Decolonizing Voices: A Celebration of Canadian Black HERstory

MOA pays tribute the contributions of Black Womxn Canadians with an evening of academic and artistic performances. The night (free with museum admission) features readings and artist talks from award-winning spoken word artist, Adelene da Soul Poet (Bertha Clark); artist, poet and award-winning educator, Chantal Gibson; and founder and director of BlackArt Gastown, Nya Lewis. Each of these womxn will explore how we can decolonize institutional prejudice and evaluate how colonialism has woven its way into our every day lives through their own unique perspectives and forms of artistic and intellectual expression.

Separate tickets ($15) are also available for a special performance at 8 pm in MOA’s Haida House with multidisciplinary artist, musician and arts facilitator Tonye Aganaba who offers a powerful performance that explores the shared experience and expression of Afro and Indigenous peoples.

Program schedule:
Great Hall | 6 – 8 pm
Free with museum admission

Opening remarks and Musqueam welcome | 6 pm
Introduction by co-curator, Nya Lewis | 6:10 pm
Reading from Adelene da Soul Poet | 6:15 pm
How She Read: So what does it mean to decolonize your mind? Talk and book signing with Chantal Gibson | 6:30–7:30 pm

Haida House | 8 – 9:30 pm
$15 (Please note: tickets for this portion of the evening are sold separately and available here. A ticket to the 8 pm performance includes museum admission for the full program starting at 6 pm.)

Performance by Tonye Aganabe | 8 pm

Bios:

Adelene da Soul Poet (Bertha Clark) was born in San Francisco and raised in Vancouver, where her family roots are. Clark’s direct descendants are the first of BC’s black pioneers, who settled on Salt Spring Island and Victoria in the mid-1800s. Her grandmother owned a famous restaurant back in the day called Vie’s Chicken and Steaks, a famous restaurant on Vancouver’s Union Street that operated from the early 1940s to the late 1970s.

“My writing reflects the wisdom, humour, positive spirit and the strong will of my mother. She always told me to share my words with the world. As an adult when I write, I feel a deep spiritual connection coming from a source before my time. I feel the spirit and soul of the people. I write under the name of Adelene in honor of my mother, and perform as Adelene da Soul Poet. I am a spoken word artist.”

Chantal Gibson is a/Historical In(ter)ventionist, an artist, award-winning educator and poet living in Vancouver with ancestral roots in Nova Scotia. Interested in the cultural production and consumption of knowledge, her creative work illuminates the spaces where literary art and visual art meet, to confront colonialism head on. She uses everyday objects to explore nuances of power and unpack hegemonic mechanisms of oppression persistent across readings, writings and representations of Blackness and Otherness in the Canadian cultural imagination.

As an arts educator, her public talks, community arts projects and workshop activities encourage individual reflection and collaborative exploration of Identity, Otherness, Privilege and Belonging in this de/colonial moment.

Nanyamka Lewis is the founder and director of BlackArt Gastown—an art showcase that presents outdoor and indoor art installations that stand for social change. A writer committed to creating community, her work celebrates the strength and perseverance of Black Canadian culture, history and its diversity. Last year Lewis presented an installation titled “The Feels” that shed light on mental illness within the black community and created a safe community for black youth to heal, process, share and discuss mental and emotional health.

MOA • Free with museum admission
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