Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group

Black History Month: ‘My family has been here since before Canada was a country’

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 21:23:00 +0000

Ron Nicholson is a director of the BC Black History Awareness Society. He believes it’s important to share Canadian Black History to diffuse prejudice, spread the awareness of Black contribution to Canadian history and provide positive role models for young Black people today. (Nicole Crescenzi/News Staff)

Oak Bay man shares his family’s history of coming to Canada via the Underground Railroad - by NICOLE CRESCENZI

In a quiet Oak Bay cafe, Ron Nicholson strummed the side of his coffee mug as he delved into his thoughts. As a director of the BC Black History Awareness Society, Nicholson’s historical knowledge intertwines with his own personal history.

While there were four major migrations of Black people into Canada, and while those who came up to B.C. in 1858 were free people, his own ancestors came up in the 1800s as part of the rush coming to Ontario and Quebec to escape slavery.

Most of these people travelled via a system of secret alliances and shelters known as the Underground Railroad. The term came from the secret code used so information about shelters (or stations) and guides (conductors) could be spoken of with less risk of discovery.

“My great grandfather, he was a traveller on the Underground Railroad,” Nicholson said. “He and two other companions escaped from slavery in West Virginia and they made their way on foot from West Virginia through to Pennsylvania.”

For many people of Black descent, it can be difficult to find records or paperwork about ancestors since birth and death certificates were not kept for slaves. However, some abolitionists in the United States and Canada kept records of the people who came through the Underground Railroad, a move that came at great risk since aiding an escaped slave was illegal.

One of these record keepers was William Still, who kept records of Underground Railroad passengers, including where they’d come from, how much money they were given, and where they were heading.

After slavery was abolished in the States in 1865, Still published a book in 1868, under the title The Underground Railroad.

“I call it the Bible of the Underground Railroad, it’s about two inches thick,” Nicholson said. “But my great grandfather is in those records, on page 228.”

Adam Nicholson, under the alias John Winkoop, passed through a station in Philadelphia before he and two companions crossed the border into what was then Upper Canada in 1854.

Adam settled in the Niagara area, in what is now southern Ontario, and helped build a community there through farming and construction.

Records in the St. Catharine’s library tell of Adam, including records from a family that hired him to help them on their farm.

“She talks about how sad it was that he was a big strong man, he could carry 100-pound bags of sugar from the boat docks … about how he was a good worker, and it was kind of sad because he had all these scars on his back from whippings,” Nicholson said. “It was a kind of emotional reading that for me.”

Adam built a two-storey home in the Niagara area, one that the Nicholson family lived in for four generations. While Nicholson didn’t live in the house himself, he recalled visiting his uncle at the home when he was a child.

“My strongest memory of it was the terrible tasting well water,” he said with a laugh.

After Nicholson moved to B.C., he took on the role as the family historian and joined the B.C. Black History Awareness Society. Since then, he’s spent 20 years sharing the history of Black Canadians to spread education of their history and awareness of their contribution to the country.

“It’s amazing how many people aren’t aware of it,” Nicholson said. “So many times people will ask me ‘where are you from?’ and I’ll say ‘Canada,’ and they’ll ask ‘No but where are you really from?’ as if I have to be from the West Indies, or I have to be from Africa. But, my family has been here since before Canada was a country … Most of the people who are asking me, their family hasn’t been here half as long as my family.”

Nicholson said that while prejudice against Black people has certainly declined, it’s paramount for newer generations to know where they’ve come from.

“I think it’s important for young Black people in particular to have positive role models, and to learn that they’ve been here as long as most Whites,” he said.

5 Black Women Talk About Their Lives In Canada–Past, Present And Future

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Sat, 01 Feb 2020 00:23:00 +0000

From history to healthcare, it’s frustratingly rare for Black women’s issues to get mainstream attention.

Black women’s resilience and magic is on display every day, from body-positive musician Lizzo to mental health-advocate Summer Walker to Issa Rae’s TV and film empire. Such high-profile magnificence lends energy to the grassroots, where many regular Black women are active in movements and groups that push back against exclusion and discrimination. Those achievements are happening worldwide, but in Canada, it’s frustratingly rare for Black women’s issues to get mainstream attention.

Too often, Black Canadian women are left out of the national conversation–though to be fair, Canada tries to avoid any discussions of anti-Black racism at all. Instead, it points the finger at race relations in the United States in an attempt to argue that it’s not so bad here. That’s a hard thing to disprove, since race-based data collection—an essential practice in the U.S. and U.K., one that has been used to understand health disparities within racialized communities—is barely implemented in Canada.

This knowledge gap leaves Black women at a double disadvantage, since we’re both a gender and racial minority (the term for anti-Black misogyny, by the way, is misogynoir). Our limited race-based data reveals the results: In Canada, Black women are still discriminated against in the healthcare system, where we face alarmingly high rates of maternal death. We continue to be victims of police and state violence, and in the workplace, continue to be paid less than both white men and white women.

Canada has a lot of work to do to ensure a better quality of life for Black women. Here, we talk to five women about what it means to be Black in Canada today, and how our history affects Black women’s present and future health, families and lives....

Who are the women who've looked after Canada's children?

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 18:11:00 +0000

A group of French-speaking women from Guadalupe in 1911, photographed on Ellis Island while on their way to domestic jobs in Montreal. (National Park Service, Ellis Island National Monument)

In their final episode of the season, The Secret Life of Canada takes on the history of Canada's nannies and caregivers, asking "does Canada have a class system? From Ireland to Finland to the Caribbean to the Philippines, the faces of the women have changed — but has central story?

Co-hosts Leah-Simone Bowen and Falen Johnson explore the stories of Indigenous girls and women from all over the world, from the 1940s on, who were tasked with caring for Canada's children and families.

What you'll hear this episode

How Indigenous and Black women who were enslaved became some of the first nannies in Upper Canada.
The history behind early Irish Immigration in Canada and the discrimination many Irish Catholics met when they got here.
The competition to find a nanny when they were scarce.
Why Finnish and Scandinavian women were preferred as domestics.
How residential schools turned caregiving into an industry, fuelled by the labour of Indigenous girls and women.
A brief history of the West Indian Domestic Scheme and discriminatory practices of the Canadian Government in regards to West Indian Immigration.
The concept of a racialized labour hierarchy.
How Caribbean and Filipina women fought the system to push for better working conditions.
An interview with Dr. Ethel Tungohan the Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism.

References

Indigenous Women, Work, and History 1940–1980. Book by Mary Jane Logan McCallum.
Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility. Book, edited by Roland Sintos Coloma, Bonnie McElhinny, Ethel Tungohan, John Paul C. Catungal, and Lisa M. Davidson
A Nation of Immigrants: Women, Workers, and Communities in Canadian History, 1840s -1960s. Book, edited by Franca Iacovetta, with Paula Draper and Robert Ventresca.
Silenced: talks with working-class Caribbean women about their lives and struggles as domestic workers in Canada. Book by Makeda Silvera
Gender Migration and the work of Care. Canada: Migrant Domestic Workers Website.
The West Indian Domestic Scheme in Canada. Journal article by Frances Henry.
The Transformation of the Canadian Domestic Servant, 1871–1931. Journal article by Eric W. Sager
Geniesh: an Indian girlhood. Book by Jane Willis
Immigrant Domestic Servants in Canada. Book by Marilyn Barber
Urban Domestic Servants in 19th Century Canada. A study by Claudette Lacelle. Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1987.
Irish Migrants in the Canadas: A New Approach. Book by Bruce S. Elliott
Negotiating Citizenship: Migrant Women in Canada and the Global System. Book by Abigail Bakan and Daiva Stasiulis.
Resisting Discrimination: Women from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean and the women's movement in Canada. Book by Vijay Agnew.
Scratching the surface: Canadian, anti-racist, feminist thought. Book, edited by Enakshi Dua and Angela Robertson.
Racialized migrant women in Canada: essays on health, violence and equity. Book, edited by Vijay Agnew
Government of Canada: Live-In Caregiver Program website.
Graphic History Collective: Caregiving Work in Canada Radical History Poster Project.
History of Finland-Canada Relations. Website by Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.
Canadians for an Inclusive Canada. Website.
Domestic Service (Caregiving) in Canada. The Canadian Encyclopedia
Filipino Canadians. The Canadian Encyclopedia
Caribbean Canadians. The Canadian Encyclopedia
Finnish Canadians. The Canadian Encyclopedia
The Black Women Who Helped Build Canada. Article By Bee Quammie.
Immigration Policy, the West Indies, and Canadian Black Activism in the 1960s. Article by Paul Hebert
Why Is Stephen Harper Sending Domestic Workers Back to 1973? Huffington Post blog post by Syed Hussan.
The Massey Murder. Book by Charlotte Gray.
The Massey Murder: 100 years later, the tabloid tale still fascinates. CBC article by Reg Sherren.
Alias Grace. Book by Margaret Atwood.
Walk Towards the Gallows: The Tragedy of Hilda Blake, Hanged 1899. Book by Reinhold Kramer and Tom Mitchell.
Hilda Blake Biography. Website Government of Manitoba.
The Hopeless World of Hilda Blake. Web post by Reinhold Kramer & Tom Mitchell.

Contemporary African Art Practices in a Globalized World

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 16:17:00 +0000

Migration, identity, cultural connections: globalization raises questions about all these issues, and contemporary art is a powerful way of exploring them. In this talk complementing the Museum exhibitions Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time and Building Black: Civilizations, artists and curators explore the impact on contemporary art of Africa’s diverse cultures and diaspora.

Visual artist Ekow Nimako, creator of Building Black: Civilizations, is joined by AGO curator Julie Crooks and artist/curator Chiedza Pasipanodya for a timely discussion that will celebrate Black History Month while also examining Toronto’s role as an international hub for creative art practices.

BIOS:

Julie Crooks is Assistant Curator, Photography, at the Art Gallery of Ontario, where, prior to her appointment, she was an advisor on the 2015 exhibition Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now’s the Time. She received her Ph.D. in the Department of History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where her research focused on historical photography in Sierra Leone, West Africa, and the diaspora.

Ekow Nimako studied Fine Arts at York University and began using black LEGO® pieces exclusively in his practice in 2014. He has since cultivated a unique approach to building the iconic material with masterful attention to fluidity and form. His content is deeply rooted in otherworldly Black narratives and draws on his fascination with architecture, futuristic cultures, and ancient civilizations. He lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

Chiedza Pasipanodya is an artist, curator, and writer born in Harare, Zimbabwe, and now living in Toronto. She holds a BFA from OCAD University, where her thesis was titled New Perspectives on Black Women Artists in Canada Participating in the Arts for The Long Term, and where she won an award for work that redefines the meaning of community. She has worked with the AGO, the ROM, Pride Toronto, OCAD, and York and Ryerson universities.

Take a walk through Kaie Kellough's Montreal of poetry, seditious cafes and immigrant vitality

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 16:06:00 +0000

Kaie Kellough's novels and poetry are infused with Montreal's history and politics. (Hugo Lalonde/CBC)

Kaie Kellough is standing in Montreal's Berri-UQAM Metro.

Crowds of people swerve around him in the cavernous underground structure that links three metro lines, a university and the Montreal bus station.

This is close to the spot where Kellough first arrived in Montreal from Calgary in 1998. He moved to become a poet.

"That was it. That was the plan," he says.

Berri-UQAM Metro is where Kellough decided to start his walking tour of Montreal. "Berri might not seem like the most interesting destination, but in fact, it is a fascinating place because it is an incredible nexus in the city," he says.

When he first moved to Montreal, he learned about his new city by riding the metro and getting off at random stations. Since this station is a transit hub, he would often end up there alone, wandering through the crowds.

"When you move to a new place ... you have to disappear into it before you kind of re-emerge, forged in that new identity."

Kellough has now lived in Montreal for more than two decades. In that time, he's established himself in Montreal as a poet, novelist and musician. He's published three books of poetry and an experimental novel. His most recent collection of poetry, Magnetic Equator, was named one of the best of 2019 by CBC Books.

In his novel Accordéon, he describes the experience of being a newcomer in Montreal.

"I see people who I know arrived in this city one month ago. I see them wandering the city that I know. And I know that they will have to try harder if they want to disappear."

For the next stop on his walk, he takes us two stops north to Mont-Royal Metro — "to a neighborhood where I lived when I first moved to Montreal."

The station is in the Plateau, a neighborhood that's been a home to Montreal artists for over a century. Kellough emerges from the metro and wanders up a nearby residential street.

"It's freezing cold."

On either side of the road are the three-storey apartments with the long outdoor staircases that the neighborhood is known for. This was the type of apartment he was able to rent for a song in the late 1990s, when Montreal's economy was struggling.

At the time he could rent a 1,200 square foot apartment for $500 a month — although what he didn't bargain for was how the thin apartment walls would bring him into contact with mundane rhythms of his neighbours. The kind of dense urban living found in the Plateau became an inspiration for his writing.

"You hear people's lives up close. You hear them through the walls of your apartment. It allows you to cultivate an insight and an empathy off the different rhythms of different people's lives."

Kellough walks through the Plateau until he stops at his final destination.

In front of him is a poem etched into the side of a Plateau triplex. The poems' four stanzas tower above the street.

"I love it because its language is part of the fabric of the city."

The poem is called "Tango de Montréal" and it's by Gérald Godin, who was a renowned journalist and politician with the Parti Québécois. It begins by describing immigrants riding the metro early in the morning and how their energy helps keep the almost 400-year-old city of Montreal on its feet — or as the poem says in French, "If the old heart of the city is still beating, it's thanks to them."

For Kellough, who moved to Montreal from English Canada and comes from a family that immigrated from South America, the poems reveals how newcomers renew the vitality of a city.

"It makes me reflect on what my contribution is ... to the society," the poem translates. "Is it just waking up in the morning and taking the metro to work and labouring or is it writing your own presence into the society?"

PUSH BLOG PuSh In-Depth with Artist Justine Chambers: an extensive look at this artist’s creative process, multidisciplinary work, and how she sees art in Vancouver.

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 21:43:00 +0000

Speaking with and writing about choreographer Justine Chambers, definitions feel inadequate.

Like the genre-bending nature of PuSh, the work of this celebrated Vancouver artist surpasses habits of categorization and offers a deeply considered focus that embraces and defies form.

At this year’s festival, Justine collaborates with fellow Vancouver artist Mike Bourscheid on his pre-existing Idealverein, along with six dancers (Alison Denham, Ed Spence, Ralph Escamillan, Erika Mitsuhashi, Germaine Koh, and Kate Franklin). Originally presented at the Venice Biennale in 2017 as costume-objects, Bourscheid’s work becomes a PuSh and Western Front presented performance January 22-24.

Described by Chambers as a game of fluid relationships, this version of Idealverein employs a choreographic perspective in the animation of Bourscheid’s sculptures. Chambers considerately notes that the work is Bourscheid’s; however, the joining of expertises and Justine’s unique ability to develop potent choreographic conditions seem vital to this development of the piece.

Between trips to Berlin (where Chambers recently presented one hundred more with Laurie Young), and Toronto (where she is dancing in new work by Ame Henderson), Justine sat down with PuSh for a discussion about her work, her PuSh collaboration, and her perspectives on dance and art. Connecting with a choreographer whose work regularly disregards presentational norms, and dwells across the realms of dance and visual art (not to mention writing and music), seems to touch on something central to the PuSh experience....

JOB: CURATOR, MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART @ Art Gallery of Ontario

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 18:36:00 +0000

CURATOR, MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART

Carol and Morton Rapp Curator, Modern & Contemporary Art

Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)

Regular Full-Time (35 Hours per Week)

ART + AUDIENCE + LEARNING

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is one of the largest art museums in North America with close to 100,000 works and 1M visitors annually. We have an operating budget of over $60M and a team of more than 600 employees and 400 volunteers committed to presenting great art, facilitating learning, and increasing access.

Aligned to our 10-year vision to lead global conversations through our extraordinary collections, exhibitions and programs and by reflecting the people who live here, we recently launched a bold new admission model that has brought in more than 100,000 passholders in less than 6 months.

This is an exciting time to work at the AGO and we are currently looking for a Curator, Modern & Contemporary Art who is a collaborative, dynamic leader and who will shape our direction with modern and contemporary art in line with our vision.

Do you want a role where you can inspire diverse audiences during an extraordinary time of growth and change?

The Curator, Modern & Contemporary Art:

Reports to our Deputy Director and Chief Curator and is a vital member of our Curatorial team
Collaborates with colleagues across our museum to strategically lead and effectively deliver on curatorial priorities including exhibition development, programming, and collection building
Plans, builds, and presents our permanent collection of modern and contemporary art
Creates, organizes, and executes major exhibitions and interpret works of art
Identifies and researches significant trends, issues, and opportunities in the visual arts
Inspires our visitors and public, locally and globally, by providing a meaningful understanding of modern and contemporary art in a relevant way
Is exceptional and trusted in establishing and fostering strong, credible and long-term relationships with our artists, donors, Board members, employees, volunteers and other stakeholders
Is responsible for guiding, motivating and developing their team of employees to deliver on goals and projects aligned with our mission, vision and values
Is accountable for working with colleagues across our museum to ensure budgets and financial goals are met

Are you a talented leader who makes a positive impact through modern & contemporary art?

The ideal candidate has these skills:

Ability to identify works of extremely high quality
Collaborative, credible partner who builds and fosters strong, trusted relationships across all levels, internally and externally
Exceptional, inclusive leader who values and utilizes the expertise of diverse individuals and groups (artists, teams, other museums, stakeholders) as they achieve curatorial goals and projects together, locally and globally
Innovative thinker who has developed modern & contemporary art strategies aligned to vision and mission, and who has taken a practical, proactive approach to implement them to engage visitors, donors, community members and other stakeholders in relevant, meaningful ways
Inspiring leader who guides, motivates and coaches their team to deliver superior results using available resources and budget
Diplomatic, authentic and influential curator who excels in cultivating sustainable, credible donor relationships aligned to the overall direction of the museum
Flexible, agile team member who embraces change, diverse points of view and creative problem solving to accomplish deliverables that meet changing audience needs
Curious, open minded learner who stays up to date on museum trends and best practices that engage audiences through art, collections and exhibitions
Strong, credible relationship builder who establishes and sustains long-term relationships with our artists, donors, Board members, employees, volunteers and other stakeholders

The ideal candidate has these qualifications:

A compelling, clear communicator who has examples of publishing relevant, reputable scholarly material on an area(s) of expertise
10 years+ of museum experience in exhibition research and development and/or collection development
Advanced knowledge in art history including expertise in a specialized area(s) of modern and contemporary art
Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Modern or Contemporary art history or directly related field
Keen understanding of and familiarity with Asian and/or South Asian art or related international expertise
Flexibility to work a changing schedule and to travel to meet the needs of the museum
English language proficiency

Compensation & Benefits:

Annual base salary range of CDN $100K-$130K per annum based on qualifications, skills, and experience
Annual wage increases are available
Medical Benefits, Dental Benefits, Vision Care Benefits
Disability and Life Insurance Benefits
Relocation allowance to be considered
Discounts from the Provincial/City Reciprocal Agreements (Free admission to museums, the CN Tower & Discounts off amusement parks, city attractions, hotels, wine tours, Second City, the Ontario Science Centre, and much more!)
Discounts to Goodlife Fitness
Free tickets to every major exhibit at AGO

We invite individuals who reflect the diversity of our visitors to apply by submitting a tailored cover letter and CV via our website: https://ago.ca/jobs-and-volunteering. We thank all applicants but must advise that only those selected for interviews will be contacted.

The Art Gallery of Ontario is located at:

317 Dundas Street West

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

M5T 1G4

Art & Jazz Soirée at the McMaster Museum of Art

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 00:07:00 +0000

"Presented as part of the University’s Black History Month celebrations, this exciting night will feature various displays of art, art-making and music, including the museum’s current exhibition “A Harlem Nocturne” by artist Deanna Bowen which archives Vancouver’s Black entertainment community from the 1940s to the 1970s.

The evening includes a collage-making workshop with Hamilton designer and visual alchemist Stylo Starr and musical performances by acclaimed vocalist Colina Phillips.

Refreshments provided.

Admission is free and all are welcome to attend.

This special event is presented by the Office of Equity and Inclusion and Museum of Art at McMaster University."

Mark your calendars! Hope to see you out Thursday, February 6th!

Exploring Black & Indigenous Futurisms: An Artist Talk in the Present

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 03:02:00 +0000

How does the past inform our future? Within the prism of Afrofuturism, the future pays homage to the past, and the present bears witness to the future.

When reimagining the future, Black and Indigenous peoples, cultures, identities and artistic practices are not often reflected to their fullest potential.

Hart House Black Futures Series invites you to join us at the crossroads of art, culture and community to hear how Black and Indigenous artists are grappling with their place, culture and identity in a future that is yet to exist.

A repository of stories, knowledge, counter-narratives converge as Ekow Nimako (Lego Art & Sculpturist, Farhiya Jama (Afrofuturist Visual Artist), and Skawennati (Multimedia Artist) along with Moderator Dr. Karyn Recollet (Professor, Women and Gender Studies, U of T), discuss concepts related to Black and Indigenous peoples ally-ship, shared future, artistic practice and justice-seeking solidarities.

All are welcome to this free event. Light refreshments will be served!

Source of visual art used: Farhiya Jama @hausofriya.

interlude @ Art Gallery of Burlington

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Sun, 12 Jan 2020 01:18:00 +0000

interlude
jamilah malika abu-bakare 
anique jordan 
pamila matharu 
adee roberson
 alize zorlutuna

January 17 – March 1, 2020 
RBC Gallery
Curated by safia siad

 interlude brings together works that meditate on the concept of rest and the necessary spaces carved out for pause and preservation. when moving through grief, capitalism, intergenerational trauma, and daily existence, how can we support each other in re-shaping our time? how can we remember our dreams? thinking around a yearning for deep reflection and ease, the exhibition brings these breathing spaces into focus.

Image credit: anique jordan, These Times, 2019, courtesy of the artist.

PERFORMATIVE LECTURE: DAWIT L. PETROS AND IRENE CAMPOLMI

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 19:45:00 +0000

Photo: Dawit L. Petros, Untitled (Overlapping and intertwined territories that fall from view I), 2019. Archival color pigment prints. Courtesy the artist.

OCAD University’s Faculty of Art partners with The Power Plant to present: Performative Lecture: Dawit L. Petros and Irene Campolmi

In conjunction with the Winter 2020 exhibition Dawit L. Petros: Spazio Disponibile, The Power Plant and OCAD U co-present a unique meeting between the artist and guest curator, Irene Compolmi. The two will speak about Petros’s recent projects and the development of The Power Plant exhibition. They will conclude by taking questions from the audience.

About the Artist & Curator

Born in Eritrea, Canadian artist Dawit L. Petros explores relationships between African histories and European modernism, investigating artistic, geographical and cultural boundaries using photography and installations. Petros takes a variety of formal approaches ranging from documentary observation to carefully staged constructions. At The Power Plant, Petros will present a new body of work investigating the vestiges of Italian colonialism in architecture and infrastructure in the Horn of Africa and North America. The project reflects on Italian migration to North America in the period between the two World Wars (during which around 40,000 Italians came to Canada alone) in relation to contemporary stories of migration, engaging a critical reading of African modernist histories of mobility and European colonialism. Irene Campolmi is an Italian independent curator based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Art for Lunch Speaker Series: Bewabon Shilling, Anna Hudson, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 18:10:00 +0000

MACLAREN ART CENTRE, BARRIE 

WINTER ART FOR LUNCH SPEAKER SERIES

Treat yourself to Art for Lunch. Bring or buy your lunch and learn about an art-related topic in our free Friday afternoon speaker series.

Arrive by 11:30 am to order your lunch at the Gallery Café.

Art for Lunch: Gallery Tour with Exhibiting Artist Bewabon Shilling 

Friday, January 17, 12:15 to 1:00 pm 

MacLaren Art Centre | Rotary Education Centre.

Admission free

Between the Forest and the Sky is a major solo exhibition of recent paintings by Bewabon Shilling depicting the forests and skies around the artist’s home at Rama Mnjikaning First Nation. Working from the studio built by his late father, artist Arthur Shilling (1941-1986), the works reveal a landscape that also inspired his father but rendered in a style that is entirely his own. Join us January 17 for this special artist-led gallery tour and talk.

Bewabon Shilling was born in 1977 in Orillia, Ontario. He studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design, where he received both the Norman Jewison Award and the Rose of Cedarvale Scholarship. He has exhibited at Roberts Gallery, Toronto; the Gary Farmer Gallery, Santa Fe; Orillia Museum of Art and History; and Kensington Fine Art, Calgary. He is represented by Roberts Gallery, Toronto; the Collectors Gallery, Calgary; and the Darrell Bell Gallery, Saskatoon.

Art for Lunch with Anna Hudson 

Friday, February 21, 12:15 to 1:00 pm 

MacLaren Art Centre | Rotary Education Centre.

Admission free

Join us for a talk by Professor Anna Hudson. Hudson is an art historian and curator specializing in Canadian and Indigenous art at York University (Toronto). Her practice is public facing, community engaged and draws from close community collaboration to open new possibilities for understanding the contribution of artists in Canada globally, and the amplification of the voices seldom heard. She is currently a York Research Chair leading Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage—a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada research-creation collaboration aimed at recovering, preserving, documenting, facilitating and disseminating Inuit knowledge, culture and creativity. Drawing from her doctoral dissertation, Art and Social Progress: the Toronto community of Painters (1933-1950), Hudson continues historical research on humanism and socially-conscious cultural engagement in twentieth-century art.

Art for Lunch: Gallery Tour with Exhibiting Artist Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum 

Friday, March 20, 12:15 to 1:00 pm 

Rotary Education Centre, MacLaren Art Centre.

Admission free

Join us for a talk and tour by exhibiting artist Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum. The artist was born in 1980 in Mochudi, Botswana, and currently lives and works between Johannesburg, South Africa and Toronto, Canada. Sunstrum has at times called various parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, Canada and the United States home. Motivated by her experiences in these diverse locales, Sunstrum explores how one’s sense of identity develops within geographic and cultural contexts.

In 2019 the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio featured a mid-career survey exhibition of Sunstrum’s work. The show will be accompanied by the first monograph of the artist’s work to be published by Radius Books. Her work will be showcased at the 2020 Armory Show, New York in Tiwani Contemporary’s solo booth. Previous exhibitions include: The Showroom, London; Artpace, San Antonio; Michaelis School of Fine Art Galleries, Cape Town; The Phillips Museum of Art, Lancaster; Interlochen Centre for the Arts, Interlochen; Tiwani Contemporary, London; Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg; VANSA, Johannesburg; Brundyn Gallery, Cape Town; FRAC Pays de Loire, France; the Havana Biennial; and MoCADA, New York.

Image credits: Bewabon Shilling at the opening reception of Between the Forest and the Sky, MacLaren Art Centre, 2019. Photo: André Beneteau (left); Anna Hudson (middle); Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum in her studio. Photo: Courtesy of Artpace, San Antonio, Texas (right)

GENERAL INFORMATION

About the MacLaren Art Centre : The MacLaren Art Centre is the major public art gallery in Central Ontario serving the residents of Barrie, the County of Simcoe and the surrounding area. The Gallery has a significant permanent collection of contemporary Canadian art and presents a year-round programme of innovative exhibitions, education activities and special events.

Acknowledgements : As a registered charity, the MacLaren Art Centre relies on public and private support for its operations and programmes. The MacLaren Art Centre gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of its Members, Patrons, Donors, Sponsors, Partners, the City of Barrie, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Ontario, the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage and Art for Lunch series sponsor Lake Country Office Solutions.

Gallery Location

 37 Mulcaster Street,

Barrie, Ontario, L4M 3M2,

705-721-9696

www.maclarenart.com 

From Toronto: From highway 400 north, 90 km north of Toronto, take the Dunlop Street East exit to Mulcaster Street and turn left. The MacLaren is one block north on the right hand at the intersection of Collier Street and Mulcaster Street.

Suggested admission $5

Wheelchair accessible

2020's must-see projects by Black artists

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 02:28:00 +0000

Scene from Utopia Falls. Aliyah (Robyn Alomar) and Bohdi (Akiel Julien) perform “My Kin” (Boi-1da Ft. Nikhil Seetharam & The New Babyl Orchestra) for the citizens of New Babyl. (Courtesy of CBC)

Black Light is a weekly column by Governor General Award-winning writer Amanda Parris that spotlights, champions and challenges art and popular culture that is created by Black people and/or centres Black people.

I think it's fair to say that this new decade hasn't been off to the best start: threats of world war, catastrophic Australian bushfires, the devastation of the Iran plane crash, Prince Harry and Meghan "stepping back" from the Royal Family. OK, that last headline is more juicy than tragic — but put it all together, and the new decade feels like an inevitable continuation of the doom and gloom that defined the late 2010s. But I have something that may make the future look a little brighter.

I've curated a list of some of the most exciting projects created by Black artists that will be arriving in 2020. There are visual art exhibitions, plays, a new novel, an installation, a couple of films and new series. There's a lot coming down the pipeline, and even though my list's not comprehensive, it is a sneak peek into some of the work being created by Black Canadian and international artists.

Some additional good news: this roundup is the first chapter of my new professional project, Black Light. Black Light is a weekly column that will spotlight, champion and challenge art and popular culture that is created by Black people and/or centres Black people.

Why is this column important? Because from Mathieu da Costa to Aubrey Drake Graham, Black folks have long been translating, transforming and transgressing the Canadian landscape. Black Light will shine a focused and consistent light on those that do so through their art and examine them in conversation with the work being created by Black artists around the world.

The work created by Black artists often goes undocumented. It's a consistent and systemic problem in Canada — one that's created a cultural amnesia that renders Black art and Black artists invisible. Black Light is a small attempt to rectify this issue.

So without further ado, here is your sneak peek at the kind of creative projects Black Light will engage....

How a radical form of accessibility is pushing the boundaries of theatre performance

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 22:36:00 +0000

Tarik Elmoutawakil of Brownton Abbey performs at Cripping the Arts, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto. (Michelle Peek Photography courtesy of Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology & Access to Life, ReVision: The Centre for Art & Social Justice at the University of Guelph), Author provided

Have you ever been nervous about going to the theatre?

Maybe you’re unfamiliar with theatre etiquette, maybe you have children or maybe you find it hard to stay still for hours feeling trapped in your seat. In Shakespeare’s day, theatregoers drank, ate and socialized their way through performance.

There is a more generous way to engage with the arts, and related to this, much to learn from disability arts in particular.

Let bodies be bodies

Relaxed performance — an approach to performance that challenges what have developed as strict expectations and codes for audience and performer engagement and behaviour — is making theatre and other types of live performance like fashion shows and musical events more accessible.

As researchers with our own personal experiences with disability and difference, we are interested in the potential of relaxed performance through our work with the ReVision Centre for Art & Social Justice.

Such performances are designed to serve audiences and performers alike. A relaxed audience space welcomes people to move around, eat, emote or step out to a quiet space if they so desire. Relaxed performance might include dimmer lighting and lowered sound, a pre-show talk to explain what will happen and on-going consultation with disabled people to make sure everyone feels welcome...

Joy Loewen appointed CEO of the National Screen Institute

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 20:18:00 +0000

The Board of Directors of the National Screen Institute – Canada (NSI) is pleased to announce the appointment of Joy Loewen to the position of CEO. Joy has served as acting executive director since May 2019.

“Joy’s exemplary leadership skills have strengthened the work of NSI during a key transitional phase,” said Marlene Kendall, chair of the NSI board. “We know she will continue to drive the organization towards even greater success and are proud to have her at the helm with the support of an incredibly dedicated team.”

“I am beyond thrilled to take up this important position in our industry, said Joy Loewen. “It’s a true honour to lead NSI’s talented staff in the work of developing Canada’s exceptional storytellers across every region. NSI is devoted to championing the cause of content creators and bringing their stories to global audiences. I feel privileged to be part of that movement.”

Joy has served NSI in a number of management roles since 2005. She previously managed many of NSI’s successful training programs including NSI Totally Television, TELUS STORYHIVE, NSI Features First, NSI Storytellers and NSI Drama Prize.

Joy is a media industry professional who passionately supports the development, production and exhibition of Canadian art and artists.

She previously worked as a broadcast and festival programmer at WTN (now W Network), CBC and Gimli Film Festival, and is an active volunteer with leadership roles on several community and non-profit boards and councils including The Winnipeg Foundation, The Forks Foundation and Manitoba’s Queen’s Council Advisory. She also currently serves as a civilian aide to The Honourable Janice C. Filmon, Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba.

Joy has a bachelor’s degree in radio and television arts from Ryerson University.

Listen to a recent podcast interview Joy did with Nolan Bicknell, host of the BeCause & Effect – The Winnipeg Foundation’s podcast featuring longform interviews that take a deeper dive into why community champions are passionate about their causes. Joy talks about the importance of giving a hand up to others, bringing out their potential and how everyone has a story to tell.

LADI'SASHA JONES: A Grammar for Black Interior Art

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 02:50:00 +0000

All images and artwork belong to Evan iIekoya

Black Interior Art

[ Black – always with a capital “B”]

[Interior – the inner, internal]

[Art – manifestations of Black cultural production]

The Interior

Interior Time

f. The interior is of real time. Black aliveness in real time; the inner making and expressiveness of being; to be real (come alive) in time. Black interior time is in the (process of) becoming; it can be constant, durational, or entered into.
g. Interior time is of a circular futurity, cultural (re)production in the round. The Black interior is in overtime and takes place over time. Holding the terror of the never-ending measure of violence, alongside the ever-expanding measures of survival, spirituality, and pleasure.
h. Worldmaking is a conditional practice of the Black interior. The speculative labor of worlding and unworlding is shaped from what is deeply seen, unseen, and made to appear. Not of fixed truth, realness, or evidence, but of the relentless necessity to conjure and imagine the unthinkable, the unknown (new reaches of both the interior and exterior realms). Worldmaking is a critical practice of assemblage; stretching the value bounds of the known world. It is a polemic against what Saidiya Hartman deems the precarity of Black life.

This conceptual frame of worlding takes shape in artist Sondra Perry’s immersive avatars, gaming simulations, and workstation installations. Perry makes correlations between color technologies and Black spatiality as expressed in her explorations of chroma key blue post-production and hyper-modulated renderings of her skin which achieve new effects around Black internet imaging. Her works, Wet and Wavy—Typhoon coming on for a Three-Monitor Workstation (2016) and Typhoon Coming On (2018) envelop viewers in the animated looping of purple waves or currents that are depictions of the 1840 J. M. W. Turner painting of the Zong massacre. The residual timing of the loop and the ultra-bright purpling of the water are magnetizing, keeping the viewer in the pulse of the waves.

These works are in conversation with what Christina Sharpe defines as residence time and the wake. “This is what we know about those Africans thrown, jumped, dumped overboard in the Middle Passage; they are with us still, in the time of the wake, known as residence time.”4 Worldmaking occurs in residence time. We are held in (or return to) the conscious presence of the ship, the overboard, and the Atlantic. Perry is creating in the surreal glow of this holding....

Jarvis: Caroline Quarlls, part of Windsor's remarkable history

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 00:44:00 +0000

To the River co-author Kimberly Simmons brought the amazing story of freedom seeker Caroline Quarlls to the Sandwich First Baptist Church Monday. NICK BRANCACCIO / WINDSOR STAR

Caroline Quarlls was young and beautiful, with light skin, blue eyes and long hair.

She knew the fate of slaves who looked like her.

They were called fancy girls. They were a commodity in the southern United States in 1843, bought and sold for $2,000 apiece for breeding. Many ended up as concubines for rich plantation owners in New Orleans.

So on July 4, 1843, while her owner celebrated the country’s independence, Caroline, at 16, escaped and set off alone on a harrowing journey, bounty hunters at her heels, from St. Louis, Missouri to Sandwich via the Underground Railroad.

Her inspiring story is the subject of a new book, To the River: The Remarkable Journey of Caroline Quarlls, an Underground Railroad Freedom Seeker. It’s co-authored by her great-great-great granddaughter Kimberly Simmons.

The book was launched at Sandwich First Baptist Church on Monday, the event hosted by the Essex County Black Historical Research Society.

“She needed to see this place where everybody was free,” said Simmons….

Canadian Museum of History: An Evening with Wanda Robson

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 00:34:00 +0000

Thursday, February 27, 2020

7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

A new series of inspiring talks and performances featuring some of Canada’s most fascinating personalities.

Author and community educator Wanda Robson honours the legacy of her sister, Viola Desmond, in this unique evening presentation. Ms. Robson has raised public awareness about the struggle for racial equality in Canada through her presentations and publications, including Sister to Courage: Stories from the World of Viola Desmond, Canada’s Rosa Parks.

Her efforts culminated in the appearance of Viola Desmond’s image on Canada’s new $10 bill, a landmark event featured in the Canadian History Hall. Nova Scotia Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard will moderate, and a reception will follow.

In English with simultaneous translation in French.

'We are not each other's competition': maxine bailey's must-read call for women in film

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 22:27:00 +0000

maxine bailey at the Women in Film and Television Toronto Crystal Awards Gala. (Tonya Lee Williams)

This is the full transcript of the speech maxine bailey, cultural maven and former vice-president of advancement at Toronto International Film Festival gave at December's Women in Film and Television Toronto Crystal Awards Gala, where she received the Special Jury Award of Distinction.

My sincere thanks to the jury for this very special honour. It is indeed a great privilege to be recognized amongst such a stellar group of recipients.

I had the privilege of living with my paternal grandmother for a few years, who was incredibly supportive and taught me kindness, a strong work ethic...and also attempted to teach me patience. I have, over the years, replicated that sense of strong support with a wondrous group of friends who are my ride or die crew. Lemme hear the ride or die people? I gain strength from knowing that they are always in my corner, and I in theirs. I was taught to never let the words "no," "not you," "not now," or "not ever" stop me from dreaming growing, or moving forward.   Despite my incredible support, I occasionally suffer from imposter syndrome. I sometimes think, how did I get here? How am I going to do this? But that quickly changes to how can I not do this? How can I not lend a hand, an ear, a shoulder? Listening to all of those that came before me has given me the strength to keep going. Reminding myself that I need to continue to challenge the status quo and put my own voice on things…

We in this room always have received the memo about the value of women. I'm proud to have played a small part in the movement while working at TIFF and launching Share Her Journey, a campaign and a movement dedicated to building a vibrant, diverse and active community of female creators.

However, I still see the gap in being truly equal. I see it when I think of Toronto. We live in one of the most diverse cities in the world. It is our bragging right. However, when I look at the landscape of our industry, I'm not sure it truly reflects our crowded subways or a local Tim Hortons. That is the Toronto we live in.

While there are diversity and inclusion efforts, it shouldn't be about just ticking a box. If you aren't actively addressing and working to eradicate racism and any form of prejudice, you are simply bringing people into unsafe places in the name of diversity and inclusion. I have seen and experienced this time and time again.

If I could be so bold to say that the silver bullet to my success has been working and being inspired by incredible women. Women who empower other women. We are not each other's competition; we are each other's cheerleaders...each other's kitchen cabinet and support system.

There's an old African proverb: each one, teach one. So, I'm asking you, who have you shared knowledge with recently? Who are you helping find their way? Because we can't be what we can't see. I want everyone in this room to consider what they can do to be someone's support system.

Please consider committing to the movement, full-time. This is about opening doors, righting wrongs, challenging injustices and securing the future for the next generation. I ask each and every one of you to commit to really listen to women, recognize and encourage the talents in your workplace to share their perspective and to challenge the status quo for those of you that have it...question your privilege and open doors for people who don't look like you to embrace difference.

The beauty of innovation comes from thinking differently. And thinking differently often comes from being different. Thinking and doing differently creates change. That is diversity.   Thank you.

Find out more about maxine bailey's work here.

Christina Lee: Morant Bay @ BAND

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 16:59:00 +0000

Black Artists' Networks Dialogue - BAND
19 Brock Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M6K 2K9

Tickets by Eventbrite

Join us Thursday April 23, at 6:00pm for the opening reception of Morant Bay.

Curated by: Dr. Julie Crooks. In celebration of its 10th Anniversary, BAND Gallery welcomes back Jamaican-Canadian photographer Christina Leslie for the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival.

In 2009, BAND exhibited Leslie’s series Miss-Percieved . Recently Leslie returned to her father’s hometown of Morant Bay in Jamaica. While what she found was a village in decline, she was driven by a sense of nostalgia and set about documenting the people and landscapes. Reunited with family, childhood friends, and revisiting landmarks, this body of work is a personal meditation on loss, absence and resilience in a small town in Jamaica.

A Black-Indigenous Solidarities Reading List

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Sun, 05 Jan 2020 22:47:00 +0000

Karina Vernon wrote: A Black-Indigenous Solidarities Reading List 👇🏽👇🏽

The recent events at the University of Regina have been deeply painful. In response, I compiled a Black-Indigenous Solidarity Reading List and shared it on Twitter. I asked people to add to it and keep the thread going, and we now have a beautiful crowd-sourced list of readings that will help inform the necessary work ahead of us.

Please continue to add to the list and share widely!

**************

NourbeSe Philip, Frontiers: Essays and Writings on Racism and Culture (1992) and Bla_k: Essays and Interviews (2017)
Daniel Coleman, "Indigenous Place and Diaspora Space: of literalism and abstraction." Settler Colonial Studies, 6.1 (2006).
Paula C. Madden, African Nova Scotian – Mi’kmaw Relations (Fernwood 2009)
Rinaldo Walcott, “Into the Ranks of Man: Vicious Modernism an the Politics of Reconciliation in Canada” (2011)  http://www.ahf.ca/downloads/cultivating-canada-pdf.pdf
Wayde Compton , The Outer Harbour (Arsenal Pulp 2014)
Jared Sexton, "The Vel of Slavery: Tracking the Figure of the Unsovereign" (2014)
Day, Iyko. 2015. “Being or Nothingness: Indigeneity, Antiblackness, and Settler Colonial Critique.” Critical Ethnic Studies 1.2: 102-121.
Tiya Miles' The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts (2015), The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story (2010), and The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits (2017)
Malaklou, M. Shadee. 2016. “DAPL and the Matter/ing of Black Life.” The Feminist Wire. 30 November 2016. https://thefeministwire.com/20…/…/dapl-mattering-black-life/
Rinaldo Walcott, "In Relation: Indigenous and Black Excursions on Our Now.” Topia, vol. 36, 2016, pp. 5-6.
Kaiya Aboagye , “Australian Blackness, the African Diaspora and Afro/Indigenous Connections in the Global South”  Transition, Issue 126, 2018, 72-85
Robyn Maynard,  Policing Black Lives (Fernwood 2017)
Nadine Chambers, "Sometimes Clocks Turn Back for Us to Move Forward" (2019) http://www.uhu.es/…/index.php/CanadaBeyond/article/view/4566
Anthony N Morgan , "Reconciliation: Black people in Canada are not settlers" (2019)
Amadahy, Zainab, and Bonita Lawrence. “Indigenous Peoples and Black People in Canada: Settlers or Allies?” Breaching the Colonial Contract, edited by Arlo Kempf. Springer Netherlands, 2009, pp. 105–36. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1007/978-1-4020- 9944-1_7.
Common Ground: An Examination of Similarities between Black and Aboriginal Communities. 21 Dec. 2018, https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/.../cmmn-grnd/index-en.aspx. Page 2
Rifkin, Mark. Fictions of Land and Flesh: Blackness, Indigeneity, Speculation. Duke University Press, 2019.
Thomas, Ashleigh-Rae. “Who Is a Settler, According to Indigenous and Black Scholars.” VICE, 15 Feb. 2019, https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/gyajj4/who-is-a-settler-according-to-indigenous-and-black-scholars
Troper, Harold Martin. “The Creek-Negroes of Oklahoma and Canadian Immigration, 1909–11.” Canadian Historical Review 53, no. 3 (September 1972): 272-288. doi:10.3138/CHR-053-03-02.
Sunera Thobani, Exalted Subjects: Studies in the Making of Race and Nation in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. (2007)
Medak-Saltzman, Danika. 2015. “Empire’s Haunted Logics: Comparative Colonialisms and the Challenges of Incorporating Indigeneity.” Critical Ethnic Studies 1.2: 11-32.
"Sometimes Clocks Turn Back for Us to Move Forward" by Nadine Chambers. http://www.uhu.es/publicaciones/ojs/index.php/CanadaBeyond/article/view/4566/3709
William Loren Katz. Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage - https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/black-indians/
Social Text Special Issue: Economies of Dispossession: Indigeneity, Race, Capitalism Volume 36, Number 2. Number: 135 Published: June 2018
Tiffany Lethabo King, The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies
Jodi Byrd's Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism: “Been to the Nation, Lord, but I Couldn’t Stay There”: Cherokee Freedmen, Internal Colonialism, and the Racialization of Citizenship
bell hooks, “Revolutionary ‘Renegades’: Native Americans, African Americans, and Black Indians” (pages 179-194) in Black Looks: Race and Representation (South End Press, 1992)
Zellar, Gary. African Creeks: Estelvste and the Creek Nation (2007)
Chang, David A. The Color of the Land: Race, Nation, and the Politics of Landownership in Oklahoma, 1832-1929
Bates, Denise E. The Other Movement: Indian Rights and Civil Rights in the Deep South
May, Katia. African Americans and Native Americans in the Cherokee and Creek Nations, 1830s-1920s: Collision and Collusion

Please add to this thread and keep it going!

Weekend video: Faith Nolan sings the Viola Desmond song

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Sun, 05 Jan 2020 22:04:00 +0000

This weekend we feature a video of Faith Nolan singing about Viola Desmond, the Nova Scotia businesswoman who fought back when told she couldn’t sit in the part of a movie theatre in New Glasgow destined for whites only. Faith wrote the song in 2008, long before the $10 bill featured Viola’s portrait, or we named a ferry after her.

Faith Nolan is a labour and prison activist and folk singer who now lives in Toronto. I first heard of her just a couple of weeks ago while reading Before the Parade, A History of Halifax’s Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Communities, 1972-1984, by Rebecca Rose.

Faith, who is a queer woman of colour, lived in the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children for the first four years of her life, moved with her family to Ontario, and returned as a nineteen years old to Halifax in 1976.

Rebecca’s wonderful book describes the many obstacles Faith encountered during her stay in Halifax. Openly lesbian at a time such a thing was not common by any means, she encountered homophobia within the Black community and racism and homophobia in the society at large.

“She was denied housing, but it was hard for Faith to determine if he was being harassed or discriminated against because she was Black, lesbian or both,” Rebecca Rose writes.

“If they used the N- word or called you a dyke, you’d have an inkling,” she told Rebecca. “Or they could use a combo and you’re not sure which one they meant more.”

Visit Faith Nolan’s website for much more fantastic music.

The Fight to Decolonize the Museum

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Sun, 05 Jan 2020 21:21:00 +0000

Textbooks can be revised, but historic sites, monuments, and collections that memorialize ugly pasts aren’t so easily changed. Lessons from the struggle to update the Royal Museum for Central Africa, outside Brussels.

One of europe’s loveliest urban journeys begins as you step aboard a trolley at the Montgomery Metro station in Brussels. Its tracks quickly emerge from underground to travel along a grand, tree-shaded boulevard lined with elegant mansions a century old or more, many of them now embassies. Then the route leaves the street traffic behind to run through a leafy forest of beech and oak, a former hunting ground for the dukes of Brabant that becomes a symphony of fluttering green light on a spring day. Finally the tracks end near a palatial stone edifice whose very existence embodies some of the unresolved tensions of our globalized world.

Welcome to the Royal Museum for Central Africa. Although one of the largest museums anywhere devoted exclusively to Africa, it is thousands of miles from the continent itself. The tall windows, pillared facade, rooftop balustrade, and 90-foot-high rotunda of the main building give it the look of a chateau. That impression is only enhanced by an inner courtyard and a surrounding park: formal French gardens, a reflecting pool and fountain, ponds with ducks and geese, wide lawns laced with hedges, and carefully groomed paths that sweep away to majestic trees in the distance.

A visitor here is a long way from Africa, but not from the fruits of the continent’s colonization. For 23 years starting in 1885, Belgium’s King Leopold II was the “proprietor,” as he called himself, of the misnamed Congo Free State, the territory that today is the Democratic Republic of Congo. Exasperated by the declining power of European monarchs, Leopold wanted a place where he could reign supreme, unencumbered by voters or a parliament, and in the Congo he got it. He made a fortune from his privately owned colony—well over $1.1 billion in today’s dollars—chiefly by enslaving much of its male population as laborers to tap wild rubber vines. The king’s soldiers would march into village after village and hold the women hostage, in order to force the men to go deep into the rain forest for weeks at a time to gather wild rubber. Hunting, fishing, and the cultivation of crops were all disrupted, and the army seized much of what food was left. The birth rate plummeted and, weakened by hunger, people succumbed to diseases they might otherwise have survived. Demographers estimate that the Congo’s population may have been slashed by as much as half, or some 10 million people.

Using testimony and photographs from missionaries and whistle-blowers, the British journalist Edmund Dene Morel turned Leopold’s slave-labor system into an international scandal. Luminaries from Booker T. Washington to Mark Twain to the archbishop of Canterbury took part in mass protest meetings. Rising outrage finally pressured the king to reluctantly sell the Congo to Belgium in 1908, a year before his death….

George Elliott Clarke withdraws from U of R lecture amid controversy

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 18:17:00 +0000

Canadian poet George Elliott Clarke says he will not cite the poetry of convicted killer Steven Kummerfield during a lecture at the University of Regina on Jan. 23. Fred Lum / Globe and Mail

The Canadian poet invited to deliver a lecture on truth and reconciliation at the University of Regina later this month is cancelling his appearance amid controversy over his affiliation with a man convicted in the beating death of an Indigenous woman.

“After further reflection about the issue of my proposed lecture at the University of Regina, scheduled for January 23, it is with great sadness that I have decided to withdraw from this presentation,” George Elliott Clarke said Friday morning in an email statement sent by his literary agent to Global News.

Clarke, a professor at the University of Toronto, was invited by the faculty of arts to deliver this year’s Woodrow Lloyd Lecture titled: “Truth and Reconciliation versus the Murdered and Missing: Examining Indigenous Experiences of (In)Justice in Four Saskatchewan Poets.”

Clarke has been known to edit the work of Steven Kummerfield, who now goes by the name Stephen Brown. Kummerfield was found guilty in the beating death of Pamela George, of the Sakimay First Nations, in Regina in 1995. He was released on parole in 2000 after serving four-and-a-half years of a six-year sentence.

Earlier in the week, Clarke told CBC he “may or may not” read a poem by the convicted killer, prompting an outcry from Indigenous groups, and others.

In Friday’s statement, Clarke said he “never intended to cause such anguish for the family of Pamela George and the Indigenous community.

“For that I am truly sorry,” his statement said.

“My purpose in my talk was to discuss the role of poets in dealing with social issues, but that interest has been lost in the current controversy. So regrettably, I have asked the University of Regina to cancel my appearance.”

In an earlier statement to Global News, Clarke said he only learned of Kummerfield’s crime four months earlier and that it has changed his view of Kummerfield.

The University of Regina had stood by Clarke as the 2019 Woodrow Lloyd lecturer, despite the pressure to cancel the event in light of Clarke’s affiliations.

Canadian Journal of Sociology: Vol 44 No 4 (2019): Special Issue: African Canadians, Gender, and Sexuality/ Édition spéciale: Les afro-canadiens, le genre et la sexualité

noreply@blogger.com (Black Canadian Arts/History Reading Group) — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 17:44:00 +0000

Vol 44 No 4 (2019): Special Issue: African Canadians, Gender, and Sexuality/ Édition spéciale: Les afro-canadiens, le genre et la sexualité

PUBLISHED: 2019-12-31

Introduction

Johanne Jean-Pierre, Lance McCready

311 - 318

We’ll Deal with it Later: African Nova Scotian Women’s Perceptions and Experiences of the Police

Jessica T Bundy

319 - 342

Les jeunes d’origine haïtienne au Cégep : un rapport aux études marqué par le genre ?

Gina Lafortune

343 - 372

Adapting, Disrupting, and Resisting: How Middle School Black Males Position Themselves in Response to Racialization in School

Carl James

373 - 398

Sexuality and Sexual Agency Among Heterosexual Black Men in Toronto: Tradition, Contradiction, and Emergent Possibilities in the Context of HIV and Health

Winston Husbands, Desmond Miller, Lance T McCready, Charmaine Williams, Leondre Guy, Andre Harriott, Carl E James, Henry Luyombya, Omima Mohidin, Charles Ozzoude, Maurice K Poon, Emmanuel Tabi

399 - 424

Growing up African Canadian in Vancouver: Racialization, Gender and Sexuality

Gillian Creese

425 - 446

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS
Rose, Nikolas, Our Psychiatric Future.
Gary Barron
447 - 450

Brodie, Janine, ed., Contemporary Inequalities and Social Justice in Canada.
Crystal Montoya-Gajadhar
451 - 454

Lee, Robyn, The Ethics and Politics of Breastfeeding: Power, Pleasure, Poetics.
Patricia Hamilton
455 - 458

Beer, David, Georg Simmel’s Concluding Thoughts: Worlds, Lives, Fragments.
Arthur Frank
459 - 462

Davies, William, Nervous States: How feeling took over the world.
Kayla Preston
463 - 466

Livne, Roi, Values at the End of Life: The Logic of Palliative Care.
Courtney R. Petruik
467 - 469