This is amazing.
This weekend’s weekend video is of Dr. Afua Cooper reading a version of her poem, ‘Negro cemeteries.’
Afua Cooper is a poet, educator, and historian, and currently the James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies at Dalhousie University. She is also the current Halifax poet laureate.
Her groundbreaking book The Hanging of Angélique: Canada, Slavery and the Burning of Montreal, focuses on the historical events surrounding Angélique, a Canadian slave woman who was hanged in Montreal in 1734 for setting her owner’s house on fire and burning down a large part of the city as a result.
Negro Cemeteries is from Coopers fifth book of poetry, Copper Woman and other poems, published in 2007 by Natural Heritage Books.
See also: Confessions of a woman who burnt down a town, a poem by Afua Cooper
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