On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 the School of Occupational Therapy held the annual Kelly Bang Memorial Lecture. The lecture, titled “The Raging Grannies: Engaged, Outspoken and Creative” was given by Dr.  Carole Roy. The audience of nearly 100 was also treated to the creative songs written and performed by the Raging Grannies of Halifax.

Kelly Bang was a nationally known occupational therapist, lecturer, writer, artist, and counselor for survivors of child and sexual abuse. In Nova Scotia she worked with the Inglis Street program of Abbie J. Lane Hospital in Halifax, the Recreation Association for the Disabled in Lunenburg, and Bridgewater’s Ark Industries providing sheltered employment for adults with mental and physical handicaps (as Director from 1980-1988). Kelly was a longtime volunteer at Second Story Women’s Centre, Bridgewater, and in 1989 she founded Nova Functional Assessments and Therapy Services Limited based in Lunenburg. The Kelly Bang Memorial Lecture was established by her family to honour those whose research, practice, teaching, and advocacy advance opportunities for women and other marginalized adults who are learning to live in their communities.

With some of the women who became the first Raging Grannies in Victoria, BC, Carole Roy walked for peace from Victoria to Nanoose Bay. She published the first book on the Raging Grannies to honour their creative activism. She values the long tradition of women’s collective acts of resistance. Carole received a Master in Women’s Studies from York University and a Doctorate in Adult Education from the University of Toronto. She currently teaches in the Department of Adult Education at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish.