The following video/audio archive showcases some of my speaking engagements regarding
the independent media movement. I am an artist, public academic, a dreamer firmly grounded on the soil of possibilities created through collective struggle.
Recognized throughout North America for my expertise as an empowerment speaker. I connect my audiences with the abundance of wisdom, generosity and reciprocity of our struggles for justice by uplifting participants to a place where they cannot help but to take action towards living a better and more courageous life as change agents in our collective story of who and what we are…and what we can be together.
As a woman my focus is to create a world where the voices of women and girls are heard and valued. Our bodies respected and our labor cherished. I reach out to the worldwide community of women to learn together, laugh together, support each other, in our paths to end isolation, exploitation and oppression of every kind. My mission is to inspire a revolution that begins in our homes, in our ways of seeing our relations with each other and with the non human world. I engage people by providing a platform for voices of transformation to be expressed and shared through hands on workshops, educational multi-media events, presentations and visual arts explorations.
Please connect with me if you have any questions or would like to collaborate.
With Respect
Sylvia Richardson
Chile 2016
Hemispheric Encuentro, Artist as Repertoire, work group. Examined the eX-centric—that which stands apart, on the peripheries of power—as a site of identity, struggle, creativity, and political power. University of Chile, July 17-23 2016.
Austin 2015 –
Collectivities in Transmigration: Animating Bodies Across Borders, Convener/workshop facilitator, University of Texas, at Austin, USA. November 19-22, 2015.
Vancouver , 2015 –
“Arts for Social Justice” Learning Together Conference, Presenter, Simon Fraser University, Spring 2015
Vancouver 2014 –
“Carbon Butterfly: Arts for Social Justice”. Education, Internationalization and Social Justice: Preferred Futures. Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC. December 4-5 2014
Rome 2014
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Forum on Communication for Development and Community Media for Family Farming. Rome, Italy. October 23-24, 2014
Montreal 2014 –
Hemispheric Encuentro, Artist as Repertoire workgroup, Concordia University. Montreal, QC. June 22-27 2014
The Peoples Social Forum August 2014 – Latin Waves was on the organizing committee for the Forum and while in Ottawa recorded the following Videos
Interview with Wes Elliot CLICK HERE
Interview with Ana Collins CLICK HERE
Interview with Juan Miranda Sanchez CLICK HERE
Interview with Chief Shannon CLICK HERE
Interview with Henry Basil CLICK HERE
Interview with Linda Ketchiwes CLICK HERE
Interview with Roger Rashi CLICK HERE
Interview with Hassan Yussef CLICK HERE
Interview with Candace Ball CLICK HERE
NCRC 2014- Victoria, BC – Community Radio as a Social Movement in the Peoples Social Forum –
Hands on well attended workshop as an invitation to plan, organize and mobilize our network to witness a historical moment in the making, the first Canadian wide social movement, a Peoples Social Forum.
UDC 2013 – San francisco, CA – Panel 20: Alternative Media: Tools for Social Change
Radical Media: Stories of Uprising, Struggle and Liberation Click Here for Talk
NCRC 2013 – Winnipeg, MB –
A World to Share, Stories of Women Transforming Economic, Social and Cultural Power
NCRC 2012 Kingston, Ont – Critical struggles for social change
This workshop focused on the work of AMARC in support of social justice and the eradication of political, gendered, and economic inequality; shared a report on AMARC’s work in support of independent media amidst ongoing persecution of journalists at a time of economic and political instability.
Media Democracy Day, 2012 Vancouver
Discussed the role of independent, alternative, and public broadcasting in democratic societies. Such issues include the extent to which alternative media reveals the limits of mainstream news media, recent cuts to the CBC, and the role of public policy in shaping a more independent media terrain.
PANELISTS: Jean Broughton is Staff Representative for the Canadian Media Guild (which represents CBC employees) Tyler Morgenstern has worked with Media Democracy Days in various roles since 2009. Sylvia Richardson is the Vice-president of AMARC-North America (World Association of Community Radio
Keeping the Media Public
(Part3/7) Click Here
(Part 4/7) Click Here
(Part 5/7) Click Here
(Part 6/7) Click Here
(Park 7/7) Click Here
Grassroots Radio Conference “Prairie Fire” in Kansas City, 2011
Keynote speaker on behalf of AMARC – Click Here for full presentation
Haiti 2011 – Risk prevention and disaster management with a gender approach: Sylvia was widely quoted in the international media for having said.
“In my opinion, there is no such thing as a natural disaster, Poor people are forced to live in conditions that make them vulnerable. The real question is, why do we have this idea that poverty is ‘natural’?”
Poverty is not natural and permanent. It is not something that just happens to certain people in certain places. We’re made poor by exploitation, by theft. By the theft of our resources, the theft of our labour and the theft of our dignity… when we are told that our lives are only worth what the market will pay,”
Burnaby BC – “Making the World with Words ‘Read the Word, Read the World’” Authentic Leadership: The Intersection of Purpose, Process and Context. Victoria University / Simon Fraser University. Sept. 25-27, 2011.
Vancouver BC – “Flesh Mapping—A Cartography of Struggle, Renewal and Hope in Education”. Interrogating Social Justice in Language and Literacy Education. University of British Columbia May 2011
NCRC 2011 Halifax, NS – Emergency Response and Community Radio
Presented a lively session that focused on disaster response and supporting community radios in conflict areas. Well attended interactive workshop introducing many stations to the work of AMARC.
La Plata , Argentina, 2010, Elected VP for AMARC North American Region
Sylvia ran and was elected for North American Region, Click HERE for speech
Burnaby – “Education and the Hidden Curriculum: Identity, Privilege and Marginality” Rebecca Godfrey and Sylvia Richardson. Education Without Borders (EWOB) Conference, Simon Fraser University, Belcarra BC. October 2010
Burnaby BC – “Change the System not the Climate! Thieves’ Market and 21st Century Class Warfare” CRIE Symposium. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC. September 2010
Burnaby, BC – “Roots of Empathy: Art and Social Justice” Education Without Borders (EWOB) Conference. Simon Fraser University. October 2009
Media Democracy Day 2009 Vancouver
Then and Now”The Montreal Massacre… 20 Years Later”
Media Democracy Day Vancouver 2008
Journalism in a time of Big Media Domination