Toil and Laughter is the third book in the innovative series In Words of Our Own: Black Women and Being, by and about Black Canadian women that centres Black feminist perspectives. This vital text examines the long legacy of Black women’s work, exploring how anti-Black racism, patriarchal systems, and systemic inequities shape the experiences of Black families, communities, students, and educators. By situating Black women’s labour as both political and transformative, this text illuminates the histories, lived realities, and mobilizations of Black women navigating complex educational, workplace, and social systems.
Through thirteen interdisciplinary and multi-genre chapters, Toil and Laughter reimagines work as a site of resistance and creative possibility. This collection highlights how Black women’s labour is often perceived as invisible or hyper-visible depending on social convenience, while also demonstrating how Black women respond to systemic injustice through practices such as othermothering, educational advocacy, and community organizing. Rather than presenting labour as a neutral activity, this collection frames work as relational, historically grounded, and inseparable from collective struggle and liberation.
Contributors centre Black feminist perspectives, storytelling, and collective mobilizations as strategies for challenging systemic oppression and imagining new futures for Black women and their communities. By bridging academic analysis with lived experience, this text offers students and scholars in Black Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, Diaspora Studies, Critical Race Studies, and Labour Studies a critical framework for understanding Black women’s labour as central to justice, care, and collective empowerment.
Features:
Employs Black feminist thought, intersectionality, and diverse approaches to understanding labour, community, and collective action
Pedagogically designed for classroom use in Black studies, gender and women’s studies, diaspora studies, critical race studies, and labour studies
Highlights the histories, experiences, and strategies of Black women navigating systemic inequities in work, education, and community spaces
Explores the political, social, and relational dimensions of Black women’s labour, including practices such as othermothering, educational advocacy, and community organizing
Introduction: Black Women and Work: Honouring Our Legacies and Resistances
Janelle Brady
Chapter 1: The Social-Political Mobilizations of Black Mothers
Janelle Brady
Chapter 2: A Love Ethic for Black Feminisms
Ezinwanne Toochukwu Odozor
Chapter 3: Teaching While Black: Black Woman Thought and Spiritual Pedagogy as Tools for Resistance
Njoki Wane
Chapter 4: Black Canadian Feminist Pedagogy
Sarah Elizabeth Barrett
Chapter 5: Home(land): Black Women’s Motherwork Across Space and Time
Stephanie Fearon
Chapter 6: Studying While Black: The Lived Experiences of Two Jamaican Women in Higher Education
Shawnee Hardware and Shelleanne Hardial
Chapter 7: Headwraps and Hoops: Navigating Educational Spaces and Redefining Workplaces
Judith Antoinette Jeannette McKeown
Chapter 8: Teaching as Radical Practice: “Mammy” as Transformative Praxis Within Educational Institutions
Candice Ashley Griffith
Chapter 9: Can you See Me? A Refusal of Black Mothers Disappearance and Advocacy in the School Community
Tanitiã Munroe and Treisha Hylton
Chapter 10: A Black Woman in Education: Upliftment, Resistance, Silence, and Vision
Tamla Taneika Young
Chapter 11: Black Students that Matter
MJ Rwigema
Chapter 12: Negotiating Identities: Black Women in Canadian Postsecondary Spaces
Beverly-Jean Daniel
Chapter 13: Can Safe Spaces Exist for Black Children?
Georgiana Mathurin
Critical Questions
References
Contributor Biographies
Biography
Dr. Janelle Brady, PhD (she/her), is an award-winning Black studies scholar, author, and activist-researcher. Dr. Brady is an Assistant Professor in the School of Early Childhood Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she curates and teaches courses on equity, Black childhoods, and social justice pedagogies. Her research focuses on Black mothering, Blackness in early childhood studies, and Black feminisms. Dr. Brady’s scholarship has been published in Bloomsbury Publishing, Springer, the Journal of Canadian Scholars, SAGE Publications, Demeter Press, and University of Toronto Press. She is the recipient of several awards, including the 2025 Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence and the 2022 Viola Desmond Faculty Award—both from Toronto Metropolitan University—as well as the 2021 Emerging Leader Award and the 2019 International Day for the End of Racial Discrimination Award from the University of Toronto. Her expertise has been featured in various media outlets such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), CityNews, Global News Canada, CP24, and CTV News. She is also the co-founder and director of the Downsview Advocate, a community-based newspaper in Toronto’s north end. Dr. Brady has served as President of the Ontario NDP since 2022 and as a member of the Provincial Executive for several years prior.
Ezinwanne (Ezi) Toochukwu Odozor (she/her) is a writer, higher-education professional, and anti-racist practitioner who works between London, UK, and Toronto, Canada. Her writing—spanning fiction and non-fiction—delves into themes of bodies, identity, culture, gender, race, health, and intimacy. Ezi’s work has appeared in respected journals such as Hypatia, Room Magazine, and Arc Poetry Magazine. She holds an MSc in Psychology from the University of East London and a Master of Education (MEd) and an Honours Bachelor of Science (HBSc) from the University of Toronto. Her interdisciplinary research has focused on race, Black feminisms, anti-colonialism, and radical possibilities within global health and education. Ezi also leads a consulting firm, partnering with individuals and diverse organizations (e.g., The City of Toronto, CBC Kids, ACTRA) to achieve institutional and personal goals. She specializes in leveraging purposeful storytelling and strategic visioning grounded in a collaborative problem-solving approach.
Njoki N. Wane, PhD (she/her), is a Professor at the University of Toronto and former Chair of the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) from 2018 to 2024. A respected educator and scholar, she led the Office of Teaching Support at OISE from 2009 to 2012, placing equity at the centre of effective teaching. From 2011 to 2014, she served as Special Advisor on Status of Women Issues, focusing on the intersectionality of gender with race, disability, sexual orientation, and Indigenous identity. She also directed the Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies (CIARS) from 2006 to 2014. Professor Wane is widely recognized for her work in Black feminisms in Canada and Africa, African Indigenous knowledges, anti-colonial and decolonizing education, and African women and spirituality. She has authored or edited 22 books, 59 book chapters, and 35 peer-reviewed journal articles, and has presented at over 300 conferences. She has supervised 61 PhD and 44 Master’s students and served as external examiner for 15 PhD dissertations. Her excellence in teaching and mentorship has earned her numerous awards, including the Harry Jerome Professional Excellence Award, the David E. Hunt Award, the President of Toronto Teaching Award, and many more. She is a prolific and influential voice in education and social justice.
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