Because there's always more to the story.
On Aug. 5, 2023, the historic African Nova Scotian community of Weymouth Falls is receiving the Lieutenant Governor’s Community Spirit Award.
Weymouth Falls was selected for the award in 2022, but the ceremony was delayed so it could happen alongside the community’s biennial reunion celebrations — the first since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Black Scotians by iZrEAL Jones, performed at Posh Tatoes open mic in Brixton, London, England on Aug. 18, 2013.
Event hosted by Adelaide Mackenzie. Filmed by Aqa Asusa Maak Ra.
www.Blessedsouluk.co.uk
Canada’s Black Justice Strategy Community Engagement Sessions – Hosted By ANSJI The African Nova Scotian Justice Institute is leading public
The longest-running Black music radio show in Atlantic Canada recently celebrated its 25th year anniversary on the airwaves.
Ryan Somers, aka DJ R$ $mooth, has been hosting $mooth Groove$ on CKDU 88.1 FM since 1998. The show, which airs every Sunday from 5pm to 8pm, broadcasts out of the Student Union Building on the campus of Dalhousie University.
“I always think of the show as like a home base, like no matter what’s going on… most people can hear me that Sunday,”
“Twenty-five years ago the Honourable Jean Augustine [the first African-Canadian woman to be elected to as a Member of Parliament] put forward a motion in the House of Commons to have February designated Black History Month. And at the same time, there were lobby efforts being made to have Emancipation Day recognized. So that’s how long this has been in the making. Over 25 years.”
Emancipation Day, August 1, marks the same day in 1834 when slavery was officially banned in all of the British colonies, including in what would eventually become Canada.
An artist and Black historian says he hopes an exhibit of African Nova Scotian quilts inspires a new generation to take up “a dying craft in the Black community.”
David Woods is the curator of the exhibit titled The Secret Codes, which is currently on display at the Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax. The exhibit features works from over two dozen predominately African Nova Scotian painters and quilters.
While the exhibit runs until Aug. 6, the gallery will host other events for Emancipation Day on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2. Those events will include a curator’s talk, a guided tour with Heather Cromwell of the Vale Quilters Association whose work is featured in the exhibit, and a “family quilts gathering” where people are invited to bring in their quilts to share stories about them.
In the days following the Nova Scotia provincial election last month, where the Progressive Conservatives (PCs) won a majority government but failed to elect any Black MLAs, the Halifax Examiner was the first to pose the question: Who will be the next minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs?
On Tuesday, that question was answered when Pat Dunn, PC MLA for Pictou Centre, who is white, was announced as the new minister for both African Nova Scotian Affairs and the brand-new Office of Equity and Anti-Racism Initiatives. Dunn replaces Liberal MLA for Cole Harbour, Tony Ince, who is Black.
