Dr. Naila Keleta-Mae
I am a Canada Research Chair, Royal Society of Canada College Member, Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo, multidisciplinary artist, and Principal Investigator of Black And Free. I have authored the books Beyoncé and Beyond: 2013-2016 (Routledge UK, 2023) and Performing Female Blackness (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2023); released four full-length albums, and performed in Canada, France, Jamaica, Nigeria, and South Africa.
I have commentated for media outlets including Reuters UK, Canadian Broadcast Corporation, Business News Network, CTV, Canadian Press, National Post, Fader, and British Broadcast Corporation. I have been featured in outlets like CBC News, University Affairs, Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat, Waterloo News, and Authority File Podcast.
“I think moving through this world is an expression of freedom because Black people are insistent on being here, on taking up space,”
- Naila Keleta-Mae, 2021
Started in 2017, I built Black And Free into a multi-year research-creation project that examines how creators and audiences of Black expressive culture define what it means to be Black and free.
Through Black And Free, I secured public funding and multiyear partnerships with eight private and public sector organizations to deliver projects that have included the commissioning of new artistic works by 19 established and emerging Black artists, theatre training and education programs for children and youth, public events, and peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed publications.
I designed Black And Free’s research outputs to advance Black studies, connect scholars, students, artists, and communities, and elevate Black artists both creatively and economically.
As of 2022, Black And Free was the first non-STEM, Black-focused research project in 18 years to receive an Ontario Research Fund-Research Excellence grant—a groundbreaking feat for research in liberal arts, performance arts, visual arts, and Black studies.
Artist
I am an accomplished multi-disciplinary artist who works in music, theatre, poetry, video, and mixed media and who has performed in Canada, France, Jamaica, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States. The content of all of my artistic and academic work reflects the politics, practices, aesthetics, theories, and methodologies of Black feminisms.