In a new video series titled Renaissance, two Black Canadians – one from the world of academia, the other from the arts, culture or community leadership sectors – sit down for an unscripted conversation about Black life in Canada.
The participants have no idea who they are about to meet.
The four-part video project is produced through a partnership between 91ɫ’s Glendon College and SHIFTER, a Canadian media platform focused on Black culture, entertainment and community storytelling.
For Glendon, the project brings together alumni engagement, public storytelling and the campus's broader community engagement work. It marks the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance – the early 20th-century movement where Black intellectualism and Black culture converged – and uses the anniversary to explore Black cultural visibility in Canada today.
The partnership grew from an alumni connection: Kevin Bourne, SHIFTER's director and producer, is a Glendon graduate. After Glendon's communications team took notice of his work in journalism and entertainment, Bourne reconnected with the campus and collaborated on a 2023 written profile series spotlighting Black members of the Glendon community – students, professors, staff and alumni.
Renaissance grew from there.
"We always kind of had the idea that this will be the beginning of not just one collaboration but multiple collaborations," says Bourne.
For Glendon, Pascal Arseneau, executive director of strategic communications and community engagement, says the project reflects a word students often use to describe the campus: community.
"Glendon is special because of its capacity to create spaces for dialogue," he says. "People come from a variety of perspectives and places and manage to quickly form alliances, work on what brings them together, get involved in different causes, tackle challenges and seek out solutions together."
Arseneau says Glendon approached the project to connect several of its communities at once: current students, faculty, staff, alumni and wider audiences. By pairing Glendon-connected participants with community figures from outside the University, the series extends critical conversations into a broader public setting.
That emphasis on bringing together different perspectives also shaped the format of Renaissance. Glendon provided funding, studio space at the Glendon Theatre and a list of community members to participate. SHIFTER handled production and brought its own network of artists, creatives and community leaders. The pairings were intentional, but participants were not told in advance who they would meet – even on set. The two were kept apart until the cameras were rolling.
"It's in the place of spontaneity that potential collaboration can happen," says Bourne, adding several participants exchanged numbers after filming and spoke about staying in contact.
Bourne also says the team was conscious of Glendon's bilingual identity throughout. One of the four episodes is in French, a deliberate reflection of Glendon’s francophone community.
The first episode, now available , pairs Excellencia Bambi, a fourth-year psychology student at Glendon, with 4KORNERS, an international DJ and music producer. Their conversation ranges from the influence of Black artistry at the Juno Awards to whether visibility, gathering and institution-building are needed before Canada can be described as being in a Black cultural renaissance.
Anna Mossakowska, a digital strategist in Glendon’s strategic communications and community engagement unit, says the series also gives viewers a chance to see representatives of Glendon in conversation with people whose experiences may differ from their own.
“I’m excited to see our community members connect with people from different backgrounds and perspectives, and to discover not only what makes us different, but also the many things we share,” she says.
The overall goal, says Bourne, is to foster greater understanding of the Black experience in Canada.
"I hope that people who don’t identify as Black can look at it and say, 'Oh, wow, I've learned something,'" says Bourne. "By partnering with an academic institution, we are hoping this is a way of educating people that's outside of the norm of what they would typically think of as education."
The remaining three episodes are expected to be released over the next few months, with specific dates still being finalized. The series will continue to bring together participants from different fields, backgrounds and parts of the Glendon and broader Black Canadian communities.
"I definitely felt a very strong sense of pride to bring my crew into my former school," says Bourne.
For him, the project also represented a chance to bring culture into an educational space. "I think we need to do more of that," he says.
With files from Mzwandile Poncana