Research

I was an active historical re-enactor in the 1990s with the Society for Creative Anachronism, actively asserting race by playing Black personae, even though I was often told that I “didn’t have to”.  In my time with the SCA I as “Ihsan al-Kilwiyya” (an African library worker living in Basra, Iraq), then as “Ines Carmen Maria de Freitas*” (an innkeeper of Luzo-African descent in Lisbon) and finally as Ines Rosanera ( a cantante and cortigana living in Venice).

In my late 20s/ early 30s, I was a regular on local television in Toronto where featured twice for my work, once on Black history in the Renaissance period and later for my research on Black ballet dancers.

For a time, I acted as historian for Burlesque and Vaudeville Alliance,  In 2004, I curated Bad Girls Run Amok, an exhibition covering the history of burlesque in Toronto as part of the Mayworks Labour Festival.

I also did cultural research for the Genie nominated film, Remembrance.

*de Freitas is my family name on my mother’s side