IDEAS in the Afternoon for February 2025
* Please note this schedule is subject to change.
Monday, February 3
MERCURY'S IN RETROGRADE: THE RISE OF ASTROLOGY
Belief in astrology is on the upswing, especially among younger people. That's maybe not surprising given that astrology's popularity rises in times of crisis and uncertainty. But since it has no predictive value, what meanings can be gleaned from a belief that the stars reveal all about us? This documentary entitled Mercury's in Gatorade examines the rise of popular astrology in the 1930s and how it fits into the consumer capitalism world we now inhabit.
Monday, February 10
THE AMAZING LIVES OF HENRY BOX BROWN
Enslaved in 1840s Virginia, an enslaved young man named Henry watches in horror as his wife and children are sold and taken. He decides then that he must escape, or die. So Henry has himself shipped in a small wooden crate to a free state, via U.S. Post. This is the true story of Henry Box Brown, and yet only one of his lives. He reinvents himself as "The Great African Magician," a performer who spends decades touring England, and then Canada, where he spent his final decade. Author Martha Cutter (The Many Resurrections of Henry Box Brown) and writer-scholar Daphne Brooks unbox the subversive political meaning in his act, and make a case for him as an early Black performance artist — one who continues to inspire reflection and action in our own time.
Monday, February 17
BECOMING AAJU PETER
Long before she acquired a blackbelt, before she became a lawyer and activist and member of the Order of Canada —and long before she started speaking her native language, Aaju Peter was a young girl of 11 who was taken from her Inuk community in Greenland and sent away to learn the ways of the West. The skills she gained fed into what she calls her "superpower." But it was only when she moved to Iqaluit that she rediscovered Inuk culture and immersed herself in its ways. The activist, lawyer, designer, musician, filmmaker, and prolific teacher takes CBC IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed on a tour of Iqaluit and into a journey to decolonization that continues still.
Monday, February 24
TBD
