A Peek at the Canvas: March
by Frank Caracciolo
The most recent episode of The Blank Canvas with Frank Caracciolo is out now. Released on January 31st, the episode features a conversation with Community Development Agent Kemba Mitchell about Black History.
Frank Caracciolo: We’re going to start off Black History Month together and you wanted to mention somebody?
Kemba Mitchell: Oh, Marcus Garvey! You know the movement. You cannot omit this gentleman, the honorable Marcus Garvey, who has been influential in many facets, throughout – globally. And I’ve always known about Marcus Garvey the name, but it wasn’t actually until our research when I was at Pierrefonds Community High School, that I really went in depth to understand to better understand who this man was and the influence he had in the African diaspora.
So speaking about Marcus Garvey and the Pan African flag per se, I was really happy to, at Springdale, shout out to Springdale and all the staff over there. They started a black history… actually sorry, a black history committee and they asked me if I wanted to join and I said sure and they have come up with a great, not only month but balance of the year, incorporating various art and culture in the school. They had asked me. They knew about some of the work I had done at PC and they asked me, would you want to come in to each classroom and kind of speak about the Pan-African flag and I was like, amazing. Yes, I will.
So, I’m going to give them a Pan-African flag that I have that was actually gifted to me by the former assistant director General, Tom Rhymes. I’m going to give the school a Pan African flag and I am going to go into every classroom and speak about the significance. Who Marcus Garvey was and the significance of the flag.
Frank Caracciolo: And you mentioned also Carter Woodson.
Kemba Mitchell: Oh yeah. Carter G. Woodson. Yes. OK, so another gentleman. So when we’re speaking about Black History Month, we cannot omit the conversation around how it started. And that would be Carter G Woodson, who started off with the idea of having a black history week, because of the fact that the curriculum omitted any history of black people, so it started off black history, Black History Week. And then it went through a month. It was recognized federally in the US and then in in Canada. I can’t remember the year, but it was recognized here as well, not as a holiday, but as a, you know, a national month to honor and celebrate black Canadians and black people around the world. And so yeah, influential individual. And we need to learn a lot from why the month began and then will we need to really be moving forward.
Hear the complete episode on your favourite podcast player or by clicking here.
