CERLAC is proud to announce the launch of a new program named Iyaric, an initiative seeking to support the student community by enhancing knowledge mobilization networks, stimulating public intellectual debate, and developing student publications centered on Black, Indigenous, and Caribbean themes.
Iyaric, also known as Dread Talk, is the Rastafari language created in defiance of English as an imposed colonial language that facilitated the loss of African languages among enslaved Afro-Caribbeans. Rastas use Iyaric to assert their cultural, spiritual and linguistic liberation from histories and institutions of oppression.
By pairing the anti-colonial logics and methods of the Iyaric language with student need for community and knowledge building opportunities, this program will develop monthly events in conjunction with a student publication to give CERLAC students the chance to enhance their networks and support their professional development.
IYARIC Journal:
IYARIC is a graduate-student run, interdisciplinary, multilingual journal at the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, York University. IYARIC is a platform for Black, Caribbean and Indigenous voices and research. Our mission is to promote scholarship and intellectual engagement that contribute to a deeper understanding of Latin America and the Caribbean.
We encourage submissions in several formats: critical essays, book reviews, creative nonfiction essays, fiction, poetry, multimedia and visual art.
The journal is open-access and available here: iyaric.journals.yorku.ca
The Black Table Series:
CERLAC’s new Iyaric initiative is excited to launch its inaugural event, a speaker series called The Black Table. Professor David Trotman, whose contributions to CERLAC have been invaluable inspired the name of this series with his talk “Reflections on the Past and Conversations on the Future” at CERLAC in 2021. He discussed Black Histories at York University, student struggles and their connections to community and regional activism. He described how Black students gathered together informally on campus at a cafeteria table called “The Black Table” to examine the racism they faced at York and to build community.
In honour of their work, The Black Table series presents its first event called “The Art of Black Research-Creation.” Black artist-researchers have been invited to speak with CERLAC members on the (im)possibilities of Blackness and arts-based research in the academy and beyond. To kick start Black History Month the incredible Camille Turner and Natalie Wood for a conversation on Black journeys in the arts/academia and considerations on art as praxis in Black world-making.
