By Leigh-Ann Worrell
Activists committed to building a consent culture on campus may be perpetuating non-consensual behaviours in their work by abusing power in particular spaces, asserted dub poet and educator d’bi.young anitafrika during a keynote address on Oct. 22. This talk concluded Carleton University’s 2015 Consent Culture Week.
Co-hosted by the Graduate Students Association’s (GSA) Consent Culture Committee, CUSA, the Womyn’s Centre, and the Carleton Disability Awareness Centre, this week of events is intended to promote consent culture on campus and deconstruct unhealthy power structures.
“We are working on changing rape culture on campuses and we are working with small groups of people…Inside intimate spaces, there is so much to be worked out. If people aren’t willing to do the vast amount of unlearning we need to do, there goes the revolution,” said anitafrika during the address.
Drawing on her experiences as a mother of two, the award-winning actress and playwright encouraged those gathered in Fenn Lounge in Carleton’s Glengarry residence building to examine how they identify within particular situations and to be aware of instances where power is being abused.
“Culture teaches us about consent. Our environment teaches us about consent and the power that we have. In relation to my children, it is about how I relate to them and what I project onto them,” anitafrika added.
The Jamaican-Canadian’s presentation was guided by four principles from dub poetry: self-knowledge, orality, rhythm, and political content and context. She also treated the audience to a selection of dub poems and excerpts from published works.
This article first appeared in the Leveller Vol. 8 No. 3 (Nov/Dec 2015).
