Black Canadian artists do exist, as new arts movement shows

Rosalind Hampton, a researcher in art education, is participatingin a convention about a new black arts movement because she says she is concerned for young black Canadians' sense of self.

"This perception that there are no black artists in Canada, that, as one youth told me, visual art 'isn't for black people.' Of course that's not true,"Hampton wrote in anemail.

"Having a Canadian Black Speculative Arts Movement coordinated by a new generation of Black Canadian artists is a crucial way to build on this increasing visibility and to determine its terms."

Right now the Black Speculative Arts Movement of Canada ishelping address some of Hampton's concerns.

A convention to launch the Montreal chapter ofBSAMCanada is happeningSaturday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. atConcordia'sYorkAmphitheatrein the university'sEV Building.

An important focus of this first-time eventissharingideas around practice and production of art andto discussissues around spaces to exhibit and present.It will also give artists a chance to meet and make connections.

BSAMCanadalooks to bring together artists of African descent in Canada, city by city, who are using their imagination to create artwork that is not based on reality.

Like in literature, speculative refers to elements of science-fiction, and in the case ofBSAM, speculative also means work with elements ofhorror, gothic, afro-surrealism and afro-futurism.

It is a branch of themovement that already existsin the United States, founded byReynaldo Anderson and Maia "Crown" Williams.

The work in Canada is being spearheaded byGatineau-based, Toronto-bornartistQuentinVerCetty.

"It's helping us to contribute to the Canadian identity, really. We just had Canada 150. Now we're talking about what does the next 150 look like," VerCetty explained in our conversation on CBC Radio's The Bridge.

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The idea is to bring together artists of a variety of disciplines whoare imagining black Canadian experiences and identitiesinto the future.

Multidisciplinary artistic movement

BSAMMontreal's convention will have three panel discussions one withvisual artists,another betweenscholars including Hamptonand one featuringperformance artists.

There is also a marketplace featuring the work of black artisans.

Poet and theatre producer, Kym Dominique-Ferguson and singer and composer, Elena Stoodley are both participating in BSAM Montreal's launch, while putting on the last two productions of Phenomenal 5IVE.

Phenomenal5IVEbrings togetherindividual black female performers to combine their respective works to create one fluid piece that incorporatestap, music and poetry.

"Phenomenal 5IVE is an artistically political act of resistance. Punctuated by the beauty and grace of 5IVE phenomenal women, rising no matter the challenges,"Ferguson said.

"With the exception of during the talk-back, onstage you see no male presence. The presentation and handling of it are by mostly women of colour, or Afro-descended people. They embody the mandate of BSAM."

Works byBSAM artists

"As much being an artist participating, and a visitorat this convention, it seemsto me to be an extraordinary regrouping of rich and diverse art,"Maliciouz said.

"I have the impression that I'm going to discover new points of views, new narratives, new ways of imagining."

"The [African] diaspora and the discussions that happenwith the diasporaareso complex that I think forums like this are so important," Jamie Bradbury said.

"So that we can kind of understand that we have different histories and we have different starting points, even with our own understandings of blackness is or where we see it going in the future, especially in the Canadian context."

"Going up to the North is really about creating the links between Indigenous people and people of African descent"Bradbury added."I want to create dialogue dialogue and understanding."

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"Movements like the BSAM arise out of a sharp need, a hole in society, something that is not being provided,"Anna Jane McIntyre said.

"I feel like things haven't radically shifted since I was a kid. Not enough.Some things are fab and some things are still highly mediocre."

"I want to see an unselfconscious variety in ways of thinking and being; hybrid overlapping intermingling cultures being presented as normal and unremarkable,"Anna Jane McIntyre said.

"Especially in kids shows.It shocks me and I feel motivated to try and fill those gaps, provide alternate views."