New union for Black artists launches in Nova Scotia to fight for fair wages, more protections

Halifax Examiner — The founder and president of a new union for Black artists that launched this week says its mandate is to support Black talent and fight for fair wages, unlike local unions from the past that she says were “flawed from the beginning.”

Tara Taylor said the Union of Black Artists Society (UBAS) will have collective agreements for artists in theater, film, television, music, and fashion. 

“It’s for anyone that is interested in the industry. So, either you join with an interest and we train you to do what you want, or you join with credits and then we put you to work. It should be as simple as that,” Taylor said.

Taylor said local unions from decades past left out Black people in the entertainment industry. 

“They basically were a group of people that got together and they knew what they needed, they knew what they wanted, but there weren’t a whole lot of Black folk that were in Nova Scotia that were in the film industry at that time,” Taylor said.

“So, it was flawed from the beginning. It’s like any of our other sectors in this province; there’s institutionalized racism and whatnot. The problem has become way too vast for either side, you know, Black creators or the current unions, to fix.”

Union members to get paid fair wages

UBAS launches this weekend with a series of free events at the Lighthouse Art Centre and across the street at Grand Parade Square in Halifax.

“The new union created by Black creatives from many genres — everything arts except for culinary arts — have come together and are launching the Union of Black Artists Society, a national organization, to let folks know what we’re up to and what we’ll be doing,” Taylor said. 

UBAS members, Taylor said, will “be protected, and get paid fair wages, and have contract negotiations.”

“We’re also going to be building an apartment building, to house artists first and then the general public second,” Taylor said. “That project is going on right now, and that’s what we’ll be announcing this weekend, and we’re gonna give folks a taste, a tiny taste, of each kind of genre.”

“And yes, white folks can join. Anybody can join. Again, we’re not trying to segregate and separate. It’s just that it’s [Black] focused.”

Taylor said in the beginning, union organizers sat down with many local unions to try to bolster Black membership. Taylor said that the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees’ (IATSE) 450 members, only seven are Black.

“To me, that says no outreach is being done,” she said. “We did try to work with them and maybe create chapters. So, maybe it’s like a BIPOC chapter of those current unions, [but] that still doesn’t work because it’s still flawed.”

“We don’t want to segregate. We just want to create a platform that’s Black focused, Black featured, and that supports Black folks.”

Taylor said people won’t have to leave other unions if they want to join UBAS and that they are working on community partnerships to lower the cost of being involved in multiple unions.

“We’re literally going to be travelling all across Canada, all across Nova Scotia and the Atlantic provinces to find those 15-year-olds that are in their basements making mixtapes, we want to find them and say, ‘This is also for you.’”

Festivals, workshops set for this weekend

The opening ceremony for UBAS will take place Friday at 7pm in Parade Square where Dwayne Provo, associate deputy Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs (ANSA), will talk about how ANSA will be supporting UBAS.

Taylor says UBAS’s board of directors will also give information on UBAS and what they’re up to and how the union will operate. Earlier on Friday, Kevin Bourne, the co-founder and editor of Shifter Magazine, will be hosting a series of free media workshops at the Lighthouse Arts Centre.

On Saturday, two events will be held by UBAS collaborative partners. 

Kayla Borden and Nivie Singh from Pineapple Express Media will be hosting a ticketed event, TOAST: A Tribute and Recognition Show Celebrating 50 Years of East Coast Hip Hop, at the Carleton Hotel.

In the evening, Micah Smith will host the inaugural Crescendo Fest, an annual festival in Halifax celebrating and featuring Black music artists.

The launch concludes on Sunday with a morning church service and a closing ceremony in the evening at the Lighthouse Arts Centre. That event will feature the first annual Black Theatre Festival with seven new Black playwrights.

The play rehearsals were also taped and will be edited together with the footage from Sunday’s live performances. Those versions will be streamed, first on LighthouseGo, the streaming service for the Lighthouse Arts Centre, and later on a streaming service for UBAS itself.