Black Authors Busy Launching Their Books During the Fall

By Neil Armstrong

Cynthia Reyes and Lauren Reyes-Grange at their book launch at A Different Booklist Cultural Centre on October 10, 2019

This fall has been a busy time for several Black and Caribbean authors who since its beginning have launched new books covering topics ranging from gardening, family, friendship, hair, history, racism and education to African Canadian leadership.

Former award-winning journalist, Cynthia Reyes, launched her new memoir, “Twigs in My Hair,” and the latest addition to her bestselling series of children’s book, “ Makes a New Friend,” on October 10 at the Black and Caribbean Book Affair at A Different Booklist Cultural Centre in Toronto.

It was a family affair as Reyes was joined by her co-author and daughter, Lauren Reyes-Grange, and “Twigs in My Hair” photographer and former award-winning journalist, her husband Hamlin Grange.

This unusual book launch brought together a family of outstanding writers and storytellers. Lauren is the co-author of “Myrtle Makes a New Friend,” the third book in the children’s series.

“Twigs in My Hair” is Cynthia’s third memoir. Her previous two memoirs, A” Good Home,” and “An Honest House,” are critically acclaimed bestsellers. This time, she explores her lifelong passion for gardens and nature and the surprising relationships and events that ensue. It is a humorous and profoundly personal story and a unique twist of the memoir genre which is complemented by photographs by Hamlin.

The Myrtle story, which teaches children about friendship and encourages them to “love their shell,” was written 28 years ago but the first book was published in 2017 to the delight of children and parents around the world. The Myrtle character was written by Cynthia for her nearly 5-year-old daughter, Lauren.

In Twigs, readers will meet a variety of interesting creatures, both animal and human, some competing for gardening produce or gardening glory.

Elsewhere in the city on the same day, Rachel Manley launched her book, “The Fellowship,” which tells the story of Jessica, the recipient of a prestigious Gunter Fellowship who leaves behind Jamaica, the only country she’s ever known, for Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the end of the twentieth century. In her fellowship year, she is to write a memoir about her father, a professor of mathematics at the University of the West Indies.

Attuned to watching for meaning below the surface of things, Jessica learns about the women with whom she shares her year, twenty women, all in middle age, all accomplished — considerably more accomplished than her slim volumes of poetry and one memoir allow her to feel. 

Olive Senior signing a copy of her book for Cherita Girvan-Campbell, president of Arts and Culture Jamaica Inc.

Olive Senior launched her children’s picture book “Boonoonoonous Hair!” on October 12 as part of the book affair.

Illustrated by the acclaimed artist Laura James, the book is about a young girl who learns to love her difficult-to-manage, voluminous and boonoonoonous hair.

On October 10, CBC Radio’s Ideas program aired the Margaret Laurence Lecture presented by Senior which was recorded at the Central Library in Halifax in May.

Since 1987, the Writers' Trust of Canada has selected a prominent Canadian author to deliver a lecture on the topic: "A Writer's Life."

Senior, the seventh of ten children, was born in 1941 and raised in rural Jamaica. After graduating high school, she came briefly to Canada as a Commonwealth Scholar to attend Carleton University in Ottawa. In the early 1990s, she moved to Canada full-time, settling in Toronto. 

Senior has published 18 books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children's literature. Her work has been translated into several languages worldwide and has won many awards for her work, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature and F.J. Bressani Literary Prize. 

Meanwhile, a discussion of some of the themes in “African Canadian Leadership: Continuity, Transition, and Transformation,” co-edited by Tamari Kitossa, Erica S. Lawson and Philip S.S. Howard, was held on October 15 at the book affair.

Challenging the myth of African Canadian leadership "in crisis," this book opens a broad vista of inquiry into the many and dynamic ways leadership practices occur in Black Canadian communities. 

It explores topics including Black women’s contributions to African Canadian communities, the Black Lives Matter movement, Black LGBTQ, HIV/AIDS advocacy, motherhood and grieving, mentoring, and anti-racism, contributors appraise the complex history and contemporary reality of blackness and leadership in Canada.

Kamala-Jean Gopie, author of The Story of Our School

The new works of Cynthia Reyes and Kamala-Jean Gopie, and Bernadette Gabay Dyer’s book published in 2018 were featured at “A Literary Evening – A Tribute to Miss Lou” organized by Arts and Culture Jamaica Inc. at the Consulate General of Jamaica on October 17.

Gopie’s “The Story of Our School” relates how the school that she built in Malawi became a reality.

The philanthropist and former educator recently returned from Malawi where she presented copies of the book to the students at the school.

 With the help of Josephine Vaccaro-Chang, a publisher of children’s books who sent books to the school, they collaborated to create the book for the children at the school.  

Bernadette Gabay Dyer, author of Chasing the Banyan Wind

In “Chasing the Banyan Wind,” Dyer introduces readers to the mid 1920s when an English family, Jonathan and Wilemina Gunn, and their two young children, Dunstan and Eliza emigrate to the Caribbean island of Jamaica. 

With help from locals they build a home in a remote rural location on the island's north coast. Previous perceptions of the island do not prepare them for the reality of the island's diverse English-speaking population that includes Negroes, East Indians, Chinese, Jews, Europeans and Syrians.

The 2019 Black and Caribbean Book Affair at A Different Booklist Cultural Centre also included book launches by these authors:

Nadia L. Hohn at the launch of her book A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found Her Voice on September 14, 2019

Nadia L. Hohn – “A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found Her Voice” illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes. It is a new picture book that celebrates the iconic Jamaican-Canadian poet, folklorist, writer and educator who was born 100 years ago.

Rabindranath Maharaj – “Fatboy Fall Down,” a novel about a man trying to understand his place in the world.

Photo credit: Geeta Raghunanan    Morgan Campbell of the Toronto Star, right, hosting Douglas Gary Freeman's book launch at A Different Booklist Cultural Centre.

Douglas Gary Freeman’s novel “Exile Blues” which Canada’s 7^th Parliamentary Poet Laureate, George Elliott Clarke, describes as “a fictionalized autobiography at its best. It’s the novel Malcolm X might have written had he not suffered martyrdom.”

Calvin Lawrence with Miles Howe – “Black Cop: My 36 years in police work, and my career-ending experiences with official racism.” Lawrence’s story lays bare the key failures of Canadian police organizations that operate on the basis that only white Canadians are entitled to the rights promised to all by the rule of law and the Canadian Charter of Rights.

Photo credit: Miguel San Vicente   Calvin Lawrence at his book launch on October 11, 2019

Nina Reid-Maroney, Boulou Ebanda de B’Béri and Wanda Thomas Bernard – “Women in the “Promised Land”: Essay in African Canadian History” reframes Canadian history through the lens of African Canadian women’s lived experience.

 
Upcoming Book Launches at A Different Booklist Cultural Centre, 777-779 Bathurst Street in Toronto in November:

“Another Mother” by Ross Kenneth Urken on November 1, 7:00 p.m. A Jewish young man entering adulthood realizes there is so much he has yet to learn about the woman who lent him her accent and with whom he shared an unlikely kindred spirit.

“Behind the Frontline” by Alana Jones on November 8, 6:30-8:30 p.m. with special musical guest Jäjé (HoneyJam 2019 alumna). It is “a fictionalized glimpse into the lives of those individuals providing  support on the Frontlines and the individuals receiving support from Frontline workers.”

“America The Beautiful and Violent: Black Youth and Neighbourhood Trauma in Chicago” by Dexter R. Voisin on November 22, 7:00 p.m. The book provides a compelling and social-justice-oriented analysis of current trends in neighbourhood violence in light of the historical and structural factors that have reproduced entrenched patterns of racial and economic inequality.


AND, Congratulations to Amanda Parris, winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama for her book “Other Side of the Game” published by Playwrights Canada Press. She is one of seven English-language winners who will receive their awards in Ottawa on December 11 and 12. They will also present public readings of their works then.

Amanda Parris and Itah Sadu at the launch of "Other Side of the Game" at A Different Booklist Cultural Centre on May 21, 2019

 Amanda launched her book at A Different Booklist Cultural Centre in May 2019.