{"id":25937,"date":"2020-02-13T19:24:41","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T00:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25937"},"modified":"2020-02-13T19:24:49","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T00:24:49","slug":"being-black-in-canada-musician-works-with-students-to-promote-equity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/being-black-in-canada-musician-works-with-students-to-promote-equity\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Black in Canada: Musician works with students to promote equity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Glenn Marais knows firsthand the struggle for equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Newmarket-based Juno-nominated musician and educator\nhas roots in South Africa, from which his parents came to Canada because of\napartheid and, through his work, has tackled topics ranging from inequity in\nthe world around us to bullying within the schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next Thursday, February 20, Mr. Marais is set to bring\nhis own unique experiences to the fore at Being Black in Canada, a panel\ndiscussion hosted by the Aurora Public Library to mark Black History Month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRacial equality and inclusivity are very important to\nme, and I think particularly now with the rise of right-wing conservatism and\nwhat is happening, I want to really feel how people are seeing what is going on\nand participate in a discussion that can hopefully help people to get a better\nsense of where we need to go as a country,\u201d says Mr. Marais on why he accepted\nthe invitation to join the panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining him on stage will be Tessa Benn-Ireland, the York\nRegion District School Board\u2019s first African-Canadian trustee and Jacqueline\nBenn-John, Executive Director of the Women\u2019s Support Network of York Region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through his work in the schools Mr. Marais teaches\n\u201cmindfulness and kindness\u201d, particularly in areas surrounding mental health. He\nfacilitates workshops in the schools, bringing in different artists to create a\nconference-style day featuring yoga, martial arts, hip-hop dancing, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Marais\u2019 work as a community advocate began with the\nStephen Lewis Foundation, where he dedicated his time to fundraising and\nbuilding awareness for people living with HIV\/AIDS in Africa. From there, he\nsaid, he made a conscious decision to work with marginalized youth in\ninner-city Toronto as well as with Indigenous persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to help the two groups I felt were neglected\nthe most, but it was an evolution of that beginning to find my way into it,\u201d he\nsays. \u201cThe more I do it, the more I want to do. It is very fulfilling on a\npersonal level, but there is such a growing need in all of the sectors \u2013\npoverty, social stigma, mental stigma \u2013 and issues of equity too. I hate the\nthought of people living in a situation where they don\u2019t have the same access\nto things we do and they have to suffer for it. As far as Indigenous rights and\nyouth go, I have come to know them very personally and it is such a huge wrong\nhow they are treated. I can\u2019t stomach it anymore. It really pushes me to do\nmore. I also have two girls, so when it comes to gender equity and inclusivity\nfor women, they are a big motivation for me to get more involved in that\naspect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Black History Month, Mr. Marais is often in the\nschools making presentations on that subject \u2013 yet the term \u201cBlack History\nMonth\u201d is not a term he is particularly comfortable with as \u201cidentifying a\nracial demographic by colour is so detrimental and we seem stuck in it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor some reason Black and White people continue to call\nthemselves \u2018Black\u2019 and \u2018White\u2019 and I think we\u2019re so past that in our capacity\nof learning [to continue] in this narrow-minded approach,\u201d he says. \u201cI think it\ndishonours people\u2019s heritage too. The fact that I am still up here talking\nabout this means we have a lot to do!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To hear more from Mr. Marais and to learn more from his perspective, come out to the Aurora Public Library on Thursday, February 20 at 7 p.m. for the panel discussion \u201cBeing Black in Canada.\u201d Admission is free, but registration is encouraged to reserve a seat. To do so, visit aurorapl.ca or call 905-727-9494 x230.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glenn Marais knows firsthand the struggle for equity. The Newmarket-based Juno-nominated musician and educator has roots in South Africa, from which his parents came to Canada because of apartheid and, through his work, has tackled topics ranging from inequity in the world around us to bullying within the schools. Next Thursday, February 20, Mr. Marais […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Kl","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-10 22:12:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}