Join writer, activist and thought leader Cicely Blain for an in-depth workshop that explores the power of social, digital, and print media through an anti-oppressive, anti-racist lens.
In Canada, 70% of the media is controlled by just 4 companies. In the US the monopolization of media is even starker. In Gaza City, two major news outlets were bombed. In 2020, millions of black squares on Instagram drowned out actual Black liberation content. This necessitates us asking: How does this shape what we see about the world? Whose stories are most suppressed by the realities of mainstream media? Big Media feels like an impossible system to crack which means those of us fighting for liberation and justice must take measures to reclaim control of the content we absorb and wade through the biased algorithms, racist conspiracy theories, election interference, and performative online allyship.
Cicely Belle Blain
Cicely Belle Blain is a Black/mixed, queer femme from London, UK now living on the lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people. Their ancestry is a mix of Gambian (Wolof), Jamaican and English. At the heart of all their work, Cicely Belle harnesses their passion for justice, liberation and meaningful change via transformative education, always with laughter, and fearlessly in the face of systemic oppression.
They are noted for founding Black Lives Matter Vancouver and subsequently being listed as one Vancouver’s 50 most powerful people by Vancouver Magazine in 2018 and again in 2020, BC Business’s 30 under 30 and one of Refinery29’s Powerhouses.
Cicely Belle is an instructor in Executive Leadership at Simon Fraser University, the Editorial Director of Ripple of Change Magazine and the author of Burning Sugar (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020).
