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.