Dynamic Jamaican-Canadian Storyteller Adds YouTube Channel

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed        Sandra Whiting, storyteller, speaker and event host

Storytelling is at the heart of everything Sandra Whiting does and now she has added “Sandra Seh,” her new YouTube Channel where she shares her opinions on various matters.

 

The storyteller, speaker and event host says her mother was very good at storytelling when conversing with her during her childhood in Jamaica. On immigrating to Canada many years ago, Whiting met Dan Yashinsky, a well-known Canadian storyteller, author, and community organizer. 

 

It was while attending a festival he organized just to listen to the wordsmiths that she started falling in love with hearing stories again. 

 

“I had always been a reader. I can still remember the feel of those old books in the library and getting into the stories so it’s been a long time,” she says noting that, “From I learn to read and learn to hear words and learn to hear stories I’ve loved them.”

 

Her family required that everyone shared whatever they were experiencing so storytelling felt very natural to her.

 

Whiting says whenever she talks, people want to listen, and sometimes individuals remind her of things she told them twenty years ago.

 

For many years, Whiting has worked in arts and culture at the Harbourfront Centre, Obsidian Theatre, Factory Theatre, Jamaican Canadian Association and other diverse cultural organizations and events in Canada.  

 

“I get a huge kick out of it. I feel so pleased to be asked and my view of it, especially as an emcee, is that I want the audience to experience the best of what is being presented,” says the court interpreter for Jamaican Patois/Creole.

 

She conceived Kuumba — the longest  running Black History (African Heritage) programme at a major cultural institurion in the city.

 

While Zoom has made it more difficult to engage people, she still hears from participants that they felt warm like everyone was in the same room.

 

Whiting sat on many boards but has stepped back to allow others to fill those roles, however, she is still involved in things that pique her interest.

 

Having embraced social media and digital technology quite a while ago, she says pivoting during the COVID-19 pandemic was not unusual. 

 

“It just made me realize one must embrace what’s new. I don’t understand a lot of things but one thing I also know — find people who know and get them to help you because more people don’t understand things than we think.”

 

Whiting is pleased that she has the ability competent and patient young people to help her. While conscious of the fact that she can reach other people through these media, she wonders if they really hear.

 

During Black History Month, she launched “Sandra Seh” because the month inspires and showcases Black Canadians. Although well aware that Black History is to be supported 365 days a year, her view is that February is “our Christmas.”

 

She says “Sandra Seh” was on her bucket list for a while and she figured now was the time to do it. 

 

“It has reinvigorated me, honestly, amazingly,” says Whiting who thanks her friend, photographer Michael Chambers, for helping her set up a mini studio in her home and did the lighting and her make up.  He also recorded the sessions on her cell phone. Whiting wants people to subscribe to her channel and to share it with others. 

 

Using the Jamaican proverb, “Mout mek fi talk; story jump out!” — she says “our mouths are made to talk and we must share our stories.” Every time she sits down, she writes her thoughts and then records the various topics inspired by lived experiences. 

 

Recently, Whiting signed on with the Black Business and Professional Association to do a project with Toronto’s Little Jamaica in the summer. They will organize a food festival on the street on the Labour Day-long weekend in September. 

 

Their aim is to animate the street and Whiting is planning a clean up of the area on the Victoria Day-long weekend in May. She is inviting people from the community to come out and help to show that they are invested because the community has fallen on hard times. Many of the businesses have been affected by the construction of the Eglinton Light Rail Transit, which started in 2011, the reduction of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and regulations closing businesses for long periods during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Expressing Our Gratitude for Your Support During Our Time of Bereavement

By Neil Armstrong 

The 'Eider Road Posse' from Ensom City, Spanish Town at the Celebration of Life for my mother, Delores Armstrong on March 19, 2022 in Brampton, Ontario.

On behalf of my family, thank you for sharing in the Celebration of Life service held for my mother, Delores Armstrong, fondly known as Dell or Ms. Dell, on March 19, 2022 at the Brampton Funeral Home & Cemetery. Thank you for your condolences and the stories and memories you shared over the past few weeks.

 

We want to thank our family here in Canada, in Jamaica, the United States, the UK and elsewhere, especially my aunts — Gwen (Gigi), Pat, Elaine, Clyte, Ula (June) and Melesa (Lesa).

 

Thanks Uncle Lloyd, my sister-in-law Miranda, my nieces and nephews: Deja, Breanna, Jordan and Nathan, cousins: Juliette and her family, especially 10-year-old Leah (who wrote and recited her poem in tribute to Aunty Dell), Andrea (Nicky), Karen and her family, Dale and his family, Michelle and her family, Steve, Kevin and his family, Andrew and his family, Myrna and her family in the UK, and Avis in Malta.

 

Thanks to Ms. Dell — my mother’s best friend, Delores Barnes — who lives in Florida and was represented by her granddaughter, Natasha who flew in to join us from North Carolina. Thanks Odete, Lance and Gail for all the love you showed my mother.

 

We extend a special thanks to members of the original ‘Eider Road Posse’ who have travelled from across North America to be here: Ms. Ethlyn and her children, Ann and Paul; Andrea, Lasandra, Jean and Andrew,  Shaun, Debbie, Petal, Tony, Sonia and Lance, Christopher, and Robert. They journeyed from Virginia, New York, Georgia, Massachusetts, South Florida, Maryland, Jamaica and Ajax, Ontario to be with us. And we have heard from other members of the Eider Road family and the wider Ensom City fraternity who could not be with us in person but remain very supportive: Mrs. Lawson, Mrs. Fender, Ms. Prendergast, Ms. Maureen, Michelle, Rohan, Ewart, Junior, and The Chapman sisters: Rose, Pat, Sonia, Sharon and Burneata.

 

Thank you to friends of my sister in the US who became an extended family to us: Zandrine Magloire and her family, LaVonnie, Elaine, Ruth, Cora, and Fitzroy Matthews who prayed with us and Dell in the last remaining minutes of her life.

A family shot at the repast

 

The Petrojam group has been a strong support to my father, Air Canada did the same for my brother, Andrew, and I am thankful for the support of the RJRGleaner Group, the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention (Black CAP), and Alzheimer Society Peel. 

 

Thanks to Central Park Baptist Church for its unwavering support, especially Pastor Soedi Antonie; the Palliative Care Team at Brampton Civic Hospital, the oncologists, and all those who made my mother as comfortable as possible over the last nine weeks of her life.

 

 

Family at the repast after the Celebration of Life service and the burial

Thank you, Itah Sadu of A Different Booklist Cultural Centre: The People’s Residence for all your love and support, and to Abena Perryman of Andrew Perry for designing the funeral program with so much creativity.

 

Thanks to all of my friends who have reached out to us over the past couple weeks.

More family pics from the repast

 

Thanks to the staff of Brampton Funeral Home and Cemetery for their assistance in making everything happen so smoothly. Four years ago, when I came to the funeral home with my parents to make their funeral arrangements, I did not realize that at least one of them would be no longer with me on March 4, 2022. 

Longtime friends at the repast/reception

 

I’ve left the biggest THANK YOU to my sister, Sharon, who although she lives in the Bronx was always in tune with the health needs of Dell. From she came to visit on December 20, she hasn’t left. She was committed to providing Dell with all the help and comfort that she needed. THANK YOU, Sharon, and also to Blue, Andrew and Duke for being a part of Dell’s strong support network.

My mother, Delores Armstrong, was laid to rest on March 19, 2022 in Brampton, Ontario, Canada

EULOGY for Delores Armstrong presented at a Celebration of Her Life on March 19, 2022 at Brampton Funeral Home & Cemetery by Neil Armstrong

 

 

My mother, Delores Armstrong, was from humble beginnings and would have thought this is too much fuss about her today, but we are here to honour her by celebrating her life. We — my siblings and I — called her Dell, the name we heard our father fondly calling her. She was known by many as ‘Miss Dell’ — her beloved nieces and nephews called her Aunty Dell — to her grandchildren, Deja and Jordan, she was simply Grandma.

 

Dell, 79, was born on September 15, 1942 to Florence and James Scarlett in Lower Buxton, in the garden parish of St. Ann, Jamaica. She died on March 4, 2022 in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. I think she was destined to love colours because her mother’s maiden name was ‘Green,’ her father’s surname “Scarlett’ and she met my father, Henry Armstrong, whose nickname is ‘Blue.’ All of this helps me to weave an intimate tapestry of her life in this tribute to her.

 

She attended Lower Buxton Elementary School, and upon finishing she became a class monitor and received one-on-one instruction from her teacher — she was the apple of her teacher’s eye. She excelled in home economics. It was in Kingston that she was taught dressmaking by Miss Fraser, now deceased, — the mother of her lifelong friend, Delores Barnes, who resides in Florida — and she eventually became a dressmaker and a stay-at-home mother. Working from home also meant that she saw the opportunity to engage in something else that she loved — taking care of children — she was a popular babysitter. That love continued when we immigrated to Canada.

 

In 1960, Dell met Henry in Kingston where she had relocated to help her sister, Lurline. They subsequently had three children: Sharon, Neil and Andrew and eventually moved to Eider Road in Ensom City, Spanish Town in 1973. Walton (Mark) Campbell, her first child, and Duke, Henry’s son would eventually join us there. On June 26, 1982, the couple were married in St. Andrew.

 

Dell was kind, compassionate, humble, hospitable, and always willing to lend a helping hand in any way she could. Needless to say, our home was a welcoming place for many relatives and friends. Eider Road was where she shone in our immediate family and the extended family as we called the Eider Road Posse. It was on this road that communal baking skills were showcased, where we celebrated and mourned together, where many of us as children got ready on a Sunday to attend Ensom City Gospel Chapel. It was also where New Year’s Eve street parties or annual Labour Day projects happened and Dell was always involved. Some members of the Eider Road family have travelled long distances to be here today to honour her and we thank them.

 

She taught us compassion by demonstrating it; there were times I would see her crying and ask her what was wrong. Her answer surprised me — she was thinking of the hardship a family member or friend was experiencing in Jamaica and she offered whatever help she could from here. She gave and many times lent money wherever she could. Whenever I heard her expression — “Poor so and so” — I knew she was thinking about the situation of someone she cared about in Jamaica or here. She demonstrated love and kindness by her deeds and never sought to make a public display of her actions.

 

She was a storyteller and someone who made people laugh at any moment. Her stories about life in Lower Buxton, in Kingston, or Spanish Town would have us in stitches. We would hear the stories of how at one time her father planted everything that we ate – sweet potatoes, yam, pumpkin, whatever ground provision you knew, he planted it – how her mother was a kind and patient woman, and about the childhood pranks Dell played on her siblings. At home here in Brampton, she was humorous and always found African movies or gospel groups to watch and sing along to on her tablet, or word search puzzles when not cooking or gardening. We would join her sometimes to try to harmonize in the singing. Her sisters — my aunts Ula (June) and Melesa (Lesa) — reminded me that wherever she was, there was always food, and Dell believed in cooking more than for her family. If anyone stopped by, there was something to offer.

 

She was loved by her family and friends, and that was recently demonstrated when Gail Lywood — a child Dell babysat, and the daughter of family friends, Odete and Lance Lywood — who is studying to be a nurse, came to visit her wearing her nurse uniform and brought her stethoscope to check Dell’s vitals.

 

Dell is predeceased by her parents, her sisters — Norma (Pam), Lurline (Lizzy), Esmeridina (Esmie) and Sarah — and her brother Arthur (Brother Tan Tan).

 

We miss her dearly and thank God that he placed her in our lives — a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, sister-in-law, friend to many, and such a jovial person. We will miss her laughter and how she could easily find those moments to lift our spirit. Every time I look out in the backyard garden and see the roses blooming, I will think of her, especially the pink one that my brother, Andrew, bought her and she loved the Rose of Sharon.

 

 THANK YOU to all of you for attending today’s service to help us honour her, especially those of you who have travelled from afar. Thank you for the support from our family, here and abroad, who continue to lift us up in prayer and visits in this difficult period.

 

Dell is no longer here with us but we will cherish all the memories we have of her. 

 

Yes, I am guilty of making a fuss about my mother today, but she deserves every accolade and commendation. This is my final salute to her.

 

Rest well, Dell, and walk good. 

 

You are at peace and no longer in pain. We will miss you dearly.

 

 

 

Black CAP Celebrates the History and Activism of Black AIDS Service Organizations

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed       Angela Robertson, executive director of Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre

The Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention (Black CAP), Canada’s largest Black-specific AIDS service organization, chose the end of February to reflect on the legacy of Black AIDS service organizations (ASOs) at its virtual Black History Month celebration.

 

For 33 years, the agency has worked to respond to the threat of HIV and AIDS in Toronto’s African, Caribbean and Black communities guided by its motto, ‘Because All Black People’s Lives Are Important.’ This is a reminder of its commitment to the human rights and dignity of all Black people who are vulnerable to HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). 

 

“Black joy is an act of resistance. It is an affirmation of our humanity when so much around us seeks to dehumanise us,” said Angela Robertson, executive director of Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre and the keynote speaker at what Black CAP billed as “LEGACY: A History of Service.” She was referring to the entertainment vibes provided by DJ Donovan Thompson at the start of the event.

 

Robertson thanked Black CAP for using the Black History Month gathering “in naming the presence of racism and the persistence of anti-Black racism in our multicultural Canada and, as well, affirming the work that we do daily to interrupt, resist, affirm and support communities and networks that really, literally, save lives.”

 

Noting that this is the seventh year of the United Nations-proclaimed International Decade for People of African Descent 2015-2024, she located herself as an immigrant in Canada.

 

A former chair of Black CAP’s board of directors, Robertson underscored African-American author, activist and queer scholar James Baldwin’s statement that “History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us.” 

 

She said Black history is 365 days of the year and commended Black CAP and the African and Caribbean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario (ACCHO) for doing work that has strengthened Black, African and Caribbean individuals and communities.

 

“You have built and kept alive a credible base of advocacy, of activism and community that have made it possible for others to continue the fight against HIV and AIDS-related stigma and discrimination, against homophobia and against anti-Black racism.”

 

She located herself personally as benefiting from the political and social change orientation to what they do as service delivery.

 

Robertson said she considers the agency and the council as living beings who serve not as charity but carrying out social change work. She noted that the gathering was there to say thanks for that continued legacy.

 

“Over the long history of service to Black peoples, you undertook research and led advocacy that amplified the differential impacts of HIV/AIDS on Black people and called for strategies that addressed the specifics of our needs — always underscoring this work cannot be successfully done without the leadership and meaningful involvement of African, Caribbean and Black peoples living with HIV/AIDS.” 

 

Robertson emphasized the enormity of the work that both organizations do and the task ahead out of the pandemic, as well as the ongoing resistance to anti-Black racism. However, she said so too are the great possibilities contained in ensuring that those impacted by HIV/AIDS live lives with dignity and “our support and the opportunity to continue inspiring individuals and collective acts of resistance, of activism, to vision and create the society we want to live in.”

 

“My brother, Courtnay McFarlane, is always reminding us of the importance of naming names and often the names of our champions are not reflected or embedded in the historical archives of services and service organizations in this city. And we’re only called and our names are only called in this Black History Month celebration.”

 

Robertson proceeded to name a few individuals “who give life to the legacies we now celebrate and ask that you call their names year-round.” They include Camille Orridge, “who saw a need in the early 80s at the height of the HIV pandemic and organized to convene others to create the services we now affirm as legacy.” Recently, the University of Toronto announced that Orridge is one of eleven individuals who will be conferred with an honorary degree later this year. 

Photo contributed  Camille Orridge receiving an award from Andrew Campbell, then chair of the agency's board of directors, at Black CAP 30th anniversary gala at the Royal Ontario Museum in 2019

 

The list of those significant in the development of Black CAP included Erica Mercer and Tony Caines, Black workers at Toronto Public Health and the City of Toronto, Douglas Stewart, the inaugural executive director of Black CAP, ACCHO’s first coordinator Esther Amoako, a founder of AIDS Alert Ghana, Courtnay McFarlane “whose artistry rooted Black CAP in Africanness with the use of the Adinkra symbol,” researchers Winston Husbands and Wangari Tharao, Trevor Gray, Junior Harrison, Lena Soje, and others. 

 

“That this is but a short list and I urge you to continue to call the names that have made a difference in our lives,” exhorted Robertson.

 

At its 30^th anniversary gala held at the Royal Ontario Museum in 2019, the agency honoured members of its original steering committee: Orridge, Stewart, Mercer and Stefan Collins. It also celebrated Harrison, McFarlane, Husbands, Falconer, Brian Parris and Phillip Pike.

 

For Gareth Henry, executive director of Black CAP, the celebration was happening in the context of Black people continuing to confront and deal with anti-Black racism in Toronto, and in the “fight for our rights to be not othered but to be treated with the dignity and respect that we all deserve.”

 

The event included a panel discussion involving Dionne Falconer, Chris Leonard and Lena Soje, former volunteers and staff of Black CAP. Soje highlighted the importance of making space for the needs of older LGBTQS2+ people and for Black CAP to include young people born with HIV in its programming.

 

Taking his cue from that suggestion, Henry announced that Black CAP would be hiring two youth born with HIV to work with all the staff to learn and gain the necessary skills within an AIDS service organization.

Photo contributed      Gareth Henry, executive director of the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention (Black CAP)

 

A highlight of the evening was the presentation of Black CAP’s Lifetime Advocacy Award to trailblazers: MPP Jill Andrew, Ontario NDP culture and heritage critic and women's issues critic for the Official Opposition, leadership coach and former manager of the Confronting Anti-Black Racism Unit at the City of Toronto and former director of community resources at the City, Aina-Nia Ayo’dele Grant, and Al Ramsay, associate vice president, LGBTQ2+ & Black Customer Segments, TD Bank Group.

 

Alluding to something his granny in Jamaica would say, Ramsay said his heart was full and that it was important to recognize that “our community is at the heart of what we all do.”

 

He acknowledged that he was standing on the shoulders of “great giants” in the Black community” and said he was very emotional when he received the email informing him that he was a recipient of the award.

 

Describing the agency as a lifeline in the community, Ramsay said there are many misnomers about the Black community not working together but Monday’s event proved that was not the case. 

Photo contributed       Al Ramsay, associate vice president, LGBTQ2+ & Black Customer Segments, TD Bank Group

 

“There is something very exceptional when you get recognized by your community, and for me, what that means is both the Black and queer community. I thrive to bring my whole self to everything that I do, and so for me, this recognition is saying yes, you have done so Aina-Nia. There is a feeling of true peace that there is something I must be doing right,” says Grant, an ancient wisdom teacher and spiritual liberation activist who recently retired from the City of Toronto and was joining the event from Jamaica where she is on vacation.

 

Grant said many years ago she chose Black CAP as her favourite place because of the work that it does, the way it is done and its clients. “What I do know is for as long as I’ve been a part of Black CAP, Black CAP shows up for everybody.”

 

She said the work of the agency is beyond HIV/AIDS education. “You feed people, you bring home to people, you hire the people who you care for and then you mentor them and then you send them off and then people come back. This is community, this is Ubuntu; this is our African way of being.”

Photo contributed       Aina-Nia Ayo'dele Grant, former director of Community Resources, City of Toronto

 

Tearing up before speaking, Jill Andrew said when she got the email she was shocked, speechless and she cried. She said Black CAP was one of the first organizations that embraced her when she first came out as her full self as a Black queer woman.

 

She commended Black CAP for its work, especially the AYA Project that has been addressing food insecurity of some of its African, Black and Caribbean clients during the pandemic. 

 

Andrew said the agency’s work expands beyond HIV/AIDS to “caring about our hearts, our minds, caring about where we lay our heads, caring about our self- esteem and our dignity.”

Photo contributed     Jill Andrew, MPP and Ontario NDP culture and heritage critic and women's issues critic for the Official Opposition

 

The inaugural Black CAP Lifetime Advocacy Award is given to individuals who have focused their efforts on the betterment of the community. “Their dedication to advocating for the important and necessary work of the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention has not gone unnoticed.”

 

The agency says it appreciates their steadfast support and thanks them for all that they have done and continue to do for African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) communities.