DJ R$ $mooth celebrates career as host of longest-running Black music radio show in Atlantic Canada [VIDEO]

Ryan "R$ Smooth" Somers gives the peace sign while broadcasting on the radio

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,”

Council downzones historic Black community to stop ‘Wild Wild West of development’

HRM’s sign at the entrance to Upper Hammonds Plains. Credit: HRM Halifax Examiner — Limits have been placed on development in a historically Black community outside of Halifax after a vote at Halifax regional council this week. Community members from Upper Hammonds Plains packed council chambers for a public hearing Tuesday night, where many spoke after an […]

A coalition for Black voices in Nova Scotia

Photo: Halifax Examiner

Since 2015, the African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition has been working on issues in the Black community, including justice, health, education, employment, and social services.

Black community reacts to the appointment of a white Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs

PC MLA for Pictou Centre Pat Dunn is the newly appointed Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs and the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism Initiatives. Photo: Pat Dunn / Facebook.

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.

The long road to Emancipation Day

Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard speaks at the Emancipation Day celebration in Grand Parade in Halifax. Photo: Matthew Byard

“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.