CALGARY— Alberta Storytelling is celebrating Black History Month by hosting the Storytelling Café The Black Experience: Journeys of a People.
The event is the second annual Storytelling Café centred around the topic of Black history.
Each month the organization tasks its members with organizing a storytelling event.
Maria Crooks, a member of Storytelling Alberta, was asked to organize a Storytelling Café for the month of February in 2019, and as a black woman herself, she said, the topic was easy to select.
“Last year’s theme was Tales from Africa and the Diaspora, and this year I came up with the idea of doing journeys,” she said.
There will be three storytellers who will share their experiences as Black people living in Canada.
The event will also feature performances of poetry and music, showcasing Black cultural heritage, and a First Nations individual who will be performing a traditional Cree welcome song to open the event.
Two of the speakers will be telling personal stories at the event.
A Calgary-based actor and first generation Canadian will be telling the story of her youth, being raised as a black woman by immigrant parents.
An African-born man who grew up in Calgary with an English last name will be exploring the heritage of his family and how his family came by an English last name while living in Africa.
Crooks, the third speaker at the event, will be sharing the stories of some events and people who have shaped Black history in Canada.
In the wake of the political and social upheaval that both Canada and the United States experienced over the past year, Crooks said, these types of events are important in reaching an understanding of both Black cultural heritage and the role Black Canadian’s played in shaping the country.
“I think it’s very important, not just to be aware of our cultural heritage, but to be aware of Black people in general in this country— That is a multicultural country, that is made of a number of different people from different parts of the world. We want to make our voices be heard and known.”
Crooks said she feels like hearing the shared experiences of Black Canadians might help others realize issues like racism and discrimination still exist, and are often closer to home than we might realize.
“When you think of history, I don’t think people know much about the role that Black people have played in Canadian History. It’s come to the fore that it’s not just in the United States that people of African descent encounter a lot of difficulties, whether it is with the police, or with employment or social things,” she said. “It’s here as well, it’s just maybe not seen as out in the open as it is in the U.S.”
Although she hopes the Storytelling Café might illuminate some of those issues, she also hopes the session will be entertaining for those in attendance.
“We’re storytellers, so I want people to be entertained, I don’t want to hit them over the head with facts and things like that. At the same time, I want to inspire them to want to know more about people in their community who maybe look different from themselves, inspire them to learn more, to get to know them, to maybe take part in other activities that include people of the Diaspora,” she said.
Crooks said she hopes the Storytelling Café will pique the curiosity of the audience and perhaps encourage them to learn more.
“I want them to come away with knowing a little more about Black Calgarians, maybe to want to know more about Storytelling as an art form, and to feel that they have made some sort of a connection,” she said.
The event will be broadcast digitally on Storytelling Alberta’s social media feeds On Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. You can find them at Storytelling Alberta on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram and StorytellingAB on Twitter.
