El Jones
Canadian journalist, professor, activist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
El Jones is a poet, journalist, professor and activist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Political and Canadian Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University.[1][2] Her work has appeared in publications including CBC, the Globe and Mail and the Washington Post.[3]
El Jones | |
|---|---|
Jones in 2018 | |
| Born | Wales |
| Occupation | Poet, journalist, columnist, professor |
| Subject | Racism, colonialism, prison reform, human rights, social justice |
Biography
El Jones was born in Wales and grew up in Winnipeg.[4] She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Queen's University.[5]
She was the fifth Poet Laureate of Halifax, Nova Scotia from 2013 to 2015.[6][7]
Jones' first book, Live From the Afrikan Resistance! published in 2014 by Roseway, an imprint of Fernwood Publishing, is a collection of poems about resisting white colonialism.[8][9]
In 2015, she was a resident at the International Writing Program at University of Iowa.[10][11] Her work focuses on social justice issues such as feminism, prison abolition, anti-racism, and decolonization;[8] she wrote in The Washington Post in June 2020 about "the realities of white-supremacist oppression that black people in Canada have long experienced."[12]
Since 2016, she has co-hosted a radio show called Black Power Hour on CKDU-FM, an educational program which provides information on Black history and culture aimed at incarcerated people.[13] Listeners from prisons call in to rap and read poetry that they have written, providing a voice to people who rarely get a wide audience.[14] She is a contributor to the Halifax Examiner and has contributed to HuffPost.[15] She has taught at Dalhousie University, Acadia University, Nova Scotia Community College, Saint Mary's University and Mount Saint Vincent University.[16]
From 2017 to 2019, she was the 15th Nancy's Chair in Women's Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University.[17]
In 2021, Jones became a contributor to The Breach, a Canadian alternative news website.[18] In the same year, she was writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto Scarborough.[19]
In March 2022, she was amongst 151 international feminists signing Feminist Resistance Against War: A Manifesto, in solidarity with the Russian Feminist Anti-War Resistance.[20][n. 1] In November 2022, her book, Abolitionist Intimacies, was published by Fernwood Publishing.[24][25]
Jones was interviewed and featured in the award-winning documentary feature film Reimagining Safety (2023) by director Matthew Solomon.[26][27] The film covers defunding the police and the George Floyd protests.
In 2024, Jones received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Acadia University.[2][28]
Awards and honours
- National Slam Champion (2007, 2008).[29]
- Named a Bold Visionaryby the A Bold Vision National Leadership Conference (2014).[30]
- Dr. Allan Burnley (Rocky) Jones Individual Award at the Nova Scotia Human Rights Award (2016) for her "commitment to advancing human rights, equity and inclusion."[31]
- 2017/18 Poet in Residence for Poetry in Voice.[32]
- Atlantic Journalism Award for Commentary: Any Medium (2018).[33]
- Atlantic Journalism Award for Commentary: Any Medium (2019).[34]
- Honorary Doctor of Letters from Acadia University.[29]
Notes
- This manifesto was criticized by both Ukrainian feminists and members of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance themselves.[21][22][23]