Black Spaces Symposium & Summit 2026: Black Space Media Inc / Afro Van Connect

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Cost: Pay What You Choose
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Featuring: The Executive Director of Black History BC, Daniel Sherif
Associate Director of SFU Black Student Centre & Michelle Fenton, Khora Design

Black Spaces Symposium & Summit 2026: Making Space for You
Bringing together artists, cultural workers, community leaders, thinkers, organizers, and community members, the symposium explores how Black communities can preserve our histories while actively shaping the spaces, institutions, policies, and futures that come next.

On Saturday, October 17, 2026, at The Vancity Culture Lab, the program turns its attention to Black history, cultural memory, placemaking, and spatial justice. Through two interconnected panel conversations, audiences are invited to consider not only how Black histories are remembered, but how memory can become a foundation for building lasting Black cultural and community infrastructure.

Panel 1 — Black Spaces: History, Memory & the Making of Future Legacies 1:00 PM
This conversation explores the relationship between Black history, place, cultural memory, and legacy. Panelists will consider whose histories are preserved, how Black communities have shaped the cultural and spatial landscape of Canada, and what it means to create spaces where future generations can see themselves reflected, supported, and empowered.

Panel 2 — Archiving the Future: Black Histories, Cultural Memory & Spatial Justice 2:30 PM
Moving from remembrance toward action, this conversation examines archives, storytelling, architecture, placemaking, and spatial justice as tools for building the future. Together, panelists and audiences will explore how Black communities can move beyond temporary representation toward long-term cultural infrastructure, ownership, belonging, and self-determined spaces.
Under the 2026 theme “Making Space for You,” the Black Spaces Symposium & Summit is more than a series of panels—it is an invitation to participate in imagining what is possible. Expect thoughtful dialogue, intergenerational perspectives, community connection, and conversations that bridge history and future, culture and policy, place and people. Whether you are an artist, organizer, student, policymaker, cultural worker, or simply someone interested in the future of Black communities in Vancouver and beyond, you are invited to join us as we make space for ideas, connection, collaboration, and action.
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