El Jones

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El Jones
El Jones Halifax poet.jpg
Jones in 2018
Born
Wales
OccupationPoet, journalist, columnist, professor
SubjectRacism, colonialism, prison reform, human rights, social justice

El Jones is a poet, journalist, professor and activist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was the Poet Laureate of Halifax, Nova Scotia, from 2013 to 2015. [1]

Contents

Biography

El Jones was born in Wales and grew up in Winnipeg. [2] Her book, Live From the Afrikan Resistance! published in 2014 by Roseway, an imprint of Fernwood Publishing, [3] is a collection of poems about resisting white colonialism. [4] In 2015, she was a resident at the International Writing Program at University of Iowa. [5] [6] Her work focuses on social justice issues such as feminism, prison abolition, anti-racism, and decolonization; [3] she wrote in The Washington Post in June 2020 about "the realities of white-supremacist oppression that black people in Canada have long experienced." [7]

Since 2016, she has co-hosted a radio show called Black Power Hour on CKDU-FM, an educational program which provides information on Black history and culture aimed at incarcerated people. [8] Listeners from prisons call in to rap and read poetry that they have written, providing a voice to people who rarely get a wide audience. [9] She is a contributor to the Halifax Examiner and has contributed to HuffPost . [10] She has taught at Dalhousie University, Acadia University, Nova Scotia Community College, Saint Mary's University and Mount Saint Vincent University. [11] In 2017, she was named the 15th Nancy's Chair in Women's Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University. [12]

In 2021, Jones became a contributor to The Breach, an alternative, Canadian news website. [13]

In March 2022 she was amongst 151 international feminists signing Feminist Resistance Against War: A Manifesto, in solidarity with the Russian Feminist Anti-War Resistance. [14] [n. 1]

Jones was interviewed and featured in the award-winning documentary feature film Reimagining Safety (2023) by director Matthew Solomon. [18] The film covers defunding the police and the George Floyd protests.

Awards and honours

Notes

  1. ↑ This manifesto was criticized by both Ukrainian feminists and members of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance themselves. [15] [16] [17]

References

  1. ↑ "HRM Poet Laureate". Halifax, Nova Scotia.
  2. ↑ "El Jones". Atlantic Canadian Poets' Archive. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  3. 1 2 Beaumont, Hilary. "El Jones, poetry and power". The Coast Halifax. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  4. ↑ "Live from the Afrikan Resistance!". Quill & Quire . November 27, 2014.
  5. ↑ Catharine Tunney, "El Jones, Halifax's poet laureate, moving to Iowa for work". CBC News, July 16, 2015.
  6. ↑ "El JONES | The International Writing Program". University of Iowa .
  7. ↑ El Jones (2020-06-04). "Black Canadians are suffocating under a racist policing system, too". The Washington Post . Washington, D.C. ISSN   0190-8286. OCLC   1330888409.
  8. ↑ Boon, Jacob (March 30, 2016). "Black Power Hour offers inmate education over the airwaves". The Coast Halifax.
  9. ↑ "Halifax radio show gives inmates outlet on the airwaves". Metro Halifax. October 24, 2016 – via SaltWire Network.
  10. ↑ "Debunking Myths About Rape In Prison". HuffPost . November 15, 2016.
  11. ↑ "El Jones advocates system change for universities - Dalhousie Gazette". The Dalhousie Gazette . October 14, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Nancy's Chair in Women's Studies". Mount Saint Vincent University .
  13. ↑ Wright Allen, Samantha. The Hill Times, "The Breach, new media outlet to launch this spring." 2021-04-12
  14. ↑ "Feminist Resistance Against War: A Manifesto". Spectre Journal. 17 March 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  15. ↑ Hendl, Tereza (2022). "Towards accounting for Russian imperialism and building meaningful transnational feminist solidarity with Ukraine" (PDF). Gender Studies. 26: 62–93.
  16. ↑ Ashley Smith (June 23, 2022). "Inside the Russian Resistance Against Putin's War". Spectre Journal. Retrieved 24 January 2025.
  17. ↑ "Russia's women are fighting back against the war in Ukraine". OpenDemocracy.net. 4 October 2022. Archived from the original on 7 January 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2025.
  18. ↑ "Cast & Crew". Reimagining Safety. Retrieved 2026-01-22.
  19. ↑ "A Bold Vision | Women's Leadership Conference". aboldvision.ca. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  20. ↑ "Human rights award recipients honoured". The Chronicle Herald. 2016-12-09. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  21. ↑ Up, All Lit. "Poetry in Motion: The Spoken Word as a Tool of Liberation – El Jones". alllitup.ca. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  22. ↑ "El Jones | Poetry In Voice". www.poetryinvoice.com. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
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