This mini documentary is a gem. It features North Preston’s amazing singer, song writer, musician and producer Reeny Smith as she performs and talks about obstacles Black artists face. The obstacles are real, but so is the joy and fun that pervades the entire video. The last few minutes, with Reeny’s parents and siblings joining in, are priceless.
Without a doubt one of the most inspiring stories to emerge from the pandemic is how the Preston communities mobilized to protect residents from infection. I spoke with Dr. David Haase, Sharon Davis-Murdoch and Archie Beals, three people who are closely involved, about this and other community initiatives, the role of the government, tomorrow’s town hall on the vaccine, and related matters. Casting a shadow on the entire conversation: what is the role of systemic racism in all this?
Media release: Like all African Nova Scotian communities, North Preston, the largest Indigenous African Nova Scotian Community, has been besieged with racism and injustice.
Tari Ajadi on the difficult and messy task of health promotion in the middle of a pandemic, ensuring that enhanced police surveillance and harassment does not become another indignity that Black communities face.
The claim that COVID-19 and its associated medical and social responses do not discriminate belies the history of how pandemics work and who is most impacted by them. States of emergency show that citizenship privileges some, is partial for others and disappears others. By Beverly Bain, OmiSoore Dryden and Rinaldo Walcott
An open letter demands that Premier Stephen McNeil and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Robert Strang apologize to Black residents of East and North Preston, Cherry Brook and Loon Lake. We talk with Dr. OmiSoore Dryden, the James R. Johnston chair in Black Studies at Dalhousie University, who spearheaded the letter.
“We’re already fighting the battle of being Black, the battle of being from North Preston,” says Miranda Cain. “And now we’re fighting the battle of being from North Preston and Black and with an infectious disease.”
PSA: This dynamic dramatic musical production written and directed by Anne Johnson-McDonald, is about both the historical and present power of the people of Preston, beginning with the wisdom of an African elder proclaiming and foretelling the power and faith of the people to overcome adversity to reach the greatness of their preordained destiny.