History made as five Black tenure-track staff joins OCAD U Faculty of Design

An Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCAD U) band section in next year’s Toronto Caribbean Carnival is a possibility.
That’s one of the goals of Canadian-born Trinidadian resident Michael Lee Poy who is among five new permanent faculty hires in recognition of the International Decade for Peoples of African Descent.
“I am always ready to start a band,” he said. “At OCAD U, I intend to get directly involved in the carnival at the lowest level like making costumes and also planning a band if we can. The nice thing about carnival, which you don’t see in the Diaspora, is the social commentary that is part of the basis of carnival in the Caribbean where you get to see the placards like what we are seeing in the protests. That aspect gives you the opportunity to speak about things like Black Lives Matter and so on in a festival setting.”
Since 2015, Lee Poy has been incubating Moko Jumbie Mas Camp workshops for children.
“The Moko Jumbie and cultural characters of other Caribbean islands are some of the things I would like to bring to Toronto,” said the artist-activist who utilizes interdisciplinarity to augment the innovative, creative and collaborative process of design. “I want to show people it’s not just about the breast, bumsee, feathers and beads. That is not what I am interested in.”


A University of the West Indies (UWI) Department of Creative & Festival Arts part-time lecturer, Lee Poy said the OCAD U job description spoke directly to his Black experience.
“My parents went to Montreal in 1959 and I grew up as one of the few persons in my environment,” noted the 2018 Cleveland Museum of Art Parade the Circle international guest artist. “I didn’t see any Black teacher through high school besides being the only one of colour in my classes and there wasn’t a Black Architectural group at Pratt until I was leaving. That sort of mentorship from old to young is important just to facilitate your schooling and getting through. The White students have that support.”
Lee Poy’s first 18 years were spent in Montreal before heading to New York to study Architecture at the Pratt Institute and then Connecticut to complete a graduate degree in Environmental Design at Yale before moving to Trinidad 16 years ago.
The last time he was in Toronto was in 1994 for an uncle’s funeral.
Lee Poy joins Kathy Moscou, Marton Robinson, Angela Bains and Kestin Cornwall as the first cohort of full -time Black Faculty members in OCAD U’s Faculty of Design 144-year history.
The hiring is part of the university’s dedication to the implementation of its academic plan that articulates a commitment to decolonization, diversity and equity.
Dr. Elizabeth ‘Dori’ Tunstall pledged last year that Canada’s oldest and largest art & design educational institution would have full-time Black faculty members before she leaves.
Source:  RonFanfair, June 6, 2020