Black and Caribbean Book Affair Celebrates its 8th Edition

By Neil Armstrong

Photo credit: Eddie Grant                     Afua Cooper

A new book of poems and photographs focused on everyday Black experiences, a collaboration by Halifax’s seventh Poet Laureate Afua Cooper and photographer Wilfried Raussert will be launched during the eighth edition of the Black and Caribbean Book Affair, happening October 15-17, 2020.

Organized by A Different Booklist Cultural Centre: The People’s Residence in Toronto, the three-day celebration of authors, storytellers and publishers will be a virtual event.

Fernwood Publishing describes the result of these poems and photographs in Black Matters as “a jambalaya — a dialogue between image and text”

“Cooper translates Raussert’s photos into poetry, painting a profound image of what disembodied historical facts might look like when they are embodied in contemporary characters. This visual and textual conversation honours the multiple layers of Blackness in the African diaspora around North America and Europe. The result is a work that amplifies black beauty and offers audible resistance, notes the publisher in a synopsis of the book.

Cooper is the author of five books of poetry, including the critically acclaimed Copper Woman and Other Poems. Her historical non-fiction, The Hanging of Angelique: The Untold Story of Slavery in Canada, was shortlisted for the 2006 Governor General’s Literary Award.

 

Dr. Wilfried Raussert is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar. He works across the boundaries of music, literature, photography, art, and literary criticism. He is Chair of North American and Inter-American Studies at Bielefeld University, Germany. 

 

Children’s book author Nadia L. Hohn will kick off the book affair on October 15, 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m. with #KidsLit4BlackLivesCanada, a post-rally discussion with Black Canadian authors, illustrators and allies.

Photo credit: Oscar Wailoo     Left to right: Rita Cox, Austin Clarke and Kamala-Jean Gopie at a bench naming ceremony at the Harbourfront Centre in November, 2014

 

Also to be featured during the festival is the late bestselling author Austin Clarke’s first collection of fiction, When He Was Free and Young and He Used to Wear Silks, which was published in 1971, and reprinted this month by House of Anansi Press.

Described as a vital exploration of the Black immigrant experience in Canada, it “showcases Clarke’s groundbreaking approach to chronicling the Caribbean diaspora. In lyrical, often racy, and wholly unforgettable prose, Clarke reveals the psychological realities faced by people of colour in a society so often lauded for its geniality and openness,” notes a description of the book on its back cover.

This edition has a new introduction by Rinaldo Walcott, a long-time friend of Clarke and also a Canadian academic and essayist. He is the author of Black Like Who and Queer Returns, and the co-author of BlackLife. His research and teaching are in the area of Black diaspora cultural studies, gender, and sexuality. 

“The neglect of Clarke’s work in the critical realm, despite his unique role as a writer inscribing the Caribbean into the Canadian landscape, has been accentuated by two poles – the Caribbean and Canada. Indeed, Caribbean literature has belatedly celebrated his contributions, and similarly so has Canadian literature,” writes Walcott in the introduction entitled ‘“But I Conquered That Setback”: Austin Clarke’s Gift.’

Walcott will join storyteller and veteran librarian, Rita Cox, in remembering Clarke and his work. 

Photo credit: Clive Sewell    Rinaldo Walcott speaking at the National Black Canadian Summit at the Toronto Reference Library in December, 2017

Earlier this year, award-winning author, scholar and activist Zetta Elliott’s book, Say Her Name, was published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. She will talk about this work on October 16 as part of the festival.

 

“Inspired by the #SayHerName campaign launched by the African American Policy Forum, these poems pay tribute to victims of police brutality as well as the activists insisting that Black Lives Matter. Elliott engages poets from the past two centuries to create a chorus of voices celebrating the creativity, resilience, and courage of Black women and girls,” notes a synopsis of the book.

 

Born in Canada, Elliott moved to the US in 1994 to pursue her PhD in American Studies at NYU. She taught Black Studies at the college level for close to a decade and has worked with urban youth for thirty years. 

 

Her poetry has been published in New Daughters of Africa; We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices; the Cave Canem anthology The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South; Check the Rhyme: an Anthology of Female Poets and Emcees; and Coloring Book: an Eclectic Anthology of Fiction and Poetry by Multicultural Writers. 

 

She is the author of over thirty books for young readers and currently lives in West Philadelphia. 

 

Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson have edited The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & Truth, which was published during the summer.

 

“Thirty diverse, award-winning authors and illustrators invite you into their homes to witness the conversations they have with their children about race in America today in this powerful call-to-action that invites all families to be anti-racists and advocates for change.”

 

It is published by Crown Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

 

Other highlights of the festival include: an interview hosted by reggae radio personality Carrie Mullings with Jason Wilson, author of King Alpha’s Song in a Strange Land: The Roots and Routes of Canadian Reggae, an hour of children’s programing featuring Yolanda T. Marshall and her book My Soca Birthday Party: with Jollof Rice and Steel Pans, and Ndija Anderson-Yantha and her book What Are You Gonna Do with that Hair?, and journalist, author and educator Wanda Taylor sharing her book It’s Our Time: Honouring the African Nova Scotian Communities of East Preston, North Preston, Lake Loon/Cherry Brook. 

Jazz journalist and radio host Mark Ruffin will discuss his book Bebop Fairy Tales: An Historical Fiction Trilogy on Jazz, Intolerance, and Baseball with journalist Clifton Joseph. Educator and activist Kofi Aboagye Akrofi Sankofa will perform some of the poems from his new book Sankofa: Ancestral Callin and talk about its representation of “a conceptual black print for the re-awakening of his African Nation.”

The celebration of authors, storytellers and publishers moves beyond Canada, the United States and Jamaica to include Melanie Raabe, author of The Shadow (Germany) and Louise Hare, author of This Lovely City (UK).

Hare’s debut novel is set in London in 1950 and rooted in the experiences of the Windrush Generation in the post-war city.

“With the war over and London still rebuilding, jazz musician Lawrie Matthews has answered England’s call for labour. Arriving from Jamaica aboard the Empire Windrush, he’s rented a tiny room in south London and fallen in love with the girl next door,” notes a synopsis of the book.

Raabe grew up in Thuringia, Germany and attended the Ruhr University Bochum, 

 

where she specialized in media studies and literature. 

 

After graduating, she moved to Cologne to work as a journalist by day and secretly 

 

write books by night. The Trap, her debut novel was published in 2016, followed by 

 

The Stranger Upstairs in 2017, and her upcoming psychological thriller, The 

 

Shadow, will be published in January 2021 by House of Anansi Press.

 

If you want to know how some publishers are coping in this pandemic and some of their upcoming titles, be sure to check out the Publishers’ session with Christine Randle of Ian Randle Press, Shivaun Hearne of UWI Press, Kassahun Checole of Africa World Press and The Red Sea Press, and Scott Fraser of Dundurn Press. Following that Fraser will host ‘In the Black with Dundurn Press.’

The launch of Afua Cooper’s and Wilfried Raussert’s book, Black Matters, and the session with Cheryl Hudson and Wade Hudson about The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & Truth are ticked events priced at $20. 

A suggested donation of $7 to the book festival is appreciated.

The 2020 Black and Caribbean Book Affair will be live on Zoom, Facebook, and at www.adbcc.org.