Education Ministry Responds to Concerns of Black Communities About Peel District School Board

By Neil Armstrong 

Ontario’s ministry of education is assuring members of the African, Black and Caribbean communities in Peel Region that it is working with the Peel District School Board (PDSB) to dismantle systemic racism and improve governance.

On July 22, Advocacy Peel and other representatives of the communities held a press conference and rally outside the PDSB head office to express their disappointment in recent developments at the Board.  

They said Black parents and community members were hopeful when the education ministry placed the Board under supervision after Arleen Huggins’ investigation “determined that the collective Board and the Director’s Office is lacking both the ability and capacity, and perhaps even more importantly, the will, to address the findings in the report.”  

In a media release, they note that recent developments one year later have community members questioning whether the ministry itself is capable and willing to provide safe schools for all students, free of discrimination.

Among their concerns are “significant changes in leadership at the PDSB while they remain under supervision.”   

“Both the interim permanent director of education, Colleen Russel-Rawlins, and the associate director of equity, Poleen Grewal, are currently absent from the Board. Returning to the Board’s past practice, no community groups are being consulted as part of the selection process for a new director.” 

However, Caitlin Clark, a spokesperson for Education Minister Stephen Lecce, says the Supervisor, Bruce Rodrigues, will work in partnership with the Board to hire a new director of education for the PDSB.

 

"We believe that Ontario's schools must be places where all students learn in safe and inclusive classrooms, free from discrimination and hate. While there has been progress, we know there is more to do, which is why the board will remain under supervision until the minister is satisfied that his directives are fully addressed and fulfilled to dismantle systemic racism and improve governance.

 

“Mr. Rodrigues will continue to work with the Board's senior administration and with the Board of Trustees to ensure good governance of the Board, equity and to address issues related to disproportional access to learning opportunities for all Peel students. Mr. Rodrigues will - in partnership with the Board - also manage the recruitment and hiring of a qualified and appropriate new Director of Education for Peel District School Board."

 

Meanwhile, Advocacy Peel board member, Colin Winston-Browne, notes that “white supremacy never goes away on its own” and that, “without strong anti-racist leadership at the board, change will not happen.”

The groups say the government’s comments on the math curriculum is a reversal of the anti-racist direction the ministry took on the release of the ministry report a year ago.  

Echoing the sentiments of most Black, African and Caribbean residents, community organizer Idris Orughu is “disappointed that the ministry raised our hopes only to let us down.  It will be difficult to trust the minister of education unless he returns to the path he was on when he placed the board under supervision due to its systemic anti-Black racism.”

The report on the PDSB is conscious that its findings of anti-Black racism are not unique to the Peel Region.  “Indeed, the recommendations we offer may be instructional to other school boards across the province,” notes the Review of the Peel District School Board.

Advocacy Peel and the community representatives said the only way to regain the trust of the community is to stay the course until anti-Black racism is eradicated from the Peel District School Board. 

 “Now is not the time to try and turn us around.  We are not going anywhere and will fight with greater intensity if they continue to marginalize our children,” says Paula Hylton, another Advocacy Peel board member.

 

 

The ministry of education says it will continue to drive real, meaningful change for Black and racialized children in Ontario, including through the new destreamed Grade 9 math curriculum and the end of discretionary suspensions for students from kindergarten to grade 3, which disproportionately impacted racialized children. 

 

“We have mandated that all education staff, trustees, and senior school board staff have human rights, anti-racism and anti-discrimination training, and rescinded regulation 274, so that students see themselves reflected that [sic] their educators by ensuring hiring is done based on merit, qualification, and diversity in Ontario. We will continue to take action to counter racism and act to ensure all students feel safe, respected, and included within Ontario's schools.”

 

The education ministry notes that while the board has made progress over the past year towards meeting the minister's directions related to good governance in the interest of all students, it nonetheless remains under supervision until the binding directions are addressed to the minister's satisfaction.

 

While under supervision, the supervisor is vested with the authority of the board and, accordingly, is responsible for the recruitment and hiring of the director of education, including the composition of the hiring panel.

 

The ministry says the supervisor continues to provide regular updates on work underway at the board, in response to deliverables and timelines outlined in the minister's directions.

 

On June 19, 2020, Bruce Rodrigues was appointed as Supervisor of the Peel District School Board (PDSB) with a mandate to enable the Board to provide good governance in the interests of all students of the board, including ensuring implementation of the minister's binding directions issued on March 13, 2020.

 

The concerns in the PDSB that led to the Supervision of the Board were substantial. Since the start of Supervision, the PDSB has made significant progress in providing good governance and leadership to the board, including addressing issues of systemic racism, specifically anti-Black racism, and discrimination, says the ministry.

 

It says this work to address the systemic issues in the PDSB are ongoing as Rodrigues has taken a number of important steps to address these concerns, including:  hiring a governance expert to establish procedures and practices for effective and equitable board governance; establishing an Equity Office, including the hiring of a Superintendent of Equity and an Equity Outreach Office; supporting the development of an anti-racism policy; and developing human rights, equity and governance training for all trustees.

 

 

Jamaican Canadians Join in Celebrating Miss Lou in Anthology

By Neil Armstrong

Photo credit: Sophia Findlay        Lorna Goodison, poet, author, academic and former Poet Laureate of Jamaica, 2017-2020 

A soon-to-be-published anthology celebrating Jamaica’s cultural ambassador, the late Louise Bennett-Coverley, includes the contributions of several Jamaicans, some of whom live in Toronto or used to call Toronto home but have returned to their birthplace. It also includes the Canadian librarian of a university in Ontario that houses the Louise Bennett Coverley ‘Miss Lou’ fonds.

 

Ms Lou 100+ Voices Anthology, to be published by The UWI Press, is the brainchild of Professor Opal Palmer Adisa, University Director of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at The University of the West Indies, Mona, and the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Government of Jamaica. 

 

In early 2019, there was an open call from Professor Adisa for entries for an anthology featuring 100 voices in honour of Miss Lou’s 100^th birthday, #misslou100. Entries could fall in one of six categories: academic, reflection, poetry, children’s works, stories, and illustrations. 

 

The anthology was not ready in time for Miss Lou’s 100^th birthday celebrations on September 7, 2019 and was further delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It is expected out later this year and will be published by the UWI Press.

 

There are over-330 pages in the book which has 110 articles written by 105 contributors. The publication is divided into four sections: One Big Family, Reaffirming Our Culture, Aunty Roachy Seh, and Engaging in a Quarrel with History.

 

Lorna Goodison Foreword: Simply Love

Poet, author, painter and academic Lorna Goodison has written the foreword “Simply Love.” She used to divide her time between Ann Arbor, Michigan; Toronto; and Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia. In 2017, she was appointed as Jamaica’s Poet Laureate, succeeding Mervyn Morris and this year Olive Senior became the nation’s new poet laureate. 

Photos contributed   Fabian Coverley and Pamela Appelt, co-executors of the Estate of Louise Bennett-Coverley

 

Section One: One Big Family 

 

Section One: One Big Family includes articles written by Fabian Coverley and Pamela Appelt, son and longtime friend of Miss Lou, respectively, and co-executors of the Estate of Louise Bennett-Coverley, and me.

 

In 1987, Appelt was appointed the first female Afro-Canadian to serve as a judge of the Court of Canadian Citizenship, a position she held for 11 years before retiring to  pursue other interests. During her tenure, she administered the ceremony where Miss Lou took the oath of citizenship. A member of the council of the Institute of Jamaica, Appelt was also the co-chair of the committee for the 50^th anniversary celebration of Jamaica’s Independence in Toronto in 2012.

 

Her piece is titled ‘Reflections and Memories,’ while Coverley’s article is ‘My Mother, My Friend.’ 

 

Coverley, who has 50 years of experience in the fire detection protection industry with services in Canada, Kuwait, USA, UK, Africa and Europe, was a broadcast engineer in Jamaica and Canada. 

 

He is married to Olive for 46 years and they are the proud parents of sons, Clayton, Craig, Jamie, and adore their granddaughter, Caylen. 

 

The CEO of Coverley Holdings Inc. and director/consultant of International Agencies Management Inc. (IAMI) has established the Louise Bennett Coverley Foundation, (LBCF) with the mission of “Maintaining the Memories and Legacy of Louise Bennett and Eric Coverley Alive.” 

 

 

In the piece that I have written, ‘You Can’t Bury Creativity,’ I reflect on the many interviews and conversations I had with Miss Lou.

Photo contributed      Kevin Ormsby, founder and artistic director of KasheDance

 

 

Section Two: Reaffirming Our Culture

 

Kevin Ormsby and Lisa Tomlinson collaborated to write ‘A Ring Ding Love Affair.’

 

Artistic director of KasheDance, Kevin A. Ormsby works as a dancer/choreographer and Arts strategies consultant. He is the program manager for Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO), professor of Dance Performance at Centennial College and an adjunct artist with Dance Exchange in Washington, D.C. 

 

The 2016 Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Fellowship recipient and Toronto Arts Council’s Cultural Leaders Lab Fellow appeared on Miss Lou’s popular children’s program, Ring Ding, on JBC Television.

 

With a career that spans over 30 years, Ormsby has performed with various companies and projects in Canada, the Caribbean and the U.S. He currently sits on the Board of Nia Centre for the Arts, Dance Collection Danse, and Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts.

Photo contributed   Dr. Lisa Tomlinson, author and lecturer in literary and cultural studies,  the Institute of Caribbean Studies and Reggae Studies Unit, The UWI

 

Lisa Tomlinson, an author of two books, Una Marson (2019) and The African-Jamaican Aesthetic: Cultural Retention and Transformation Across Borders (2017), has taught at universities and colleges throughout the Greater Toronto Area. 

 

She specializes in literary and cultural studies of the Caribbean and African diaspora. Tomlinson is currently a lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus in Kingston, Jamaica, where she teaches undergraduate courses in literature and film.

Photo contributed   Grace Carter-Henry Lyons, 

Grace Carter-Henry Lyons, the founder and musical director of the Heritage Singers, a group founded in 1977, wrote ‘Friend of the Heritage Singers in Canada’ regarding Miss Lou.

The group aims to promote the development of Caribbean folk music and theatre; use folk singing and dance as tools to bridge cultural gaps internationally; enhance, ethnic, historic and social traditions; and to share that heritage with the larger community.

Since its inception, the Heritage Singers has performed in Jamaica, the U.S., Netherlands, Taiwan, Germany, Mexico and Venezuela; produced recordings and videos; and been the subject of a CBC documentary. 

Photo credit: Neil Armstrong     Pamela ('Pam') Mordecai, author and academic

Section Three: Aunty Roachy Seh 

 

 

Poet, author and academic Pamela ('Pam') Mordecai wrote ‘Bawl Woman Bawl.’

 

A former language arts teacher with a PhD in English, she was for fourteen years editor of the Caribbean Journal of Education. The author of over thirty books including textbooks, children's books, six collections of poetry, a reference work on Jamaica (with her late husband, Martin), a collection of short fiction and a novel, her creative and critical writing appears in numerous journals, as well as in major anthologies of Caribbean and African-Canadian literature. 

 

Her writing for children and adults is represented in anthologies and textbooks on both sides of the Atlantic as well as in West Africa and Malaysia. She has a strong interest in promoting the writing of Caribbean women and has edited and co-edited ground-breaking anthologies of their writing.  

Photo credit: Sophia Findlay       Lillian Allen performing at Reggae Lane in Little Jamaica, Toronto

 

Lillian Allen, grassroots artist, cultural activist and university professor has written ‘Queenie Queenie and Colonial Empire.’

 

She is a professor of creative writing at Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD) and a two-time JUNO Award winner and trailblazer in the field of spoken word and dub poetry.

 

Allen artistically explores the aesthetics of old and new sounds in music to create her distinctive leading edge brand of Canadian reggae with new world sounds in her poetry recordings, with her powerful reggae dub poetry/spoken word recordings, including her latest single Woken & Unbroken (2018), album ANXIETY (2012), her ground-breaking first solo Juno award-winning album Revolutionary Tea Party, a Ms. Magazine Landmark Album, followed by another Juno winner, Conditions Critical. 

 

Her third album, Freedom & Dance and her recording for children and young people, Nothing But a Hero, were released to critical acclaim.

Photo contributed        Nadia L. Hohn, author and teacher

 

 

Nadia L. Hohn is a dynamic "story lady" who has presented to audiences in Canada, United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jamaica, and Trinidad.  

 

Her contribution in the Miss Lou anthology is entitled ‘Louise Go a Country.’

 

Hohn’s first two books, Music and Media in the Sankofa Series, were published by Rubicon Publishing in 2015.  Her award-winning first picture book, Malaika's Costume was published in 2016 and its sequel Malaika's Winter Carnival 2017 by Groundwood Books. Hohn is also the author of Harriet Tubman: Freedom Fighter, an early reader by Harper Collins published in December 2018.  

 

A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett-Coverley Found Her Voice, Hohn’s nonfiction picture book was published in 2019 by Owlkids. 

 

She is an elementary school teacher in Toronto and has taught early years music in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. 

Photo contributed    Owen "Blakka" Ellis, actor, writer and teacher

 

Actor, writer and teacher, Owen ‘Blakka’ Ellis has written ‘Mi Name Jamaica.’

 

Ellis is an established artist who is also involved in education and training. He has conducted workshops and training seminars for development workers, cultural agents, Peace Corps volunteers, diplomats, teachers and performing artists locally and internationally. These projects include working in places such as England, Germany, Canada and Zimbabwe.

 

Photo credit: Klive Walker, author, music historian and cultural critic

 

Section Four: Engaging in a Quarrel with History 

 

Klive Walker’s contribution is titled ‘The Truth Must Reveal Itself.’

 

He is a UK-born Jamaican-Canadian author, music historian and cultural critic who is a specialist in reggae culture, its birth in Jamaica and its adventures in Canada, the United States and the UK. Walker also writes about jazz, rock and hip hop. 

His writing is not confined to music, he discusses photography and is an analyst of international cinema with a focus on Caribbean films from the region and the diaspora. 

Walker’s book Dubwise: Reasoning from the Reggae Underground was published by Insomniac Press in 2005. His essay “The Journey of Reggae in Canada” appears in  Global Reggae edited by Carolyn Cooper (UWI Press, 2012). His reggae timeline is showcased in Nadia Hohn’s children’s book, Music (Rubicon, 2015). The book, Ears, Eyes, Voice: Black Canadian Photojournalists 1970s-1990s, (BAND, 2019) features his essay “Essential Thermometer.” 

 

Ajamu Nangwaya’s article is ‘Miss Lou, Organic Intellectual of the Jamaican Masses 

In her Examination of Racial Politics.’

 

Nangwaya is a former lecturer in the Institute of Caribbean Studies, the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. He is co-editor (with Michael Truscello) of Why Don’t the People Rise Up? Organizing the Twenty-First Century Resistance and (with Kali Akuno) of Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi. 

 

Photo credit: Eddie Grant       Vivian Lewis, McMaster University Librarian and Olivia Grange, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Government of Jamaica

 

McMaster University Librarian, Vivian Lewis, has penned her article, ‘Celebrating Miss Lou’s Historical Record: A Canadian Perspective’

 

 

Lewis was reappointed for a five-year term as McMaster University Librarian in 2018.

 

Since her appointment in 2013, the Library has made significant contributions in support of the University’s broader research mission, taking a leadership role in key campus-wide projects.

  

Lewis is a recognized leader in her field. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), both headquartered in Washington, D.C. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries from 2014 to 2018. 

 

Lewis first came to McMaster in 1991 as a government information specialist. She assumed the role of Associate University Librarian in 2003. 

 

Black Lives Matter Canada has a New Centre for Art and Activism

By Neil Armstrong

Black Lives Matter -- Canada has purchased a 10,000 square foot building that will be the home of its Wildseed Centre for Art and Activism on Cecil Street, a street with a long history of Black activism in Toronto.

Syrus Marcus Ware, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter-- Canada and a core-team member of Black Lives Matter –- Toronto, says the centre will be a hotbed of activity and a community hub for activist groups to have meetings, for dance classes, art, children’s programming, community gardens and much more.

“It’s a fully accessible building and it will be this home for community. This was a project that we are trying to build out space. We know that there are not enough Black art spaces and there isn’t space for Black activists to organize and connect together, space for Black families who have been affected by police violence. Like there’s all of these gaps that Wildseed Centre is going to fill.”

He said 24 Cecil Street will be the home of so many people for the next couple of generations.

On March 7, 2020, Black Lives Matter -- Canada launched the Wildseed Centre for Art and Activism at 76 Geary Street, a space it rented after working on the idea for about a year. However, the enthusiasm of opening and welcoming people was short-lived when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down everything globally on March 12.

It did not, however, stop the Black Arts Fellowship, which was initially programmed to happen at Wildseed Centre with twenty-one fellowships with seven residences. This was switched to online while the centre itself remained closed.

“This is really exciting to be now moving into this new building and the city is opening up and we’re going to be able to actually have people in the space and working and organizing,” says Ware. 

Black Lives Matter -- Canada will be doing a couple of soft launches during the last two weeks of July and then it should be fully open after some renovations in the fall, pending COVID-19.

Ware says a motion will be going forward to the City for the building and for renovations and the group has been working with Councillor Mike Layton, who represents Ward 11, University-Rosedale, to get a sense of the landscape and who they are going to be able to collaborate with in the neighbourhood.

“Excited to help announce that Black Lives Matter Canada has purchased a property at 24 Cecil Street, which will become the permanent home of BLM’s Wildseed Centre - the 1^st centre for art and activism of its kind in North America,” says Councillor Layton in a tweet.

The group is to receive $250,000 from the City for capital costs and upgrades.

“We’re really excited about being connected to some of the great organizing groups that are in the neighbourhood, including the steelworkers which are right across the hall. This project is a project that is created through Black Lives Matter -- Canada so it is something that will be used for the whole network so Black Lives Matter chapters from coast to coast to coast can come and use Wildseed Centre and can meet out of there and have organizing and connect so it will be a space, it will be used quite broadly,” says Ware.

He says Cecil Street was also home to the first trans group in the country run by BIPOC trans activists in the 1970s. Cecil Street is also near First Baptist Church Toronto, founded in 1826, that has the distinction of being both the very first Baptist church and the oldest Black institution in Toronto.

“Marcus Garvey organized in an office just down the road on College Street and, of course, we’re close by to A Different Booklist and sort of really feeling like we’re kind of in this beautiful Black neighbourhood that has a history that we’re part of.”

From 1925 to 1982, the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Hall, built by West Indian immigrants and African Canadians, was located at 355 College Street, just steps from Kensington Market.

In an August 17, 2018 article titled “Marcus Garvey’s Place in Toronto’s History” in Spacing magazine, Cheryl Thompson, an assistant professor in the School of Creative Studies at Ryerson University, notes that, “While the UNIA Hall is long gone, the location serves as a reminder of a time when a different generation of Black Torontonians gathered in that space to build community and foster Black self-love.”

 

The new location of the Wildseed Centre is also near 20 Cecil Street that was purchased in 1956 by Donald Willard Moore and two other members of the Negro Citizenship Association. The 12-room house was converted into a recreation centre for the West Indian community called Donavalon Centre.

“In addition to serving as the home of the United Negro Improvement Association and the Toronto Negro Citizenship Association, the Donavalon Centre offered a range of activities and services, including dances, teas, Sunday programs, insurance for its members, and the publication of a quarterly newsletter,” notes an article at the website, donaldmoorecanada.com. 

In 2000, the City of Toronto Culture Division erected a plaque at 20 Cecil Street to commemorate Moore’s significant contributions.

 

Moore was a community leader and civil rights activist who fought to change Canada’s exclusionary immigration laws. He led a delegation on April 27, 1954 to protest the immigration policies.

Camille Turner, performance artist, curator and educator has also conducted artistic research into the Black Grange area of the city.

Black Lives Matter – Canada is aware of that deep Black history of the neighbourhood and is glad to be there.

Ware says building at 24 Cecil Street has a finished basement with an industrial kitchen and he imagines arts programming and “things that can get messy and wet” being programed in that space.

The first floor can be a place where people come to gather. “One of the things that we loved about some of our organizing spaces is the moments when people have been able to sort of drop in and we wanted to create a drop-in environment where people feel comfortable to just sort of come by and work in the space.” There could be dance classes in another area of the first floor too. 

There is office space on the second floor and on the third floor there is a beautiful event space. 

Black Lives Matter -- Canada is also imagining spaces for people to be able to do recordings and podcasts, and quiet spaces for healing justice supports and therapists to work out of, and a space for artists to organize and practice and try out things. 

It has a wraparound yard so there will also be community gardening and some land justice and land work. 

“We’ve been dreaming of having a Black art and activist space really since we first came to realize that we need to build out Black Lives Matter -- Canada as a thing, so really from the very beginning. We knew that we were going to eventually be creating Black Lives Matter -- Canada as a network and we knew from the very beginning that we wanted to have a space. We thought that Black people deserve a space, that it’s time to have a space so it’s really been at least five or six years of working and sort of planning towards this. This year was the right year and we were able to find a place that really met a lot of our needs.”

Accessibility, light, and connection to a Black neighbourhood were among its important requirements. 

“There are some really wonderful things that came through so it’s been quite a journey to get to this place so we’re really happy to be here and to be able to really share it with the community.”

Ware says Black Lives Matter -- Canada was lucky to get a grant through Black Lives Matter Global to be able to support its fundraising towards the building. It will keep people posted as other fundraising things come up.

“What we saw in the last year, I think, was definitely the beginnings of a revolutionary moment. We’re in a moment of intense activism, of intense arts-based activism. What we saw in the last year also was a dramatic upswing of organizing around abolition and around making Black-affirming places. We also saw a lot of police brutality, we saw families lose their loved ones and we saw people unnecessarily having their lives taken through interactions with law enforcement. 

“So now more than ever we need a space for Black families to gather to organize around their campaigns. We need a space where there is accessible and affordable mental health supports and healing justice supports. We need a space for Black artists to be able to gather, organize and create and do all of the amazing things that are helping to fulfil and sort of sustain us as we go on. We need a space for activist and organizers to be able to come together and meet and help to do the work that is transforming society into a more just place. 

“Now more than ever we need spaces like this. The numbers of Black art spaces are shrinking in this city and there has been a crackdown and a criminalization of dissent and activism so the number of spaces for Black activists to organize safely is very few.”

They are building out a Black family support network and are “creating space for all of those groups that need space to come together and to do the work that they are doing,” says Ware.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reggae Artist Promises Good Vibrations at AFROFEST 2021

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed          Multiple award-winning reggae recording artist, Steele

 

When veteran multiple award-winning reggae recording artist, Steele, steps onstage at the first-ever drive-in showcase at Afrofest, the largest free African music festival in North America, he plans to deliver “110% of uncorrupted Steele, good vibrations and interaction” at his first performance at the annual event. 

He is hoping that people can get out of their cars and party with him. “110% of reggae material because our thing is always family friendly,” he quips about what to expect at this new feature of the festival. 

Billed as AFROFEST 2021, the 33rd annual festival will take place from July 16 to July 25 in two installments – a ticketed, live drive-in performance showcase at Guildwood GO Station in Scarborough on July 17 and 18, and a free of charge virtual event from July 16 to 25. It is organized and presented by Music Africa Canada Inc. in collaboration with the Beaches Jazz Festival.

 

“I’ve always felt like if my work speaks then the calls will come, if not now they will come eventually,” says Steele, who is Jamaican, about his debut performance at the 33-year-old festival.

 

He continues to focus on promoting his work and putting out good music and notes that when the calls come they signal that people recognize his work. 

 

“This call came and I’m blessed because Afrofest is close to us because we are Jamaicans but we’re also descendants from Africa. This is one of those festivals that I’m actually proud to do.”

 

Steele says in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, he is glad that he and other artists will get to do a live performance outside in a drive-in setting. 

 

He says the vibrations will be a little different from all the virtual shows that he has been doing in studios and he welcomes the change.

 

“It is new to me but it’s still outside performing so as long as people show up it’s going to be a different vibe. I try to put in the energy no matter what situation I’m faced with, but I think the good vibes with the sun and the atmosphere and the food, just a different energy will give us some semblance of normality.”

 

Steele says the pandemic has changed everything and before its onset he would have probably been getting ready to do an outside festival in Toronto or another Canadian city.

 

He recently performed on the International Reggae Day on July 1, and last year did 10 to 15 virtual shows. His performances were recorded and sent out to the various shows, including A Tribute to the Legends of Reggae, a Jones & Jones Productions event in February this year.

 

“The format has changed but I try to bring the same energy to it. I’ve always felt that it doesn’t matter if there is one person in the audience; you’re there to perform because you don’t know who this one person is, and you don’t know how much this one person can elevate your movement and your career. It has been different in the sense that you’re not hearing the people shouting or screaming your name, enjoying themselves and the dancing, but the shows are still coming in. The demand is still there for Steele the artist. The compensation is a little bit different,” he says.

 

The artist, who will be featured at the upcoming Rastafest and the Calgary Reggae Festival, says he has to be consistent and “through all the ups and downs, good music and good people will always stay above because when you’re real.”

 

It is that good music that he will bring to the lineup of Afofest’s signature cross continental intersection of dynamic African and diasporic talent and musical style. 

Photo contributed               Imah of Senegal

 

The other performers at the drive-in showcase are Imah (Senegal), Donne Roberts (Madagascar), Slim Flex (Ghana), and DJ Shaqt (Rwanda). 

 

Tickets for the special two-night showcase, AFROFEST 2021 Drive-in edition, are $25.

 “AFROFEST 2021 offers the maximum exposure to African culture. This year, we will include a first-ever highly anticipated drive-in segment with great music, food and other exciting elements as well as our regular virtual festival with over 25 artists from 20 different African and diaspora countries. Other inaugural elements of AFROFEST 2021 are talks which will offer an insight into the interdependencies between India and East Africa and the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in that region,” says Peter Toh, executive and artistic director of Afrofest. 

Toh says there will also be Community Shield awards presented to individuals who are making a difference in the African and Diaspora communities. 

“We look forward to meeting our audiences at the drive-in and online events, and to having our entire artist lineup deliver their best show and compete for the $1,000 cash prize.”

This contact-free experience will be enhanced by the cultural backdrop of merchandise and food vendors, providing fashion, crafts and other shopping, as well as a variety of delectable onsite cuisines representing tasty menu offerings from across Africa and the Caribbean. 

 

Online, audiences can enjoy the likes of Asiko Afrobeat Ensemble (Nigeria), Tich Maredza (Zimbabwe), Hassan El Hadi(Morocco), Zambe (Togo), Afrogospel Band (Congo), Kaisha Lee (Jamaica), Kaabi Kouyate (Guinea), Beenie Gunter(Uganda), Sweet Maria (Angola), and the list is still growing.

Photo contributed               Donne Roberts of Madagascar

 

Afrofest is a top cultural draw on the Toronto events calendar. Usually a two-day event, it has attracted crowds of up to 125,000 in a single year, and grown from previous maximum capacity at Queen’s Park to Woodbine Park. 

 

As a marquee celebration of African culture, the Music Africa team has risen to current unprecedented times by programming a multidimensional, immersive festival experience to ensure that audiences can enjoy maximum AFROFEST 2021 exposure. 

 

This year’s event promises to be informative, engaging and entertaining. With various artists expressing their work through multiple mediums and platforms, AFROFEST 2021 is a definite “must do” and “must see” for summer, notes a media release.

The festival’s parent company, Music Africa, is a not-for-profit community-based organization that promotes African music in Toronto through Afrofest, its annual flagship music event. 

Established in 1990, Music Africa is among the oldest and most respected organizations promoting African music in Canada. Through its activities and events, such as the annual Black History Month Concert Series, Music Africa is committed to enhancing appreciation and awareness of African music among Canadians and continues to strive to establish Toronto as a thriving global centre for African music.

The Beaches Jazz Festival began in 1989 when local jazz artists were booked to perform at the Kew Gardens Bandshell in the beach area of Toronto. Now celebrating its 32nd anniversary, the festival has blossomed into a month-long mid-summer event that attracts thousands of fans and makes a major contribution to promoting Canadian jazz excellence locally and on the world stage.

 

Check afrofest.ca for more information about AFROFEST 2021.

 

 

New Anthology Inspired by the Pandemic Introduces a Toronto Poet

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed          Canute Lawrence, educator, thespian and now published poet

 

In 2020, when Canute Lawrence decided to perform some of his newly written poems inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic on Facebook Live, who would have thought that they would be published a year later in his first book,Pathology of a Pandemic, a collection of poems.   

 

In those performances, Lawrence embodied the characters of the various personas in some of his poems, including his deceased grandmother, with costume to boot.

 

Now, Pathology of a Pandemic provides readers a 52-page book to read at their leisure, but also to relive vicariously the thoughts and processes that Lawrence highlights from his experience of this pandemic. His poetry is straightforward and riveting. 

 

Not only does he write about the isolation and physical/social distancing, clinical hand washing and mandatory mask-wearing pandemic requirements but also the psychological journeys, the introspections and reflections that one undergoes in these moments of being with oneself.

 

Having our/his freedom curtailed also meant that he could observe world events and give a critical, creative and clever analysis of the times. One only has to read his poem “Superiority Complex” about what was happening south of Canada’s border in 2020 under the leadership of a now former president of the United States.

 

As a Black man charting his path in the world, Lawrence also uses his voice to challenge anti-Black racism, discrimination and bigotry. Not only dwelling on the personal, he also takes into consideration the collective experience when he declares that “Resistance is my Action” and “I Kneel to Stand Strong” – the titles of two of his poems.

 

Some of the poems are written in Jamaica’s Nation Language or Jamaican Creole – “In Di Blink of an Eye: a post from mi dead granny,” “A Mechiz From Mi Dead Granny,” “Wifey Covets ‘Covids’ Matey Romance,” “Mi Waah Guh Back a Mi Yaawd,” and “Covid Labrish” – so the poet has included a glossary to make sure no one is left out of the conversation/message in these poems.

 

The breadth of his poetry includes the thoughts of a wheelchair user who compares the realities of living to things that COVID-19 have amplified in “Who Will Listen To Me,” a check in and tribute to the “sistahs,” and a dedication to family -- “A Tribute to My Father (Posthumously).”

 

Lawrence, a language and literature teacher for more than three decades, has taught in the public school systems in Jamaica, the United States of America, and Canada where he resides. 

 

He is a lover of the arts and a thespian who has appeared in, and directed several theatre productions in Jamaica, New York City, and Toronto. Lawrence is a full-time teacher with the Toronto District School Board.

 

He loves great cuisine, reading, and traveling. Lawrence will be off from school for a year and plans to travel to different places, including Jamaica, where he will host the international launch of the book and readings. He will also travel to the United States for readings and host a book launch in Toronto later in the year.

 

Pathology of a Pandemic is published by FriesenPress in Victoria, British Columbia and is available on FriesenPress Bookstore, Amazon, Kindle Bookstore, iTunes Bookstore, Applebooks, Google Books, Google Play, in major bookstores like Chapters-Indigo, and Barnes & Noble.

 

Shortly after being published, FrisenPress informed Lawrence that the book was a bestseller. That designation is reserved for a book that sells the most copies of all their publications each week and during their monthly cycle.

 

That news has put a spring in Lawrence’s step and as Dr. Denise Jarrett -- a literature professor at Morgan State University and the friend who encouraged him to publish the anthology – says in the foreword, “Lawrence’s collection of poems is filled with laughter, hope, love, and paradoxically, a sense of loss, anger, and misery. He captures the readers with his pieces that are beautifully written yet emotional and even devastating.”

 

This collection of poems is well worth the read and you’ll laugh out loud while doing so too.