PHOTOS: Roots & Rhythms highlights African Heritage
Drummers, speakers and poets headline cultural evening
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Danini Awoyiga, a 16-year-old high school student, is an activist and the municipal poet aureate. She writes poems highlighting diversity and social justice.About 50 people gathered in Paul O’Regan Hall Wednesday night at the Halifax Central Library for Roots & Rhythms: connecting the past, present and future.
The event highlighted the history of the Black community in Nova Scotia and Canada, displaying their presence and importance to Canadian history.
Exhibits highlighted the night along with drumming performances, speakers and poets. To end the evening, a video of students reading poems about Black history from Armbrae Academy in Halifax was played. It was a competition between the students, who were ranked at the end.
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Drummers from Home opened the event. Olive Phillips, to the drummer’s right, is the president of the Jamaican Cultural Association of Nova Scotia.
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Drummers from Home performed for about 30 minutes to open the event. With the drumming in the background, visitors looked at the exhibits.
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The event’s host, Dominic Silvio, hands the stage to Micah Smith to sing the Black National Anthem.
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Historian Afua Cooper delivers the opening remarks for the evening. She is a prominent figure in the African Canadian community and was key in founding a major and minor program in Black and African Diaspora Studies.
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Keith Mercer is the cultural resource manager of Parks Canada in Halifax. Jamaican Maroons helped build Citadel Hill’s defences.
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At the end of the event, guests and participants, such as Phillips and Josephine Muxlow chatted and socialized.Related stories
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Thomas Scott
Thomas is in his fourth year of journalism at the University of King's College. He loves sports and has reported on a variety of them for years....