Black Voices Challenge
Read, watch, listen and engage to celebrate Black creators for Black History Month. We’ve put together lists of recommended books, films, albums, podcasts and art for inspiration. Log your activity and share reviews for a chance to win a prize at the end of the month. The challenge begins February 1 and you have all year to finish. Sign up at gppl.beanstack.org or download the Beanstack app.
Black History Month Virtual Events
Join our virtual events to celebrate Black History Month. Presented in partnership with the Grande Prairie Intercultural Association.
These sessions will take place on Zoom. After you register you will receive an invite to the Zoom
event. Register at gppl.ca or call 780-357-7455.
Black History Month Celebration
This year’s theme is The Future is Now. Join us to hear about the transformative work Black Canadians are doing in their communities.
Featuring:
Debbie Beaver, cofounder of a historical society dedicated to preserving and sharing the stories of Black settlers in Alberta and Saskatchewan
Mohammed Nurudeen Musah, PHD Candidate and Lecturer at the University of Calgary
Time: Saturday, February 26
Date: 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Location: GPPL Virtually Anywhere
Watch Party: Mr. Emancipation with Director Preston Chase
Join us to watch the award-winning documentary Mr. Emancipation and discuss it with the director, Preston Chase.
Mr. Emancipation is the story of Walter L. Perry's determination to put on a celebration that would transcend divisions of race and class, in spite of racism. He staged an Emancipation Day festival that was where everyone wanted to be like Jesse Owens, Dr. William Borders, Joe Louis, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Dr. Benjamin Mays, and Mary McLeod Bethune. Future stars of the Motown sound were witnesses and/or talent show acts, all in the celebration of the abolition of slavery. As civil rights activist Dick Gregory said "The largest Juneteenth celebration was not in America, it was in Windsor, Canada.”
Director Bio
Preston Chase is a seventh-generation African Canadian, born to a single mother in the Black community in downtown Windsor, Ontario. He went on to become a high school teacher in Ottawa. He is also the family historian and a passionate advocate for greater awareness of his historic Black community, founded by those who escaped American slavery.
Mr. Emancipation: The Walter Perry Story is his first film. It’s also deeply personal to him, Walter Perry was his great uncle. The film has been screened at 46 film festivals, on five continents. The film premiered at Houston WorldFest 2020, where it won a Platinum Remi Award in the Documentary Short category, and then went on to win 10 other awards, most recently Best Historical Film at the Helsinki Educational Film Festival in Finland.
Time: Sunday, February 27
Date: 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Location: GPPL Virtually Anywhere