This weekend’s weekend video features Toronto activist and singer Faith Nolan, with a rousing song about Viola Desmond. I found out about Faith’s connections with Nova Scotia while reading Before the Parade, a great book by Rebecca Rose about LGBTQ activism in Halifax in the seventies and early eighties. Watch the video and buy the book!
Sure it’s Monday, but stuff happened over the weekend, and we’re running a bit late. Didn’t want to miss an opportunity to put a plug in for this year’s Mayworks Festival, which starts tomorrow .
I figured I pretty well knew all I needed to know about Viola Desmond after all the recent publicity around a new ferry name and the decision to feature her portrait on the new $10 bill. But there is always more to learn about Nova Scotia’s racist past.
Today we feature Black Sheroes, a poem by El Jones. “If you’re only telling the history of Black men then there’s a half that you missed.”
Outright government-sanctioned racism is very much part of Black Canadian history. A recently published book talks about this godawful legacy. The Nova Scotia chapters make for a grim read.
