Overview

Rise Symposium | Dec 8–12 Black artists, thinkers & communities sharing stories, research & art that resist erasure.

The Rise Symposium, taking place December 8–12, brings together Black artists, thinkers, and cultural workers in a dynamic gathering that uplifts stories rooted in lived experience and collective knowledge. Grounded in contributions from Minorit’art, the symposium features talks, workshops, and collaborative sessions designed to share research accessibly, foster lasting community connections, and explore applied practices. By centering narratives that resist commodification and erasure, the event creates space for dialogue and co-creation across generations. Highlights include three selected student artists showcasing their work, curated by student peers, in alignment with the symposium’s theme of Unfungible narratives.

Each day will be held at Several different locations within Halifax, throughout the week.

*RISE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC SCHEDULE*

Full Workshop/Talk Descriptions on our website https://infungiblenarratives.ca/

Dec 8: Exhibition Opening

4 pm- Exhibition Opening (Location TBA)

Dec 9: Campus Visit/ Rise Public Launch

5 pm – Performance

Dec 10: Conference Day

Academy Campus 2nd floor, 1649 Brunswick St, Halifax, NS B3J 1K9

9:30 Opening : Boulagel/Sabas

Artist Talk 10 am to 11:50 am

10 to 10:30 pm : Jeannette Elhers « A Practice toward El Manifesto decolonial« 

10:40 to 11:10 pm : Dana Edmonds « Cotton On: How Cotton Slavery Never Ended — It Just Changed Clothes« 

11:20 to 11:50 pm : David Woods « Talk- North Preston Gullah« 

Art-Based Research: 12 pm to 12:30 pm

12 pm to 12:30pm : Patricia Brito « Decolonial Critical Thinking in the Artistic Practices of Black Brazil Art« 

——–LUNCH BREAK——– 12:45 pm -2 pm

2pm to 2:30 pm : Laurence Maquiaba, Joris Lechêne, Pauline Cabidoche « Infungible Narratives: from Metaphor to Raw•Brutal•Realistic Reality« 

Literature & Social Sciences

2:40 pm to 3:10 pm : Claudine Bonner « Infungibles Narratives of Black Immigration in Canada« 

3:20 pm to 3:50 pm : Amzat Boukari-Yabara « Pan-African Reflections on Infungible Narratives« 

4 pm :Closing Poetry/Drumming

Dec 11: Conference Day 2

1649 Brunswick St, Halifax, NS B3J 1K9 Academy Campus 2nd floor

9:30 am Opening: Boulagel/Classical Music

Artist Talk

10 to 10:30 – NS artist TBA

10.40 to 11:10 Julien Lubanda Kandolo « Infungible Memory« 

Art-Based Research: 11:20 pm to 12:30 pm

11:20 pm to 11:50 pm : Eddy Firmin « Narratives of fungibility and infungibility: tension between lamentation and pride. »

12 pm to 12:30 pm : Pamela Edmonds  » The Curator as Witness: Black Embodiment, Institutional Memory, and the Practice of Infungibility« 

——- LUNCH BREAK——- 12:45 pm – 2 pm

Literature & Social Sciences

2 pm to 2:30 pm : Emeline Pierre « Caribbean and magical-religious crime fiction: in search of a poetics of the Infungible narrative« 

2:40 pm to 3:10 pm: Véronique Clette Gakuba « Récit infongible et relation aux morts : conditions d’une vie non Voilée chez W.E.B. Du Bois« 

3:20 pm to 3:50 pm: Alexandre Gefen « The story of Souleymane, or the infongibility of asylum seekers’ narratives.« 

4 pm : Closing Poetry/Drumming Boulaguel

Dec 12: Restitution Conference

Workshop in 3 Research Groups : Olivier Marboeuf

Group Research Release

2 pm : Group 1

2:30 pm : Group 2

3 pm: Group 3

3:30 pm : Collective Talk

4:30 pm Closing of the 1st symposium