New book focuses on black women leaders in Canada whose work impacted community

Black Artists’ Networks in Dialogue (BAND) – a charitable organisation dedicated to supporting, documenting, and showcasing the artistic and cultural contributions of black artists and cultural workers in Canada and internationally – has published a book that “seeks to rectify an oversight by offering an exploration of black women leaders in the Caribbean context through a lens of perseverance, creativity, and pride”.

Transformative Visions: Studio Portraits of Black Women in Leadership features portraits of 50 women from Ontario, from just over 55 to 98 years old, created by four Toronto-based visual artists – Janice Reid, Leyla Jeyte, Jon Blak, and Patricia Ellah – as well as essays and reflections, including from curators Sarah Edo, Belinda Uwase, and Courtnay McFarlane.

Among the women included are several of Jamaican heritage, including Antoinette Messam, Sandra Whiting, Paulette Senior, Afua Cooper, Aina-Nia Ayo’dele, Camille Orridge, Hazelle Palmer, Bushra Junaid, Yvonne Grant, and the late Beverley Salmon, to name a few.

Karen Carter, a Jamaican and co-founder and director of BAND, said the collection is a photography project that was conceptualised in 2019.

“It took form in response to a gap within Canadian records and archives realised during the curation of ‘Black in Toronto: A Generation of Leaders’, an exhibition presented by BAND Gallery and Cultural Centre in 2019. This revelation centred on the marked absence of the remarkable contributions of black women leaders,” writes Carter in the foreword.

She said the photographers capture a generation of black women who came of age from the 1950s to the 1980s, actively shaping their communities.

“This collection embodies a diverse spectrum of experiences and leadership, a tribute to the impact of black women in our nation.”

50 YEARS IN OPERATION

For almost 50 years, Yvonne Grant’s grocery, Caribbean Corner, has been operating in the bohemian neighbourhood of Kensington Market in Toronto.

“Motivated by a yearning for personal freedom and a dedication to catering to Toronto’s burgeoning black community, Grant set out on her entrepreneurial path in 1977. After thorough research, she established Caribbean Corner, thereby crafting what would become an emblematic cultural epicentre,” notes the biography of Grant in the book.

The grocery store was located at 67 Kensington Avenue before moving to 17 Baldwin Street and is described as a store that “has evolved into a beloved generational landmark”.

Carter told The Gleaner that BAND secured a grant and was to do 100 women but had to change its plans due to delays caused by relocating and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We, basically, communicated back to the funder that we would do 50 and then do a publication so that we could meet the requirements because the publication wasn’t initially in the plan,” she said, noting that they still intend to do 100 women in total and are exploring the feasibility of expanding their focus to black women across Canada. At the very least, they want to expand to eastern Canada to include the provinces of Quebec and Nova Scotia and other parts of Ontario, too.

Carter said the process of moving from the photographers having the opportunity to shoot and document these women did two things: it meant they learnt about women they otherwise would not have known – the elder-younger exchange was an important part of the process – and the exercise of photographing the community required love and care.

She said photographers Patricia Ella and Janice Reid emphasised the love and care that they experienced in documenting the lives of these women.

“That care and respect for the work that these sisters had done, and frankly, the barriers that they had broken down that we all benefit from, I think was an important part of the exercise. But beyond that, just having this record, there’s not enough within Canadian art history publications about us and our artists and our work and the connection of their work to community.”

Carter, who a few months ago became the director of museums and heritage services for the City of Toronto’s economic development and culture division, said the new publication signals to BAND a need for more publications, and this “celebratory exercise of how photography is an opportunity for us to have a record of ourselves for community in perpetuity”.

BAND’s permanent home in Parkdale, an old Victorian building, is being retrofitted to make it a more accessible and multipurpose community space.

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