SYDNEY, N.S. — NANCY KING
CAPE BRETON POST
Powerful stories about trailblazing African Canadian women will be centre stage at an event at Cape Breton University Monday.
To mark African Heritage Month, Cape Breton University's Viola Desmond Chair in Social Justice, the United Negro Improvement Association in Glace Bay and the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education are sponsoring a four-day series of events featuring actress and playwright Leslie McCurdy, as well as writer and community activist Wanda Robson, of North Sydney.
Too often, Canadians don’t hear the stories of those who have advanced the cause of civil and human rights in this country, noted Graham Reynolds, chair of the Viola Desmond Chair in Social Justice at CBU.
“This is why it’s so important to get people aware of the fact that we have these chapters in our history that we don’t know about, about slavery and the abolitionist movement and the struggles to make success of life in Canada, from back Loyalists to the refugees that came up from slavery."
McCurdy’s work involves depictions of historically significant women of African descent.
Her play, "Things My Fore-Sisters Saw," was featured on a CBC documentary last year. In the play, McCurdy depicts the stories of four African Canadian women: Marie-Joseph Angelique, a slave who was arrested, tortured and hanged for allegedly starting a fire that consumed much of Old Montreal in 1734, for crime she said she didn’t commit; Black Loyalist, Rose Fortune, who started her own transport business in Annapolis Royal and is considered to be Canada's first policewoman; Mary Ann Shadd, abolitionist and first woman in Canada to publish her own newspaper and Viola Desmond, Canadian civil rights icon and pioneer businesswoman.
“They will definitely be blown away by the performance, she’s a really wonderful actress,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said they want to reach out to the public, which is why the visit will include a public performance.
McCurdy has previously been to Cape Breton and was extremely well-received, Reynolds said. This time, it will involve appearances at five difference schools throughout the week doing individual performances.
“This is really a great opportunity to understand, I think, the important influence that African Canadians have made in shaping Canadian history,” Reynolds said. “The four women that she depicts in this play … are women that really each in other own right have helped to open up pathways to human rights in Canada.”
Reynolds noted the stories presented in the play open the door to understanding issues such as that there was slavery in early Canada, both under the French and the British.
“That’s a very important chapter in Canadian history that I think needs to be explored by students and teachers,” Reynolds said.
He noted the women represent both stories of great success and tremendous hardship.
Desmond’s sister Wanda Robson will speak to school children during a morning showing of the play Monday morning, as well as speaking to the public during an evening show, both to be held at the CBU Boardmore Theatre.
“She is, in her own right, I think, a treasure,” Reynolds said, of Robson.
In 2010, she published “Sister to Courage: Stories from the World of Viola Desmond, Canada’s Rosa Parks.” She has given numerous public and school presentations and has been interviewed many times by local and national media.
McCurdy’s free-of-charge public performance will take place Monday at the Boardmore Theatre at 7 p.m. At that event, the Bank of Canada will also be represented, and people will be able to get the new $10 bill that bears Desmond’s portrait. Robson and Reynolds will also be signing copies of their book about Desmond ahead of the performance, beginning at 6:16 p.m.
The Bank of Canada will also announce details related to its new contest for the new $5 bill.
