In the presence of absence: Invisibility, black Canadian history, and Melinda Mollineaux's pinhole photography

In the official history of Canada, alternative Black narratives often erase the complexities of Black Canadian experiences. This article examines the pinhole photographic work of Canadian artist Melinda Mollineaux, Cadboro Bay: Index to an Incomplete History, to discuss Mollineaux's performative act of commemorating the forgotten place of Cadboro Bay, where Black people gathered to celebrate Emancipation Day in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The photographs in the series act as material reminders of this artist's attempt to resurrect public memories of a time and place that are intimately tied to slavery and the diasporic movement of Black people. In so doing, the article discusses the dynamics of presence and absence and the significance of what is not seen in Mollineaux's pictures. This article features online (http://www.cjc-online.ca) photographs of Melinda Mollineaux's pinhole photography

This is Research: Fatona: The State of Blackness: From Production to Presentation

The State of Blackness: From Production to Presentation website was originally developed to document the proceedings of a conference of the same name organized by Andrea Fatona in 2014. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the two-day event brought together artists, curators and academics to examine the histories, current status and future state of Black Diasporic artistic practice and representation in Canada. Since the conference, the website has expanded to include spin-off projects: a forum at the 2015 Venice Biennale to build transnational networks for Black Canadian visual artists, curators, and critics; a 2017 collaboration with artist-run non-profit video art distributor Vtape to compile data on Black Canadian video production; and YGBI (Young Gifted and Black, Italy) a 2020 research residency based in Florence, Italy that focused on the challenges and possibilities experienced by emerging Black artists in Italy. The website includes resources such as essential reading about Black Canadian cultural production, Canadian Black-owned bookstores, plus links to accompanying YouTube and Facebook channels. The website serves to rectify the absence of Black cultural production from “official records”— art critics’ reviews, art archives and other aspects of representation

Desire Lines : Setting a Tone

"Intergenerational mentoring is a central experience of cultural transmission; within publishing networks we can sense a print-based trace of Black feminist sensations of belonging. Magazines of the 1980s, such as Fireweed and Tiger Lily, offer a view into activist spaces where gaining access to print was a means to rewrite the terms of racialization and socioeconomic oppression. This panel will conjure personal memories around institutions such as Sister Vision Press and Fresh Arts as crucibles for cultural production in Toronto." -- Publisher's website

Training during the COVID-19 lockdown : knowledge, beliefs, and practices of 12,526 athletes from 142 countries and six continents

OBJECTIVE Our objective was to explore the training-related knowledge, beliefs, and practices of athletes and the influence of lockdowns in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). METHODS Athletes (n = 12,526, comprising 13% world class, 21% international, 36% national, 24% state, and 6% recreational) completed an online survey that was available from 17 May to 5 July 2020 and explored their training behaviors (training knowledge, beliefs/attitudes, and practices), including specific questions on their training intensity, frequency, and session duration before and during lockdown (March–June 2020). RESULTS Overall, 85% of athletes wanted to “maintain training,” and 79% disagreed with the statement that it is “okay to not train during lockdown,” with a greater prevalence for both in higher-level athletes. In total, 60% of athletes considered “coaching by correspondence (remote coaching)” to be sufficient (highest amongst world-class athletes). During lockdown, < 40% were able to maintain sport-specific training (e.g., long endurance [39%], interval training [35%], weightlifting [33%], most (83%) training for “general fitness and health maintenance” during lockdown. Athletes trained alone (80%) and focused on bodyweight (65%) and cardiovascular (59%) exercise/training during lockdown. Compared with before lockdown, most athletes reported reduced training frequency (from between five and seven sessions per week to four or fewer), shorter training sessions (from ≥ 60 to < 60 min), and lower sport-specific intensity (~ 38% reduction), irrespective of athlete classification. CONCLUSIONS COVID-19-related lockdowns saw marked reductions in athletic training specificity, intensity, frequency, and duration, with notable within-sample differences (by athlete classification). Higher classification athletes had the strongest desire to “maintain” training and the greatest opposition to “not training” during lockdowns. These higher classification athletes retained training specificity to a greater degree than others, probably because of preferential access to limited training resources. More higher classification athletes considered “coaching by correspondence” as sufficient than did lower classification athletes. These lockdown-mediated changes in training were not conducive to maintenance or progression of athletes’ physical capacities and were also likely detrimental to athletes’ mental health. These data can be used by policy makers, athletes, and their multidisciplinary teams to modulate their practice, with a degree of individualization, in the current and continued pandemic-related scenario. Furthermore, the data may drive training-related educational resources for athletes and their multidisciplinary teams. Such upskilling would provide athletes with evidence to inform their training modifications in response to germane situations (e.g., COVID related, injury, and illness).A specific funding was provided by the National Sports Institute of Malaysia for this study.The National Sports Institute of Malaysia.https://www.springer.com/journal/40279am2023Sports Medicin

COVID-19 lockdown : a global study investigating athletes’ sport classification and sex on training practices

PURPOSE : To investigate differences in athletes’ knowledge, beliefs, and training practices during COVID-19 lockdowns with reference to sport classification and sex. This work extends an initial descriptive evaluation focusing on athlete classification. METHODS : Athletes (12,526; 66% male; 142 countries) completed an online survey (May–July 2020) assessing knowledge, beliefs, and practices toward training. Sports were classified as team sports (45%), endurance (20%), power/technical (10%), combat (9%), aquatic (6%), recreational (4%), racquet (3%), precision (2%), parasports (1%), and others (1%). Further analysis by sex was performed. RESULTS : During lockdown, athletes practiced body-weight-based exercises routinely (67% females and 64% males), ranging from 50% (precision) to 78% (parasports). More sport-specific technical skills were performed in combat, parasports, and precision (∼50%) than other sports (∼35%). Most athletes (range: 50% [parasports] to 75% [endurance]) performed cardiorespiratory training (trivial sex differences). Compared to prelockdown, perceived training intensity was reduced by 29% to 41%, depending on sport (largest decline: ∼38% in team sports, unaffected by sex). Some athletes (range: 7%–49%) maintained their training intensity for strength, endurance, speed, plyometric, change-of-direction, and technical training. Athletes who previously trained ≥5 sessions per week reduced their volume (range: 18%–28%) during lockdown. The proportion of athletes (81%) training ≥60 min/session reduced by 31% to 43% during lockdown. Males and females had comparable moderate levels of training knowledge (56% vs 58%) and beliefs/attitudes (54% vs 56%). CONCLUSIONS : Changes in athletes’ training practices were sport-specific, with few or no sex differences. Team-based sports were generally more susceptible to changes than individual sports. Policy makers should provide athletes with specific training arrangements and educational resources to facilitate remote and/or home-based training during lockdown-type events.https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijspp/ijspp-overview.xmlhj2023Sports Medicin

Busejé Bailey : Making Connections across Art Forms

This African-Canadian artist's work is discussed by Fatona in terms of autobiography and the history of the African diaspora. Biographical notes

Fibred Optics = Perspectives métissées

"Fibred Optics features four artists (Frances Dorsey, Jérôme Havre, Ed Pien, Michèle Provost) whose work incorporates natural and synthetic fibres, old and new technologies, and methodologies from the world of craft and contemporary art. Each artist uses fibre to produce and transmit individual and collective narratives that are at once coherent and fragmented, visible and invisible. Two booklets hand-bound together." -- Distributor's website