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Film and Discussion - Pushout

with Dr. Barbara McNeil and Carol Lafayette-Boyd

In honour of Black History Month join us for an educational discussion and screening of Pushout: the Criminalization of Black Girls in School facilitated by Dr. Barbara McNeil and Carol Lafayette-Boyd

This event will happen in-person at RPL Film Theatre (2311 12th Avenue). Free parking is available in the area after 6PM.

Register for reminder, drop-ins welcome.

Introduction by Dr. Barbara McNeil: An adaptation of educator and researcher Monique W. Morris’ (2016) well-researched book, the documentary film Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools (Jacoba, 2019), is a riveting, must-see production centering the experiences of Black girls in American and other schools around the world through their voices, those of parents, teachers, scholars, and activists. Using data from authoritative sources, the film—as news and pedagogical tool—sounds the alarm on what Morris calls “a crisis” that threatens the futures of Black girls due to “punishment and marginalization” thereby placing them in static loops of exclusion from the very sites required for their full actualization and meaningful participation society. Rejecting fatalism, by offering hope for change, Morris believes that the practices and narratives that lead to exclusion can be disrupted by transforming schools into nurturing, protective, respectful, dignity-giving, life-enhancing spaces that encourage care, attachment, and positive participation for self, community, and nation.

Dr. Barbara McNeil is associate professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Regina. Dr. McNeil works chiefly in the areas of language and literacies, her primary research interests include literacy teaching and learning (PreK-12 - reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and responding), critical literacies, critical pedagogies, writing pedagogies, children’s literature, linguistic diversity, teacher education, arts education, multicultural education, children and war, and inclusive museums. Dr. McNeil's research interests lend themselves to interdisciplinarity as well as multidisciplinarity in local as well as global contexts.

^{Image courtesy of Esperanza Sanchez Espitia}

Carol Lafayette-Boyd was born on a farm west of Saskatoon in 1942. She lived in small towns until 1956. Carol and her siblings were the only Black children wherever they lived until 1959 when people of African ancestry began moving to Regina. Carol has been active with the following - Saskatchewan African Canadian Heritage Museum (SACHM), Bob Adams Foundation (BAF) and the For The Love Of Matthew (FTLOM). She attends Gateway Christian Fellowship church. She has lived and worked in the United States and Canada as a clerk, nurse and social worker. Carol trained as a psychiatric nurse (Registered Psychiatric Nurse )and was a registered social worker. Carol retired in 2005 after 33 years with the Saskatchewan Government in Social Services and Corrections and Public Safety. She is a Masters track and field athlete having taken up competition at age 50. She is an inductee in the Regina Sports Hall of Fame (2014) and Canadian Masters Athletics Hall of Fame (2012). Carol was selected as 2018 and 2022 World Masters Association (WMA )Female Athlete of the year.

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