Dr. Julius Garvey Reflects on His Father Marcus Garvey’s Life and Work

 

By Neil Armstrong

Photo credit: City of Toronto     Left to right: Chase Garvey-Daniel, Dr. Julius Garvey and Aina-Nia Ayo'dele at the North York Central Library

 

When Dr. Julius Garvey appeared at various events earlier in August, Emancipation Month, his presence reminded many of the rich legacy of his father, Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), and his words were like a balm to receptive audiences throughout the Greater Toronto Area.

 

With his grandson, Chase Garvey-Daniels, in tow, Dr. Garvey, who celebrates his 90th birthday today, ADrugust 16 — one day before the 136th anniversary of his father’s birthday (August 17) — affirmed many of the things his father said to uplift people of African descent worldwide during his lifetime.

 

Speaking at the North York Central Library on August 4, 2023, in a conversation with spiritual liberation activist and ancient wisdom teacher, Aina-Nia Ayo’dele, after participating in the raising of the Black Liberation Flag at Mel Lastman Square, he encouraged those gathered to know who they are as a people.

 

Dr. Garvey, a cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon and human rights activist, noted that although he was born in Jamaica in 1933 wherever he travels in the world he does so as an African, given the tenets taught to him and his older brother, now deceased, by their strong Garveyite parents — mother, Amy Jacques Garvey, and father, Marcus Garvey.

 

“Knowledge is key, knowledge is everywhere; you just have to go out and find it,” he said, noting that, “We are the first people, first civilized people and we civilized the world.”

 

He emphasized that Africa is a wonderful place that has been giving to the world over time, and that it is great to be African.

 

Dr. Garvey said many people have denigrated Marcus Garvey but there is value in many things his father said such as “character is your most important possession.”

“Being African is not just a word, geography, and history; it goes back to the beginning of civilization. Our ancestors understood what it meant to be fully human.”

 

In responding to a question from the audience, he said, “The greatest power in the world is to be your true self continuously.”

Photo credit: City of Toronto       Dr. Julius Garvey

 

The event was organized by the City of Toronto’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism (CABR) Unit in partnership with the Global African Communities Network (GACN), Afro-Caribbean Farmers’ Market, and the Network for the Advancement of Black Communities (NABC). 

 

The Confronting Anti-Black Racism Unit has partnered with Black Owned Toronto to culminate Emancipation Month with the Freedom Market to celebrate and support of Black entrepreneurialism and economics. The market, which will be held on August 26, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., will include Black-owned businesses, artisans, food, entertainment, and more at Fort York National Historic Site, 250 Fort York Boulevard.

 

“Emancipation Month recognizes the struggle for human rights and the rich contributions made by peoples of African descent. Recognizing Emancipation Month in August acknowledges an abhorrent period in our history and our ongoing commitment to eliminate discrimination in all forms. August 1, 1834 marks the day that the Slavery Abolition Act, 1833 came into effect emancipating more than 800,000 enslaved Africans across the British Empire, including Canada. Here in Toronto, we recognize the entire month of August as Emancipation Month and celebrate the rich contributions that peoples of African descent have made to our city and country,” notes the City of Toronto.

Left to right: Kemba Byam, acting manger of the Confronting Anti-Black Racism Unit, City of Toronto; former manager of the Unit, Anthony Morgan; and its first manager Aina-Nia Ayo'dele

Valarie Steele, past president of the Jamaican Canadian Association, and Debbie Douglas, executive director the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI)

 

Meanwhile, Dr. Garvey participated in another flag raising event in Brampton, Ontario where he was presented with the Emancipation proclamation alongside Marjorie Taylor, Brampton’s 2015 Citizen of the Year — an acknowledgement of her significant contribution to the community through her more than 20 years of volunteerism in several local organizations. She is also an active volunteer of the United Achievers’ Club of Brampton and a past president of the Kiwanis Club of Brampton.

Photo contributed       Marjorie Taylor

 

“We celebrate the officially designated day of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 which ended slavery in the British Empire on August 1, 1834, which “laid a pathway to freeing over 800,000 enslaved Africans and their descendants in parts of the Caribbean, Africa, South America as well as Canada,” said Taylor.   

 

“However, we are to be reminded that not all slaves were given their freedom in 1834.  For example, in Jamaica (land on my birth), it was not fully in effect until August 1, 1838. We are here not only to mark this significant date of emancipation, but to give thanks and appreciation to those ancestors such as Jamaican hero Marcus Mosiah Garvey (August 17, 1887 to June 10, 1940) who was a Jamaican political activist and the founder and first President-General of the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League) in 1914 and influenced a generation of civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and, of course, Bob Marley.

 

 “It is written that it was Marcus Garvey’s speech delivered in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1937 that inspired Bob Marley to write his worldwide popular song “Redemption Song” and I quote:

 

"We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery … none but ourselves can free the mind." – Marcus Garvey, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, 1937. 

 

“Another familiar and very important quote [in my opinion] of Marcus Garvey is this: “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture are like a tree without roots.”  

 

“To me, these words ring true today, and it behooves us all to learn from our past so we can help to change positively and effectively the present and the future for generations to come. We still have a long way to go, the fight is long, and I know (regrettably) that anti-Black and systemic racism will not be dismantled in my lifetime, but I encourage each one of you to continue in the struggle because we have hope in those [including special guest Dr. Julius Garvey, folks such as Dr. Jean Augustine, Zanana Akande, the late Bev Salmon and so many others] who paved the way for us and those who are continuing to do so.  But we all — you and I — can make a difference for “united we stand – divided we fall”.  Let’s shine a light upon the darkness that still exists and continue to impede progress.”

 

In Toronto, Rastafest Canada marks its 30th anniversary from August 17 to 20, and will kick off the events by celebrating Marcus Garvey in Little Jamaica, and end with a boat cruise. It is also the 43rd anniversary of Masani Productions founded by Masani Montague. Rastafest is Canada’s largest celebration of Rastafari heritage and culture.

The chair Marcus Garvey used whenever he visited Toronto at the UNIA Hall, 355 College St. in Toronto. It is now housed in the board room of the Jamaican Canadian Association.

A tile from the foundation of the UNIA Hall at 355 College St. with the inscription of the UNIA is temporarily being housed at Blackhurst Cultural Centre in Toronto

 

Justice Aston Hall lauds the Jamaican Canadian Association

 

By Neil Armstrong

Photo credit: Sophia Findlay     Left to right: Arlene Amitirigala, Justice Aston Hall, and Dr. Sylvanus Thompson at Jamaica's Independence & JCA's Anniversary Gala on August 12, 2023 at the Jamaican Canadian Community Centre

 

Justice Aston Hall has praised the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA) for throughout his career being a moral support and a community building organization that focuses on learning and creating what he called fulfilling relationships.

 

“And like home, a place where I’m reminded to be humble and to work hard,” said the Associate Chief Justice, Ontario Court of Justice, who was the keynote speaker at Jamaica’s Independence and Jamaican Canadian Association’s Gala at the Jamaican Canadian Community Centre on August 12, 2023. The night’s theme was “61 Proud and Strong: A Journey of Resilience and Perseverance.”

 

Quoting the late African American poet, author and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, Justice Hall said he was blessed to grow up in Jamaica in a home — “the safe place where we can go, where we can be and not be questioned” — and further blessed to find a community of people like the JCA who offered him the feeling of home. “Of unquestioned acceptance for who I am, and who share in the belief of the worthiness of my professional dreams.”

 

Hall remembered when he came to the JCA in those cold, dark winters, when the organization was the only place on Dupont Street where he could feel some degree of comfort because it was lonely.

 

He thanked the organization for providing a home for many Jamaicans who migrated to the Greater Toronto Area.

 

“I must remind you I came out of a single-parent home raised by, I venture to say the typical Jamaican experience, a grandmother. A grandmother that put everything aside to make sure that I had an education, a grandmother that provided a home that was filled with love despite the fact that we were poor. We didn’t even know it because of the joy that she gave us.”

 

The judge said his grandmother’s grace and determination raised his sights beyond their modest life in Jamaica — “modest is code for poor.” She modelled the kindness and showed him the power of generosity, the determination that showed the value of hard work, and a fair optimism that instilled the belief in the nobility of community service.

 

“She taught me that from humble beginnings can come very high expectations,” said Hall, noting that it was from small beginnings and supportive community that his dreams took a hold in Jamaica.

 

Justice Hall was called to the Bar in 1995 and from then to 2002, was a sole practitioner exclusively in the field of criminal law. He became a senior partner at Hall & Vaughan in 2002 and then opened his own law firm, Aston J. Hall and Associate, in 2009.

 

Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, Justice Hall immigrated to Canada in 1983. He studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, where he served as the president of the Black Law Students Association and the Black Law Students’ Association of Canada. In 2008, he earned a Master of Laws degree focused on criminal law and procedure, also from Osgoode Hall Law School.

 

Justice Hall has been a director of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, Toronto, since 2009 and has been a member of the Strategic Planning Committee for the Jamaican Canadian Association.

 

Throughout his career, the associate chief justice has been a champion for diversity as a member of numerous judicial committees that have played roles in the creation of a specialized court for Indigenous people and the development of programs for Black History Month to celebrate diversity and the contributions of African Canadians in the development of Canada.

 

Noting that Jamaicans have been in Canada since the 1700s, he said Jamaicans have been making contributions to Canada since then and he singled out the contributions of people like the late Bromley Armstrong, Eva Smith, Stanley Grizzle, and Amy Nelson, now 102 years old, and included the late Barbadian Donald Moore.

 

He also paid tribute to the Sleeping Car Porters and their families who were the powerhouse behind creating strong Black communities and demanded and achieved significant legal and social changes in Canada. Sleeping car porter jobs were the only ones available to Black people in the country, he said.

 

Justice Hall also mentioned the later arrival of domestic workers from the Caribbean that made it possible for many to gain opportunities to come to Canada.

 

“These two historical events changed Canada for the better. Those people and countless others struggled to change the immigration system to make this place hospitable to us. They laid the path that led us here. Before their work there were hostile immigration policies that prevented us from living permanently and making this our home.”

 

The associate chief justice said Jamaica has given the world a rich tradition of leaders in many fields and that Jamaicans are major contributors to the fabric of Canada.

Left to right: Anthony Joseph, publisher of Caribbean Camera; Jill Andrew, MPP of Toronto—St. Paul's; Jamaal Myers, councillor, Scarborough North; and David Betty, president of the Jamaican Canadian Association

 

 “Like Jamaica, the Jamaican Canadian Association remains proud and strong for 61 years due to the resilience and perseverance of its members and supporters. We are very grateful for this as we continue to serve the community," said Michelle McKenzie-Dolly and Dr. Sylvanus Thompson, co-chairs of the JCA’s Independence Gala Committee.

The annual award recipients this year were Benito Palomino for the president’s award; Dr. Sylvanus Thompson for the community service – individual; The Walnut Foundation for the community service – organization; Herrol Mattocks, outstanding volunteer of the year; Anthony Scott, outstanding volunteer of the year; Camille Hannays-King and Ellen Wynter, lifetime achievement; Dean Parker, Sharon Wynter-Bowen and Glenford Gordon, 25 years of continuous membership service; and Ismay Murray and Desmond Marrett, 50 years of continuous membership service.

 

“This year’s recipients for the community award are individuals who are committed to steadily growing a community focused on excellence. Volunteers continue to drive the success of our organization and we recognize those that have gone above and beyond this year as well as those that have dedicated years in service to the JCA,” said the organization in a media release.

 

The diamond jubilee recognition awards were presented to Miah Bailey, Alton Telfer, Gifford Walker, and Karl Fuller.

 

Among those who brought greetings to the gala were Sharon Miller, Jamaica’s High Commissioner to Canada, whose term of office comes to an end; Mayor Olivia Chow; Leslyn Lewis, MP for Haldimand – Norfolk, who ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada; Judy Sgro, MP for Humber River – Black Creek; and Jill Andrew, MPP for Toronto— St. Paul’s.

Mayor Olivia Chow brings greetings to the gala

Lolleta Cunningham, Eddie Grant, and Sophia Findlay

Roy Williams, first president of the JCA; Herman Stewart, past president of the JCA; and Jamaal Myers, councillor for Scarborough North, City of Toronto

Jill Andrew, MPP for Toronto—St. Paul's and Audrey Campbell, past president of the Jamaican Canadian Association

 

The performers included 9-year-old Eliana Sinclair, Tony Anthony, Elite Dancers, and the all-female Rayzalution Band. DJ Funky Muzik provided the music and the Art of Catering provided the sumptuous cuisine curated by Chef Selwyn.

 

The host of the event, which included the participation of JCA president David Betty, past presidents Adaoma Patterson, Audrey Campbell and Roy Williams, Barbara Thomas, Dr. Sylvanus Thompson, and JCA vice president Michelle McKenzie-Dolly, was Arlene Amitirigala.

CaribbeanTales International Film Festival Focuses on Climate Change

By Neil Armstrong

Jael Joseph's film, Territory, shares the story of the Kalinago People of Dominica

The annual CaribbeanTales International Film Festival (CTFF) will celebrate its 18th anniversary under the theme “Eco Survivors” which takes patrons “on a journey through urgent narratives on climate change, along with a multitude of diverse stories from the Caribbean and African diaspora.”

Diana Webley, director of the festival, says a common thread throughout all the stories is how the Caribbean is doing, in terms of climate change, and what people are doing to rebuild their islands.

Denise Herrera Jackson, a member of the board of directors of CTFF, says she remembers a group of them 18 years ago sitting in Frances-Anne’s home — Rita Cox, Frances-Anne and her mother, and two other friends — envisioning what the festival would look like.

She said the opening film will show the diversity of the Caribbean — “The diversity not only of how we look but how we talk, French, Spanish, Papiamento, Portuguese and English.” All of these, she said, are important in bringing us all together.

“It’s 18 years, any birth date that says 18 is an important one,” said Jean Augustine, another board member, alluding to that number as a milestone. “And so in the birth of CaribbeanTales, 18 years is not to be sneezed at, it is to be celebrated, it is to be complimented. And not only in terms of those who over the years have watched Frances-Anne, her board, and the organization grow from something almost like a small seed and then see it blossom, see it grow.”

Describing it as an annual presentation of Caribbean people’s stories, Augustine said she has always been very interested in the way in which CaribbeanTales develops and is known internationally and in every sphere of endeavour. 

“Let’s look forward to the wealth and breadth of the films that will be shown to us so let’s get out there, let’s support something that we could leave and have as a legacy of our presence in the world of film and filmmaking.”

Webley revealed that on September 9, Augustine will celebrate her birthday at the Harbourfront Centre and they will be launching the Jean Augustine Award which will be presented to Trinidadian calypso saxophonist Roy Cape.

Denise Herrera Jackson speaks at the media launch of the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival

Jean Augustine speaking at the media launch of the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival at Blackhurst Cultural Centre on August 8, 2023.

Jael Joseph, a filmmaker from Dominica, will debut her film, Territory, at the festival. “It discusses a few issues within the Kalinago Territory, specifically the issues of political alignments, land, and language lost, and all of those different things.”

The 24-minute film features three main characters: Annette, a politician, senator and a nurse; Natasha who is an entrepreneur; and a tech-savvy man who single handedly established the internet in the territory. Natasha studied tourism and opened a restaurant which she intends to use to help people relearn the Kalinago language because most of their language is practically lost. 

“First of all, capturing the story of the Kalinago People is very important to me. I’m getting emotional, my great grandmother was Kalinago and she was very instrumental in me learning the Creole language. From a young child, I learnt Creole which was not really spoken in my household because my parents spoke English. But they would speak Creole when they would try to talk about you or talk about things that they didn’t want you to understand. My great grandmother only spoke Creole so she was very instrumental in my upbringing and my appreciation for the Kalinago People.”

Joseph said he is appreciative of the Kalinago People allowing her into their space to share their stories. This is a master’s project and it has become something even more because the festival has received it in a very special way, she said. 

The film is different, she said, because a lot of their stories have been told from a perspective of tourism — “almost like a publicity stunt” — whereas with this story it shares their struggles, said Joseph. “It’s not all the pretty things you see in newspapers or magazines, or even on the internet because they are used a lot to market the island of Dominica, but in that regard the film focuses more on their journeys and the different hardships they face within their community. 

A Pile of Dirt, directed by Rhoma Spencer and produced by Janis Mayers will be featured on September 7 at the Harbourfront Centre. The 15-minute short docu-film unearths a Regent Park of the past through the eyes of a new resident and the romanticism of a former resident. “What lies below the mounds of earth everywhere as old buildings are torn down for the new. The more things change, the more some remain the same.”

Diana Webley, director of CaribbeanTales International Film Festival, and Itah Sadu, managing director of Blackhurst Cultural Centre

Michelle Muir, poet and emcee, and Itah Sadu

Sophia Findlay, journalist, and Ross Cadastre, president of the Black Business and Professional Association (BBPA)

The CaribbeanTales International Film Festival runs from September 6-22 in Toronto and online. For more information, check caribbeantalesfestival.com.

 

James Baldwin’s ‘The Amen Corner’ on stage at the Shaw Festival

 

By Neil Armstrong 

Photo credit: David Cooper            Kimberley Rampersad, director of James Baldwin's play, The Amen Corner, at the Shaw Festival

One year after writing his semi-autobiographical novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin wrote his first play, The Amen Corner, in 1954.

 

The play, a searing drama of love and hate that plays out in an evangelical church in Harlem, is being directed by Kimberley Rampersad, who is also the associate artistic director of the Shaw Festival, and is part of the programming this season. 

 

David, a teenage musical prodigy has to choose between his mother, the pastor and choir leader of the church, Margaret Alexander, and his washed-up father, Luke, with whom he shares a passion for jazz. Meanwhile his mother is finding that a community dedicated to Christian love and support is capable of terrible bitterness and cruelty. This special production features rousing songs performed by a gospel choir.

 

Rampersad says the Shaw Festival was always interested in having great representation of a cross section of brilliant writers and playwrights — and Baldwin, the celebrated gay African-American novelist, essayist and playwright — was excellent and like the festival’s namesake Bernard Shaw a provocateur, an orator, activist and polymath who was brilliant at many things.

 

“They have some very important things in common along with their excellence, their advocacy for their communities, the way they are able to speak with fire and with clarity, and the way that they led movements. So those things coupled with a play that is rarely programmed make it a unique experience for not only the festival, but especially for audiences to see something that they might not find many other places,” she says, noting these as the reason she and artistic director Tim Carroll programmed The Amen Corner.

 

Rampersad says her mother is a Christian and she grew up in the church so she was able to pull on her own experience and see some parallels and some divergences with the play.

 

When Baldwin was 14 years old, he followed in the path of his Baptist preacher stepfather and became a revivalist minister for the small Fireside Pentecostal Assembly in Harlem. Go Tell It on the Mountain is inspired by his experiences there. First performed on a professional stage in 1965, and first published in 1968, The Amen Corner addresses themes of the role of the church in the African-American family, the complex relationship between religion and earthly love, and the effect of a poverty born of racial prejudice on the African-American community.

 

“The play to me feels incredibly personal that I’m able to draw on my life in the church with my family and see Baldwin’s journey with his family, especially in this play because it’s semi-autobiographical. And the challenges that we find as we are critical with our faith, and especially as young people as we grow up and there is a natural sort of emancipation and what happens when our faith might be a part of that breakaway to come back together.”

 

Those were exciting things for the production team comprising set designer Anahita Dehbonehie, costumes designer A.W. Nadine Grant, lighting designer Mikael Kangas, gospel choir music director Jeremiah Sparks, and music supervisior Paul Sportelli. It was also significant to them that they were working with an all-Black cast. Sparks, a pastor from Cherrybrook, Preston, Nova Scotia, grew up in the church where he served as the organist at sixteen and was a choir director for over thirty years. The cast includes Janelle Cooper as Margaret Alexander, Andrew Broderick as David, and Allan Louis as Luke.

 

“For him to be able to bring all of that natural and authentic love for God and the music into our production is remarkable,” says Rampersad. They did a lot of research and have a dramaturge on their production team who was able to help them to be authentic.

 

“It’s nice that we are all Black in our company but being Black is not enough in terms of being authentic to the Black American experience. So that was really important for us to be able to do research, and for us to have a proper voice and dialect, coach Ausar Stewart, to make sure that we’re being authentic and that we’re not being approximate.”

 

Rampersad says it was important to understand the variations of the hymns that Sparks selected to ensure that they were doing something similar to what they were doing in Harlem in the Pentecostal church of the 1950s, and really lifting the story.

Design by Key Gordon Communications      The Amen Corner

What they all found is that: “The Black Church is more than a church in the community. It is a community space, it is a gathering space, it’s a space where we can show up even more as ourselves without the gaze of what society would like to put on us, where it would like to relegate us that we are able to show up for one another and for ourselves, and to be able to speak about that freedom that we felt within the church, especially in this community because this is a poor community that Baldwin is talking about and is in the midst of, and so what is it to be able to throw off those positions of servitude or lower positions that we might find ourselves in working in society and to show up as the creature that God has created us to be, so those were really important things that we were able to talk about in the play.”

 

Ninety-nine years after his birth (he was born on August 2, 1924) and almost 36 years after his death (November 30, 1987), Baldwin remains an important literary voice whose novel, If Beale Street Could Talk, inspired a film by Barry Jenkins in 2018, and his unfinished manuscript, Remember this House, resulted in Raoul Peck’s 2016 documentary film, I Am Not Your Negro. “In the early 1940s, he transferred his faith from religion to literature. Critics, however, note the impassioned cadences of Black churches are still evident in his writing,” notes a profile of Baldwin on the New York-based Concord Theatricals website.

 

Rampersad says The Amen Corner is important to the present time because the crux of Baldwin’s message, God is love, is so needed in everything.

 

“We talk about that in our play and our tragic hero at the end, Margaret, she comes to it at the very end in her final soliloquy where she is able to say that the true way to God is to love everyone all the time with your whole heart in the highs and the lows and that’s what it means to be a true Christian and to love God. And I think that that is just important, we couldn’t speak it enough.”

 

Rampersad says she thinks their responsibility as the artists who are creating the play is to make an excellent piece of theatre that will connect the art to the audience.

 

“If they haven’t experienced what the love in the Black community is for one another, I would love them to experience that. If they are Black, I would love for them to feel that they are well represented in this play, and that this play is more than sometimes what we might see, like Black trauma on stage, that it is something as simple as it’s family, and it’s community. And it’s how we grow up, how we take care of one another, how we just exist in the world going to our job and making lunches, that we have all of these stories too.

 

“And that if people think that a Black story isn’t for them, the story and the feelings are universal so it might be a window into a community that they may not be a part of or close to but now they are invited in and can see how alike we are.”

 

Rampersad and the creative team appreciate the feedback from the audience they received at a preview of the play.

 

“There are people that like to talk back us, in a very good way, like you hear the ‘Mm-hmm,’ ‘Oh boy,’ and you hear all of those things in the audience; that’s fantastic for us because it means that our play is landing and it’s a conversation, and so it feels a lot like church in that sense. People might have exclamations of ‘Hallelujah,’ ‘Preach,’ and ‘Amen.’ It feels like that in the audience and it’s really affirming so it was a fantastic first audience.”

 

She says the Shaw Festival now has a history of making sure that they are doing more plays by Black playwrights and that started with the previous artistic director Jackie Maxwell and continues with Carroll, and Philip Akin has directed many of those plays “and they have now a good tradition, something that’s entrenched so it’s nice to see it make its way to the main stage.”

 

Rampersad sits on the committee of the Black Shoulders Award, created by Akin when he retired from Obsidian Theatre Company, to present $5,000 to five theatre artists every year so that they can pursue some sort of growth or development in their craft.

 

“Philip has been instrumental here at the Shaw in creating excellent Black theatre,” says Rampersad.

 

She underscored that The Amen Corner is life affirming and beautiful so everyone should come out to see it.