The Shades of Noir website has immense and diverse voices that cover very needed subjects that are often overlooked/ not given a platform. As a former part of the Shades’ content team, what I really loved were the weekly updates – this meant that different voices from different backgrounds were getting published. The content spoke about oppressions and lived experiences and encouraged people to stand in solidarity.
In my limited teaching context, I have been using the Shades of Noir website – especially the Creative Database to research and give out references to my students. The creative database is a database of ‘people of colour and creatives from other marginalised communities, including women, disabled people, queer and trans people’ (Shades of Noir, Creative Database, 2020). Through this creative database, I am trying to bring a ‘small’ change in decentering whiteness.
Some of the topics my students were exploring (but weren’t confident with) were about their own heritage, identity, etc. I directed them to Shades of Noir, sharing their sources that could inspire/ influence their own development. When referring students to Shades of Noir, it is also to strengthen the recognition and consideration of the importance of lived experience – their own narratives.
During my own BA years, as a student of colour, I remember the lack of non- Eurocentric references and the unfamiliarity with cultural context. This made me feel like the ‘other’ and that my narratives were not important, nor did I know how to develop the subjects I was trying to explore (identity, culture-based work).
I believe learners want to create work that could resonate with them. For this to occur, we want representation in our education – acknowledge the impact and that it matters.
The Terms of Reference journals are also very rich in resources and I found them to be transformational. Shades of Noir’s TORs such as Inclusive Practice: Alchemy – Transformation in Social Justice Teaching, Ethics: Preserving Voices Vulnerable to Erasure, The Three ‘isms’: Negotiating Race, Sex & Class and Peekabo We See You: Whiteness have made me aware and reflect on intersectionality, my own positionality, learning resistance and learn ways to promote inclusive learning.
Further resources
bell hooks (1999) All about love