NEWS

UNC conference, films, concert to explore lives and history of blacks in Canada

CHAPEL HILL – Films, lectures and a jazz concert all will be part of a conference on the lives of people of African descent in Canada, set for April 1-3 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

UNC’s Institute of African American Research will sponsor the conference, "Engaging North America: Illuminating Black Canada," which will examine the experiences of blacks in Canada and identify strategies to improve their well-being, said institute director Dr. William "Sandy" Darity Jr., a UNC professor of economics and sociology. All events will be free and open to the public.

Esmeralda Thornhill, a law professor at the Dalhousie School of Law in Halifax, Nova Scotia, will give the keynote address, "Deficits Corrected or Created: Assessing the Impact of Law on Blacks in Canada," at 7 p.m. April 1 in UNC’s Tate-Turner Kuralt Auditorium.

From 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April 2-3 in the Toy Lounge of Dey Hall, invited scholars who examine the distinctive nature of the black experience in Canada will present ideas and discuss them with the audience. They are expected to overturn misconceptions about race in Canada including:

• All Canadian blacks descended from U.S. slaves who reached Canada through the underground railroad;
• Slavery never existed in Canada; and
• Canada is devoid of racism.

"This area of research and community of peoples has long been overlooked," Darity said. "This conference represents an exciting cultural bridge linking communities of people often thought of as disparate, but who actually are part of the same fabric of continental American history."

The conference will be the fifth in the institute’s international series on the black diaspora, or the experience of people of African descent around the world. Previous conferences have concerned Germany, Japan, Cuba and Mexico.

"Canada's blacks are primarily an urban people living in Montreal and Toronto," wrote Canadian poet and scholar George Elliott Clarke, who will speak at the UNC conference. He quotes sources estimating that some 240,940 blacks live in Toronto, representing 47.8 percent of the total African-Canadian population. An estimated 101,890 blacks live in Montreal, accounting for another 20.1 percent of all black Canadians.

"Although African-Canadians are largely urban people, rural enclaves still exist in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, southwestern Ontario, and in Alberta and Saskatchewan," Clarke wrote. The cities of Halifax and Vancouver are home to 15,385 blacks, 3.1 percent of the African-Canadian population.

Besides scholarly discussion, the conference will include a jazz concert by the Joe Sealy Quartet of Canada at 7:30 p.m. April 2 in the Hanes Art Center Auditorium. The quartet won a Juno Award – Canada’s version of the Grammy – for the compact disc "Africville Suite." The recording pays tribute to the spirit of Canada’s oldest black community, Sealy’s hometown. Africville was founded in 1838 when descendants of American slaves settled in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The conference also will include showings of the films "Speak It (from the Heart of Nova Scotia)" on April 2 and "Black Mother, Black Daughter" April 3 both at 11 a.m. in Toy Lounge. Sylvia Hamilton of Nova Scotia, who made both films, will be on hand to discuss them with the audiences.

For more information, visit the institute’s Web site, www.unc.edu/depts/iaar or contact Chandra Guinn, 962-6810 or cyg@email.unc.edu.

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Contacts: Dr. William "Sandy" Darity Jr., 966-5392, sandy_darity@unc.edu and Chandra Guinn, 962-6810, cyg@email.unc.edu
News Services contact: L.J. Toler, 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu