Black Histories Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon In-Person
Representation matters. Not just on screens and pages, but in the information and data we share. Join us in the Library Collaboratory to celebrate Black History Month by learning to edit Wikipedia. Anyone can make a difference by helping to improve coverage of Black histories online. Come for community, and learn to edit Wikipedia pages if you're new!
This event is open to the public and themed around the Toronto music scene. We will begin at noon with a keynote by Sam Tecle, a leading scholar in Black and Diaspora Studies at TMU, exploring how hip hop reveals the deeper sociology of Toronto — how rhythm becomes resistance, and how the city’s artists have documented belonging, struggle, and pride in real time. (Scroll down to learn more)
The keynote will followed by optional training for beginners. Collective editing will begin after the training. Drop in and out anytime.
A warm lunch will be provided. Please inform us of any dietary needs via the registration form by February 20. While we will do our best, requests after this date may not be accommodated.
Bring your own laptop. A few library laptops will be available for loan.
Participants will be eligible to win gift cards to A Different Booklist.
Finding the Library Collaboratory
The main entrance to the Library Collaboratory is via the SLC Building.
Elevator: Take the elevator (opposite the main entrance) up to the 3rd floor of the SLC Building. Exit and turn left: the Library Collaboratory is at the end of the hall, marked with large yellow doors.
Stairs: Take the main stairs (on the right of the entrance) up to the second floor. Keep to the right and follow the stairs up to the third floor. Walk past the DMZ and the DME to the end of the hall. The Library Collaboratory is at the end of the hall, marked with large yellow doors.
Members of the public: Access to TMU buildings requires a OneCard. Someone will be at the entrance to the Student Learning Centre (SLC) until 12:15 pm to assist entry into the building. The SLC is located at 341 Yonge Street (corner of Yonge and Gould). If you arrive after 12:15 or have issues with access, contact the workshop facilitators via email (michelle.schwartz@torontomu.ca).
The Black Histories Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon is sponsored by Wikimedia Canada.
- Date:
- Thursday, February 26, 2026
- Time:
- 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM
- Time Zone:
- Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- LIB 387 - Library Collaboratory
- campus:
- Collaboratory
Keynote Talk
Hip Hop as a Black diasporic cultural art form has provided the means for marginalized and ignored communities to mark their presence and to make meaning about their lives. The most powerful, resonating and enduring examples of this in the history of hip hop often stems from communities the powerful and elite would rather render and keep silent. Hip hop has provided a cultural art form, a tradition and communal practice that resists rendered silences, in particular from society's "ghettos and gutters." Hip Hop, as is the case with Black expressive culture writ large, does not give voice to "the voiceless" because "the voiceless" do not exist, but rather makes the unheard and the disposable more difficult to ignore. In this presentation, we will examine how Black youth from Toronto's most marginalized and ignored communities use hip hop in creative and complex ways to make the statement: we are here, and you cannot ignore us. And while the truths these artists' communicate about Toronto are difficult, they are necessary and vital contributions to the social and political realities of life in our city.
About Sam Tecle
Sam Tecle’s research and scholarly work spans across the areas of Black and Diaspora Studies, Urban Studies, and Sociology of Education. His work focuses on the analysis of diverse experiences, trajectories and expressions of Blackness, grounded in particular histories of racialization, colonialism, community formation and resistance.
