Black History Month Reception, Art Exhibition and Ujamaa Marketplace

Disrupting the tenets of Euromodern colonialism has been a central practice among Black scholars, writers, community leaders and artists for decades. Many reports have been written and global protests launched which challenge longstanding colonial structures. In the context of Black History and the Black experience in Canada, mass media and school curricula predominantly cover south of the 49th parallel, focusing less on Black Canadian contributions to Canada's growth, development, and nation building.

When we look across our community, province and country, we see that Black Canadians everywhere are telling their stories and reshaping Canadian history. Whether it's Black-led agencies strategizing to support African resettlement in the Greater Toronto area or Black youth defying institutional barriers in their rise to success, Black Canadians are on the move. According to Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, "many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity." Agency is an important vehicle for change.

This Black History Month, we will delve into conversations about how Black Canadians are using storytelling as a mode of resistance to counteract the systemic erasure, silencing, and marginalizing of Black Canadian history and experience. Storytelling, in all its forms, presents a counter-narrative in the change movement. Black Canadians are "talking back" to large narratives of benevolence.

Ultimately, the band-aids have come off in the wake of George's Floyd's murder and what we are witnessing as resistance are the very acts that will rewrite the nation-story, potentially cast in a future where we are all our ancestors' wildest dreams.

Join us as we celebrate the contributions of Black Canadians, and continue to learn from our stories to build a better future for all Canadians.

If child care is required during this time please visit https://forms.gle/kSTfDGpwMfcDF1Ae8 and complete this registration form.

Keynote Speaker, Wes Hall

As the chairman and founder of WeShall Investments Inc, a private equity firm with a diverse portfolio of companies predominantly supporting BIPOC entrepreneurs, Wes Hall comes from humble beginnings in rural Jamaica. He grew up in a plantation worker's shack as one of several children supported by his grandmother. Despite these challenges, his grandmother instilled in him the value of hard work, ambition, and industriousness. In 1985, Wes immigrated to Canada, where he set about to become the businessman you see today. Dressed daily in a suit, Wes started as a mail clerk at a leading law firm in Toronto. His curiosity, intelligence, and ability to spot opportunities allowed him to turn a $100K loan from the bank to start his first business, Kingsdale Advisors, into becoming Canada's most preeminent shareholder advisory firm.

Libation by Nene Kwasi Kafele
Nene Kwasi Kafele is an Elder in the community. He is a long time Human Rights and anti-racist advocate, researcher, educator and mental health clinician.  He currently resides in Ghana, West Afrika.

DOAHL Dance Academy

Established in 2003, DOAHL Dance Academy is York Region’s premiere urban traditional dance studio featuring a full dance curriculum in Hip Hop, Afro Caribbean, Latin, Ballet, Tap, Contemporary, Lyrical, Musical Theatre and Acro for dancers ages 3 and up.

DOAHL Dance Academy provides a family friendly environment where all dancers are welcome. Students are trained to dance with passion, purpose and a high level of skill. DOAHL is known for cultivating community and culture through dance.

Ngoma Ensemble

Ngoma, meaning both drum and dance in Swahili, was formed in 1995 by a group of young performing artists. This group of youth united with the community to educate, empower and embrace their audiences with the majesty of who they were, who they are, and the limitlessness of who they could become.

This generation of young artist’s remains committed to continue the work of sharing their African ancestry through the musical discipline and skill development of drum and dance with the community.

Winston "Pappy" Frederick, Steel Pan Performer

Winston is the present musical director for the Oshawa Sound of Steel Orchestra where he also conducts classes on the steel pan instrument. In his spare time he tutors piano and music theory. Besides playing steel pan and piano, he plays the drums.

Vocalist, Visual & Spoken Word Artist, Jaylah Hall

Toronto-born Jaylah A’Drianna Hall is a 17 year old visual and spoken-word artist, published writer, youth leadership committee leader, and the CEO of an art store called The Cre8tor House. A young woman of Jamaican descent, she recognizes the importance of the preservation of her heritage, and the evolution of the entirety of the Black heritage through the art of visual and oral storytelling. She uses her work to frame the stories of the past, present, and future history of individuals across the Black diaspora, doing so to further the undiluted advancement of the Black community on an international level.

Emcee, Sandra Whiting

Sandra Whiting was born in Kingston Jamaica and has been at the epicentre of activity and change in Toronto’s African Canadian community for many years.

She is a well-known M.C and storyteller, and uses the arts as a vehicle for change.

She also has a YouTube channel: Sandra

Seh!