Four centuries, one community, fourteen stories.
That鈥檚 the tagline for , an innovative, interactive multidisciplinary project that celebrates Halifax鈥檚 vibrant Black community. Through a collection of stories, poems, photographs and films, Black Halifax brings the African Nova Scotian heritage that has flourished since the 1700s to life.
鈥淭o explore Halifax鈥檚 black history, culture and heritage over the course of 300 years, it鈥檚 a very grand and ambitious project,鈥� says Afua Cooper, one of the project鈥檚 founders. Dr. Cooper is also the James Robinson Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies at 麻豆传媒, founded and chairs the Black Canadian Studies Association, and is a celebrated author and dub poet.
A visual tour
Along with Valerie Mason-John (award-winning author of eight books), Jacob Sampson (an actor from the Annapolis Valley) and El Jones (a spoken word activist and teacher), Dr. Cooper was part of a residency at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic during African Nova Scotia Heritage Month in February 2014. The positive response from the weeklong exhibit, which featured interactive workshops and presentations, prompted the four poets to memorialize the event with Black Halifax.
鈥淲hen we ended that week鈥檚 residency, we had this feeling that it was kind of ephemeral,鈥� says Dr. Cooper. 鈥淲e kind of thought, how can we extend this project? How can we make it more tangible and far-reaching? And so this idea of Black Halifax was born.鈥�
With the help of John Hennigar-Shuh, president of the Canadian Maritime Heritage Foundation, the team began to fundraise for and develop the project. They hired professional storytellers, writers, actors, website developers, and employed the help of Halifax-based film company Pink Dog Productions to create 13 video vignettes, each one speaking to a particular personality, event or location. The videos tell stories about the lives and accomplishments of various human rights activists such as Rocky Jones and Viola Desmond, individuals who changed race relations in Nova Scotia and gave rise to the Canadian civil rights movement.
Moments of history
The project also used artifacts from the Maritime Museum itself to influence stories. For Jacob Sampson, the museum鈥檚 William Hall corner was a source of inspiration. Hall was a black Nova Scotian who served as a marine in the British Navy, fought in countries such as Turkey and India, and went on to win the Victoria Cross, the British military鈥檚 highest honour, in 1858.
鈥淗ere鈥檚 this black man from Nova Scotia, and he was the first black to win the Victoria Cross, the third Canadian to win the Victoria Cross, the first Nova Scotian to win the Victoria Cross, and yet his story is relatively unknown,鈥� says Dr. Cooper. 鈥淥ne of our objectives with this project was to take these invisible stories of Canadian history and of Black Nova Scotia, and make them visible.鈥�
Dr. Cooper herself performs in one of the videos, telling the story of 1,100 Black Loyalists who sailed from Halifax Harbour to Sierra Leone to found Freetown. They represented first large group of former slaves ever to return to Africa.
In partnership with the Delmore Buddy Daye Learning Institute, the Halifax group responsible for sponsoring and hosting the website, Black Halifax is continuing to raise money to bring more stories to life through film. Their next story will be on Portia White, the first Black Canadian concert singer to receive international acclaim despite being discriminated in her bookings.
Aside from Black Halifax, Dr. Cooper is looking ahead to hosting the upcoming 2015 Black Canadian Studies Association Conference in May. The national conference will discuss themes of black leadership and support the understanding of diverse Black communities in Canada, furthering the strides that Black Halifax has made towards itsmission.
鈥淭hese weeks and months for African heritage are nice, but how I鈥檓 seeing it is that Black history should be for the 12 months of the year, not something that we celebrate for a moment and then forget about.
鈥淎ll across Canada is this rich history that we haven鈥檛 really tapped into, and we want to put that history out there so that people can know, so that people can be proud, and so that we can see how we鈥檝e all contributed to the development of this country. That鈥檚 my idea of celebrating history and celebrating Canada. So when you think of history, it鈥檚 not just Black history or white history or Chinese history 鈥� it鈥檚 our history.鈥�
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