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“Black Liberation Commons is a place of activity, promise, study, debate, conversation, joy, party, and heartbreak,” says Faculty of Arts and Science Professor Katherine McKittrick, Canada Research Chair in Black Studies and Gender Studies.

The new space, located in Robert Sutherland Hall, designed for Black students officially opened its doors last week. Dr. McKittrick offered her thanks to Amaiya Walters, Vanessa Thompson, and Anita Ragunathan, and all the students past and present “who are fighting to build a better future.”

The three rooms in the Commons are named after: Claudia Jones, activist; noname, rapper, poet, and activist; and nourbeSe philip, poet, novelist, and playwright.  

“If I had to pick a date for the start of this journey, it would be November 18, 2021 when Queen’s University formally signed the Scarborough Charter to signal the beginning of addressing and correcting systemic anti-Black racism,” says Amaiya Walters, Arts and Science Undergraduate Society President, Founder and Co-organizer of Queen’s Black Clubs Caucus, and the driving force behind the opening of the Commons.

The Scarborough Charter: On Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education was created following the 2020 National Dialogues and Action for Inclusive Higher Education and Communities.

“Vanessa Thompson, Anita Ragunathan, and I spent countless hours designing and planning this space from the furniture and the layout and the purpose of each room,” Walters adds. “Seeing our community come together to make this space happen has been so inspiring. The space was made possible by the full support of the Faculty of Arts and Science and the Departments of Black Studies and Gender Studies. I am thankful I was able to play a role in ensuring we have a safe place and, more importantly, celebrate the joy and beauty in the Black struggle for liberation.”

Dr. McKittrick says we are living in a time of increased Black visibility. “We’ve always been here but new and different Black geographies are emerging across many universities and other institutions in the form of sites and groups like this—allocated spaces, caucuses, mentorship programs, and cluster hires. Even so, these sites and communities are generating negative responses—they are being tagged as “too Black” and are often described as exclusionary, illegitimate, and segregationist. In the spirit of Black studies, this negativity initiates a different mode of building for Black folks, encouraging intellectual comradery and collaboration for all scholars on the margins. The Black Liberation Commons is the production of Black space writ large, it is the realization of freedom dreams within the context of ongoing racial violence. This is radical placemaking.” 

Dr. McKittrick also thanked Dean Barbara Crow for her effort towards opening the Black Liberation Commons, “Dean Barbara Crow has supported Black Studies at Queen’s in all sorts of ways. Thank you, Dean Crow, for doing so much work—much of which is invisible—for our program and our students.”

Dr. Thompson, Distinguished Professor in Black Studies and Social Justice, says the opening of the Commons has been a long journey, especially for the students who fought for the space, “Amaiya, I especially want to thank you for being on the front line  of this struggle – for strategizing, demanding, building, dreaming. It was an honour to work with Amaiya and Anita on the realization of this space and I want to thank you both so very much for your tireless work and vision.” Dr. Thompson commented on several black and decolonial student spaces, past and present, that inspired the Liberation Commons.  

Dean Crow also commended Walters for her role in creating the new space, “Originally advocated for through the Arts and Science Undergraduate Society and the Black Clubs Caucus, I commend ASUS President Amaiya Walters for recognizing the need for communal space for Black students and her drive to get this space organized and open to students.”

Along with the speeches from Dean Barbara Crow, Dr. Katherine McKittrick, Dr. Vanessa Thompson Dr. Nasrin Himada, and Stephanie Simpson, Vice-Principal (Culture, Equity, and Inclusion), performances were given at the opening by poets Lireesa Gokhool-Jefferson, Queen’s student; Otoniya J. Okot Bitek, Assistant Professor English and Gender Studies; Olusoji Cole, Black Studies Pre-doctoral Fellow; and musicians Jermaine Marshall (@jmarsh_music), Inclusion and Anti-Racism Advisor; and Keaton Ryan (@keatonsound), local Kingston rapper.

The students were also surprised with “congratulations” videos from Drs. Carole Boyce Davies, Sylvia Tamale, Robin D.G. Kelley, Chanda Prescod-Weinsten, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and nourbeSe philip. The evening ended with a DJ set from DJ Zari (@djzari_), Saran Daniel.