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Black Diasporas Tkaronto-Toronto
Tkaronto-Toronto

its OK (09/2024)
Museum of Toronto (11/2024 - 03/2025)
University of Toronto Daniels 
Architecture + Design Gallery (04/2025 - 05/2025)
Archives of Ontario (04/2025 - 02/2026 -current)
Library and Archives 
Canada (06/2025 - 09/2025 - current)

Installation
Exhibition Design
Community Engagement
Advocacy



Black Diasporas Tkaronto-Toronto celebrates the spectrum of Black life and Black people in this city, defined in the project as people of African ancestry who have been brought by force or made their way by choice to Canada since the colonization of the Americas.
Photographs from the Black Diasporas Tkaronto-Toronto community opening
Referencing and honouring traditional African oral narrative, Black Diasporas is a multifaceted, immersive, and interactive exhibit that serves as a digital and physical archive. The project provides the opportunity for more inclusive and nuanced community-led narratives that exemplify the diversity of the experiences of the 265,000+ people from the African diaspora living in Tkaronto-Toronto.1 Black Diasporas shares life stories that encapsulate a variety of experiences, from the joys of family life and playing as a child, to the history of little Jamaica on Eglinton and the mundaneness of catching a streetcar or bus, to the tragedy of the effects of racial stereotyping and the loss of life. 

At the Archives of Ontario
At U of T Daniels Architecture Gallery
At Library and Archives Canada
Kit of parts - sitting TV box
Kit of parts - sitting TV box
Kit of parts - Curtain
Kit of parts - horizontal Plinth
Kit of parts - vertical plinth


Exhibition Kit of parts, at its OK, Daniels, Archives of Ontario, and the Library and Archives of Canada
The main aim of this project is to create space for community-led dialogue. No project could entirely encapsulate the diversity of character, experience and community; however, we must begin asking questions and providing a platform to hear directly from the Black diasporas of Tkaronto-Toronto.

Images of TV boxes installed at Archives of Ontario, Library and Archives of Canada and University of Toronto
From the outset, we designed the exhibition with adaptability in mind, the TV boxes that showcase the stories were fabricated to be modular and weather-resistant, allowing the exhibition to be installed in both indoor and outdoor settings. The exhibition has travelled to several location.

Images of exhibition installed at the U of T Daniels Architecture + Design Gallery
The Black Diasporas project is presented and facilitated by the Museum of Toronto and afrOURban (501c3) with the support of Charles Street Video, BAIDA, It's OK and the Social Innovation Change Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School.

team:Exhibition Designers: Kholisile Dhliwayo, Sandra Githinji

Storytellers:
Abi, Adeyemi, Ahmed, Alvin, Amelia, Amina, Anna, Anton, Audrey, Chris, Christine, Clement, Cliff, Courage, Eli, Erica, Gary, Georgina, Ian, Ian, Isingoma, Jahnelle, Jay, Julien, Kathy, Kwame, Michelle, Monique, Mqedani, Nala, Nuradin, Ohemaa, Omo, Patrina, Queen, Raquel, Rok, Rosemary, Sale, Sam, Samantha, Sandra, Sasha, Shirley, Sydney, Telma, Troy, Ubah, Vivienne, Zahra

Interviewers:
Abdoulaye, Abigail, Alex, Alexander, Ana, Bianca, Che, Christian, Clara, Claudine, Cliff, Daysha, Ebube, Grace-Camille, Haiat, Ian, James, Komi, Kwesi, Lindile, Lydia, Mahlikah, Marcel, Michelle, Nicholas, Nicole, Otto, Paa-Kwasi, Pulga, Ravyn, Sara, Sasha, Shemar, Tafadzwa, Tanaka, Tina, Tiyahna, Tura, Yamari, Zanira

Editors:
Mufaro Mukoki, Sydne, Barnes-Wright, Shani McKenzie, Tafyra Poyser, Temi Gina, Yasmin, Evering-Kerr

Curator: Kholisile Dhliwayo

Project Film Team: Joseph Mpalirwa, Davin Henson
Film Directors: Aisha Fairclough, Ayo Tsalithaba, Cazhhmere Downey, Chelsea Nyomi, Isabel Okoro, Nala Haileselassie, Raoul Olou, Roya DelSol, William Selviz, Yazid Mohamednur

Project Advisory:
Farida Abu-Bakare, Joseph Mpalirwa, Sandra Githinji, Tura Cousins-Wilson

Museum of Toronto team:
April Hazan, Bria Dietrich, Davin Henson, Heidi Reitmaier, Julie Suh, Rachel Hilton, Sarah Tumaliuan, Nadine Villasin Feldman

AfrOURban team:
Kholisile Dhliwayo, Monica Nawanga, Phillip Johnson, Sandra Githinji, Tarirai Chivore

Photography and videography of exhibition: Fifo Adebakin

Fabricators:
TV boxes - Dylan Moore Studio
Curtain Track fabrication - Mcwood Studios
Decal - UB Signs
Printing newspapers - Printkia

Exhibited at the Library and Archives and Canada

Exhibited at the Archives of Ontario

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, Architecture + Design Gallery

Photograph of newspapers
References:
1 Statistics Canada - 2021 census https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/as-sa/fogs-spg/page.cfm?topic=10&lang=E&dguid=2021A00053520005