A Journey through Otherworld

Camille Turner, Afronautic Research Lab: Newfoundland (still), 2019. Courtesy of the artist.

A Journey through Otherworld
A multi-sensory program of workshops, tours, and presentations

March 12 – 15, 2025
Art Museum at the University of Toronto

Guest curated by Bushra Junaid, and supported by Curator of Programs, Drea Asibey, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto presents A Journey through Otherworld, a multi-sensory program of workshops, tours, and presentations inspired by Camille Turner’s Otherworld exhibition, on view at the Art Museum through March 22, 2025.

Utilizing Afrofuturism to reimagine the past, present, and liberated and whole futures, Otherworld explores the silences of Canada’s colonial past with particular focus on Newfoundland and Labrador’s social, economic, and geological entanglements with the Black Atlantic, including its connections to the transatlantic slave trade.

Engage your senses and move, listen, taste, touch, visualize, and imagine through a program of hands-on activities designed to educate, inform, and inspire, while building public memory and encouraging healing.

All events are free and open to the public!

Afronautic Research Lab: Workshop with Outerregion, September 2024, University of Toronto Art Centre. Photo: Grant Martin.

Program Schedule

Afronautic Research Lab: Workshop with Outerregion
March 12, 6pm – 8pm
University of Toronto Art Centre

In this workshop, Outerregion (led by Afronauts Camille, Karen, and Lee Turner) guides participants through historical archives immersing them in complex and overlooked histories.

Marking the Future: Afrofuturism, Storytelling, Printmaking, and Collage Workshop
March 13, 11am – 1pm
Hart House, Reading Room

In collaboration with Hart House’s Get Crafty! and Black Futures, this hands-on, drop-in workshop co-led by Queen Kukoyi and Jasmine Vanstone of OddSide Arts offers a space to reclaim and retell stories through the lens of Afrofuturism.

Panel Discussion: Connecting with the Ancestors through the Archive
March 13, 6pm – 7:30pm
Hart House, Debates Room

This panel brings together a multidisciplinary group of artists, historians, and thinkers—Dr. Shauna Sweeney, Dr. Seika Boye, Dr. Karina Vernon, and Dr. Melanie J. Newton—to share how they have delved into archives and claimed ancestral memory to develop artistic and/or scholarly responses to the Black Atlantic. Moderated by Dr. Alissa Trotz.

Panel Discussion: Our ancestors’ wildest dreams
March 14, 3:30pm – 5pm
University College, UC 140

A dynamic panel of multidisciplinary artists—Ésery Mondésir, Emilie Jabouin, Diane Roberts, and Dr. SA Smythe—explore how history, personal and collective archives, memory, ancestry, and legacy inform their creative practices, community engagement, and world-making. Moderated by Ésery Mondésir.

Artist Keynote: Camille Turner
March 14, 6pm – 7pm
Followed by a reception at 7pm
University College, UC 140

In this public presentation, artist and scholar Camille Turner explores the central themes and research methodology behind her artistic practice and the interdisciplinary works presented in her exhibition Otherworld. Following the lecture, a reception offers a taste of new world cuisine shaped by the trade in saltfish, sugar, molasses, and rum.

Afrofuturist Movements: African Dance Workshop with Miss Coco Murray and Coco Collective
March 15, 12:30pm – 2:30pm
Hart House Fitness Centre, Dance and Exercise Room

Through unified sound and rhythm, artist-scholar and dance educator Collette Murray (aka Miss Coco Murray) and musicians lead participants in a dance and movement workshop.

Closing Keynote: gli tXh! Performance and Celebration
March 15, 3pm – 6pm
University College, UC179
Followed by a community gathering at 6pm
University College, Paul Cadario Conference Centre

In this keynote address, multi-genre writer m. nourbeSe explores the technological currents in her eponymous poem Zong! and the project gli tXh!, which explores the congruences, resonances, and dissonances that appear when contemporary and current digital technologies encounter the legacies of the spiritual and artistic technologies of Africa. Join for a multidisciplinary exploration of the concept of “gli tXh” through music, poetry, performance, visual art, and dance.

Visit A Journey through Otherworld for the full schedule, program descriptions, artist bios, and to register.

Learn more about the Otherworld exhibition on view through March 22, 2025.

Our Supporters

The Art Museum gratefully acknowledges operating support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Ontario, and the Toronto Arts Council. Special support for Otherworld has been provided by the Jackman Humanities Institute as part of its 2024–25 annual theme, Undergrounds/Underworlds. Research for the exhibition was developed through a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Daniels Faculty of Landscape, Architecture, and Design (2022–24).

Visiting the Art Museum

Justina M. Barnicke Gallery
Hart House
7 Hart House Circle
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H3

University of Toronto Art Centre
University College
15 King’s College Circle
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H7

Museum Hours
Tuesday to Saturday, 12 noon – 5pm
Wednesday, 12 noon – 8pm
Sunday and Monday, closed.

Admission is free. All are welcome!

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