February is Black History Month!
Learn and celebrate Black History Month with these online and print resources and entertainment! We’ve curated a variety of materials in different formats for you, from local to Canada-wide.
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Learn and celebrate Black History Month with these online and print resources and entertainment! We’ve curated a variety of materials in different formats for you, from local to Canada-wide.
*We would like to draw your attention to the new Foreword in this book by Black academic Dr. Adam Rudder which addresses the issue of Black history being told by a white person.Â
READ: Go Do Some Great Thing: The Black Pioneers of British Columbia by Crawford Kilian
LISTEN: Hermann’s Jazz Club in Victoria
WATCH: Secret Victoria: Rush to Freedom directed by Melinda Friedman
LEARN: Digital Museum for British Columbia’s Black Pioneers
LEARN: The Hidden History of African American Settlers in Wellington, BC
Nonfiction books, journalism, and films written and directed by Black Canadian women
READ: The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal by Afua Cooper
LISTEN: Dear Current Occupant by Chelene Knight
WATCH: Farewell Regent directed by Christene A Browne
LEARN: Journalist Amanda Parris’s Black Light column for CBC
Resources on Black Lives Matter in Canada
READ: Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter Canada by Rodney Diverlus, Sandy Hudson, and Syrus Marcus Ware
LISTEN: Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present by Robyn Maynard
WATCH: The Skin We’re In Documentary featuring Desmond Cole and directed by Charles Officer
LEARN: Black Lives Matter Canada Website
Are you interested in getting started with genealogy? Use Ancestry Library Edition this month to discover African Canadian family history. Use the “forms” function in Ancestry Library Edition to keep track of your research. Check out this example of an in-depth genealogy mapping of the Vancouver Island/Salt Spring and area Gwynne / Wood family, who descended from enslaved African Americans who came to Canada in the 1800s.
Emma Stark is a famous Black Vancouver Islander who was the first Black teacher on the island in 1874. She worked at the Cranberry-Cedar School, where it was rare for both women and/or African Canadians to be employed in the profession. She died in 1890 at the age of 33 from an unknown illness. A plaque in recognition of her teaching career is located at 331 Wesley street in Nanaimo, where Emily once lived. You can view Emma Stark’s family tree and see her family’s genealogy to the present day! Watch one of her descendants, Naidine Sims talk on her family’s history.
Digital Children’s Titles for Black History Month
Head over to our ebook/eaudiobook collection to view and borrow dozens of children’s books, from picture books to middle grade novels, by Black authors. Authors include Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson, Jason Reynolds, and Brandy Colbert. Topics range from basketball to Black history, Muhammad Ali, friendship, Viola Desmond, sister relationships, and more!
Digital YA Titles for Black History Month
Teen books by Black authors, including contemporary reads by Black Canadian YA author Ben Philippe, LGBTQ+ Black stories, Black science fiction, and fantasy, and more!