A community-focused exhibition that documents and celebrates the experiences, spaces and places that have significance to Black Torontonians will open in the Faculty’s Architecture + Design Gallery on Monday, March 12.

Black Diasporas Tkaronto-Toronto is an interactive exhibition and geolocated digital archive featuring over 500 stories and 12 commissioned short films created by more than 150 Black Torontonians. 

Facilitated by afrOURban Inc. and the Museum of Toronto, it will run in the Daniels Building until April 14.

The multifaceted project exemplifies how oral narratives, filmmaking and exhibitions can be both archival and aspirational—archival in celebrating the diversity of Black life and communities in Canada’s largest city and aspirational in articulating the hopes and dreams that manifest within the built environment.

In 2024, architect and academic Kholisile Dhliwayo discussed the tenets and methodology behind Black Diasporas Tkaronto-Toronto (as well as a Naarm-Melbourne version) as part of the Faculty’s annual Public Program series.

Dhliwayo is a founding member of afrOURban Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting and celebrating the spaces that have meaning to Black communities worldwide.

In addition to Toronto and Melbourne, the organization has hosted exhibits and screenings in Manahatta-New York City, Tiohtià:ke-Montreal and Warrane-Sydney since 2017. The Black Diasporas project was started by afrOURban in 2020.

Located on the lower level of the Daniels Building, the Architecture + Design Gallery is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

To watch Dhliwayo’s 2024 lecture at Daniels, visit the Faculty’s YouTube channel by clicking here.

Image by Bonn Creative from the exhibition Black Diasporas Naarm-Melbourne.