Celebrating the black women shaping Toronto and more arts stories you might have missed

Here at CBC Arts, you won't just find our original content — we also bring you the best art posts from across the entire CBC network.

These are the week's can't-miss stories:

Massive photo project HERstory in Black shows a 'different face of leadership' (CBC Toronto)

Emily Mills kept seeing black women in the GTA whose contributions to the city were largely going unappreciated — so she decided to do something about it. Mills, who works as a communications officer at the CBC, teamed up with CBC Toronto and CBC News to photograph and profile 150 of those women and share their work with a larger audience. As Mill puts it: "History can be made by all of us in simple ways." (See the interactive mosaic, which is being updated throughout Black History Month, here.)

The Art in Ad Places project is a beautiful act of 'civil disobedience' (q)

If public space belongs to all of us, why don't we play a bigger role in the images and messaging we see? That was the question on artist Caroline Caldwell and curator RJ Rushmore's minds when they launched their Art in Ad Places project, which sees them commissioning art to replace ads in New York City phone booths and bus shelters. Calling outdoor advertising "visual pollution," the pair are hoping to bring something a little more positive to their cityscape.

'I like living': Art lessons empower Indigenous students (CBC Thunder Bay)

No, these stunning paintings aren't by professional artists — they're the work of teenage students at a Thunder Bay high school who spent three days learning from Woodland artist Saul Williams. And while most high school students race to get out of class as soon as possible, these students came early and stayed late to get more art time in. "Art is a healing process," Williams told CBC Thunder Bay. "If you look at these pictures, there's a lot of pain the kids are expressing — and they're healing."

#Resistance150: Christi Belcourt on Indigenous history, resilience and resurgence (Canada 2017)

As mentioned in recent Outposts, Indigenous artists are having mixed reactions (to say the least) to Canada's 150th anniversary celebrations. One recent initiative, #Resistance150 — headed up by Michif artist Christi Belcourt, Cree activist Tanya Kappo, Métis author Maria Campbell and Anishinaabe storyteller Isaac Murdoch — is highlighting Indigenous Canadians' legacy of resistance in the face of government-helmed discrimination. Belcourt sat down with CBC Arts contributor Alicia Elliott to talk about the project's vision — and how she hopes it will help Canadians see our history.

Muslim comedian uses humour to cope with Trump (Tapestry)

"I don't mean to brag, but I do have family members on the travel ban."

For Iranian-American comic Negin Farsad, facing Islamophobia has become an unlikely source of inspiration: she puts a hilarious spin on the realities of being Muslim in today's climate, from how Trump's travel ban has affected her family to how much Muslims enjoy honey mustard. And while the dangers of racism and intolerance remain very serious topics, it sure does feel nice to laugh about them for once.

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