Black Brilliance Across Borders: My first Black History Month in Canada

Nikki Adebiyi, Founder, Bounce Black

This February marked my first Black History Month in Canada, and my first Canadian winter!

Aside from the fact that I’ve never seen this much snow in my life, nor have I ever been so cold that my face hurts…it’s been wonderful, I promise.

In the words of one speaker at an event I attended, “I’m all blacked out”.

As a speaker and event producer myself, that is a sentiment that applies everywhere because I typically feel the same during October, which is Black History Month in the UK. It’s busy and exhausting, but all in the best of ways!

This year, Canada celebrated 30 years of Black History Month with the theme: ‘Honouring Black Brilliance Across Generations — From Nation Builders to Tomorrow’s Visionaries’.

There was no shortage of events, to say the least. There were certainly much more than I was able to attend. But the ones that I did go to have left a profound impression on me, and I’d love to tell you about them…

Black people play hockey? On ice!?

I kicked off my February at the A Different Booklist store in the Blackhurst Cultural Centre. In the middle of the historically Black neighbourhood of Bathurst, people of all ethnic backgrounds gathered in a gorgeous Black bookstore for the launch of Black Aces by The Athletic’s NHL staff writer Julian McKenzie.

Black Aces is McKenzie’s debut book, featuring a collection of stories about renowned Black hockey players, which, as you can imagine, is a huge part of winter sporting in Canada.

As curious and as open as I can be, ice hockey is a sport that I have yet to acquaint myself with. Unless you count PE at school, where we sometimes ran around the sports-and-lunch hall, whacking plastic pucks into makeshift goalposts.

Still, different gear, different climate and a different arena makes for a different experience entirely.

After the book launch, and a few conversation primers on the rules of the game, it’s now on my list of essential things to do in Canada.

Side note: I love that people who look like me have ventured into activities that I probably wouldn’t even think to try. Not only do you have to be excellent at hockey, you have to be competent at skating on ice! That’s an impressive level of hand-eye coordination, so kudos to them for doing it well enough to merit recognition. I love that for us!

Further side note: How much Julian knows about Black British culture tickled me, and further confirmed my belief that Black London and Black Toronto are much like identical twins who were separated during childhood, but when later reunited, it’s uncanny how alike they are.

I also later returned to the Blackhurst Cultural Centre for the free headshots they were offering to young Black creatives. Here’s my favourite one:

Word, Sound & Power Showcase

Next, I visited York University for its Word, Sound & Power event which showcased, and paid homage to, an array of Black talent in the arts, including musical composition, singing, dance, poetry and dramatic monologues.

To my great surprise, we were honoured to be joined by Toronto’s poet laureate Lillian Allen (pictured), as well as Canada’s first Black female MP, the Hon. Jean Augustine herself, who is responsible for passing the law that made Black History Month officially recognised across the nation.

Overeall, it was an eventful night of warm reflections, riveting stories and powerful calls to action. I especially enjoyed Ms. Augustine’s reflections on her life, career and social progress in Canada. The question she centred her speech on, “are we there yet?”, remains with me even now.

Living In Colour Symposium

Downtown at the University of Toronto, the Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) held their Black History Month Symposium on ‘Black Life, Law and Belonging in Canada’.

The organisation itself is remarkable, being the only legal clinic in the province of Ontario that is dedicated to tackling anti-Black racism through legal advocacy.

Their additional focus on public education and community engagement resulted in an impactful itinerary of powerful speech after speech interspersed with thoughtful panel discussions.

The sessions covered a range of topics, including:

• Black history in Canada
• The role of legal advocacy in advancing justice and equity for Black comunities
• The complexity of belonging and integration in immigration
• The work required for Black longevity and equity in Canada
• The changing landscape of advocacy in the age of AI

Speakers included MPs, lawyers, other legal professionals, and grassroots activists.

Although, unfortunately, I missed out on most of the talks due to commute time and weather-related delays on public transport, what I did gain during my time there was an insight into how similar the issues of racial justice are across the Black diaspora.

As ever, as always, this is both comforting and infuriating.

That there is a shared language of racialised experiences across borders and cultuers is helpful as I could immediately make sense of the discussion despite not being a Black Canadian.

However, it is not fun learnng that people who look like me struggle in similar ways wherever we are in the world.

Still, I left the event encouraged by the work being done and the shared understanding of the cultural, spiritual and intellectual shift that is going to be necessary for us to move forward collectively.

The Power of Community Symposium

On the penultimate weekend of Black History Month, I returned to the City Hall area for the Black Founders Network Power of Community Symposium. This was a whole-day affair, that I missed a lot of due to commuting issues again, but what I caught of it was powerful.

The theme was ‘The Next Era: Sustaining the Momentum’ as a nod to the last three years of the Symposium’s gathering of Black founders, investors, professionals and other ecosystem partners.

Having attended only once and left with a profound impression of the lesson that I need to bet on myself more, I certainly hope to see more from the BFN team.

Their BeHer Summit on March 6th, too, was spectacular and inspiring. I made sure to be there on time as I could not risk missing out on the wisdom and networking opportunities with powerhouse women from all over the GTA. And sure enough, it did not disappoint!

BFN events embody the message of refusing to play small because they certainly know how to do it big. Both events fed me more than just physically, but the food, too, was wonderful, with Caribbean cuisine at the Symposium, and soul food at the Summit.

It was also wonderful to meet some of the team behind the Black Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Map (BEEM), and learn more about both the background and the future of the project.

Overall, I was inspired to bet on myself and see this entrepreneurial journey through, and not only for my good but for the good of the community I serve. Legacy was a running theme, and I have begun thinking more about what it would look like for my work to outlast me.

Black Talent Initiative’s Ignite Conference

My Canadian Black History Month concluded with the Black Talent Initiative’s Ignite conference, which I had heard about before arriving in Canada, and I was grateful that I won a sponsored ticket to attend.

Between the keynotes, the firesides, the panels and the workshops, gem after gem was shared by the speakers. I took pages and pages of notes, both paper and digital. And weeks later, I am still meditating on the insights and reflections of the sessions.

In particular, Suzannah Kelly’s workshop on intentional leadership and legacy left a profound impression on me. She led a powerful session that inspired much reflection, with questions based on the premise that legacy is built through our daily choices, not by chance.

A good leader’s legacy is less about results and more about the culture, access and opportunities we create for others.

Our legacy shows up in the small moments, such as what we challenge, who we elevate, and how people feel after encountering us.

Every interaction leaves an impact, and the impact that we leave behind is our legacy.

True leadership, she also stressed, is measured by what changes because we were present. That is, who grows, what shifts, and what becomes possible for others. This requires clarity of values, courage to use our voice, and a willingness to be visible. Ultimately, legacy is what remains because we chose not to stay silent.

This, in addition to the other talks, guaranteed that I came away with much to think through, much to hope for and much to be proud of.

I also enjoyed the RBC photo booth, which had one of the best lighting setups for candid photography of Black skin that I have seen in a long time. All the photos came out great!

Lastly, as with most of the events I attended, there were a number of Black-owned businesses on display, from beauty and jewellery brands to authors and coaches.

One particular brand that made an impression on me was Blaque Wellness, whose Matriarch of the family-run business drew me in. A beautiful Black grandmother who showered me with care and compliments, seeking to understand my skincare needs, and offered me a hands-on demonstration of how their products could be embedded in my regimen.

It reminded me of how warm and wonderful it is to be seen and thought of from start to finish, including in product design.

Final Thoughts

The previous sentiments are exactly how I would summarise my experience of my first Canadian Black History Month, namely that it catered for and catered to me. I was the target audience for whom an experience was specifically designed and curated, and I came away from it with abundance. I received so much more than I expected, and I am inspired to implement my learnings, so that other people can benefit from them too.

The first being sharing what I learned with you all here in this blog.

Although it is March, we celebrate Black history all year-round. I hope you found something useful in this post to help you champion Black futures!

#BlackBusinesses #BlackExcellence #BlackFoundersNetwork #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackLegacyActionCentre #BlackLegalCentre #BlackOwned #BlackTalentInitiative #blackHistory #Blackhurst #BlackhurstCulturalCentre #Blaque #BlaqueWellness #bounceBlack #Canada #history #Ignite #JeanAugustine #life #mentalHealth #MonicaRogers #NikkiAdebiyi #RBC #ShahaddahJack #SuzannahKelly #TorontoTempo #travel #writing

Today for Black History Month we remember Oliver Law (10/23/1900–7/9/1937), African-American communist labor organizer, who fought for the Republic in Spanish War against fascism, and was the first African American to command white troops in battle. Law was born in west Texas and served in the U.S. army from 1919-1925. After that, he moved to Chicago, where he worked as a cab driver and as a stevedore. He joined the Communist Party in 1932 and ran as its candidate for the State House in 1934. He was also active in the Unemployed Movement and in Harry Haywood’s movement to oppose the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, and was arrested for speaking at a demonstration in 1935. In 1936, he joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the Internationalists fighting with the Spanish republicans against the fascist forces of Francisco Franco. He fought on the Jarama Front and, later, became commander of the Tom Mooney Machine Gun Battalion, named for anarchist IWW labor organizer, Tom Mooney, who was serving time after being falsely convicted for San Francisco’s Preparedness Day Parade bombing. Law was killed on July 9, 1937 while leading his men in an attack on Mosquito Hill.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #oliverlaw #anarchism #communism #fascism #antifascism #abrahamlincoln #spain #civilwar #blackhistorymonth #BlackMastodon

Today, for Black History Month, we remember Pauli Murray (November 20, 1910 – July 1, 1985), multiracial Black, LGBTQ Civil Rights and Gender Rights activist, labor organizer, poet, and Episcopal priest. S/he (to use the pronoun that s/he used for themself) was the first Black person to earn a Doctor of the Science of Law degree from Yale Law School, a founder of the National Organization for Women and the first Black person perceived as a woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest. Throughout the 1930s, Murray actively questioned their gender and sex, repeatedly asking doctors for hormone therapy and exploratory surgery to investigate their reproductive organs, but was denied gender-affirming medical care. When young, s/he changed their birth name from Pauline to the more masculine-sounding Pauli. And after earning a doctorate, s/he preferred people to refer to them as “doctor” rather than “miss.”

In March 1940, Murray was arrested and imprisoned for refusing to sit at the back of a bus in Virginia, more than fifteen years before Rosa Parks’s famous act of Civil Disobedience. That same year, Murray became the executive secretary for National Sharecroppers Week, whose goal was to raise awareness of the poor conditions of sharecroppers and raise money for the union’s organizing efforts. Not long after this, s/he cofounded the Congress of Racial Equality along with Bayard Rustin and others. S/he also attended Howard University in the early 1940s, where s/he coined the term “Jane Crow” to refer to the double oppression faced by black women. 1943, Murray led a lunch-counter sit-in, seventeen years before the sit-in movement began in Greensboro, North Carolina. In the early 1960s, Murray collaborated with A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, and Martin Luther King, but was critical of the sexism of the movement’s leadership. In 1966, they cofounded the National Organization for Women (NOW) with Betty Friedan, but later distanced themself from the organization because it did not seriously address the needs of working-class women of color.

After graduating from Howard, Murray tried to get into Harvard Law School, but was denied due to sexism. But Murray was accepted to the University of California Boalt School of Law, where s/he received Master of Law degree. Later earning another law degree from Yale. In 1951, they published the book States’ Laws on Race and Color, which Thurgood Marshall called the “bible” for Civil Rights litigators. In 1971, Ruth Bader Ginsburg named Murray as a coauthor of the ACLU brief in the landmark Supreme Court sex discrimination case Reed v. Reed, in recognition of her pioneering work on gender discrimination. Murray held faculty or administrative positions at the Ghana School of Law, Benedict College, and Brandeis University.

Murray wrote one of their greatest poems in 1943. It was a response to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s callous reaction to the Detroit Race Riot when he said that uprisings “endanger our national unity and comfort our enemies.” The poem’s title, “Mr. Roosevelt’s Regrets,” riffs on the Cole Porter song “Miss Otis Regrets.”

What’d you get, black boy
When they knocked you down in the gutter
And they kicked your teeth out
And they broke your skull with clubs
And they bashed your stomach in?
What’d you get when the police shot you in the back
And they chained you to the beds
While they wiped the blood off?
What’d you get when you cried out to the Top Man?
When you called on the man next to God, so you thought
And you asked him to speak out to save you?
What’d the Top Man say, black boy?
“Mr. Roosevelt regrets . . .”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #pualimurray #racism #sexism #feminism #lgbtq #transgender #gender #civilrights #civildisobedience #poetry #books #blackhistorymonth #BlackMastodon @bookstadon

By African-American artist Charles White (1918-1979), Juba, 1965, Lithograph. As a print it appears in more than one collection, both public and private. #blackartist #blackart #art #printmaking #BlackHistoryMonth

Quote from the artist: “Art must be an integral part of the struggle. It can’t simply mirror what’s taking place. It must adapt itself to human needs. It must ally itself with the forces of liberation. The fact is, artists have always been propagandists. I have no use for artists who try to divorce themselves from the struggle.”

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “White believed in creating representational art that would connect with the public as well as advocate for racial, economic, and social justice. Active for several decades, White had a profound influence on generations of artists and students. His art consistently reflected his mission to create positive images of Black Americans. He depicted both celebrated people, such as the social reformer Frederick Douglass, and anonymous figures.”