New Book Deals with Regrets and Reconciliation

By Neil Armstrong

[Garfield Ellis passed away this morning (March 16, 2018) at a hospital in Toronto so I am re-publishing this story that was first published in the North American Weekly Gleaner in April 2016. A Memorial Service will be held on March 24, 4:00-8:00 p.m. at Covenant Funeral Home, 2505 Eglinton Avenue East, Scarborough.]

Authors Marlon James, left, and Garfield Ellis at an event at the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library on Feb. 18, 2016 where James was interviewed by Cameron Bailey, TIFF's artistic director. Photo credit: Eddie Grant

A new novel, The Angels’ Share, is a story about the search for redemption and the discovery that redemptive peace comes with acceptance and forgiveness.

That’s according to its author, Jamaica-born, Toronto-based Garfield Ellis, who describes the writing of it as being an on-and-off process.

He started it ten years ago, then stopped to work on something else, and went back to it.

“In terms of the setting for the book, when I decided where to set the story, it was after I went to Calabash one year and heard somebody say that the people of that community would never see themselves in the novels that read at Calabash. And so, I decided that the next novel I write I’m going to set it in southern St. Elizabeth.”

Ellis says he had the idea of a father and son story and trying to explore the kinds of decisions that men make in their lives and how they affect their sons.

“And perhaps, in a way, trying to get my own son to understand the decisions that I make.”

He says this is a theme in the book where it is very difficult for a father, who does not live in the same home as his son because he made a pragmatic decision somewhere early in his life, to try to have his son understand why he did that.

This, even though during the whole time it hurts his son so much not be a part of his father’s life, says Ellis, about exploring the estrangement between father and son.

The book did not require a lot of research like his other books, but he was very meticulous about the setting.

“The setting of the book is a road trip and so I drove the entire trip. I took photographs of the landscape, I went to Appleton Estates and did the whole tour and took photographs. For me, setting is very important,” says Ellis, who always wants his books to feel authentic.

Everton Dorril, a rising star at a Jamaican beverage company, immediately fears the worst when his stepmother, Una, calls one morning to tell him his father, Nigel, is missing.

Everton soon discovers that his father has run off to track down a woman he has been in love with for thirty-five years.

An “outside” child born to his father’s mistress, Everton deeply resents his father and hates the idea of jeopardizing the most important moment in his career to go find him, but feels he has no other choice.

Everton discovers that his father, frightened and unhappy with the failings of the past, is seeking closure and reconciliation.

The theme of memory is prevalent in the book and according to Ellis, “when you’re coming to terms with your mortality it’s the memories that keep you.”

He says memories are important and it is futile to try to go back in one’s life to fix some memories.

“So part of it is also acceptance, understanding what memories are and trying to create as many memories as possible.”

Ellis, who is the author of five published books, says there a lot of things in this book, “that when I look at it again, I say to myself I have no control over this book. This book is in and of itself its own thing.”

He says the scene in which Angela’s name is defined as being Spanish for “angel” was written before the book’s title, The Angels’ Share, was decided and everything works out perfectly.

The angels’ share is the term used for the natural process of evaporation and fermentation when rum is left to age in massive copper casks at the Appleton Estates and, “no matter how we fill it, when we get back years later, 10 or 15 percent is missing from the top.”

Some years ago, a friend of Ellis in his late 60s had a major surgery and for a while did not expect to live through it. After his recovery, he asked him what regrets he felt while he was laying there on what he thought would be his deathbed.

His reply was, “airs” – moments during his life as a diplomat, aristocrat and lawyer when he had acted superior or aloof to others.

“When you’re aging, when you come face to face with your mortality and you get scared, what do you do?”

The book has also become an exploration of Ellis’ own regrets regarding an elder son who lived with his mother away from him.

“I was supposed to now try to understand how he thought and whether or not it is important to him and what he felt.”

He says it happened as it should and there are always countless opportunities for things to work out within that time frame and “you can’t regret things because they happen the way they should.”

Ellis launched his book, under the patronage of Lloyd Wilks, Jamaica’s consul general at Toronto, at the Consulate General of Jamaica in February.

From left: Paula de Ronde, Garfield Ellis and Olive Senior at a Literary Event at the Consulate General of Jamaica in Toronto on Oct. 9, 2014.

From left: Garfield Ellis, Cherita Girvan-Campbell and Olive Senior at a Literary Event at the Consulate General of Jamaica in Toronto on Oct. 9, 2014.

 The book is published by Akashic Books and is endorsed by Marlon James, winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize, who was recently in the city for a Toronto Public Library event.

[Garfield Ellis launched his novel, 'The Angels' Share,' at the Consulate General of Jamaica on Feb. 25, 2016.]  

Canada's First Black Youth Robotics Team Launched

By Neil Armstrong

Some members of the ACCN TECHTRONIX, Canad's first black youth community robotics team. Photo contributed

A group of 25 youth – members of Canada’s first black youth community robotics team – will enter the 2018 FIRST Robotics international competition this spring and needs the help of the wider community.

On February 12, the African Canadian Christian Network (ACCN) partnered with FIRST Robotics Canada (FRC) and Microsoft to launch the team at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Earlier that day some members of the ACCN TECHTRONIX team, joined by their parents and mentors from the university were on Breakfast Television to demonstrate the operation of their robot.

“To think that it only took five weeks to put that robot together, it’s incredible. It shows you what teamwork does, what mentoring does and it’s just a great effort and great achievement,” said Tom Duever, dean of Ryerson’s Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science.

On January 6, NASA announced the 2018 Build Challenge giving teams around the world six intensive weeks to build their robot.

The students were trained and mentored by Joseph Amankrah, technical instructor at the university, and engineering students of Ryerson’s Rams Robotics and Formula SAE teams in robot-building.

“It’s a joy to see these young minds open up to learning new things. It’s a privilege to work with them,” said Amankrah, the team’s lead coach.

Since January, the team has been learning Solid Works, a CAD modeling software; coding, algorithms, and machine shop work as they plan, design and build the robot.

They have been meeting at the university on Saturdays 10m-8pm, Sundays 1pm-6pm and on Wednesdays 4pm-8pm.

“Black students participate in robotics competitions in school, but to have their own community team is powerful,” said ACCN Chair, Reverend Alvin Nicholson. 

An ACCN TECHTRONIX member at work on the design of their robot.  Photo contributed

Maria Muiruri, 13, of St. Isaac Jogues Catholic School, said she already had a little bit of experience in robotics and thought it was a cool thing to do so she joined the team.

During the summer she went to a camp through her school board where they built a robot and she did a coding program at the public library.

“I’m excited to see how the robot does and fingers crossed we may get to nationals and internationals. But really I’m just glad that we all got to come together as a group and really work hard to build this robot. We’ll just know that we did everything we could in our power and we’ll be proud of ourselves either way.”

Aki John, 14, of Neil McNeil High School, said his mother thought it was a good idea for her sons to become involved in building a robot.

“I thought it was a good idea because we could start building robots and I learnt a  lot about how to build robots, and I think it will help me in my future.”

His brother, Ocean, 15, of Higher Marks Educational Institute, said the opportunity gave him skills for choices in life and having learnt about building, if he wants to be an engineer it might be good for him.

“It’s amazing because I personally always wanted to know how a robot is made and me finally being a part of it, it’s like a dream come true. Finally putting effort into something for so long you’re kind of excited to see how it’s going to be like in real life and I’m very excited,” said Anu Oshodi, 11, of Beverly Acres Public School.

She loved the mixture of girls and boys on the team noting that “girls could do exactly like guys do and guys could do exactly what girls do cause they’re all equal; no one’s higher, no one is lower, it’s equality.”

She said robotics is a good thing to learn to know about prospects in the future but although she wants to be a businesswoman or a lawyer, it was good to get her hands dirty.

Her mother, Veronica Oshodi, said there are less women in the science field so for Anu it is a huge opportunity because it will help to hone her skills in sciences at school.

“What she has learned here so far at the robotics with ACCN it has boosted her confidence and she has taken it back to her school. She tells her friends about all the tools, all the parts that she assembles together with her team. It will create a career path.”

She said coming from Nigeria to Canada is a huge plus for providing this opportunity which they would not have had in Nigeria.

Nadine Lewin, whose 15-year-old son is a part of the team, said he went through a lot of the regular angst and lack of direction as a young black male growing up in a single-parent home.

“We were unbelievably blessed when a member of ACCN saw potential in him and brought him into this program. And in the six weeks I’ve seen my son go from completely scattered to so unbelievably focused.”

He didn’t want to go to school in grade 9 and during the second week of being on the team told her that maybe he will go to George Brown College, and then recently he told her that maybe he will go to Ryerson and take the engineering program.

“It’s a complete 180 from where he was at the beginning of this program. I don’t even think that the ACCN, Ryerson or the mentors truly understand what they’ve done for my son, what they’ve done for me,” she said, noting that her parents are happy to see the breakthrough. 

Another ACCN TECHTRONIX member being mentored by a Ryerson University student on the use of the equipment in the engineering department.  Photo contributed

Cheryl Lewis, executive director of ACCN, said TECHTRONIX was created to nurture black youth’s pursuit of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers, and to demonstrate to them that they have what it takes to be at the STEM table.

ACCN has launched GoFundMe and Canada Helps fundraising campaigns to help the team prepare for the competitions ahead.

The ACCN is a network of black churches working with communities, government and institutions to improve life outcomes for black youth and families since 2006.

To date, through its highly successful education program, ACCN has secured more than $18 million in scholarships and financial aid for talented black students to attend top independent schools in Toronto. They have also created a mentoring program for the students to give back to their community.

A demonstration of the robot at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Some of the ACCN TECHTRONIX team members  who were at the launch of their robot at Ryerson University in Toronto.

 

[This story has been published on the Gleaner's website www.gleanerextra.com.]

Three African Canadians are Among the Newest Members of the Order of Ontario

By Neil Armstrong

From left: Michael Lee-Chin, Myrtha Lapierre and Dr. Upton Allen were invested with the Order of Ontario at Queen's Park, Toronto on Feb. 27, 2018.  Photo credit: Eddie Grant

Three prominent African Canadians were among twenty appointees invested with the Order of Ontario, the province’s highest honour, recently. Three others will be sworn in at a later date.

Myrtha Lapierre, a retired nursing professor in Ottawa; Dr. Upton Allen, a pediatric infectious disease specialist in Toronto; and Michael Lee-Chin, an entrepreneur and philanthropist of Burlington were among those who were honoured at an investiture ceremony held at Queen’s Park on February 27.

“Our province greatly values your work, you left your mark and in many ways you symbolize the aspirations of Ontarians,” said Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and Chancellor of the Order of Ontario, who presided over the ceremony.

She noted that some of the appointees have advanced through knowledge and advocating for innovation and among them are public servants, educators, philanthropists and volunteers.

“You have fought racism, sexism and injustice everywhere. Through more and better services for those in need you have contributed to the development of a sense of belonging among our newcomers, and helped us walk the difficult yet essential path of reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.”

Lapierre broke barriers for black Francophone nurses in Canada and is a leader among Ottawa’s health professionals and the Haitian-Canadian community.

In 1956, Lapierre left Haiti for Ottawa to complete her post secondary education.

She subsequently earned her nursing diploma (1959), along with a BA in nursing education, (1961), and a Master in education (1975), all from Ottawa University, along with human resources management, intercultural communications and conflict resolution certificates.

Lapierre went on to teach nursing for 45 years; 36 years full-time and 9 years part-time (1961-2005). Myrtha was the first Black Francophone nurse in the Ottawa region, notes the blackincanada.com website.

It says through her volunteer work, Lapierre has empowered 1000 immigrant female nursing students to survive and succeed in the provincial education and health systems.

Dr. Allen’s approaches to treating hospital-borne diseases have prevented the deaths of countless children.

The pediatric infectious disease specialist’s multidisciplinary approach to preventing life-threatening infections among children with compromised immune systems has had profound national and global impacts.

“We have many people who are extremely accomplished. To be in their company is really just an honour and a very special privilege. I’m very grateful to have gotten this honour and I look forward to further wonderful work that will be in keeping with the pride that’s associated with this,” says Dr. Allen.

Dr. Allen is from Port Antonio, Jamaica where he attended Titchfield High School before going to the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, where he graduated with honours in medicine and therapeutics in 1981.
He came to Canada in 1983 to pursue specialized paediatric training at the Hospital for Sick Children.
Dr. Allen is also a professor of paediatrics and health policy management and evaluation at the University of Toronto.
In 2010 he received the Harry Jerome award for excellence in the medical profession.

“I think it’s important for people, like my son, to look up to role models, mentors, like the awardees – myself and others – as they move forward with their careers,” he says.

Dr. Allen hopes that he will inspire not just his children, but others from the community, particularly the African Canadian and Caribbean community.

Lee-Chin is an entrepreneur who believes in the power of giving back.
His gifts to local hospitals have improved patient care, and his historic contribution to the Royal Ontario Museum led to the creation of the iconic Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.
Lee-Chin, the founder and chairman of Portland Holdings Inc., was born in Port Antonio in 1951 and came to Canada in 1970.
He enrolled at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario to study engineering but after beginning post-graduate studies, he decided to explore career opportunities within the field of mutual funds. He became a financial advisor and, with growing success, soon progressed to branch manager.
Lee-Chin was the executive chairman of AIC Limited, an investment firm, and is known for his philanthropy which includes a donation of $5 million to McMaster University to establish the AIC Institute of Strategic Business Studies at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business.
His pledge of $30 million to the Royal Ontario Museum’s Renaissance ROM Campaign resulted in the avant-garde glass extension of the ROM – the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal gallery.
In 2011, he was appointed chancellor of Sir Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

“Honours are like the scoreboard but my focus has to be on the playing field. Sometimes you get these honours and you say, wow, I was just doing what I’m passionate about and you keep doing what you’re passionate about and over time you’re recognized,” says Lee-Chin.

He said 40 years ago he accepted a job offer to be a financial advisor wondering what to do with his accent.

“Do I need to blend in, do I drop the accent, and I came to the answer -- No, I want to be the best person that I can be and that is the best me that I can be therefore the accent stays.”

He said having a heavy accent meant people had to listen to what he was saying and it made him different.

“Today, business schools will tell you, they teach that you should always try to differentiate yourself. You don’t want to be like everybody else. Implicitly, my differences were obvious. I embraced my differences because I didn’t want to be someone else.”

The Order of Ontario recognizes individuals whose exceptional achievements in their field have left a lasting legacy in the province, in Canada and beyond. Order members come from all walks of life, represent diverse professions and have played an important role in shaping our province.
“In Ontario, we are all treaty people, all here standing on the shoulders of so many who helped us on our path and those who went before,” said Premier Kathleen Wynne.
She told the recipients that they were remarkable people and while some may feel uncomfortable or unworthy they are all ordinary people who have accomplished extraordinary things.
“Endless possibility is what you inspire,” Wynne said.
Actor and entrepreneur, Daniel Aykroyd, of Sydenham; former politician and UN ambassador, Allan Rock, of Ottawa; and criminal law scholar, Elizabeth Sheehy, of Ottawa were unable to attend and will be invested with the honour at a later date.
Appointments to the Order of Ontario are made on the recommendation of an independent advisory council based on public nominations.

The nomination deadline is March 31 each year. Anyone can nominate a resident or former long-term resident of Ontario for the honour which was established in 1986. 

Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the first investiture of appointees to the Order.

NDP's First Black MP Remembered for His Fearlessness in Fight Against Injustice

By Neil Armstrong

Howard McCurdy wearing his Order of Ontario insignia at the investiture ceremony in 2012. Photo contributed

The late Howard Douglas McCurdy Jr., a pioneer in civil rights activism, politics and education in Canada, is being remembered for championing the concerns of the African Canadian community.

Born on December 10, 1932, in London, Ontario, the former New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament for Windsor, Ontario and first Black MP for the party died from cancer on February 20 at the age of 85.

After Lincoln Alexander, he was the second African Canadian elected to Parliament. 

A memorial service to honour his life was held on March 3 in Windsor.

Before entering federal politics where he was elected to represent Windsor for the NDP from 1984 to 1993 (Windsor-Walkerville 1984-1988, Windsor-Lake St. Clair 1988-1993), he started his political career at the municipal level by being elected to city council in November 1979. He was re-elected in 1982.

Jagmeet Singh, Leader of Canada’s NDP, tweeted that he was very saddened to hear about the passing of McCurdy.

“He was a trailblazer - a powerful civil rights activist, our party's first Black MP, and a role model from my hometown of Windsor. My condolences go out to his family, friends, and community during this difficult time.”

McCurdy arrived in the Amherstburg area at the age of nine and he later admitted that the overt racism that he encountered in those early years motivated him throughout his life.

“I think in each of these areas, I think what he was first and foremost was a teacher,” says Leslie McCurdy about her father’s feats in civil rights, as a politician and as a university professor of microbiology and chemistry.

Having studied at the University of Western Ontario, Assumption University, and Michigan State University, where he earned a doctorate degree in microbiology and chemistry, he joined the University of Windsor’s science department in 1959.

Eventually, he became the country’s first African-Canadian tenured university faculty member and rose to head the department from 1974 to 1979.

His academic career included more than 50 scientific papers and positions with several scientific associations and editorial boards.

At Michigan State, he was the founding president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Leslie said her father mentored a lot of students at the university and in politics he taught Canada about accepting and reveling in its diversity.

In 1962, McCurdy co-founded the Guardian Club, a civil rights organization dedicated to fighting racial discrimination in Windsor. 

He was also a founding member and the first president of the National Black Coalition of Canada, which was formed in 1969.

Jean Augustine, former Member of Parliament and the first African Canadian woman to be elected to the House of Commons, met McCurdy in the mid-1970s and worked closely with him on the National Black Coalition of Canada and other initiatives. 

“Howard was smart, bright and articulate.  He was passionate about Black community issues and did not mince words. He was fearless at challenging injustices and always spoke truth to power,” she said.

Like Jamaica-born Rosemary Brown - Canada's first Black female member of a provincial legislature -- who ran for the leadership of the federal NDP in 1975 but came a close second to Ed Broadbent, McCurdy sought the party leadership in 1989 but Audrey McLaughlin won the selection.

Zanana Akande -- a former Ontario NDP Member of Provincial Parliament and the first Black woman elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario -- described him as a “brilliant man, a scholar, who taught at the university in the states; but of greater significance to me, he was a person who identified injustice and worked against it.”

“He was involved in the “sit-ins” in Amherstburg and Windsor to make the restaurants and social venues open to Blacks. He spoke about the segregated school system in the Windsor area, and so helped to expose it and eventually eliminate it.”

Irene Moore Davis, president of Essex County Black Historical Research Society, met him twenty-five years ago when she was in her third year at the University of Windsor and he was invited to be the keynote speaker at a students’ event.

After her university years, she had an opportunity to serve on the Underground Railroad Monument Committee of Windsor with him from 1999 through 2001, a committee her late mother chaired.

While serving as secretary of the Windsor and District Black Coalition (which he had founded fifty years earlier) when he returned to its presidency from 2000 through 2005, she had many opportunities to observe him and to learn from his example.

He was a charter member of the Essex County Black Historical Research Society which was founded in 2001.

“Howard was courageous, brilliant, passionate about people and fairness, equality and justice.  He was outspoken, eloquent and cared very much about the development and upliftment of people in general,” said Gwyn Chapman, a community organizer.

For his outstanding achievements in science, civil rights, community service and politics, he was also awarded the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada in 2012, amongst many other accolades.

McCurdy was the husband of Dr. Brenda Lee Wright McCurdy for 41 years and father of Leslie Lorraine McCurdy, Linda Louise McCurdy LLB, Cheryl Lauralyn McCurdy Ducré and Brian Douglas Howard McCurdy Sr.

He had eleven grandchildren; three great- grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild. 

[This story has been published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, March 8-14, 2018.]

Caribbean Sci-fi Film 'Brown Girl Begins' Premieres in Toronto

By Neil Armstrong

Photo credit: Jelani Grant. From left: Emmanuel Kabongo, who stars as 'Tony,' Mouna Traore asn"Ti-Jeanne," Measha Brueggergosman as "Mama Ache," Sharon Lewis, the director; and Sonia Dhillon Tully as "Melba" of the film, 'Brown Girl Begins.'

The gala premiere of the film, “Brown Girl Begins,” directed by Sharon Lewis was held at Jackman Hall at the Art Gallery of Ontario amidst much glitz and glamour.

The Afrofuturist feature which is a prequel to Nalo Hopkinson's award-winning novel, Brown Girl in the Ring, had its debut at this special screening in Toronto on February 24 before opening at the Cineplex Cinemas Yonge-Dundas, March 2 to 8.

It was a celebration of Black Future Month with Lewis, Hopkinson and stars of the film.
Enthusiastic drumming escorted the actors, director, producers and creative team onto the red carpet.

Shortly after, there was a gala reception held in Walker Court featuring performances by musicians in the film: the legendary calypsonian David Rudder, blues dynamo Shakura S’Aida and opera sensation Measha Brueggergosman. 

“Brown Girl Begins” is an afrofuturist feature film about a young black woman who is trapped in a world forced upon her. Ti-Jeanne, a reluctant priestess, must resurrect Caribbean spirits and survive the possession ritual that killed her mother, or her people will die. 

S’Aida, who plays Mami, is a huge fan of Nalo Hopkinson’s novel. She read the book several times and knew the major part that Mami has in the story.

“I think it was an embodiment of every mom that I’ve known, every grandmother that I’ve known, and also a really huge embodiment of what I knew Nalo accomplished in the book, which was this strong character who only wants her children, her daughter, granddaughter to survive. 

"And that’s what we do as women, as parents, is we’re tough on them cause we know that we have to make them tough to get through the world. So for me it was a lot of pressure to have this role but it was also very gratifying to be able to embody everything I’ve learned as a mother from my mother, from my grandmother,” she says about her role as Mami.

S’Aida says this is a full circle for her because Hopkinson’s book was the first sci-fi book that she had ever read.

“It was in my neighbourhood, and it was in my city, and it was by my friend and I saw myself in the story. And because I read Nalo first I was able to then go to other authors, other black female sci-fi authors and read their works and from there I went on to other sci-fi works so this book, ‘Brown Girl in the Ring,’ actually started my whole love of sci-fi, and so that whole thing about Afrofuturism for me is normal because Nalo normalized it before it was actually normal. And then she turned me on to Octavia Butler and all these other women who are just wonderful.”

Mouna Traore, who plays Ti-Jeanne, says it was a lot of work.

“I think we all dream of being a lead actor, like working on a film and being the star but when you actually have to do it and you’re in every single scene and you’re in every single day, there’s nothing that can prepare you for the amount of work that you have to bring. And also being able to like do things on the fly and just roll with it because things change all the time so it was a lot of work. It was exciting, it was crazy, it was hard, it was tiring; it was everything that your dream job should be.”

Traore said dealing with the Caribbean spirits in the film was very interesting and kind of familiar for her because her mother is Haitian.

“And so I grew up with her spirituality around me and I had a very strong understanding going into the project of like Haitian spirits, the Loa, and having my own connection with them. I don’t remember what I did but I probably did some sort of ceremony before I started the project because I usually do. But it was marvelous to see how Sharon brought them to life, living representations of, like Papa Legba, and whatnot; it’s beautiful.”

Describing herself as a sci-fi fantasy fan, especially of afrofuturism in the last few years, Traore said she was only introduced to Octavia Butler a year and a half ago and since then she has read all of her books, except one which is saving “because I need that for a rainy day.”

She said it is her favourite genre and she thinks this is because when she was a kid she never saw herself in the genre before so now as an adult “it’s like the only thing I’m interested in.”

Emmanuel Kabongo who plays Tony says he felt fortunate and grateful to have worked with such wonderful and powerful women of colour such as Lewis, the director; Traore, his lover in the film; S’Aida, and Jenn Paul, one of the producers.

“The ability to play this role and the opportunity to play Tony allowed me to tap into something that I don’t usually do which is the romantic lover. Usually I’m swayed towards more of the bad boy type, the guy that comes in as a troublemaker but this role allowed me to really delve into being able to fall in love with somebody on screen and not make it about me being all bad.

“I felt like this whole time throughout the film, through the shooting it allowed me to just tap into the vulnerability side of me that I don’t get to do when I’m playing  roles.”

Kabongo, who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, says he grew up in the church so he believes in spirits and in a higher power.

“But for Tony I had to go in a place where that stuff was not real to me anymore because of the implications it had in terms of him losing a loved one. So for me, I had to go back and look at when in my own journey as an actor there were moments when I had to question my faith, question if God is real, questions if ghosts or sprits were real and there was a time when I basically just shut all that out.”

Director and writer Sharon Lewis was delighted with the premiere of her film.

“I am giddy with excitement seeing all these beautiful brown and black folks here, seeing it in Toronto at the Art Gallery of Ontario where there’s not usually a lot of us inside here, knowing that an afrofuturist film just played there, there’s an afrofuturist display, there’s art. You never see opera singers, soca and jazz and blues singers in one night or all in one film,” she says.

“I feel that it’s showing that we are diverse; there’s not one way to define us. Look at the Caribbean -- that’s who we are.”

Lewis said she was studying directing in Los Angeles at UCLA when she walked into her favorite bookstore and saw her colleague’s award winning novel, “Brown Girl in the Ring on the shelf.”

“#blackgirlmagic unfolded from the moment I read the first page. I knew then that I had to bring this bold and unique story of a young black teenage heroine growing up in a post apocalyptic Toronto to the screen. Just like the epic journey of Ti-Jeanne, the heroine in the book, it has taken me time to acquire the creative skills, experience and resources needed to be ready. And ready we ready. I am now part of a movement of people who have brought this project to life - all working their own magic. Ti-Jeanne. She is the future,” writes Lewis on the website about the film.

David Rudder has a cameo appearance in the film as a dweller in the Burn.

“Well, it was a strange experience in the sense that they’d ask to use some of my music in the film and I just happen to be on the set and the producer, Sharon, she’s a very close friend of my wife, then she said, would you like to do a little cameo spot in the film, kind of impromptu like.”

Rudder said he had done a little bit of acting before so it was a small spot but it was a recognizable one.

Brueggergosman plays “Mama Ache” and Nigel Shawn Williams plays the multiple roles of “Papa Legba,” “Jab Jab,” and “Brukfoot Sam.”

The cast also includes Sonia Dhillon Tully as “Melba,” Rachel Crawford as “Crack,” Allison Augustin as “Young Ti-Jeanne” and Hannah Chantee as “Grace.” The producers are Floyd Kane, Vince Buda and Jenn Paul.

Hopkinson, who is currently a professor of Creative Writing at the University of California Riverside in the U.S., said she was very pleased to see that Lewis succeeded in making the film.

She is the published author of nine novels, a collection of short stories and a chapbook, and the editor/co-editor of four anthologies.

The author lived in Toronto since 1977, but spent most of her first 16 years in the Caribbean, where she was born.

It took Lewis twenty years from the time she read Hopkinson’s novel to the premiere on the film in Toronto where it as shot.  She will be selling the film in Canada and the US and then it will be available by DVD, in I-tunes, and there is a planned tour for the Caribbean as well, possibly in April/May.

Itah Sadu of A Different Booklist Cultural Centre: The People's Residence and Sharon Lewis, writer and director of 'Brown Girl Begins' at the gala premiere and reception at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Nalo Hopkinson, author of the novel, 'Brown Girl in the Ring,' and Maxine Bailey, vice-president of advancement for TIFF.

Photo credit: Jelani Grant.       Shakura S'Aida plays "Mami" in the film.

Photo credit: Jelani Grant.    David Rudder is a Burn dweller in the film.

Conversation at York University Focuses on Activism and Resistance

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed.   From left, Dionne Brand, Robyn Maynard and Angela Robertson in conversation about activism and resistance at a Black History Month event organized by the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora at York University in Toronto.

Two well-known black Canadian feminists recently met to reflect on the ways in which their activism and people of African descent resist the daily acts of gendered, classed and sexual racialization in Canadian society.

“Everyday Activism, Critical Resistance”  - a conversation with Toronto social activist Angela Robertson and Montreal community organizer Robyn Maynard facilitated by award-wining poet and documentarian Dionne Brand was held at York University in Toronto on February 15.

Organized by Dr. Carl James, the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora in partnership with the trade union, Unifor, James said he is trying to make the Chair as vibrant as it is supposed to be.

In introductory remarks after reading an excerpt of her book, “A Map to the Door of No Return,” Brand said it occurred to her while preparing for the panel “how crucial every act of speaking is in the lives of black people, how crucial every public forum is, what is at stake and what is always at stake in these acts of speech.”

“What is always at stake are the grounds of our survival and our liberation,” she said.

Brand noted that black people in Canada find themselves each day in a state of hyper-vigilance of having to organize against the ongoing attacks on their existence.

Robertson, who was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from York University in October 2017, and Maynard, author of the book, “Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present,” were invited to give their analysis of this particular moment and their own activism.

“I believe that just by being here in this conversation is part of that everyday activism and that it is an act of critical resistance to be in this space in a community of black folks and allies naming the presence and the prevalence of racism in our lives,” said Robertson.

She said it was important to acknowledge that the history of European settlement in Canada is marred by the genocide and exploitation of indigenous peoples, the theft of their land, and the continuing violence of their marginalization.

Robertson said immigrants who came under the promise of multiculturalism must recognize that it held in it the erasure of indigenous peoples.

“I must also underscore that through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade African peoples were forcefully brought here as stolen people on stolen land. Hence the need for all of us who came after who seek to work for social justice in this country to be in solidarity and in alliance with indigenous peoples’ fight for land and social change.”

Robertson said she believes activism and critical resistance are necessary for “our survival, our sanity, our joy, under what bell hooks calls ‘white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.’”

She said the manifestation of this is seen in the rise and the rates of poverty of racialized communities, in the disparities of income for racialized workers, the widening educational achievement gap for black youth in high schools, the high rates of incarceration of black and indigenous children in the child welfare system, among other things.

“We don’t talk about class but we need to talk about class,” said Robertson.

She described this contemporary moment with a quote from scholar Rinaldo Walcott’s book, “Black Like Who,” in which he says: “Blackness is now everywhere in the city of Toronto but black people are nowhere.”

Robertson said she does not mean nowhere in terms of place, position and geography but instead that “we are nowhere being thought of by the system as valued in any meaningful way.”

Despite this, Robertson believes in the great promises contained in individual and collective activism and resistance “to vision and create the society we want.”

“Doing and visioning of something other than this is critical resistance and activism,” she said.

Robertson said activism and critical resistance is not just about responding to injustice, it is also about critical reflection “before we make the next move and after we have acted because our movement and our organizing can become fragmented.”

She cautioned that people could become arrogant and then create vulnerabilities in movements which will be exploited by white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.

She said her approach to everyday activism and critical resistance is that “your struggle for justice must be my struggle for justice.”

Angela Robertson, Jean Augustine and Robyn Maynard at a reception before the conversation "Everyday Activism, Critical Resistance" at York University in Toronto.

Maynard said there is a real value to Black History Month which is also to her Black Future Month which is something that could be used “even as we do this everyday activism critical resistance as a way of grounding ourselves both in our shared histories and in the ways that we are geared towards the future.”

Maynard said so much of what she has learned about where the community came from emanated from her discussions with elders, from combing through the archives of books, newspapers and masters’ theses.

“This means that it actually takes enormous amounts of dedication to find our stories despite the growing inroads of black scholars who have lovingly recorded our histories and left traces and left their mark,” she said, given the broader climate of ongoing erasure of black lives in this country.

Maynard said that as a young black woman living in Canada her learning has been facilitated by women like Brand and Robertson.

She continually re-reads the pages of “Our Lives,” Canada’s first black women’s newspaper and “We’re Rooted Here and They Can’t Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women’s History” in which Brand is a contributor, which brought the everyday activism of black women into her purview.

These, she said, in many ways grounded “the moment that we find ourselves today in what I really believe is a black feminist resurgence.”

Maynard said it was a gift to discover a black feminism that preceded her own “that was once unapologetic, queer, deeply critical of multiple systems of oppression that we as black women face – policing, immigration policy, and capitalism that is once racial and gendered.”

“I think as writers more broadly, as black writers in particular, leaving a mark is quite political in a place that is deliberately trying to erase and distort any trace of blackness.”

Maynard presented examples of what she described as fake news directed against black people in past media reports about Jamaican gangs in the 1980s, the welfare crisis in the 90s about Somali single mothers, the undermining of black activism, and what ended up justifying the deportation of five hundred Jamaicans in 1995.

“But when it comes to the visibility of black people as human beings that is where we continue to struggle.”

Maynard feels that there is a rhetorical shift underway and that blackness is being reconfigured in the Canadian landscape.

She said this is the result of decades of black struggle beginning in the 1970s and moving into now, and into what she believes in some ways is a tipping point for visibility.

The community organizer said recently Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally recognized the existence of anti-black racism.

“I think there is a symbolic value in that I think it really demonstrates how far we have come as black activists that we can now force this issue into the public realm. But I think this new era of visibility also presents us with different challenges and different risks as well.”

Maynard said while it’s great to have anti-blackness recognized as a fact and not a fiction, notions of black excellence continue to be co-opted on the political level.

She said Canada has a black immigration minister who is set to possibly oversee one of the largest mass deportations of black people from Canadian soil in recent history, and Haitian members of parliament have been paid by the Canadian government to go to the United States and tell Haitians not to come to Canada.

“So whether black visibility is on the radar that does not necessarily mean that black lives matter. It doesn’t necessarily mean a transformative shift in the way that our society continues to be organized.”

Maynard said there are many lessons to learn from the decolonization movements and ongoing colonial realities of the Caribbean, in South Africa, in the United States “that we know that black prison guards, black police, black heads of state is not a stand-in for justice for black people. And, in some ways, it makes black liberation struggle more complex.”

She said these are some of the questions that black people should ask themselves: “How can we create struggles that cannot and will not be co-optable? What does it mean to move forward into something that is more than just integration, that actually moves into what it means to actually have black emancipation?”

[This story has been published in the Weekly Gleaner, March 1-March 7, 2018.]