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Writers + Writing Study Sources

Allen, Lillian (poetry/children's literature) Books: Rhythm an' Hardtimes (Domestic Bliss, 1982); The Teeth of the Whirlwind (Black Perspective, 1984); If You See Truth: Poems for Children and Young People (Frontline, 1987); Why Me? (Well Versed, 1991); Nothing But a Hero (Women's Press, 1992); Women Do this Every Day: Selected Poems (Women's Press, 1993); Psychic Unrest (Insomniac, 1999)

Biography: Born in 1951 in Spanish Town, Jamaica and educated in the United States, Allen is best known as a dub poet, and has several recordings (Revolutionary Tea Party, 1986 and Conditions Critical, 1988) as well as collections of her poetry. She has also staged community theatre with youth in the Regent Park area of Toronto, and has co-directed and co-produced a documentary film called Blak Wi Blakk. Allen won the Juno Award for recordings of poetry with music in 1986, and again in 1988. She is a member of the Experts Advisory on the International Cultural Diversity Agenda and an executive member of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. Allen is a Professor of Creative Writing at The Ontario College of Art and Design and host of Wordbeat, a nine-episode program on spoken word/performance poetry that aired on CBC Radio One in January 2004.

Badoe, Adwoa (children's literature) Books: Crabs for Dinner (Sister Vision, 1995); The Queen's New Shoes (Women's Press, 1998); The Pot of Wisdom: Ananse Stories (Groundwood, 2001); and Nana's Cold Days (Groundwood, 2002).

Biography: Badoe was born in Ghana and currently lives in Guelph. She is an educator and African dance instructor with 4 books published in Canada for children and 8 published by Macmillan UK educational press.

Trained as a physician in Ghana. Grew up loving the traditional dances of Ghana, West Africa. Her interest in dance has led her to learn dances from other parts of Africa. Her classes and workshops have a unique and infectious vibrancy, capturing the essence of the people, their celebrations and their lives.

Cooper, Afua (poetry/children's literature) Books: Breaking Chains (Weelahs, 1984); The Red Caterpillar on College Street (Sister Vision, 1989); Memories Have Tongue (Sister Vision, 1993); Utterances and Incantations: 12 Female Dub Poets From the Black Diaspora (Sister Vision Press, 1999)

Biography: Cooper has a strong background in the Performing Arts and has recorded her poetry. Jamaican-born, Cooper immigrated to Canada in 1980. She has a Ph.D. in history at the University of Toronto. Cooper is co-editor of We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up: Essays in African-Canadian Women's History.

Born in Westmoreland, Jamaica, Cooper grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and migrated to Toronto in 1980. She holds a Ph.D. in African-Canadian history with specialties in slavery and abolition. Her dissertation, "Doing Battle in Freedom’s Cause", is a biographical study of Henry Bibb, a 19th-century African-American abolitionist who lived and worked in Ontario. She also has expertise in women's history and New France studies.

Cooper still lives in Toronto. She is a winner of the Harry Jerome Award for professional excellence.

She has published four books of poetry, including Memories Have Tongue (1994), one of the finalists in the 1992 Casa de las Americas literary award. She is the co-author of We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women's History (1994), which won the Joseph Brant Award for history. She has also released two albums of her poetry.

Her book The Hanging of Angelique (2006) tells the story of an enslaved African Marie- Joseph Angelique who was executed in Montreal at a time when Quebec was under French colonial rule. It was shortlisted for the 2006 Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction.[3]

Edugyan, Esi

Biography: Edugyan was raised in Calgary and has had work published in Best New American Voices, which is edited by Joyce Carol Oates. Edugyan currently lives in Victoria, B.C.

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, to Ghanaian immigrant parents,[1] she studied creative writing at the University of Victoria and Johns Hopkins University before publishing her debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, in 2004.[1]

Despite favourable reviews for her first novel, Edugyan had difficulty securing a publisher for her second fiction manuscript.[1] She spent some time as a writer-in- residence in Stuttgart, Germany, which inspired her to drop her unsold manuscript and write another novel, Half-Blood Blues, about a mixed-race jazz musician in World War II-era Europe who is abducted by the Nazis as a "Rhineland Bastard".[1]

Published in 2011, Half-Blood Blues was announced as a shortlisted nominee for that year's Man Booker Prize,[2] Scotiabank Giller Prize,[3] Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize[4] and Governor General's Award for English language fiction.[5] She was one of two Canadian writers, alongside Patrick deWitt, to make all four award lists in 2011.[3] On 8 November 2011, she won the Giller Prize for Half-Blood Blues.[6] Again alongside deWitt, Half-Blood Blues was also shortlisted for the 2012 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction.[7] In April 2012, it was announced that Edugyan had won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Half-Blood Blues.[8]

In 2014 she published her first work of non-fiction Dreaming of Elsewhere: Observations on Home with the University of Alberta Press.[9] In 2016 Edugyan was writer-in-residence at Athabasca University in Edmonton, Alberta.

Hill, Lawrence (fiction/children's literature) (born 1957) is a Canadian novelist, essayist and memoirist.[1] He is best known for his 2013 Massey Lectures Blood: The Stuff of Life, his 2007 novel The Book of Negroes and his 2001 memoir Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada.[2]

Hill was born in Newmarket, Ontario, to American immigrants – a black father and white mother – who moved to Toronto from Washington, D.C., in 1953.[3] Hill is serving as chair of the jury for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize.[4] Books: Some Great Thing (Turnstone, 1992); Trials and Triumphs: The Story of African-Canadians (Umbrella, 1993); Des grandes choses: roman, trans. Robert Paquin (Blé, 1995); Women of Vision:The Story of the Canadian Negro Women's Association (Umbrella, 1996); Any Known Blood (HarperPerennial, 1997); Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada (HarperFlamingo, 2001) Biography: Lawrence Hill lives in Oakville, Ontario. He has worked as a reporter for the Globe and Mail, and the Winnipeg Free Press. His poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous Canadian journals. Hosein, Clyde (fiction), The Killing of Wilson and Other Stories (London Magazine Press, 1980.)

Mollel, Tololwa [Hear an interview] Tololwa Mollel is a children’s author, dramatist and storyteller, who has written seventeen internationally published books, and several plays as well as stories that he created or adapted for performance. His books, which include award winning titles such as Rhinos for Lunch and Elephants for Supper, Big Boy, and My Rows and Piles of Coins have been published in Canada, the U.S., Australia, England and Tanzania where he was born. His work has been translated into various South African languages, into Korean, Spanish, Serbian, Norwegian and Finnish, and of course his native Kiswahili, Tanzania’s national language.

In Tanzania, Mollel was a University lecturer and an actor and performer in a touring company that performed as far as Germany and Sweden. He continued performing in Canada but came to devote himself to writing and to the literary scene in Edmonton, serving as President of the Writers Guild of Alberta in the late 1990s.

He does extensive work with schools and libraries, with literacy, arts and educational bodies, and with community organizations. In all this work, Mollel has presented, performed and conducted writing, storytelling and dramatic workshops and writer-in- residence programs in schools, libraries and communities across Canada and the U.S., as well as in England, Australia and Tanzania. Of his presentations and his work with schools, libraries and communities, Mollel says, “I aim to provide a feast of words – written and spoken – for the eye, the ear and the mind; as well as for the creative imagination, and for performance.” Through writing, storytelling and drama, Mollel hopes to empower the young, and others, with the gift of story — to write, tell, share and enjoy stories; to mentor them as he was mentored. Mollel has increasingly come to combine the arts of storytelling, story making and theater into story performance with music with collaborating musicians and artists. Click here to learn about Mollel’s childhood sources of inspiration for his love of story and story making.

Odhiambo, David Nandi (fiction/drama/poetry) Books: mouth to mouth (Panarchy, 1995) with Suzanne Buffam and Joelle Hann; afrocentric (Playwrights Canada, 1996); Diss/Ed Banded Nation (Polestar, 1998); Kiplagat's Chance (Penguin Putnam, 2003) Biography: Odhiambo was born in Kenya in 1965 and currently lives in Vancouver where he writes fiction, plays, and poetry.

"David Odhiambo joins a third guard of African novelists made up of peers like Uganda's Moses Isegawa and Nigeria's Chris Abani. The books of this younger generation of African writers (heirs to the continent's greats from Chinua Achebe to Mark Mathabane) shed the starched language and steep romanticism of Africa's literary tradition to expose the rawer, hipper, more vulgar aspects of life as lived by most Africans today." Black Issues

Saunders, Charles R. [hear an interview]

Charles R. Saunders is the ground-breaking founding author of the genre called sword and soul, which employs the mythic structure of Eurocentric sword-and-sorcery inside an African-based fantasy setting. As you’re about to hear, Saunders’s innovation arose in response to the profoundly racist dimensions of North American publishing, especially inside fantasy.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1946, Saunders achieved a degree in Psychology before moving to Canada in 1969. He lived in Ottawa for fourteen years, and since 1985 has lived in Nova Scotia. He’s been a community college teacher, research assistant, civil servant, journalist, editorialist, and copy editor.

Never one to let anyone stop him, Saunders has authored of seven novels including Imaro, The Quest for Cush, Dossouye, and Abengoni: First Calling, and four books on African-Nova Scotian history, including Sweat and Soul: The Saga of Black Boxers from the Halifax Forum to Caesar’s Palace, Spirit of Africville, Share & Care: The Story of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, and Black & Bluenose: The Contemporary History of a Community.

The Wild West Study Sources

Amber Valley

One of the African settlements created through the persistence of the Oklahoma African-Americans remains to this day. Amber Valley was settled by Black farmers who had been denied the same rights as others and who found the laws in Oklahoma to be more restrictive regarding Black rights. At the same time, the Canadian West was opening up, and settlers were actively being sought from the American Midwest.

Beginning in 1910 with a few individuals, then in 1911 about 200 were prepared to face the stiff border crossing questions. Successful under the leadership of Jefferson Edwards, it was decided to move to an area some distance away from Edmonton to form their own community. At its height, there were about 300 residents and they eventually had their own all- African baseball team representing Amber Valley. More would have migrated had there been supportive measures by the Canadian government to allow family and former neighbours to join them from Oklahoma. Now only a few families remain.

Keystone/Breton

The picture facing all settlers at the turn of the century was a daunting one ... uncleared land, harsh weather and isolation. Non-Europeans often suffered the additional hardship of discrimination. This helps to explain why the flow of black American settlers from Oklahoma, begun in 1908 with Canadian government encouragement, was virtually over by 1912.

Nevertheless, about 1,000 courageous Africans settled in the province, including Keystone (now Breton).

In 1989 the Breton & District Historical Museum opened to the public, with exhibits that focus on four major themes: African History, the Lumbering Industry, Community Development, and Agricultural Development. The Museum is located at 4711 - 51 Street in the former Breton Elementary School, a two-room school built in 1948.

The Breton & District Historical Museum is the only museum in the province that has a major focus on the African settlement history of Alberta. Keystone (Breton) was one of four such rural communities in Alberta founded by African settlers from Oklahoma and neighbouring states during the first part of the 20th century. One of the premier events the Museum hosts each year, on the fourth Sunday in February, is Black History Day.

The Museum also celebrates its lumbering history, which began with logging timber berths around the turn of the century. Breton and district became a major lumbering centre in the late 1920s after the arrival of the railway in 1926.

During the off season the museum is happy to open its doors for school tours and private tours.

In 1985 the Breton & District Historical Society decided to restore the Keystone Cemetery, following many years of neglect. The Historical Society restored the cemetery and erected a cairn to honour the Black families who had settled Keystone. During this project it was discovered that the cemetery was not listed at the Land Titles Office and also that the property line of the adjoining quarter ran through the cemetery. With the help of Brazeau County, the Historical Society obtained a legal subdivision from the present owners of the land and now have title to the property. The Breton and District Historical Society has earned national and international attention for its work, including the restoration of the Keystone Cemetery, where many of the early settlers are buried. Today the Keystone Cemetery stands as a silent testament to the Black families who were the first major group to populate the area.

Population

List of census subdivisions with African populations higher than the national average Source: Canada 2011 Census

National average: 2.9% (945,665) Brooks (7.7%) Edmonton (3.8%) Calgary (2.9%)

David Shepherd

David Shepherd was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, representing the constituency of Edmonton-Centre, on May 5, 2015.

He currently serves as chair of the Standing Committee on Legislative Offices and the Select Special Ombudsman and Public Interest Commissioner Search Committee. He also serves as a member of the Standing Committee on Families and Communities.

Prior to serving with the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Shepherd worked in the communications field as a communications adviser and writer for organizations such as the North Edge Business Association, the city of Edmonton and the government of Alberta. Before his career in communications, Mr. Shepherd held a variety of employment positions such as taxpayer services agent and salesperson in support of his work as a musician and studio engineer.

His educational background includes diplomas in music performance and in live sound recording from MacEwan University. He also has a bachelor of arts in professional communications from Royal Roads University, where he received the Royal Roads University chancellor's award in 2014.

Mr. Shepherd leads an active lifestyle in Edmonton. He is an avid cyclist and has volunteered for the Edmonton Bike Coalition as a spokesperson and organizer. He also enjoys live music, film and playing the piano.

John Ware (c. 1845 – 12 September 1905) was an African-American cowboy best remembered for his ability to ride and train horses and for bringing the first cattle to southern Alberta in 1882, helping to create that province's important ranching industry.[1]

Ware was born into slavery in South Carolina. After the American Civil War he left the Carolinas for Texas where he learned the skills of a rancher and became a cowboy. Ware's great stature and dedication to hard work made him a natural and allowed him to work his way up to Canada driving cattle from Texas to Montana and then into the great plains that would eventually become Alberta. Upon his arrival in Calgary he found work at the Bar U and Quorn ranches[2] before starting his own ranch near the Red Deer river.[3] By 1900, he and his wife, Mildred Lewis (1871–1905[4]), had five children. He moved from the Calgary area to a spot northeast of the village of Duchess, Alberta. In 1902 his first home was destroyed by the spring flood. He rebuilt on higher ground overlooking a stream, now called Ware Creek. Three years later Mildred died of pneumonia in the spring; despite being a master horseman John was killed in the fall when his horse tripped in a badger hole crushing its rider and breaking his neck. Ware's funeral was reported to be one of the largest held in the early days of Calgary.

Like any folk hero there are a wide range of tales about his ability to eat, ride, shoot, and contribute to Western culture. It is said that he was never tossed from a wild horse and that he popularized steer wrestling, which would then become a highlight of the Calgary Stampede. The story of John Ware is that of a remarkable figure in history who helped to lay the foundations of the ranching industry in western Canada and at the same time defying stereotypes. Born into the US rape gulag, Ware worked his way to being one of the most well-respected figures in frontier Alberta, crossing race lines thanks to his good nature and hard work.

Canada Post issued a commemorative stamp featuring John Ware, to celebrate African History Month 2012.[9]

Politics + Political Struggles Study Sources

Black Cross Nurses

Black women, although denied participation in Canada’s war effort in WWI, formed the Black Cross nurses, modeled on the Red Cross, to aid wounded soldiers. They also worked in the Black community by providing medical aid, such as first aid, nutrition, health care, and child care.

Black women also worked in other ways to support Canada in the war, including working in ammunition factories making the weapons for the men to use in the war. They were given the most dangerous jobs: working with explosives, and so forth.

Rosemary Brown

Rosemary Brown came to Canada from her native Jamaica in 1950 to attend McGill University in Montreal. First elected to the British Columbia legislature in 1972, she served until her retirement in 1986. She also ran for the leadership of the federal New Democratic Party in 1974.

A feminist and public advocate, Rosemary Brown dedicated her life to helping others. Over the years, she served her fellow citizens as the Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (from 1993 to 1996), and was a founding member of the Vancouver Status of Women Council and the Canadian Women’s Foundation. In the course of her career, she was also a member of the Judicial Council of British Columbia and sat on the Canadian Security Intelligence Review Committee. Rosemary Brown died in 2003, at the age of 72.

Viola Davis Desmond [Human] rights activist Viola Desmond, who was jailed for defiantly sitting in the "whites only" section of a Nova Scotia film house, will be the first Canadian woman to be featured on the country's $10 bill.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz announced the selection of the groundbreaking beautician and businesswoman during an announcement today at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que. Desmond's image will replace that of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, on the purple banknote beginning in 2018. Morneau called her an "extraordinary woman."

Desmond is often referred to as "Canada's Rosa Parks," though her historic act of defiance occurred nine years before Parks famously refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala.

At age 32, Desmond decided to go to the Roseland Theatre to see a movie while her car was getting fixed on Nov. 8, 1946, but she was thrown out of the "whites only" section and sent to jail. Black people could only sit in the balcony of the theatre. The next morning, Desmond was convicted of defrauding the province of a one penny tax, the difference in tax between a downstairs and upstairs ticket, even though Desmond had asked to pay the one cent difference. Desmond was released after paying a $20 fine and $6 in court costs. She appealed her conviction but lost.

Her court case was the first known legal challenge against racial segregation brought forward by a black woman in Canada, according to a Bank of Canada news release. "Viola Desmond was a woman who broke down barriers, who provided inspiration to Canadians around social justice issues and showed that each and every one of us, individually, can make a difference," Morneau said.

She was granted a free pardon posthumously in 2010 by former Nova Scotia lieutenant-governor Mayann Francis, the first black person to serve as the Queen's representative in the province. The provincial government also issued a formal apology. She died in 1965 at age 50.

Mifflin Wistar Gibbs

Born into a free African family in Philadelphia, Gibbs moved to San Francisco in 1850 and became one of that city’s most prosperous African merchants. Concern about the racial climate in the United States prompted him and other African Americans to head north and seek the protection of British law in Victoria.

As a politician, businessman, and defender of human rights, Gibbs was the recognized leader of the African community on Vancouver Island during its early years between 1858 and 1870, and is still a revered historical figure in the African community of British Columbia. Through his political abilities, Gibbs made African residents a force in colonial politics and was elected to Victoria City Council. He acted as a spokesperson for the West Coast’s African Canadian community, encouraging their integration into Vancouver Island society and intervening repeatedly when efforts were made to segregate them in the churches and theatres of Victoria.

In 1870, Gibbs returned to the United States and enjoyed an equally significant political and business career in the American South before his death in 1915. Gibbs was recently deemed by Parks Canada as a person of National Historic Significance.

Malcolm X connection to Montreal

There would surely never have been a Malcolm X had the great black-rights leader's parents just stayed in Montreal. Malcolm X's parents met in Montreal in a sequence of events that began when Edgerton Langdon, described as a "labourer," invited his niece Louise Norton to come from Grenada to stay with him at his home at 150 St. Martin (see map and illustration below) in 1918. Louise was the light- skinned product of a union between a black mother and a white father. She looked and spoke like a white person, according to Malcolm X, who later clearly disapproved of the grandfather he never knew.

Louise found herself attending meetings of the newly-formed Montreal branch of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association, where she met Earl in 1918. Earl Little had recently moved to Montreal from Reynolds, Georgia. Earl, 29, and Louise, 22, married here in Montreal on May 10, 1919 [and] two eventually left Montreal for Philadelphia then Omaha and finally Lansing Michigan and had seven children along the way.

World War II pilots

Although the racial climate did not improve much, there were no segregated units in the Canadian Armed Forces at this time. This means that Black and White soldiers along with other racial groups were in the same units. Initially, the Navy and the Air Force rejected Blacks as unsuitable, but by the end of this war, there were Black Canadian flying officers.

Trinidadian barrister Jack Kelshall became a squadron leader in the Canadian Air Force, British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), and later trained young men how to fly war planes and informed them of the moral and civic duty of what they were doing and why they were doing it.

Marie-Joseph Angélique

While Canada did become a safe haven for African- Americans seeking freedom from the rape gulag, this country does have its own history of slavery. Marie-Joseph Angélique was imprisoned in forced labour by François Poulin de Francheville in Montreal.

In the spring of 1734, a fire that started at the Francheville’s home destroyed forty-six buildings in the colony, including the Hôtel-Dieu hospital. It is alleged that Marie-Joseph set the fire “out of wickedness” to cover her plan to escape slavery and travel to New England with her white lover.

She was captured, brought to trial and, under torture confessed to the crime. The evidence, however — the testimony of 20 witnesses, none of whom saw her commit the crime — was circumstantial. Her sentence, death by hanging, was carried out on June 21, 1734, in front of the burned remains of the Francheville’s home.

Musicians + Music Study Sources

Edmonton hip hop history “Jungle Man” by The Maximum Definitive featuring Roger Mooking

MC Touch, including music video for “Klingon Bastards”

Souljah Fyah – Watch a video [Hear an interview] Waymatea "Sista J" Ellis - Lead vox, Bass Doctor Paul Joosse - Bass, Keys, Vox Stormin' Norm Frizzell - Keys, Megaphone The Original Tribesman – Percussion

Waymatea “Sista J” Ellis began her musical career as a pan-player in her father’s Trin-Can Steel Orchestra.

2011 WCMA Winners - Urban Recording of the Year, 2009 JUNO nominees, 2008 Western Canada Music Award winners, and twice-declared the best Reggae band in Canada by the Canadian Reggae Music Awards and the Reggae Music Achievement Awards, Souljah Fyah never fails to lift spirits or heat up a crowd. They have played with Lilith Fair, the Edmonton Folk Fest, the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival, and at the Grey Cup Festivals in Montreal and Calgary, but Edmonton is home, and over the past decade they have been Reggae's best evangelists in Western Canada.

In November 2010 Souljah Fyah released their highly anticipated third studio album, "I Wish," a project which took them to new heights sonically and lyrically, while remaining true to their roots-reggae sound. It's on the merits of their live show, however, that Souljah Fyah has managed to accomplish what they have. As Shelly Gummeson from Earshot-Online wrote: "On and off stage...[lead singer] Sista J, exudes a high voltage, positive energy. Unfettered without setting limitations is precisely the attitude and energy that has propelled Edmonton's Souljah Fyah to become Canada’s top Reggae band."

Portia White (1911-1968)

Portia White embarked on her stellar singing career at her father’s Baptist Church in Halifax. Before she began singing professionally, she supported her musical career by teaching in rural black schools in Halifax County, and eventually made her professional debut in Toronto. Soon afterwards, she performed in New York City to rave reviews.

Portia White went on to international success, performing more than 100 concerts, including a command performance before Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Chaka Zinyemba

“Taireva” [hear the track] by Chaka Zinyemba and Freemantle Nhembo features the mbira, the metal- keyed “thumb piano” of Zimbabwe. Mbira playing is part of chimurenga, a traditional Zimbabwean spiritual music genre, censored by the colonial dictatorship, that political musicians such as Thomas Mapfumo brought into the revolutionary struggle for national independence.

Entrepreneurs Study Sources

Wes Hall Documentary Features Successful African Canadian Entrepreneur By Neil Armstrong

The Toronto Black Film Festival (TBFF) will feature over 40 films from 20 countries and among them is a film produced by a first-year Ryerson University student inspired by the story of a successful Black businessman in Toronto.

“This documentary explores the life of Wes Hall, a prominent business leader who was recently named one of Canada’s Most Powerful Business People by Canadian Business magazine. As a child who was raised by his maternal grandmother in a tin shack in rural Jamaica, Wes was challenged with heartbreaking adversity growing up. Moving to Canada at a young age, Wes set himself on a path for a better life. Through his continued drive and determination, Wes has worked to become a tremendous success in both his business and family life,” reads the synopsis of the film.

Hall will be receiving the vice chancellor’s award at the University of the West Indies Toronto Benefit Gala on April 2 at the Ritz-Carlton.

He is the founder of Kingsdale Shareholder Services, the leading firm in the growing area of outsourced strategic shareholder communication. Hall has over 20 years of experience in corporate governance and shareholder communications.

An industry expert in proxy solicitation, depositary, corporate governance and other shareholder related initiatives, Hall has been involved in some of the highest profile deals and proxy contests in North America.

He was raised by his grandmother along with 14 half-brothers and sisters, eventually immigrating to Canada in 1985 at the age of 16.

Hall went from being a mailroom clerk to CEO of his own company in just over a decade.

His generosity has enabled cancer care for children in the Caribbean. In 2014, he made a $1-million donation to the SickKids-Caribbean Initiative, which is working to improve the management of paediatric cancer in six English-speaking Caribbean countries.

Nanjuma James

Young, Ambitious African-Canadian Entrepreneur Passionate About Fashion — And Beauty

By Lincoln Depradine

As a child growing up in Grenada, Najuma James developed a passion for fashion and beauty.

James now has transformed that passion into a thriving part-time business as a makeup artist in her adopted homeland, Canada.

For the past three-and-a-half years, she has been operating “Glow By Najee’’ which provides makeup services for all occasions, including weddings and photo shoots. Women are a particular focus of the services offered by James.

“I chose to become a makeup artist because we, as women, should work together to empower each other, and realize how beautiful and amazing we can all be,’’ she explained. “We can change our hair colour and even our eye colour. We can improve our bodies and our skin texture; we can also use makeup to emphasize our eyes or downplay a feature.’’

James was born in Grenada to US-based Abu Yah Yah Abdullah and Lydia James, a retired Grenada airport worker and well-known calypso competition judge in the Caribbean country.

“As women, we should work together to empower each other, and realize how beautiful and amazing we can all be,’ says Najuma James. Photo by Lincoln Depradine.

A former dancer and Grenada teenage beauty contest winner, James migrated in 1995 to Canada, where she completed a bachelor’s degree in interior design.

James works fulltime as an interior designer, while also maintaining her makeup services at “Glow By Najee’’.

“It’s something that I always wanted to do since I was a child. I was always involved in things of beauty and fashion since I was a teenager,’’ said James, CEO of “Glow By Najee’’.

James said one of her memorable moments so far has been providing makeup for the entire cast of “The Good Lie’’, starring Reese Witherspoon, during its screening at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Michael Lee-Chin

Michael Lee-Chin first came to Canada in the early 1970s to attend McMaster University in Hamilton. After earning a civil engineering degree he returned to his native Jamaica to work, but was soon back in Canada working on his Master’s degree. In 1977, he began selling mutual funds. In 1987, he bought Advantage Investment Counsel, now AIC Limited, one of the country’s biggest mutual-fund companies with assets of more than 12 billion dollars.

Michael Lee-Chin is also known as a philanthropist. In 2003, he made headlines when he donated $30 million to the Royal Ontario Museum.

Michael Lee-Chin is Chairman of Portland Holdings Inc., his Canadian based investments holding company. His investment holding company Portland JSX Ltd. raised J$1.23 billion (US $9.8 million) in a June 2016 IPO which was oversubscribed by 23.5%, making it the largest IPO of ordinary shares ever seen on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

Born in Port Antonio, Jamaica in 1951, Mr. Lee-Chin immigrated to Canada in 1970 to study civil engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. After beginning post-graduate studies, Mr. Lee-Chin decided to explore career opportunities within the mutual fund industry. At the age of 26, Mr. Lee-Chin became a financial advisor and, with growing success, progressed to the position of branch manager.

In 1983, at the age of 32, Mr. Lee-Chin borrowed money to purchase $500,000 of Mackenzie Financial stock. After four years, this stock appreciated seven-fold, and Mr. Lee-Chin used the profits to make his first acquisition, a small Ontario-based investment firm called AIC Limited. At that time, Advantage Investment Counsel (a division of AIC Limited) had assets under management of just $800,000. Within 20 years, assets under management for this 1987 acquisition had surpassed $4 billion. AIC Limited was to become the first in a series of acquisitions for Mr. Lee-Chin, Chairman, Portland Holdings Inc.

Mr. Lee-Chin has distinct beliefs regarding wealth creation, role models, and his firm's investment strategy. AIC's goal is to create long-term wealth for investors. To achieve that objective, Mr. Lee-Chin looked for role models: “those business people who created wealth in society by owning one or two businesses. For this reason, Mr. Lee- Chin established AIC's investment philosophy of buying few excellent businesses in long-term growth sectors and holding these businesses for the long term in order to help AIC investors prosper by preserving and growing their capital and minimizing taxes.

As a result of his investment philosophy, AIC stands today as one of the largest privately held mutual fund companies in Canada. Mr. Lee-Chin was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1997. In 2002, he earned the Harry Jerome Award for a decade of achievement. Mr. Lee-Chin has been profiled in Forbes, Fortune, Canadian Business, Black Enterprise, National Post and Time magazines.

In November 2003, Mr. Lee-Chin received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from McMaster University in recognition of his business success and philanthropic initiatives, and in July 2004 was honoured by Time magazine as one of Canada's Heroes and one of the country's most intriguing and inspiring citizens. In 2008, Mr. Lee-Chin received one of Jamaica's highest national honours "The Order of Jamaica," for his significant contributions to business and philanthropy.

On Oct. 28, 2011, the self-made billionaire became the chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

"If you aim at nothing you'll hit it with amazing accuracy."

Beverly Mascoll [watch video]

Founder / Philanthropist / Mentor / Community Builder, Mascoll Beauty Supply Ltd. & Beverly Mascoll Community Foundation, Toronto, ON. Born: Fall River, Nova Scotia.

Born and raised in Nova Scotia, Beverly Mascoll was an entrepreneur, an astute businesswoman and a highly- respected community leader.

After her family relocated to Toronto in her early teens, Beverly worked as a receptionist at Toronto Barber and Beauty Supply, becoming assistant to the president within just six months. While there, she quickly noticed a major gap in the beauty industry; Black hair-care and beauty products. And in 1970, she took $700 and incorporated her own company, Mascoll Beauty Supply Ltd., servicing an underserved segment of the population. An unknown in the industry, Beverly then convinced U.S. manufacturer, Johnson Products to grant her the rights to be the company’s first and only Canadian distributor.

Mascoll Beauty Supply grew to become a major player in the Canadian beauty supply industry. In addition to a chain of retail outlets, the company also manufactured and distributed products across the country. The retail outlets were a hub for many new African-Canadian immigrants; the stores a validation of their identity in a new country.

Community activism ran parallel to Beverly’s business endeavours. She was involved with several community organizations including the Harry Jerome Scholarship Fund (awarding excellence to African-Canadian achievers), Camp Jumoke (a camp for children with Sickle Cell Anemia) and the Ontario Black History Society. She also led fundraising efforts to establish the first Black-Canadian Studies program at Nova Scotia’s Dalhousie University. In 1996, she founded the Beverly Mascoll Community Foundation to assist “youth, women and people of colour.”

Education also played a significant role in Beverly’s life. She was keen on educating her customers, organizing trade events and seminars specific to her clientele. She was also passionate about her own post-secondary pursuits. Not being able to afford to attend university after high school, at the age of 55, Beverly enrolled full-time in the Women’s Studies program at York University. She received her Bachelor of Arts in 2000.

Beverly Mascoll died from complications due to breast cancer in 2001. She was 59 years-old.

Honours: Honoured posthumously in her native Nova Scotia, with an honourary Doctor of Humane Letters from Mount Saint Vincent University; received an honourary Doctor of Laws from Ryerson University (1999); appointed Member of the Order of Canada for outstanding entrepreneurship and assisting Canada’s youth (1998); Mascoll received several awards and acknowledgements for her contributions to Canadian society; and received the Governor General’s Commemorative Medal, the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews Award, the YWCA Women of Distinction Award and the Harry Jerome Award for Achievement in Business.

Elijah McCoy (1844 – 1929)

Born in Colchester, Ontario, to West Africans who escaped to Canada from Kentucky via the Underground Railroad, Elijah McCoy showed an early interest in machines and tools and an aptitude for mechanics. At a time when it was difficult for Africans to obtain training in the United States, his parents sent him to Edinburgh, Scotland to study mechanical engineering.

Upon his return to North America, he took a job as a fireman with the railroad in Michigan. The “fireman” was the person who shovelled the coal to power the locomotive and who lubricated the moving parts during frequent stops. Elijah soon saw that he could put his knowledge and education to work by improving this lubricating process. He developed and patented a particular type of lubricating cup that dripped oil onto the moving parts of a train while it was in motion. While the origin of the expression is probably somewhat older, it is said that buyers of the lubricating oil cup asked specifically for the “Real McCoy” because it was extremely reliable and they wanted no substitutes.

That was just one of the products he developed and patented. For example, in response to his wife’s desire for an easier way to iron clothes, he invented and patented the portable ironing board.

Elijah McCoy held more than 50 patents, not just in Canada and the U.S. but also in France, Austria, Germany, Great Britain and Russia.

Festivals + Culture Study Sources

African Film Festival of Ottawa

The cinemas of Africa have consistently delivered some of most impressive, urgent, and engaged films in contemporary world cinema. This new annual festival will showcase the best of African cinema’s diverse and extraordinary films and filmmakers. The first African Film Festival of Ottawa will reveal the richness of the rarely seen cinemas of Africa.

The films selected primarily celebrate emerging voices from across the five regions of the African continent as well as its historical diaspora. They range across a number of genres from futurist to political thriller, melodrama to horror, social realist to fantasy. They are at once celebratory and critical, contemplative and reflexive, elegiac and prospective. The films have been screened, won awards, or entered for nomination at FESPACO (Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou), the Durban International Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the American Film Institute Film Festival and the Academy Awards (Oscars), among others.

In partnership with Carleton University's Film Studies and African Studies departments, and the Group of African Ambassadors and High Commissioners in Ottawa, the Canadian Film Institute is proud to present the inaugural edition of the African Film Festival of Ottawa

Afrikadey

The Afrikadey! Arts & Culture Society shares the rich creative works of African cultures - from the continent and throughout the Diaspora - with Canadians of all ages and from all walks of life. We create and stage events that bring these artistic traditions to vibrant, joyous life for audiences who might otherwise not get to experience them.

Foremost among these events is the annual Afrikadey! Festival, a week-long celebration of the music, food, dance, theatre, film, literature and visual arts of Africa and her descendant cultures. These events take place at different venues all over the city with a final day of music on Prince’s Island Park.

Various Afrikadey events have been happening around downtown Calgary this week, but the most anticipated event, the concert, takes place tomorrow.

Prince’s Island Park will be transformed into Africa through music, dance and food. Various acts are set to take the stage Saturday, including Kenya born Shad, or Shadrach Kabango. Raised in Canada, the young rapper has had rapid success in the past couple of years. Shad gained most attention when he won a Juno award for Rap Recording of the Year, beating out the very popular Drake.

There are many other acts to discover in the lineup that aren’t as well known as Shad, but are equally talented. Of course there are many local artists that are scheduled, so make sure to check them out as well.

The island is arguably the best part of downtown Calgary, an oasis in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city.

This is the festival’s 20th anniversary, which is a testament to it’s popularity. Festivals are a great, not to mention easy, way to experience new cultures. So get out there!

Afrofest

Afrofest is the largest free African Music Festival in North America. Afrofest ignites the spirit of African culture in the heart of Toronto, one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. Afrofest seeks to share the rich and diverse expressions of African music and culture in an inclusive, vibrant and positive community festival setting. Through Afrofest, a diverse audience celebrates the abundant energy of African music in an effort to cultivate community spirit and enhance the understanding and appreciation of the diverse people of Africa.

Held annually, Afrofest takes place the first weekend of July at Woodbine Park in the heart of Toronto. Started in 1989 by Music Africa, Afrofest showcases the best in African music, art, crafts, culture and food. Now in its 28th year, the festival has continued to grow and so has the calibre of artists that have graced its stages. With over 35 live performances and over 100,000 visitors in 2016, the festival is a family- friendly and fun-filled extravaganza consisting of five areas: the Main Stage, Youth Stage and Drum Stage, Children’s Village, and a vibrant Marketplace which includes a delectable selection of food vendors from across the city. Each of these distinct areas provides a diverse, cultural festival experience, offering several different spaces for attendees to spend their weekend.

Caribana

The Toronto Caribbean Carnival, formerly and still commonly called Caribana, is a festival of Caribbean culture and traditions held each summer in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a Caribbean Carnival event, that has been billed as North America's largest street festival, frequented by over 1.3 million visitors each year for the festival's final parade and an overall attendance of 2 million.

The festival was introduced to Canada by immigrants from Caribbean Islands. Much of the music associated with the event, such as steel pan, soca and calypso originated from Trinidad and Tobago. Caribana reflects the Carnival events that take place in several Caribbean Islands, such as the Caribbean Islands Carnival. The entire event, which is one of the first Caribbean Carnivals along with those in New York City, Notting Hill and Boston to be held outside of the Caribbean region, brings in over one million people to Toronto and over $400 million into Ontario's economy, annually.

While the Caribbean Festival holds events over several weeks, the culmination of the Caribana event is the final weekend which is punctuated by the street Parade of Bands. This weekend traditionally coincides with the Ontario statutory holiday Civic Holiday. The street Parade of Bands consists of costumed dancers (called "Mas players") along with live Caribbean music being played from large speakers on the flat-bed of 18 wheeler trucks. The genre played is mainly soca calypso, and steelpan, but you can also find floats which play chutney and reggae.

In addition to the main parade, the Caribbean community also celebrates a smaller pre-dawn parade known as J'ouvert (Pronounced "Jou-vay"). This too has been modelled after and taken from Trinidad Carnival. In Caribbean French-creole this means "day open" or morning. The J'ouvert portion of Carnival is the more rhythmic part of the Carnival celebration and is usually featured with steelpan bands, and persons using improvised musical instruments. It is not usually accompanied by any singing, but will have a lot of whistles and other music makers.

Spectators and or persons "playing Mas" will occasionally get themselves covered from head-to-toe with mud, flour, baby powder, or different water-colored paints in the tradition of the Caribbean-based J'ouvert celebrations. In many instances everyone in the band is supposed to resemble evil spirits while parading around at night. There are some common characters that are a part of Afro-Caribbean folklore and include things like Red Devils (people covered in red paints), Blue Devils (people covered in blue paints), Green devils, Black devils, Yellow devils, White devils, (usually people throwing baby powder or flour.) or people just covered in other concoctions which are supposed to resemble mud or oil.

Cariwest

Cariwest is an annual non-profit three-day Caribbean Arts Festival that takes place annually in the second weekend of August in the heart of downtown Edmonton, Alberta. Cariwest and its surrounding events attract more than 60,000 people each year. The festival gives the attendees a chance to enjoy Caribbean culture.

Cariwest began in 1984 as part of the Klondike Days Parade (now K-Days) as a way for Caribbean immigrants in Edmonton to celebrate and share their culture. It was organized by The Western Carnival Development Association (W.C.D.A.), a non-profit organization under the Societies Act, and this group has been organizing Cariwest Caribbean Arts Festival since then.

Cariwest employs the talents of musicians and dancers from all over the world to bring the melodies of Soca, Steel Pan, Reggae, Hip Hop, Calypso and Brass Bands to Edmontonians. There is also drama and street theatre. Cariwest provides an opportunity for those who are unfamiliar with Caribbean culture to experience the traditions. The festival is free and open to all who chose to attend; there is an entrance fee to some special events.

The "mas" in "mas band" is short for masquerade. Carnival mas bands originated in Trinidad and Tobago and are equivalent to the North American parade "floats". Every year, Cariwest hosts a parade in downtown Edmonton where the streets are filled with people in colourful costumes dancing to the beat of Caribbean music. After the parade, Edmonton's Sir Winston Churchill Square is transformed into a Caribbean Village. In the village there is Caribbean food, goods, beer gardens, and live music on the Cariwest stage.

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