Black and Caribbean Book Affair Celebrates Resilience and Storytelling

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed     Daniel McNeil is the author of Thinking While Black: Translating the Politics and Popular Culture of a Rebel Generation published by Rutgers University Press. He will be in conversation with pop culture critic and journalist Dalton Higgins.   

The 2022 Black and Caribbean Book Affair — a four-day event — kicks off on October 12 under the theme “Renewed, Resilient and Ready to Tell My Story.” Everyone is welcome to join the celebration of ideas, perspectives, and stories as we applaud the writers, authors, illustrators, and storytellers, who make up the engine room of literature.

 

Organized by Blackhurst Cultural Centre, the festival opens with the launch of the book, Welcome to Blackhurst: An Iconic Toronto Neighbourhood at 6:00 p.m. This selection of biographies presents a snapshot of life in the Bloor/Bathurst/Annex neighbourhood. It is an opportunity to meet game-changers whose work influenced matters in Toronto and Canada.

 

On the following evening, Edisa Martinez, a former deputy sheriff, social worker, poet and musician, will discuss his book, Christ and The Justice System: Overrepresentation of Minorities, with community advocate Louis March, founder and director of the Zero Gun Violence Movement in Toronto.

 

In the daytime on Friday, students, the public, and organizations will experience a Walking Tour and Book Talk of Welcome to Blackhurst: An Iconic Toronto Neighbourhood. However, in the evening Daniel McNeil, author of Thinking While Black: Translating the Politics and Popular Culture of a Rebel Generation will be in conversation with journalist, author and pop culture critic Dalton Higgins. McNeil is a professor in the department of gender studies at Queen’s University and the Queen’s national scholar chair in Black studies. 

 

“This uniquely interdisciplinary study of Black cultural critics Armond White and Paul Gilroy spans continents and decades of rebellion and revolution.
Drawing on an eclectic mix of archival research, politics, film theory, and pop culture, Daniel McNeil examines two of the most celebrated and controversial Black thinkers working today. Thinking While Black takes us on a transatlantic journey through the radical movements that rocked against racism in 1970s Detroit and Birmingham, the rhythms of everyday life in 1980s London and New York, and the hype and hostility generated by Oscar-winning films like 12 Years a Slave.”

 

The programming on October 15 will run from 11:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and starts with a workshop, The Essentials of Publishing, with editors Patrick Crean, Shivaun Hearne, and Dwayne Morgan in discussion. Author Gayle Gonsalves will be the moderator. Space is limited so those who are interested should submit their names at blackhurstcc.org.

Photo contributed   Poet and author Dwayne Morgan will discuss the essentials of publishing

 

In “Passport to Moms Cooking,” Chef Latonya Bentley will share the secret ingredients and the rich tradition of moms, recipes, and cooking. Taken from interviews and conversations over the years, Bentley has cooked up a collection of memories and goodies from 12:30-1:30 p.m.

Photo contributed     Chef Latonya Bentley

Award-winning author Yolanda Marshall will host a Children’s Book Party from 1:45-2:2:45 p.m. Her children’s book column, the Lit Corner is featured bi-weekly in the Caribbean Camera newspaper. This will be a chance to meet and mingle with Canadian children’s authors.

Photo contributed        Children's author Yolanda Marshall

 

What better way to “Get Your Groove On” than to join author, leadership coach, and spiritual liberation activist Aina-Nia Ayo’dele and her book, Self: An Inner Journey to Re-Membering Your Power. Engage with Aina-Nia as you re-member your power from 3:00-3:00 p.m.

Photo contributed     Leadership coach and spiritual liberation activist Aina-Nia Ayo'dele

 

On Facebook Live from 3:30-4:00 p.m., Jonathan Escoffery, author of If I Survive You,
will be in conversation with host and journalist Neil Armstrong. The book is a collection of connected short stories that are Jamaican American, American Jamaican, hilarious and timely. Escoffery is an award-winning Miami-born author of Jamaican parentage who lives in California.

Photographer David Ofori Zapparoli showcases his latest book, Street Level: A Search For Belonging from 4:15-4:45 p.m. Street Level is a collection of photographs from around the world by photographer, cinematographer, cultural animator, and youth arts programmer David Zapporali. His work has been included in private collections, museums, exhibitions and galleries in Berlin, Washington, Paris and beyond. 

 

 

"He's been published in the Anthology of African and Indian Ocean Photography. His work is in numerous private and public collections, including the estate of Nelson Mandela, Canada's Consul General of Jamaica, and the art galleries of Ontario and Alberta. His work has been exhibited internationally, including Washington, D.C., Berlin, Paris, Sao Paulo, and Bamako. Early in his career he worked as a cinematographer on several independent films that belong to public collections.

      He's done considerable work in the area of youth arts programming. In 2000, he was the first coordinator of the Art City after school arts program in the St. Jamestown neighbourhood."

The day culminates with a panel discussion. Walter Rodney’s seminal book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, was published fifty years ago. Scholars and activists, Chevy Eugene and David Austin, will engage in a discussion about Rodney moderated by educator and radio host, Thando Hyman.

 

Eugene is a PhD candidate at York University in the Social and Political
Thought (SPTH) program. His research focuses on the creative arts as key instruments in the advocacy for Caribbean Reparations. Austin is the author of You Don’t Play with Revolution: The Montreal Lectures of C.L.R. James(2009) and Fear of a Black Nation Race, Sex, and Security in the Sixties Montreal. He is the 2014 winner of the Casa de las Americas Prize. His writing engages the work of C.L.R. James, Frantz Fanon, Sylvia Wynter, Hannah Arendt, Walter Rodney and Linton Kwesi Johnson in relation to politics, poetry and social movements. Thando Hyman is a groundbreaking educator in the City of Toronto. She is the host of African Woman and Family on CIUT 89.5 FM.

 

All of the events, except the Facebook Live conversation with Jonathan Escoffery, are in person and take place at Blackhurst Cultural Centre, 777 Bathurst Street in Toronto.

 

The 2022 Black and Caribbean Book Affair is supported by:

 

Dundurn Press 

Simon & Schuster

Rutgers University Press

McClelland & Stewart

Toronto Arts Council

Caribbean Camera

 

 

An  upcoming Book Launch

 

On October 20, 6:00-8:00 p.m., Blackhurst Cultural Centre will host the launch of Mary Anne Chambers’ memoir, From the Heart: Family. Community. Service, published by Dundurn Press. She will be in conversation with veteran journalist Ron Fanfair.