Events
AOEC supports educators with critical professional development provided through events such as the annual October provincial PSA day conference, webinars, book clubs and digital publications.
Upcoming Events
< FILM SCREENING FEB 2024 >
AOEC x Story Money Impact present:
Love in the Time of Fentanyl
Story Money Impact and AOEC is presenting a free screening of the film Love in the Time of Fentanyl
Food and refreshment provided. Come watch this insightful moving film about the Downtown Eastside and receive powerful tools to talk to your students about the opioid crisis in Canada. After the screening will be a discussion with Sarah Blyth, founder of Overdose Prevention Society.
When > February 22, 2024 at 6:00pm (doors open 5:00)
Where > Burnaby Central Secondary at 6011 Deer Lake Pkwy! See map below.
Synopsis
A middle-aged man overdoses on a sidewalk steps from the front door of the Overdose Prevention Society. OPS responds with naloxone and oxygen to save his life. As illicit fentanyl showed up in the drug supply in 2013, deaths skyrocketed, and became ever-present by April of 2016, when the BC provincial health officer declared a state of emergency. Felt most widely in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, which has long been where injection drug use is most concentrated, community efforts are mobilized, innovative and adaptive. Love in the Time of Fentanyl is an intimate portrait of a community fighting to save each other’s lives in a public health crisis. Sarah Blyth says she started OPS because “No one could justify having a person overdose in front of them and do nothing about it.” Could you?
< AOEC Book Club 2023/24 >
This moment in time is urging us as educators and community members to come together and unpack the ongoing history of war and colonialism in Palestine. To #readlearnreckon in community ✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏿
Pick up a copy of Rashid Khalidi’s “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine; A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistence” and join us for some rich conversations.
Dates and chapters:
Dec 14th @7pm PST: Chap Intro + 1 + 2
Jan 11th @7pm PST: Chap 3 + 4
Feb 29th @7pm PST: Chap 5 + 6 + Conclusion
As our capacity is limited for this book club edition, please find the registration link in our upcoming newsletter or email us at aoecollective@gmail.com
🍉 DEADLINE to register: Dec 1st at 11:30 pm
Our book club will be hosted on Zoom. The Zoom-link will be sent to participants a few days before each session.
Looking forward to seeing you online.
In solidarity,
AOEC Executive Committee
These are some fav local bookstores for you to go grab a copy; Massy Books, Iron Dog Books, People Coop Bookstore, Wildfire Books,
Past Events
About the author: akwaeke emezi
< AOEC Book Club 2023 >
Our AOEC Book Club is returning this February and we are so excited to connect with our community and #readlearnreckon. For this book club we are going to escape into the fantastical YA novel “Pet” written by Nigerian, non-binary author akwaeke emezi.
Book club participants will gather for an hour on a Thursday over three sessions. We will kick off our first session on Thursday, February 9th on Zoom, and then again Feb 23rd, and March 9th. Please see the image on the left for Chapters and pages.
Book Summary: Pet by Akwaeke Emezi, is a young adult fantasy/science fiction novel. "There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colours and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question--How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?"
Cover illustration by @shyamagolden , author portrait by @tvadv , slides by @cedarfires
Please follow the link to register. Zoom links and details will be sent to you by email a few days before the event.
We look forward to the rich discussions!
In solidarity,
AOEC Executive Committee
These are some fav local bookstores for you to go grab a copy; @massybooks @pfbvan @peoplescoopbooks
< AOEC Annual General Meeting 2022 >
AGENDA
Chair: Preet Lidder
1. Welcome
2. Land Acknowledgement
3. Presidents Report
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a) That AOEC add two additional seats for Member-At-Large to the Executive Committee. (Moved Prasad/Ferreira)
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b) That AOEC add a seat for Member-at Large-Sanctuary School Chair-To the Executive Committee. (Moved Prasad/Ferreira)
4. Treasurer's Report
5. Adoption of 2022/23 Budget
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a) That AOEC adopt the proposed budget for the 2022/23 year. (Moved Ng/Prasad)
6. Nominations and EC elections
7. Door prizes
8. Adjournment
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< PSA Day Conference 2022 >
TALK BACK:
From Outdated to Liberated
The Anti-Oppression Educators Collective presents the 2022 PSA Conference "Talk Back: From Outdated to Liberated". Rooted in anti-oppressive and abolitionist principles, this conference promises a day of deep learning that will provide educators and activists with the necessary skills, resources, and community to disrupt systems of oppression and carcerality in their daily lives. Beginning with a powerful youth panel, participants will have the opportunity to listen to the voices of those most adversely affected by oppressive education policies and practices. With a wide variety of workshop options, participants will be sure to find a session that promotes personal and professional growth, and inspires collective action to challenge the inequities we face in our classrooms and broader community.
COVID PROTOCOLS:
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Masks and hand sanitizer will be available on site
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Mask-wearing is encouraged
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Ample space is provided for distancing in workshop sessions
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Facility has mechanical ventilation
LOCATION:
Byrne Creek Community School
7777 18th St, Burnaby, BC
Located near Edmonds Skytrain Station
Ample parking
MORNING WORKSHOPS:
CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO LEARN MORE!
< AOEC Book Club 2022 >
AOEC is looking forward to our 2022 Book Club!. Over three months, we are going to take a deep dive into Mariame Kaba’s revolutionary bestseller “ We Do This ‘Till We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice”
As educators in a system tied up in oppression and power, we owe it to our students, our communities, and ourselves to take accountability and continue to engage with these important ideas and abolitionist frameworks.
Author Bio: “Mariame Kaba is an organizer, educator and curator who is active in movements for racial, gender, and transformative justice. She is the founder and director of Project NIA, a grassroots organization with a vision to end youth incarceration”.
In this collection of essays, Kaba raises issues around the prison industrial complex, policing, surveillance, and systemic oppression and offers a more community-centered approach rooted in transformative and restorative justice.
We will be hosting our monthly meetings on zoom, please follow the link in our bio to register and details will be sent to you by email.
We look forward to the rich discussions!
In solidarity,
AOEC Executive Committee
< Annual General Meeting 2021 >
Dear colleagues,
Please save the date! We are hosting our annual general meeting on November 24th, @7pm. At our meeting we will present a budget for the 2021/22 school year, elect EC positions (President and 2 member at large seats. As well we provide a recap of events from the past year, We are so excited to see you!!!!
Names put forward:
- Shanee Prasad (President)
- Ronak Pahlevanu (Member at large)
We will send a zoom link on November 24th. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions.
In solidarity,
AOEC-EC
< PSA Day Conference 2021 >
Teaching to Dismantle Borders
At AOEC we are excited to continue advocating against oppression, delving deep into pedagogy and committing ourselves to unlearning the Colonial. This year our PSA Day conference is focused on Dismantling Borders, join us in a thoughtful discussion with Harsha Walia, and the opportunity to participate in an array of workshops on dismantling oppression in education.
We are excited for our conference and our future events.
Please keep in touch and we look forward to sharing community with you!
< Youth & Educator Panel, 2020 >
Climate Justice: Building a Sustainable Future for our Children
This is a two part conference on on Climate Justice and Environmental Racism. Featuring a stellar youth and community activist panel, followed by opportunities to delve deeper into these issues with facilitated discussions
< PSA Day Conference 2020>
Tools for Anti-Racist Educators: Confronting Anti-Black Racism in Schools
Teaching in a pandemic has also shown us the need for anti-oppressive education. Rampant racist incidents against BIPOC communities, discrimination of folx with diverse abilities, hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community, all buttressed against a global climate crisis, demonstrates what many of us have known for a long time, that our world is structured on unequal power dynamics that oppresses those historically marginalized. It is in these times that we need to center anti-oppressive education, because when we explore, inquire and deconstruct oppression, we enable the discussion of hope. Join us on the Oct 23, 2020 Provincial PSA Day for our conference "Tools for Anti-Racist Educators" where we will facilitate these conversations about confronting anti-Black racism in our school communities.
< Townhall & Panel 2020 >
Confronting Anti Black Racism in our School Communities
Town Hall on Confronting Anti Black Racism in our School Communities. Our distinguished speakers are JOANN ANOKWURU, RUBY SMITH DIAZ and CHUKA EJECKAM. The purpose and aim of this virtual townhall is to create a space to face the ways in which schooling right here, in so-called BC and Canada, continues to dehumanize Black students. We have a responsibility to confront and counter anti-Black racism in our education system to end the cycle of systemic racism.
< PSA Day Conference 2019 >
Unlearning the Colonial
BC BIPOC 2019 was held on Saturday, October 5th on unceded Coast Salish Territories at Byrne Creek Community School, Burnaby, BC. The focus of the conference is to center the voices, experiences & needs of Indigenous, Black and People of Colour in public education. This conference will host participants in education who struggle daily with systemic racism & interlocking systems of social oppression.