating the Mosaic: Black is Limitless
“Black is Limitless” is also an invitation and call to action for our community to actively participate in reimagining the term “Black”. We each play a pivotal role in the upliftment and advancement of Black people and the hope is that in naming the diversity within Black cultures and exploring both individual subjectivity and communal experiences, we can foster opportunities for meaningful change. Together, we can honour and celebrate the term the term “Black” to capture both individual and collective experiences and in doing so, empower us all to approach understanding, supporting and advocating for Black folks from a fresh perspective.
This theme invites us all to reflect, interrogate, reclaim and celebrate the range of hues and histories that contribute to our understanding of Black people and cultures.
bhm 2025 Events
Black History Month Creative Reflection Contest:
Submit Your Reflection For A Chance to WIN up to $750
We are excited to announce 8 students as our 2024 Black History Month Creative Reflection Contest Winners. Please join us in congratulating our past 2024 Black History Month Creative Reflection Contest Winners:
BHM 2025 Community Events
Outside of the Sheridan campuses, there’s lots of community events and opportunities available.
Sheridan College sponsored the Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton’s upcoming Black History Month Kickoff event!
“Get your ticket and enjoy Emcee Lesley Forbes, a keynote speech by historian and professor Dr. Natasha Henry-Dixon, who will speak to her research about the histories of African Canadians a collaboration with CCAH Steel Band and Parang Ensemble, and more!
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February 12, 2025 - February 17, 2025 - Get the details now
The Toronto Black Film Festival (TBFF), presented by TD Bank Group (TD) in collaboration with Global News, is celebrating its 11th anniversary with a return to IN-PERSON programming, and an online component. Created by the Fabienne Colas Foundation, the game-changing Toronto Black Film Festival will bring innovative, powerful, diverse, and bold programming to Toronto audiences, while also maintaining online accessibility.
More Ways We’ve Celebrated Black History Month
The Black Excellence Committee has created a new mentorship program to empower Black Students at Sheridan College. Interested in getting involved as a mentee or mentor?
Black Student Associations & Clubs At Sheridan
Sheridan’s Black Students Association is a group of Black students and allies who aim to promote black excellence and representation across Sheridan.
Looking for a club to join?
Honouring Our Commitments
We’re proud of the steps that Sheridan has taken over the last few years to address systemic racism – concrete actions like offering employee training in unconscious bias, human rights and anti-racism; creating bursaries for Black students in need as part of our participation in the Black North initiative; identifying and addressing equity concerns within our learning environments; and hiring more Black, Indigenous and racialized faculty members.
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Increased awareness of our diverse counselling staff comprised of practitioners who have expertise in providing developmental and solution-focused counselling in higher education, from a culturally responsive, anti-oppressive lens.
As part of Sheridan's continued commitment to EDI, we offer ongoing training and development to our counselling staff in this area.
Recognizing that students may also access our 24/7 External Counselling Resources, we aim to increase awareness of external services like Empower Me and Keep Me Safe which can provide students with counsellors with diverse representation.
Dedication of resources to research the current narrative and experiences of racialized students, and provide an environmental review with recommendations for standards and supports for mental health and well-being. -
We’ve committed to modifying hiring practices, encouraging more diverse representation within all faculties and across Sheridan.
Building partnerships with organizations such as Black Business Professionals Association and the Black Professionals in Tech Network and connecting to diverse job boards such as Equitek, Canada’s foremost National Diversity Outreach Strategy to broaden the reach of opportunities at Sheridan.
Updated hiring guide and training modules provided to educate leaders on successfully running a recruitment process that is reflective of Sheridan’s commitment to EDI.
Sheridan has also committed to the 50-30 Challenge, which is an opportunity to advance diversity and inclusion by working towards 50% gender parity and 30% representation of under-represented groups in Boards and at senior management levels. Here is a link with some further details: www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/icgc.nsf/eng/07706.html -
Office of the Registrar has allocated funding for Black students to help off-set the costs of their Sheridan education with the inclusion of a self-identification question on the general bursary application.
For the Fall 2020 term, OTR disbursed $366,000 to 3,646 students.
In Fall 2021, Sheridan Student Union introduces SSU’s Diversity in Education Award to recognize the impact of race as a social construct.
Understand Our History
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The Promised Land reveals the Chatham-Kent area as a crucial settlement site for an early Black presence in Canada. The contributors present the everyday lives and professional activities of individuals and families in these communities and highlight early cross-border activism to end slavery in the United States and to promote civil rights in the United States and Canada. Essays also reflect on the frequent intermingling of local Black, White, and First Nations people. Using a cultural studies framework for their collective investigations, the authors trace physical and intellectual trajectories of Blackness that have radiated from southern Ontario to other parts of Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa. The result is a collection that represents the presence and diffusion of Blackness and inventively challenges the grand narrative of history. By Boulou de b'Beri, Nina Reid-Maroney, and Handel K. Wright. Available at the Sheridan Library
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In the 1960s, the city of Halifax razed the Black community of Africville under a program of urban renewal and ‘slum clearance.’ The city defended its actions by citing the deplorable living conditions in Africville, ignoring its own role in the creation of these conditions through years of neglect and the refusal of essential services. In the 1980s, the city created a park on Africville’s former site, which has been a place of protest and commemoration for Black citizens since its opening. As yet, however, the city has not issued a formal apology to Africville residents and has paid no further compensation. Razing Africville examines this history as the prolonged eviction of a community from its own space. By examining a variety of sources – urban planning texts, city council documents, news media, and academic accounts – Jennifer J. Nelson illustrates how Africville went from a slum to a problem to be solved and, more recently, to a public space in which past violence is rendered invisible. by Jennifer Nelson. Available through the Sheridan Library
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Through in-depth qualitative and quantitative research with African Canadians in three Canadian cities – Calgary, Toronto and Halifax – this book explores how experiences of racism, combined with other social and economic factors, affect the health and well-being of African Canadians. With a special interest in how racial stereotyping impacts Black men and boys, this book shares stories of racism and violence and explores how experiences and interpretations of, and reactions to, racism differ across a range of social and economic variables. Rejecting the notion that Black communities are homogeneous, this book gives a detailed examination of three distinct communities: Caribbean, immigrant African and Canadian Black. The authors also explore how individuals, families and communities can better understand and challenge racism. By Akua Benjamin, David Este, Carl James, Bethan Lloyd, Wanda Thomas Bernard, and Tana Turner. Available through the Sheridan Library
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Using an impressive array of primary and secondary materials, Robin Winks details the diverse experiences of Black immigrants to Canada, including Black slaves brought to Nova Scotia and the Canadas by Loyalists at the end of the American Revolution, Black refugees who fled to Nova Scotia following the War of 1812, Jamaican Maroons, and fugitive slaves who fled to British North America. He also looks at Black West Coast businessmen who helped found British Columbia, particularly Victoria, and Black settlement in the prairie provinces. Throughout Winks explores efforts by African-Canadians to establish and maintain meaningful lifestyles in Canada. The Blacks in Canada investigates the French and English periods of slavery, the abolitionist movement in Canada, and the role played by Canadians in the broader continental antislavery crusade, as well as Canadian adaptations to nineteenth- and twentieth-century racial mores. The second edition includes a new introduction by Winks on changes that have occurred since the book's first appearance and where African-Canadian studies stands today. by Robin W. Winks.
Available through the Sheridan Library
Continuing To Learn
We were reminded of the continued existence of anti-Black racism worldwide and will continue to reinforce the importance of educating ourselves on our privileges and perceptions, and the need for difficult conversations. This month is a reminder to seek support when we need it. We know that the lived experiences of Black students, their families and their friends are unique, and the challenges faced can be overwhelming at times.
Much more remains to be done. Anti-racism demands real, structural change. As a learning institution, it is our role to provide create a safe and inclusive space for our community to learn, grow, and have vital conversations. It is our responsibility to advocate for the safety and well-being of our community members, and lead by example with action. Take a look at Sheridan’s Library Guide and more book recommendations here:
Illustrated black history: honouring the iconic and the unseen
Illustrated Black History is a breathtaking collection of original portraits depicting black heroes—both famous and unsung—who made their mark on activism, science, politics, business, medicine, technology, food, arts, entertainment, and more. Each entry includes a lush drawing or painting by artist George McCalman, along with an insightful essay summarizing the person’s life story.
Available at all book stores.
FRYING PLANTAIN
"Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle--of her Canadian nationality and her desire to be a "true" Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother's rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too "faas" or too "quiet" or too "bold" or too "soft." Set in "Little Jamaica," Toronto's Eglinton West neighbourhood, Kara moves from girlhood to the threshold of adulthood, from elementary school to high school graduation, in these twelve interconnected stories.
Available through the Sheridan Library.
my grandma’s hands
In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology. The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. Menakem argues this destruction will continue until we learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies.
Available at all book stores.
Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto
Disrupt and push back against capitalism and white supremacy. In this book, Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice.
unsettling the great white north black canadian history
Unsettling the Great White North highlights the diverse experiences of persons of African descent within the chronicles of Canada’s past. This book considers histories and theoretical framings to chart the mechanisms of exclusion and marginalization in "multicultural" Canada and to situate Black Canadians as speakers as agents of their own lives.
Available at all book stores.
BUTTER HONEY PIG BREAD
Butter Honey Pig Bread tells the interconnected stories of three Nigerian women: Kambirinachi and her twin daughters, Kehinde and Taiye. Kambirinachi believes that she is an Ogbanje, or an Abiku, a non-human spirit that plagues a family with misfortune by being born and then dying in childhood to cause a human mother misery. She has made the unnatural choice of staying alive to love her human family but lives in fear of the consequences of her decision.
Available through the Sheridan Library.
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism
In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively, and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’. By Robin DiAngelo.
Available through the Sheridan Library
So You Want To Talk About Race
Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to "model minorities" in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life. By Ijeoma Oluo.
Available through the Sheridan Library
How To Be An Anti-Racist
Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilites—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their posionous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves. By Ibram X. Kendi.
Available through the Sheridan Library
Black Fatigue
Black people, young and old, are fatigued, says award-winning diversity and inclusion leader Mary-Frances Winters. It is physically, mentally, and emotionally draining to continue to experience inequities and even atrocities, day after day, when justice is a God-given and legislated right. And it is exhausting to have to constantly explain this to white people, even--and especially--well-meaning white people, who fall prey to white fragility and too often are unwittingly complicit in upholding the very systems they say they want dismantled. By Mary-Francis Winters. By Mary-Frances Winters.
Available through the Sheridan Library
UNTIL WE ARE FREE
The killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012 by a white assailant inspired the Black Lives Matter movement, which quickly spread outside the borders of the United States. The movement's message found fertile ground in Canada, where Black activists speak of generations of injustice and continue the work of the Black liberators who have come before them. Until We Are Free contains some of the very best writing on the hottest issues facing the Black community in Canada. It describes the latest developments in Canadian Black activism, organizing efforts through the use of social media, Black-Indigenous alliances, and more.'Until We Are Free busts myths of Canadian politeness and niceness, myths that prevent Canadians from properly fulfilling its dream of multiculturalism and from challenging systemic racism, including the everyday assaults on black and brown bodies. By Rodney Diverlus, Sandy Hudson, and Syrus Marcus Ware.
Available through Sheridan Library
The Skin We’re in
Puncturing the bubble of Canadian smugness and naive assumptions of a post-racial nation, Cole chronicles just one year—2017—in the struggle against racism in this country. It was a year that saw calls for tighter borders when Black refugees braved frigid temperatures to cross into Manitoba from the States, Indigenous land and water protectors resisting the celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday, police across the country rallying around an officer accused of murder, and more. Month-by-month, Cole creates a comprehensive picture of entrenched, systemic inequality. By Desmond Cole.
Available at all book stores.
Amplifying Sheridan Voices
Connect with Others
Accounts to follow:
1. @larissa_speaks: Larissa Crawford, Founder of Future Ancestors Services Inc, is a bringing climate justice, disability and anti-racist knowledge to the world with 14+ years of experience.
2. @rachel.cargle: Rachel Elizabeth Cargle is working on building an intellectual legacy through teaching, storytelling and critical discourse.
3. @iamrachelricketts: Rachel Ricketts is a racial justice educator, spiritual activist, change maker, healer and author.
3. @theconsciouskid: An account that’s focus is parenting and education through a critical race lens.
4. @blklivesmatter - The is the official account for the #BlackLivesMatter Global Network. BLM is a call to action & response to anti-Black racism.
5. @blackandvulnerable: A community page, started by Keosha Love to redefine vulnerability and create healing spaces to de-stigmatize mental health.
Support Each Other in our Journey
A crisis or traumatic event can trigger overwhelming emotional responses. People are impacted and respond to these events in different ways. There is no reason to suffer in silence. We encourage anyone who is struggling to seek professional help.
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Any students seeking comfort and support are able to access Counselling Services by calling The Centre for Student Success at:
Davis Campus: (905) 459 -7533 ext. 5400
Hazel McCallion Campus: (905) 459 - 7533 ext. 2528
Trafalgar Road Campus: (905) 845 - 9430 ext. 2557You can also email askanadvisor@sheridancollege.ca to make an appointment with a Counsellor.
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Sheridan Student Union Health and Dental coverage includes Empower Me, which allows students to connect with qualified counsellors, consultants, and life coaches for a variety of issues.
As a Sheridan student, you are entitled to sessions delivered in person, by telephone, by video-counselling, or by e-counselling.
Contact them at their toll free number, 1-844-741-6389 or visit the Empower Me Login page.
Quotes to Inspire Us Now & In The Future
Feel free to download these for your phone or desktop backgrounds, share with friends or print them out for yourself!
