Research Guides: Celebrating Black Canadian Creators: Home

©Image from Canada.ca/Black-History-Month

February is Black History Month, but we'd like to celebrate the contributions of Black Canadian writers and filmmakers all year long! This list highlights just some of the works from Black Canadian creators in our collections. Please check back periodically for updates!

If there is something you'd like to see added to this list, please email us at libref@langara.ca with your suggestions.

If you'd like to search for titles related to Black History in Canada, please click the link below!

Library Catalogue Search for Black History in Canada

Fiction/Literature/Drama

Days by moonlight by André Alexis
Botanist Alfred Homer, ever hopeful and constantly surprised, is invited on a road trip through Southwestern Ontario by his parents' friend, Professor Morgan Bruno, who wants company as he tries to unearth the story of the mysterious poet John Skennen. But this is no ordinary road trip. As Alfred and the Professor encounter towns with familiar names but where Black residents speak only in sign language or where there are Indigenous Parades, house burnings, werewolves, and witches, we realize that this is a journey through the psyche of Alfred and, indeed, though the psyche of Canada...
Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
A bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings.
The Hidden Keys by André Alexis
Tancred Palmieri, a thief with elegant and erudite tastes, meets Willow Azarian, an aging heroin addict. She reveals to Tancred that her very wealthy father has recently passed away, leaving each of his five children a mysterious object that provides one clue to the whereabouts of a large inheritance. Willow enlists Tancred to steal these objects from her siblings and solve the puzzle. As Tancred tracks down the treasure, he must enlist the help of Alexander von Wurfel, esteemed copyist, and fend off Willow's heroin dealers, a young albino and his sidekick, a club-footed psychopath, both of whom are eager to get their paws on this supposed pot of gold. And he must mislead Detective Daniel Mandelshtam, his most adored friend.
Brother by David Chariandy
Explores questions of masculinity, family, race, and identity as they are played out in a Scarborough housing complex during the sweltering heat and simmering violence of the summer of 1991.
Proud Empires by Austin Clarke
Proud Empires explores colonial and post-colonial conditions in the British Empire and the politics of Barbados.
Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature by Wayde Compton
From the writings of James Douglas, a figure whose "Blackness" can only be construed from rumour and speculation, through to the contemporary hip hop lyrics of Rascalz, and including the work of poets, journalists, letter writers, biographers, fiction writers, and speech givers, Bluesprint is a comprehensive anthology of literature and orature by Black British Columbians. Bluesprint includes the work of such individuals as Rebecca Gibbs, Nora Hendrix (grandmother to Jimi), Austin Phillips, Rosemary Brown, Yvonne Brown, Hope Anderson, Lorena Gale, Mercedes Baines, David Nandi Odhiambo, Michelle La Flamme, Shane Book, Peter Hudson, Rascalz, and many others dealing with issues surrounding race, community, gender, and genre.
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
Paris, 1940. A brilliant jazz musician, Hiero, is arrested by the Nazis and never heard from again. He is twenty years old. He is a German citizen. And he is black. Fifty years later, his friend and fellow musician, Sid, must relive that unforgettable time, revealing the friendships, love affairs, and treacheries that sealed Hiero's fate.
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Eleven-year-old George Washington Black--or Wash--a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master's brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human. But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash's head, they must abandon everything and flee together.
Black Writers Matter by Whitney French
This anthology offers a cross-section of established writers and newcomers to the literary world who tackle contemporary and pressing issues. Included are memoirs, interviews, questionaires and other non-fiction pieces,
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
Abducted as an 11-year-old child from her village in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea.. Aminata Diallo is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. Years later, she forges her way to freedom, serving the British in the Revolutionary War and registering her name in the historic “Book of Negroes.” This book, an actual document, provides a... revealing record of freed Loyalist slaves who requested permission to leave the US for resettlement in Nova Scotia, only to find that the haven they sought was steeped in an oppression all of its own. Her eventual return to Sierra Leone is an... important chapter in history that saw 1,200 former slaves embark on a harrowing back-to-Africa odyssey.
The Illegal: A Novel by Lawrence Hill
Keita Ali is on the run. He is desperate to flee Zantoroland, a mountainous black island that produces the fastest marathoners in the world. Keita signs on with notorious marathon agent, Anton Hamm, who provides Keita with a chance to run the Boston marathon. But when Keita fails to place among the top finishers, rather than being sent back to his own country, he goes into hiding. A thriller that addresses the fate of undocumented refugees who struggle to survive in nations that do not want them.
Things Are Good Now: Stories by Djamila Ibrahim
Set in East Africa, the Middle East, Canada, and the U.S., this book explores the scars of violence and the weight of love and guilt on the soul. In these short stories, women, men, and children who've crossed continents in search of a better life find themselves struggling with the chaos of displacement and the religious and cultural clashes they face in their new homes.
Monoceros (Ebook) by Suzette Mayr
Unicorns, Ethiopian food, a Wonder Woman drag queen: Monoceros offers a funny, heartbreaking look at the tragedy of teen suicide.
Shut Up You're Pretty (Ebook) by Téa Mutonji
A high-wire collection of darkly humorous stories about a young woman floating in and out of her skin, trying on identities imposed on her by others.
The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe
When Norris, a Black French Canadian, starts his junior year at an Austin, Texas, high school, he views his fellow students as cliché from "a bad 90s teen movie."
Frying Plantain: Stories by Zalika Reid-Benta
Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle--of her Canadian nationality and her desire to be a "true" Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother's rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too "faas" or too "quiet" or too "bold" or too "soft." Set in "Little Jamaica," Toronto's Eglinton West neighbourhood, Kara moves from girlhood to the threshold of adulthood... This book shows how, in one charged moment, friendship and love can turn to enmity and hate, well-meaning protection can become control, and teasing play can turn to something much darker. The author depicts the tensions between mothers and daughters, second-generation Canadians and first-generation cultural expectations, and Black identity and predominately white society.
Harlem Duet by Djanet Sears
"A rhapsodic blues tragedy. Harlem Duet could be the prelude to Shakepeare's Othello, and recounts the tale of Othello and his first wife Billie (yes, before Desdemona). Set in contemporary Harlem at the corner of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X boulevards, the play explores the space where race and sex intersect. Harlem Duet is Billie's story." - Back Cover
Tellin' It Like It Is: A Compendium of African Canadian Monologues for Actors by Djanet Sears (Editor)
"The first collection of monologues by African Canadian playwrights ever assembled. It is a response to the growing number of Black actors and theatre professionals who need access to a larger selection of audition pieces that reflect their own experience in all its diversity. Moreover, it may be one of the first contacts with Black playwrights that a young reader, interested in theatre, will have the opportunity to experience." -From the foreward by Djanet Sears

Biography/Memoir

Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir (Ebook) by Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali
Kidnapped by his father on the eve of Somalia's societal implosion, Mohamed Ali was taken first to the Netherlands by his stepmother, and then later on to Canada. Unmoored from his birth family and caught between twin alienating forces of Somali tradition and Western culture, Mohamed must forge his own queer coming of age. What follows in this fierce and unrelenting account is a story of one young man's nascent sexuality fused with the violence wrought by displacement.
I Know Who I Am: A Caribbean Woman's Identity in Canada by Dr. Yvonne Bobb-Smith
Dr. Yvonne Bobb-Smith explores the knowledge and history of resistance of Caribbean women in Canada, using her own journey as a personal place from which to navigate the generalized experience of settlement and adjustment in the Diaspora. I know who I am investigates the stories of forty-five Caribbean women of different backgrounds and heritages. Bobb-Smith uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine subjectivity, experience, agency, and resistance in the lived experiences of Caribbean women in Canada. She demonstrates that the historical past left a legacy of domination and resistance.
Bread Out of Stone: Recollections, Sex, Recognitions, Race, Dreaming, Politics by Dionne Brand
Brand [covers] issues of sex and sexism: male violence toward women; how Black women learn the erotic; the vulnerability of Black female life in the city; and the stereotypes of Black females in popular culture. She looks at the denial of racism by the white liberal cultural elite, the centrality of 'whiteness' in definitions of North American culture... and white appropriation and representations of Black culture. The history and experience of Toronto's Black community are illuminated in essays charting the differing issues and politics confronting white and Black immigrant groups, the growth of the Black consciousness movement, and the coming of age and the inner lives of a new generation of Blacks in the city.
A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging by Dionne Brand
"Dionne Brand explores the relevance and nature of identity and belonging in a culturally diverse and changing world. Drawing on cartography, narratives of childhood in the Caribbean, journeys across the Canadian landscape, African ancestry, histories, politics, philosophies and literature, [this book] sketches the shifting borders of home and nation, and the connection to place in Canada and the world beyond" - back cover.
'Membering (Ebook) by Austin Clarke
The unforgettable memoir of Austin Clarke. Clarke is a distinguished and celebrated novelist and short-story writer. His works often centre around the immigrant experience, of which he writes with humour and compassion, happiness and sorrow. In 'Membering, Clarke shares his own experiences growing up in Barbados and moving to Toronto to attend university in 1955 before becoming a journalist. With vivid realism he describes Harlem of the '60s, meeting and interviewing Malcolm X and writers Chinua Achebe and LeRoi Jones. Clarke went on to become a pioneering instructor of Afro-American Literature at Yale University and inspired a new generation of Afro-American writers.
The Hanging of Angelique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal by Afua Cooper
Writer, historian and poet Afua Cooper tells the astonishing story of Marie-Joseph Angélique, a slave woman convicted of starting a fire that destroyed a large part of Montréal in April 1734 and condemned to die a brutal death. In a powerful retelling of Angélique’s story -- now supported by archival illustrations -- Cooper builds on 15 years of research to shed new light on a rebellious Portuguese-born black woman who refused to accept her indentured servitude. At the same time, Cooper completely demolishes the myth of a benign, slave-free Canada, revealing a damning 200-year-old record of legally and culturally endorsed slavery.
#BlackInSchool by Habiba Cooper Diallo
How do we stop racist ideas and violence if the very foundation of our society is built upon white supremacy? How do we end systemic racism if the majority do not experience it or question its existence? This book is the author's high school journal, in which she documents, processes, and resists the systemic racism, micro-aggressions, stereotypes, and outright racism she experienced in Canada's education system. Powerful and eye-opening, she illustrates how our schools reinforce rather than erode racism. She shows how systemic racism works, how it alienates and seeks to destroys a child's sense of self. She shows how our institutions work to erase the lived experiences of Black youth and try to erase Black youth themselves.
Dear Current Occupant: A Memoir by Chelene Knight
This book is a creative nonfiction memoir about home and belonging set in the 80s and 90s of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Using a variety of forms including letters, essays and poems, the author reflects on her childhood through a series of letters addressed to all of the current occupants now living in the twenty different houses she moved in and out of with her mother and brother. From blurry non-chronological memories of trying to fit in with her own family as the only mixed East Indian/Black child, to crystal clear recollections of parental drug use, she draws a vivid portrait of memory that still longs for a place and a home.
They said this would be fun : race, campus life, and growing up by Eternity Martis
As a booksmart kid from Toronto, Eternity Martis was excited to move away to Western University for her undergraduate degree. But as one of the few Black students there, she soon discovered that the campus experiences she'd seen in movies were far more complex in reality. Over the next four years, Eternity learned more about what someone like her brought out in other people than she did about herself. She was confronted by white students in blackface at parties, dealt with being the only person of colour in class and was tokenized by her romantic partners. She heard racial slurs in bars, on the street, and during lectures. And she gathered labels she never asked for: Abuse survivor. Token. Bad feminist. But, by graduation, she found an unshakeable sense of self--and a support network of other women of colour.
Shame on Me by Tessa McWatt
Tessa McWatt has been called Susie Wong, Pocahontas and "black bitch," and has been judged not black enough by people who assume she straightens her hair. Now, through a close examination of her own body--nose, lips, hair, skin, eyes, ass, bones and blood--which holds up a mirror to the way culture reads all bodies, she asks why we persist in thinking in terms of race today when racism is killing us. How do you tick a box on a census form or job application when your ancestry is Scottish, English, French, Portuguese, Indian, Amerindian, African and Chinese? Shame on Me is a personal and powerful exploration of history and identity, colour and desire from a writer who, having been plagued with confusion about her race all her life, has at last found kinship and solidarity in story.

Poetry

Daughters of the Sun, Women of the Moon: Poetry by Black Canadian Women by Ayanna Black, Dionne Brand, Afua Cooper, Sylvia Hamilton, Claire Harris, Theresa Lewis, Ahdri Zhina Mandiela, Nonqaba Ka Msimang, Marlene Nourbese Philip, & Maxine Tynes
Daughters of the Sun, Women of the Moon brings together the rich and diverse voices of both Canadian-born and immigrant Black women poets.
Fierce Departures: The Poetry of Dionne Brand (Ebook) by Dionne Brand
The selections in Fierce Departures, drawn from Dionne Brand’s work since 1997, delineate with searing eloquence how history marks and dislocates peoples of the African diaspora, how nations, concretely and conceptually, fail to create safe haven, and how human desire persists nevertheless. Through a widening canvas, Brand unfolds the (im)possibilities of belonging for those whom history has dispossessed. Yet she also shows how Canada, and in particular Toronto, remade by those who alight on it, is a place of contingency. Known for her linguistic intensity and lyric brilliance, Brand consoles through the beauty of her work and disturbs with its uncompromising demand for ethical witness.
Blues and Bliss: The Poetry of George Elliott Clarke (Ebook) by George Elliott Clarke
Blues singer, preacher, cultural critic, exile, Africadian, high modernist, spoken word artist, Canadian poet--these are but some of the voices of George Elliott Clarke. In a selection of Clarke's best work from his early poetry to his most recent, Blues and Bliss: The Poetry of George Elliott Clarke offers readers an impressive cross-section of those voices. Jon Paul Fiorentino's introduction focuses on this polyphony and his "voice throwing," and shows how the intersections here produce a "troubling" of language. He sketches Clarke's primary interest in the negotiation of cultural space through adherence to and revision of tradition and on the finding of a vernacular that begins in exile, especially exile in relation to African-Canadian communities.
Gardening in the Tropics (Ebook) by Olive Senior
Gardening in the Tropics contains a rich Caribbean world in poems offered to readers everywhere. Olive Senior's rich vein of humour can turn wry and then sharp in satire of colour-consciousness, class-consciousness and racism. But her predominant tone is the verbal equivalent of a pair of wide-open arms.
How She Read

Miscellaneous Non-Fiction (Art/Culture/History)

Schooling the System: A History of Black Women Teachers (Ebook) by Funké Aladejebi
In post–World War II Canada, black women's positions within the teaching profession served as sites of struggle and conflict as the nation worked to address the needs of its diversifying population. From their entry into teachers'college through their careers in the classroom and administration, black women educators encountered systemic racism and gender barriers at every step. So they worked to change the system.Using oral narratives to tell the story of black access and education in Ontario between the 1940s and the 1980s, Schooling the System provides textured insight into how issues of race, gender, class, geographic origin, and training shaped women's distinct experiences within the profession.
What's a Black Critic To Do?: Interviews, Profiles and Reviews of Black Writers (Ebook) by Donna Bailey Nurse
This groundbreaking collection of profiles, interviews, essays and reviews on such well-known black writers and artists as Nalo Hopkinson, Dionne Brand, Austin Clarke, Lawrence Hill and Edwidge Danticat constitutes a frank conversation on the significance of race in contemporary Black Canadian and American literature. What's a Black Critic to Do? is for anyone looking for a way to talk about the sometimes-taboo topic of race, as it appears in novels, movies and plays. Of interest to Black readers as well as teachers, librarians and book club members, this book is a vital snapshot of contemporary North American culture.
We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women's History (Ebook) by Peggy Bristow, Dionne Brand, Linda Carty, Afua A. Cooper, Sylvia Hamilton, Adrienne Shadd
Despite the increasing scope and authority of women's studies, the role of Black women in Canada's history has remained largely unwritten and unacknowledged. This silence supports the common belief that Black people have only recently arrived in Canada and that racism is also a fairly recent development. This book sets the record straight. The six essays collected here explore three hundred years of Black women in Canada, from the seventeenth century to the immediate post-Second World War period. Winner of the Ontario Historical Society's 1996 Joseph Brant award.
Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter Canada (Ebook) by Rodney Diverlus, Sandy Hudson, & Syrus Marcus Ware
The killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012 by a white assailant inspired the Black Lives Matter movement, which quickly spread outside the borders of the United States. The movement's message found fertile ground in Canada, where Black activists speak of generations of injustice and continue the work of the Black liberators who have come before them. Until We Are Free contains some of the very best writing on the hottest issues facing the Black community in Canada. It describes the latest developments in Canadian Black activism, organizing efforts through the use of social media, Black-Indigenous alliances, and more.
Out of the Sun: On Race and Storytelling by Esi Edugyan
In this book, the author delivers an incisive analysis of the relationship between race and art. History is a construction. What happens when we begin to consider stories at the margins, when we grant them centrality? How does that complicate our certainties about who we are, as individuals, as nations, as human beings? Through the lens of visual art, literature, film, and the author's lived experience, the book examines the depiction of Black histories in art, offering new perspectives to challenge the accepted narrative.
Genuine Multiculturalism: The Tragedy and Comedy of Diversity (Ebook) by Cecil Foster
While many modern societies are noted for their diversity, the resulting challenge is to determine how citizens from different backgrounds and cultures can see themselves and each other as equals, and be treated equally. In Genuine Multiculturalism, Cecil Foster shows that a society's failure to bridge these differences is the tragedy of modern living and that pretending it is possible to mechanically develop fraternity and solidarity among diverse groups is akin to seeking out comedy. Arguing that genuine multiculturalism is the search for social justice by individuals who have been trapped by ascribed identities or newcomers who have been shut out of perceived ethnic homelands, Foster details how this process, in essence, is the story of the Americas.
They Call Me George: The Untold Story of The Black Train Porters (Ebook) by Cecil Foster
A CBC BOOKS MUST-READ NONFICTION BOOK FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH Smartly dressed and smiling, Canada’s black train porters were a familiar sight to the average passenger—yet their minority status rendered them politically invisible, second-class in the social imagination that determined who was and who was not considered Canadian. Subjected to grueling shifts and unreasonable standards—a passenger missing his stop was a dismissible offense—the so-called Pullmen of the country’s rail lines were denied secure positions and prohibited from bringing their families to Canada, and it was their struggle against the racist Dominion that laid the groundwork for the multicultural nation we know today.
The Black Girlhood Studies Collection by Edited by Aria S. Halliday
This book is dedicated to the burgeoning academic field of Black Girlhood Studies. Centering the experiences of Black girls in Canada, the US, the Caribbean, and the African continent, established and new scholars provide the theoretical, practical, and pedagogical tools necessary for the advancement of the field and the betterment of Black girls globally. The contributors consider what black girlhood means in the 21st century and how ideas of race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and nationality affect the experiences of Black girls. From self-care and fan fiction to political role models and new media, this collection foregrounds Black girls' experiences to create language that better constructs and explains Black girls' lives from their own words.
Race and Well-Being
Toward an African Canadian Art History: Art, Memory and Resistance by Nelson, Charmaine
Call Number: N 6549.5 B53 N45 2019
Publication Date: 2019
Going There: Black Visual Satire (Ebook) by Richard J. Powell
"... Richard J. Powell investigates the visual forms of satire produced by black artists in 20th- and 21st-century America. Underscoring the historical use of visual satire as antiracist dissent and introspective critique, Powell argues that it has a distinctly African American lineage. Taking on some of the most controversial works of the past century-- in all their complexity, humor, and provocation-- Powell raises important questions about the social power of art. Expansive in both historical reach and breadth of media presented, Going There interweaves discussions of such works as the midcentury cartoons of Ollie Harrington, the installations of Kara Walker, the paintings of Robert Colescott, and the movies of Spike Lee.
Black Like Who? by Rinaldo Walcott
ISBN: 1894663403
Rinaldo Walcott's groundbreaking study of black culture in Canada, this book caused such an uproar upon its publication in 1997 that Insomniac Press has decided to publish a second revised edition of this perennial best-seller. With its incisive readings of hip-hop, film, literature, social unrest, sports, music and the electronic media, Walcott's book not only assesses the role of black Canadians in defining Canada, it also argues strenuously against any notion of an essentialist Canadian blackness. As erudite on the issue of American super-critic Henry Louis Gates' blindness to black Canadian realities as he is on the rap of the Dream Warriors and Maestro Fresh Wes, Walcott's essays are thought-provoking and always controversial in the best sense of the word. They have added and continue to add immeasurably to public debate.
BlackLife: Post-BLM and the Struggle for Freedom (Ebook) by Rinaldo Walcott, & Idil Abdillahi
BlackLife discloses the ongoing destruction of Black people as enacted not simply by state structures, but beneath them in the foundational modernist ideology that underlies thinking around migration and movement, as Black erasure and death are unveiled as horrifically acceptable throughout western culture. Idil Abdillahi and Rinaldo Walcott pull from local history, literature, theory, music, and public policy around everything from arts funding, to crime and mental health––presenting a convincing call to challenge pervasive thought on dominant culture's conception of Black personhood.
Rude: Contemporary Black Canadian Cultural Criticism (Ebook) by Rinaldo Walcott
Rude is an anthology of critical writing on Black Canadian culture. The anthology is meant to convey the idea of a burgeoning response to Black Canadian cultural expression and what it means both for various Black communities and the Canadian nation. The anthology departs from uncritical celebration to critically engage with Black Canadian expressive cultures. The essayists do more than celebrate Canadian nationalism: they attempt to cast a complex analysis of its limits and its possibilities through the examination of Black lives, cultures and events in Canada and abroad. Rude fills a void in the Canadian cultural landscape, where Black responses to the nation are always framed in terms of anti-racism.
Ruptures: Anti-Colonial & Anti-Racist Feminist Theorizing (Ebook) by Njoki N. Wane, Jennifer Jagire, & Zahra Murad
This book provides tools and theoretical frameworks to make sense of how the world is regulated, governed, controlled with regard to the exclusivity of certain members of the society, and in particular, women from marginalized groups. This book, therefore, engages readers by asking thought-provoking questions to interrogate issues of marginality and oppression in society.
The Skin We're In by Desmond Cole
This book exposes the racist practices of the Toronto police force, detailing the dozens of times the author had been stopped and interrogated under the controversial practice of carding. The author draws insistent, unyielding attention to the injustices faced by Black Canadians on a daily basis: the devastating effects of racist policing; the hopelessness produced by an education system that expects little of its black students and withholds from them the resources they need to succeed more fully; the heartbreak of those vulnerable before the child welfare system and those separated from their families by discriminatory immigration laws. In this book, he chronicles just one year--2017--in the struggle against racism in this country.

Streaming Media - Short Films

Freedom Summer (2018)
Directed by Lu Asfaha.
At this summer camp in Toronto, Black youth learn about self-love and Black liberation. Freedom Summer follows two children as they learn about themselves and others at Black Lives Matter Toronto's Freedom School - a summer camp where Black kids learn that Black is beautiful. (11 min 50 sec)
Sòl (2020)
Directed by Valérie Bah, & Tatiana Zinga Botao.
Many Black, racialized and immigrant women work with elderly patients as healthcare providers. Their jobs have become even more exhausting during the COVID-19 pandemic. What do they themselves have to say? This cross-sectional portrait of some of these women takes the form of a meditative essay. (8 min., 01 sec.)
I Am Gay (2020)
Directed by Ajahnis Charley.
After working abroad for five years, filmmaker, Ajahnis Charley, returns home to Oshawa, Ontario, in the age of quarantine. In addition to reuniting with his family, he returns with a mission to share some deep personal truths. Surprising conversations ensue with his mother and three siblings creating, in this humorous and heart-wrenching story, about our need to seek love and acceptance within our own families. (10 min., 25 sec.)
Black Soul (2000)
Directed by Martine Chartrand.
BLACK SOUL is an exhilarating immersion into the heart of Black culture via a whirlwind voyage through the defining moments of Black History. As an old lady initiates her grandson into his past, a series of perpetually transforming images painted directly under the animation camera unfolds before our eyes. In a mesmerizing swirl of light and colour, the boy traces his ancestry to mighty Pharaohs, and to valiant kings whose praises are sung by a griot beneath the baobab tree. Suddenly, the beating of drums conjures forth the slave market and far-flung exile. At long last, rocked by the rhythms of gospel and jazz, the boy makes his way from the lush Caribbean to the snows of the Americas. A film without words. (9 min., 47 sec.)
MacPherson (2012)
Directed by Martine Chartrand.
In Quebec during the early 1930s, young poet Félix Leclerc befriended Frank Randolph Macpherson, a Jamaican chemical engineer and university graduate who worked for a pulp and paper company. An inveterate jazz fan, Macpherson inspired Leclerc, who wrote a song about the log drives and entitled it "MacPherson" in honour of his friend. In the magical hands of Martine Chartrand, director of Black Soul, have created an animated film that bursts with a pulsating hybrid of poetry and music, employing painted glass frames shot with a 35mm camera. Somewhere between documentary and fiction, MacPherson, based on Leclerc's famous song, depicts turning points in history and, with great sensitivity and lavish imagery, evokes the deep feelings shared by the Jamaican engineer and one of Leclerc's sisters. (10 min., 52 sec.)
Hardwood (2004)
Directed by Hubert Davis.
Hardwood is a personal journey by director Hubert Davis, the son of former Harlem Globetrotter Mel Davis, who explores how his father's decisions affected his life and those of his extended family. Elegantly structured into three chapters entitled "love," "recollection" and "redemption," Davis uses personal interviews, archival footage and home movies to delve into his father's past in the hope of finding a new direction for his own. At its core, Hardwood is about the power of redemption and the healing of the bonds between fathers and sons. (29 min., 20 sec.)
Canada Reads 2022 : Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (2022)
Esi Edugyan discusses her novel Washington Black with Mark Tewksbury, Olympic champion swimmer, who is defending her novel on Canada Reads 2022. The 1830s-set novel follows the life of Wash, who spends the first 11 years of his life as a field slave in Barbados. Unexpected events send Wash on a lifelong adventure around the world - a journey that has Wash grappling with agency, self-actualization and love for the first time. (18 min 19 sec)
Black Mother Black Daughter (2010)
Directed by Claire Prieto & Sylvia Hamilton.
Black Mother Black Daughter explores the lives and experiences of black women in Nova Scotia, their contributions to the home, the church and the community and the strengths they passed on to their daughters. Some of the women appearing in the film are Edith Clayton, a basket maker; Pearleen Oliver, a historian; Dr. Marie Hamilton, an educator and community leader; and Daurene Lewis, a weaver and politician. Also appearing is the dynamic female a capella quartet Four the Moment. (28 min., 59 sec.)

Streaming Media - Feature Length

Into the Light (2020)
Directed by Gentille M. Assih.
Into the Light features the liberating life stories and powerful words of inspiring Quebec women of African origin who've regained control over their lives after suffering from domestic violence. The film transcends prejudice and breaks the silence, pulling back the curtain on a poorly understood, hidden world, while testifying to the tremendous power that comes from overcoming isolation and accepting one's self. It's a luminous dive into the quest for personal healing and universal humanity. This is Togo-born director Gentille M. Assih's third documentary.
(79 min., 46 sec.)
Listening for Something... Adrienne Rich and Dionne Brand in Conversation (1996)
Directed by Dionne Brand.
The nation, the country, where do we belong in it? In this film through conversation and poetry two poets meet for the telling and the listening. Adrienne Rich is a distinguished American feminist poet, and author of numerous books of prose, poetry, essays and speeches. Dionne Brand is a Trinidadian-Canadian femininst poet, writer and filmmaker. Incisive and inquisitive, the two women meet to discuss the world as they each see it. Claiming any subject, they talk about events as they see them, analytic, contemplative, honest and open ended. Topics include political issues, feminism, racism and lesbianism, among others. The viewer is invited into the exchange by the familiar images of two women talking intimately around a kitchen table, in corridors, or casually outdoors in the United States, Tobago and Canada. Shot in black and white and in colour, the conversation takes us over the territories of their poetry. (55 min., 58 sec.)
Long Time Comin' (1993)
Directed by Dionne Brand.
There is a cultural revolution going on in Canada and Faith Nolan and Grace Channer are on the leading edge. These two African-Canadian lesbian artists give back to art its most urgent meanings--commitment and passion. Grace Channer's large and sensuous canvasses and musician Faith Nolan's gritty and joyous blues propel this documentary into the spheres of poetry and dance. Long Time Comin' captures their work, their urgency, and their friendship in intimate conversations with both artists. (52 min., 27 sec.)
Invisible City
Invisible City is a moving story of two boys from Regent Park crossing into adulthood - their mothers and mentors rooting for them to succeed; their environment and social pressures tempting them to make poor choices. Turning his camera on the often ignored inner city, Academy-award nominated director Hubert Davis sensitively depicts the disconnection of urban poverty and race from the mainstream.
Home Feeling: Struggle for a Community (1983)
Directed by Jennifer Hodge.
The Jane-Finch "Corridor" is an area of six square blocks in Toronto's North York. To the residents of Metro Toronto, the Corridor evokes images of vandalism, high-density subsidized housing, racial tension, despair and crime. By focusing intimately on the lives of several of the residents, many of them Blacks or members of other visible minorities, and their relationship with police, social service agencies, and other major institutions that affect their lives, the film provides a powerful view of a community that, contrary to its popular image, is working towards a more positive future. (57 min., 35 sec.)
The Road Taken (2008)
Directed by Selwyn Jacob.
A nostalgic ride through history, The Road Taken documents the experiences of Blacks who worked as sleeping-car porters on Canada's major railways from the early 1900s through the 1960s. There was a strong sense of pride among the porters--they were well-respected by their community, and they had steady work and were able to provide for their families. Yet, harsh working conditions were a bitter reality and there were no opportunities for promotion to other railway jobs. Finally, in 1955, porter Lee Williams charged the railway companies and the porter's union with discrimination under the Canada Fair Employment Act, and Blacks were able to work in other areas. Interviews, archival photos, and memorable film footage of train travel combine with the music of noted Toronto jazz musician Joe Sealy, whose father was a porter, to reconstruct a fascinating history that might otherwise have been forgotten.
(52 min., 02 sec.)
Soul on Ice: Past, Present, and Future (2015)
Produced by Damon Kwame Mason.
'Soul On Ice: Past, Present, and Future' presents and retells the virtually unknown contributions of black athletes in ice hockey. For decades, hockey was seen as a homogeneous sport - exciting to watch but played by one kind of player. Soul On Ice presents the exploits of athletes who dared to stand out, and dared to make the sport their own. These Black athletes dared to give their sport soul. At the heart of the story is Jaden Lindo, a young man chasing after his lifelong dream to play in the NHL. The film follows Jaden in the most important year of his hockey life, mirroring the journey that many other black athletes have faced to make it to the NHL. Some of today’s top NHL stars and former players join us on our journey through history, through in-depth personal interviews. The face of hockey is changing and this film shows us it has been in the making for a long time. (86 min.)
How She Move (2013)
Written by Annmarie Morais.
Following her sister's death from drug addiction, a high school student is forced to leave her private school to return to her old, crime-filled neighborhood. There, she defies all the rules to achieve her dreams as she re-kindles her passion for the competitive world of step dancing. She gets the chance to get out of her drug and crime infested neighborhood to attend an exclusive academy.
(92 min.)
Mighty Jerome (2010)
Written & directed by Charles Officer.
In 1959, at just 19 years of age, Harry Jerome was Canada's most promising track and field star, and he was on his way to the Olympics in Rome. By 1962, after suffering a gruesome leg injury, there was every reason to think that his racing days were over. But Jerome was not just a champion on the track; he was doubly determined off it. And so began his climb to what his coach, the legendary Bill Bowerman, called "the greatest comeback in track and field history." Through years of unparalleled political turbulence, racial conflict and his own personal challenges, Harry Jerome kept his head down and ran, displaying strength of character and willful perseverance every bit as impressive as his record-setting athleticism. (52 min., 01 sec.)
The Skin We're In (2017)
Directed by Charles Officer.
Urgent, controversial and undeniably honest, The Skin We're In is a wake-up call to complacent Canadians. Racism is here. It is everywhere. It is us and we are it. Following celebrated journalist Desmond Cole as he researches his hotly anticipated book, this documentary from acclaimed director Charles Officer pulls back the curtain on racism in Canada. (44 min 09 sec)
Unarmed Verses (2016)
Directed by Charles Officer.
This feature documentary presents a thoughtful and vivid portrait of a community facing imposed relocation. At the centre of the story is a remarkably astute and luminous 12-year-old black girl whose poignant observations about life, the soul, and the power of art give voice to those rarely heard in society. Unarmed Verses is a cinematic rendering of our universal need for self-expression and belonging.
(85 min., 44 sec.)
Cool Black North (2019)
Cool Black North explores the unique and vibrant Canadian Black Community and its role in our country’s contemporary identity. Through a series of intimate profiles, we are witness to a wide spectrum of life experiences, including the arts, entertainment, law, business, science and social activism. Though each person’s pathway to success is unique, they all share a common purpose and strength in overcoming often racially-based obstacles to succeed at the highest levels in their respective fields. Most importantly it’s their commitment to helping others and giving back to their communities that has earned them the recognition of the Harry Jerome Awards – these incredible people paint a diverse and compelling portrait of excellence in the documentary Cool Black North. (86 min.)
Home Again (2012)
Directed by Sudz Sutherland.
Marva, Dunston and Everton grew up in Toronto, New York and London respectively, but are deported "home" to Jamaica. Once in Kingston, they discover that every day is a fight for survival in which family support, friendships and shelter are elusive. They embark on a journey that pushes their endurance beyond measure and forces them to discover who they truly are. A searing, fast-paced drama, Home Again asks the question, "How would you survive?" (103 min., 53 sec.)

Websites

Black Communities in Canada - NFB Free Streaming Videos
Explore the National Film Board of Canada's free collection of films by award-winning Black filmmakers, creators, and allies of the Black community, detailing a rich history to better understand the present.
CBC Arts - Being Black in Canada
Interviews and articles highlighting Black Canadian poets, filmmakers, musicians, and artists.
CBC Books - Being Black in Canada
Interviews and articles highlighting Black Canadian writers.
The Black Canadian Creator Directory
Whether you’re searching for Black bloggers, Instagram influencers, TikTokers, YouTubers, or podcasters, The Black Canadian Creator Directory, (a collaborative effort between Casey Palmer, Sherley Joseph, and Kaya Marriott) has you covered.