On October 3, 2020, artist and cultural organizer David Woods joined journalist Kelsey Adams for a live, in-depth public conversation about Woods’ nearly 40-year career as an archivist and advocate for the artistic contributions of Black Maritime communities.
The talk was held to kick off the launch of Canadian Art’s Fall 2020 issue, Chroma, which surveys the aesthetic practices and legacies of Black art production in Canada and beyond.
The conversation began with an introduction to the backstory of the Chroma issue by guest editors Yaniya Lee and Denise Ryner.
For Chroma, Adams worked with Woods to write “Black History Decades” a feature that chronicles Woods’s pedagogy and advocacy recentring local Black creative practice and history to tell a complex story of Black Canada and its links to the global African diaspora.
This video recording of their conversation expands on the points of discussion in Adams’s article.
00:30 Land Acknowledgement
3:30 Introduction by Chroma co-editors Denise Ryner and Yaniya Lee
4:32 Conversation about the content and production by Ryner and Lee
26:00 Introduction of Kelsey Adams and David Woods
28:35 Conversation about Black Maritime arts with Adams and Woods
1:09:35 Q&A
1:41:00 Closing Remarks
