About Espace de la Diversité

Fighting against racism through books  

Our mission

EDLD seeks to amplify diverse voices, highlighting the experiences of readers and writers from various backgrounds who share a passion for words, and a strong desire to rethink our relationship to the other. As a space for the reflection and sharing of ideas, our mandate is to redefine the meaning of the word together, by fighting against racism, discrimination, and xenophobia through books. To break down the boundaries dividing cultures, communities, languages and literatures; to view diversity as a fundamental value to what it means to be human. 

Our interactive digital platform

Espace de la diversité, in conjunctions with its partners from the publishing industry, is launching an innovative digital platform that aims to transform the Canadian literary ecosystem, making it more inclusive of works by indigenous authors, diverse cultures, and marginalized communities. This dynamic, user-friendly platform will benefit all players of the book industry (booksellers, librarians, publishers, distributors, critics, creators), as well as teachers and readers. ​

The aim:

To help these players deepen their understanding, improve their approaches, and integrate practices that are more respectful and better suited to the realities and needs of these authors, and to the specificities of a diverse, complex, and rich literary corpus that remains systematically under-represented in the literary ecosystem. 

Tools and resources:

Through this engaging platform, we aim to empower more readers, teachers, and members of the Canadian book industry to learn about indigenous, minority and culturally diverse literatures; to combat indifference, or the fear of approaching such works that don’t fit into the agreed-upon frameworks of what Canadian and Quebecois literature could be.  

This project was made possible with the financial support of: 

Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Conseil des arts du Canada
SODEC Québec
Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon
Conseil des arts de Montréal

Administrative council

Yara El-Ghadban - CA - EDLD
Yara El-Ghadban
President
Writer and anthropologist
Dalila Awada - CA - EDLD
Dalila Awada
Vice-president
Columnist and speaker
Gilles Bibeau - CA - EDLD
Gilles Bibeau
Treasurer
Essayist, anthropologist, professor
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Leslie Kapo
Secretary
Assistant Professor
Rodney Saint-Eloi - CA - EDLD
Rodney Saint-Éloi
Administrator
Writer, publisher, director of Éditions Mémoire d’encrier
Kimberley Ann Surin - CA - EDLD
Kimberley Ann-Surin
Administrator
Filmmaker

Équipe

Selma Guessous - EDLD
Selma Guessous
Executive director

selma@espacedeladiversite.org
Marina Fassaya - EDLD
Marina Fassaya
Communications manager

marina@espacedeladiversite.org

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