Local businesses in Centretown are gearing up to celebrate this year’s 10th anniversary of the parliamentary recognition of Black History Month in Canada.
As the hub for many of the city’s events hosted by Black History Ottawa – a charity dedicated to connecting Canadians to black history and culture – the city’s downtown will host a wide range of organizations planning to come together for leadership seminars, lectures, poetry readings, art exhibits, fashion shows and other activities showcasing the presence of African- and Caribbean-rooted communities in Ottawa.
This year’s theme, “Our Canadian Story: Our Elders. Our Legacy!,” seeks to educate the younger generation about the influence earlier generations in the communities have made throughout history.
With increasing numbers of seniors’ deaths within the community, the executive team of Black History Ottawa decided to honour and celebrate the contributions many individuals have made in shaping Canadian history.
“Over the past five years, we’ve been losing elders at the rate of two or three a weekend,” says Sarah Onyango, the community outreach officer for Black History Ottawa. “We would go to the funeral home and find out all these amazing things this person did in the city and realized that no one bothered to talk about it, celebrate it, or highlight it for the wider community to know.”
During the Black History Ottawa Community Builder Awards on Jan. 31, the executive team presented a new award named for the late John G. Dennison, the first black person appointed as a citizenship judge for Ottawa. Onyango says Dennison’s 2012 appointment was a highlight in an award-winning life committed to preserving and promoting black history – locally, nationally and internationally.
The awards are awarded to individuals who have shown an outstanding contribution and commitment to Ottawa’s diverse community.
“Dennison had an affinity to help visible minorities and believed in the multicultural mosaic of this country,” says Meiz Majdoub, a life-long friend of Dennison’s.
As the founding chairman of the cathedral arts program at the Christ Church Cathedral on Queen Street, Dennison reached out to the wider community by introducing music and culture within the church, explains Majdoub.
Dennison also served with the Ottawa Public Library Board Foundation and many other organizations in the city. He is a recipient of awards such as the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award Medal and Lignum Vitae Award from the National Institute of Jamaican Canadians for outstanding leadership in the Ottawa community.
His civic engagement lasted for more than two decades, until he lost his battle to cancer last year.
Through the various events taking place this month, Onyango explains that the goal is not only to connect black Canadians to their culture but to create a movement in which families gather to look at family history and make a conscious effort to document and organize information about those who “lived interesting lives and in one way or another contributed to the development of this community.”
“Intergrat(ing) black culture within Canadian culture sounds like two different entities, but they’re not,” says Raymond Reid, a spokesperson for Black Artists’ Networks in Dialogue, a partner involved in planning some the upcoming events. “Throughout history you can trace how black culture has always been an integral and significant part of Canada.”
One of these influences includes music. In collaboration with Black Artists’ Networks in Dialogue and TD Canada Then & Now Black History Month campaign, Tribal Threat Music will present a series of three events showcasing how African drums and local chants have molded and created different genres of modern-day music such as jazz, blues and soul.
“The whole point is not only to celebrate black history but to emphasize and expose these artists and their works as a critical part of the Canadian culture scene,” says Reid.
The first event, Origin of Beat, set to take place Feb. 7 at Maxwell’s restaurant on Elgin Street, will feature Toronto DJ TK Smoothe and Ottawa’s Tribal Threat DJs.
These events tie into the greater theme of Ottawa’s Black History Month. Organizer Tumelo Ponalo says he hopes the audience walks away with an appreciation and knowledge for the history that influenced contemporary music.
“There’s a lack of respect given to the elders who pioneered a lot of the music we listen to now,” says Ponalo. “ (These events) are paying tribute to those elders who are often forgotten.”