The Collaboratory for Black Poiēsis
The Collaboratory for Black Poiēsis (CBP) is an experimental, multidisciplinary research incubator and co-working research-creation hub, an archival nexus, and creative atelier/studiolab that is rooted in the importance of black study, Afro-Indigenous relations, and Afro-diasporic technologies. The CBP was established in 2022 and is led by Prof. SA Smythe. It is a coalitional space where transnational and anticolonial cultural workers, educators, researchers, technicians, artists, activists, system-impacted and other community members collaboratively and creatively attend to the genre-defying aesthetic interventions of Black life and Black studies. We embrace our roles as makers and maintainers, relishing liberatory practices and ideas about where we’ve been and (re)imagining where and who we want to be, together.Find out more

Embassy Cultural House
The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) is non-hierarchical and inter-generational, which paves the way for inclusive and open opportunities for artists, writers, cultural workers and other cultural advocates. Our most recent publication is Not/For the Money, launched January 22nd, 2026, is an extension of our online exhibition of the same title. In 2024, the ECH published an anthology, An Alternative Cultural History of London, Ontario: Art & Activism. This anthology introduces important and essential cultural material to a generation that has not had access to such documents. Since January of 2021 the ECH has published 10 publications.
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Yanaminah Thullah
Yanaminah Thullah is an award-winning community builder and curator with a rich background in public speaking, policy, writing, and strategic consulting. She was born and raised in Toronto and is of Liberian and Sierra Leonean descent. Her work centres marginalized voices through immersive and interdisciplinary exhibits such as the award-winning “Beyond The Body” with Design TO and “We Do Not Dream of Labour” at the Ottawa Art Gallery. With a trilingual Bachelor’s degree in International Relations (uOttawa) and as a current MFA Graduate student at SAIC, she brings a global, intersectional lens to projects across cultural and institutional contexts. Yanaminah is passionate about world-building and storytelling as tools for representation, healing, and systemic change.Find out more

Bushra Junaid

Bushra Junaid is a multidisciplinary artist-curator, author, and arts administrator based in Toronto. Born in Montreal to Nigerian and Jamaican parents, and raised in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Junaid is best known for exploring history, memory, cultural identity, and placemaking through mixed media collage, drawing, and painting. Pivoting on Paul Gilroy’s concept of the “Black Atlantic” and reflecting on John Akomfrah’s Vertigo Sea (2015), Junaid’s landmark curatorial project, What Carries Us: Newfoundland and Labrador in the Black Atlantic was presented at The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery (2020) and included video, mixed media, mural, and photo-based works by Canadian and international artists, as well as rare archival items.

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In a contemporary art gallery, multi coloured candy machines are filled with found objects like watermelon candy, cotton, brown sugar, and basketball paraphernalia.

Oluseye

Oluseye is a Nigerian-Canadian artist. Using “diasporic debris” — a term he coined to describe the artifacts he collects on his trans-Atlantic travels — he traces Blackness through its multifaceted migrations and manifestations. These transformational objects are recast into sculpture, performance, and photography; their explorations invoke his personal narratives within a broader examination of Black and Diasporic identity, migration, and African spiritual traditions. Oluseye has exhibited at the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Fransisco (2024), Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto (2024), Southern Guild Gallery, Cape Town (2023), and the Gardiner Museum, Toronto (2023), among others.

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