El Jones
{{Short description|Canadian journalist, professor, activist}}
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{{BLP primary sources|date=March 2017}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = El Jones
| image = El Jones Halifax poet.jpg
| caption = Jones in 2018
| birth_date =
| birth_place = Wales
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Poet, journalist, columnist, professor
| subject = Racism, colonialism, prison reform, human rights, social justice
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}}
El Jones is a poet, journalist, professor and activist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was Halifax's Poet Laureate from 2013 to 2015.{{Cite web|url=http://www.halifax.ca/culture/PublicArt/PoetLaureate.php|title=HRM Poet Laureate {{!}} Halifax.ca|last=(HRM)|first=Halifax Regional Municipality|website=www.halifax.ca|language=en-ca|access-date=2017-03-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312070344/http://www.halifax.ca/culture/PublicArt/PoetLaureate.php|archive-date=2017-03-12|url-status=dead}}
Biography
She was born in Wales and grew up in Winnipeg.{{Cite web|url=http://www.stu-acpa.com/el-jones.html|title=El Jones|website=Atlantic Canadian Poets' Archive|access-date=2017-03-11}} Her book, Live From the Afrikan Resistance! published in 2014 by Roseway, an imprint of Fernwood Publishing,{{Cite web|url=http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/el-jones-poetry-and-power/Content?oid=4416142|title=El Jones, poetry and power|last=Beaumont|first=Hilary|website=The Coast Halifax|access-date=2017-03-11}} is a collection of poems about resisting white colonialism.{{Cite news|url=https://quillandquire.com/review/live-from-the-afrikan-resistance/|title=Live from the Afrikan Resistance! {{!}} Quill and Quire|date=2014-11-27|work=Quill and Quire|access-date=2017-11-23}} In 2015, she was a resident at the International Writing Program at University of Iowa.Catharine Tunney, [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/el-jones-halifax-s-poet-laureate-moving-to-iowa-for-work-1.3149317 "El Jones, Halifax's poet laureate, moving to Iowa for work"]. CBC News, July 16, 2015.{{Cite web|url=https://iwp.uiowa.edu/writers/el-jones|title=El JONES {{!}} The International Writing Program|website=iwp.uiowa.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-03-11}} Her work focuses on social justice issues such as feminism, prison abolition, anti-racism, and decolonization; she wrote in The Washington Postin June 2020 about "the realities of white-supremacist oppression that black people in Canada have long experienced."{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/04/black-canadians-are-suffocating-under-racist-policing-system-too/ |title=Black Canadians are suffocating under a racist policing system, too |date=2020-06-04 |author1=El Jones |newspaper=The Washington Post |place=Washington, D.C. |issn=0190-8286 |oclc=1330888409}}
Since 2016, she has co-hosted a radio show called Black Power Hour on CKDU-FM, an educational program which provides information on Black history and culture aimed at incarcerated people.{{Cite news|url=http://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBites/archives/2016/03/30/black-power-hour-offers-inmate-education-over-the-airwaves|title=Black Power Hour offers inmate education over the airwaves|last=Boon|first=Jacob|work=The Coast Halifax|access-date=2017-03-11|language=en}} Listeners from prisons call in to rap and read poetry that they have written, providing a voice to people who rarely get a wide audience.{{Cite news|url=http://www.metronews.ca/news/halifax/2016/10/24/halifax-radio-show-gives-inmates-outlet-on-the-airwaves.html|title=Halifax radio show gives inmates outlet on the airwaves {{!}} Metro Halifax|work=metronews.ca|access-date=2017-03-11|language=en}} She is a contributor to the Halifax Examiner and the Huffington Post Canada.{{Cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/author/el-jones/|title=El Jones|website=HuffPost Canada|access-date=2017-10-24}} She has taught at Dalhousie University, Acadia University, Nova Scotia Community College, Saint Mary's University and Mount Saint Vincent University.{{Cite news|url=http://dalgazette.com/arts-culture/el-jones-advocates-system-change-universities/|title=El Jones advocates system change for universities - Dalhousie Gazette|date=2016-10-14|work=Dalhousie Gazette|access-date=2017-03-11|language=en-US}} In 2017, she was named the 15th Nancy's Chair in Women's Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University.{{Cite web|url=http://www.msvu.ca/en/home/programsdepartments/BA/womensstudies/nancyschair/default.aspx|title=Nancy's Chair in Women's Studies|website=www.msvu.ca|language=en|access-date=2017-10-24}}
In 2021, Jones became a contributor to The Breach, an alternative, Canadian news website.Wright Allen, Samantha. The Hill Times, "The Breach, new media outlet to launch this spring." 2021-04-12
In March 2022 she was amongst 151 international feminists signing Feminist Resistance Against War: A Manifesto, in solidarity with the Russian Feminist Anti-War Resistance.{{cite web | title=Feminist Resistance Against War: A Manifesto | date=17 March 2022 | website=Spectre Journal | url=https://spectrejournal.com/feminist-resistance-against-war/ | access-date=31 March 2022 }}{{refn|group=n.|This manifesto was criticized by both Ukrainian feminists and members of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance themselves.{{cite journal |last1=Hendl |first1=Tereza |title=Towards accounting for Russian imperialism and building meaningful transnational feminist solidarity with Ukraine |journal=Gender Studies |date=2022 |volume=26 |pages=62-93 |url=http://kcgs.net.ua/gurnal/26/gs26-2022_full.pdf#page=62}}{{cite web |last1=Ashley Smith |title=Inside the Russian Resistance Against Putin’s War | date=June 23, 2022 | website=Spectre Journal |url=https://spectrejournal.com/inside-the-russian-resistance-against-putins-war/ |access-date=24 January 2025}}{{cite web |date=4 October 2022 |title=Russia's women are fighting back against the war in Ukraine |website=OpenDemocracy.net |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/russia-feminist-resistance-to-ukraine-war/ |access-date=24 January 2025 |archive-date=7 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107161228/https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/russia-feminist-resistance-to-ukraine-war/ |url-status=live }}}}
Awards and honours
- Named a Bold Visionary in 2014 by the A Bold Vision National Leadership Conference.{{Cite web|url=http://aboldvision.ca/visionary-el-jones/|title=A Bold Vision {{!}} Women's Leadership Conference|website=aboldvision.ca|language=en-CA|access-date=2017-03-11}}
- Recipient of the Dr. Allan Burnley (Rocky) Jones Individual Award at the Nova Scotia Human Rights Award (2016) for her "commitment to advancing human rights, equity and inclusion."{{Cite web|url=http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/1423232-human-rights-award-recipients-honoured|title=Human rights award recipients honoured|date=2016-12-09|website=The Chronicle Herald|language=en|access-date=2017-03-11}}
- Two-time National Spoken Word Champion.{{Cite web|url=https://alllitup.ca/Blog/2015/Poetry-in-Motion-The-Spoken-Word-as-a-Tool-of-Liberation-El-Jones|title=Poetry in Motion: The Spoken Word as a Tool of Liberation – El Jones|last=Up|first=All Lit|website=alllitup.ca|language=en|access-date=2017-03-11}}
- 2017/18 Poet in Residence for Poetry in Voice.{{Cite web|url=https://www.poetryinvoice.com/poems/poets/el-jones|title=El Jones {{!}} Poetry In Voice|website=www.poetryinvoice.com|language=en|access-date=2017-10-24}}
Notes
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References
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Category:21st-century Canadian poets
Category:Canadian women activists
Category:21st-century Canadian women writers
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)