Children’s festival centres on black identity and expression

Amelia Ruthven-Nelson
Staff Writer
Sasha Allison, one of York University’s CHRY radio hosts, created the African-Canadian Children’s Literary Festival (ACCLF) to give young African-Canadian children a forum to express themselves and reconnect to their heritage. When I attended the fifth annual festival in mid-February, the events opened my eyes to artists and issues in the African-Canadian community, including many that extend beyond the realm of children’s literature and entertainment.
Although at York we tend to focus more specifically on our national identity (I refer to myself as Trinidadian-Canadian rather than African-Canadian), it is important to recognize many things affect us as black Canadians generally. I have often given thought to the representation of black people in films and television shows, but Allison pointed out there is a lack of African-Canadian literature being promoted as well.
“We need to expose our children to our writers and give them characters that they relate to,” she said. This is exactly what the festival produced, featuring an array of different authors, speakers and other artists, many of whom had strong ties to York University. Among these was fourth-year student and author Yahaya Baruwa, who promoted his new book, Struggles of a Dreamer, while also speaking on a youth panel at the festival.
The first day of the festival included a workshop on dub poetry run by poet Charlie Bobus. Though I am not normally an avid poetry listener, Bobus’ poetry was thoroughly enjoyable.
Dub poetry is different from usual poetry, requiring skill in writing, pitch and rhyme simultaneously. It’s not just about what words are being used, but how the poem is read, blending with certain beats and with the pitch of some words rising or falling at specific times. Listening to Bobus read his poems in dub style vaguely reminded me of listening to a combination of rap and reggae music, but ultimately it’s a unique genre that’s hard to describe exactly.
When it was the audience’s turn to create their own dub poems, I seriously lacked the required skills. I was able to write a poem, but it was a lot harder to perform dub than Bobus made it look.
Marlon McLean, one of the authors who set up booths at the festival, promoted a book series he co-authored called My Bible History. McLean explained the purpose of the books is to “give black children positive role models,” much like the festival. The books focus heavily on illustrations, with the characters of the Bible depicted as people of African descent.
McLean stressed the importance of black children being able to see themselves in their Bible, and our discussion left me with a lot to think about. As a kid, I read many classic children’s stories and a few religious tales, but I remember very few black characters. The African-Canadian Children’s Literary Festival focused on addressing this large but hidden issue; although the situation is getting better, there is still a severe lack of black characters in children’s stories.
I think it is important that Canada, a multicultural country, work on producing more stories for children featuring characters of all races to truly promote literacy among a diverse group of kids. If children saw themselves in the stories they read at school, they may want to read more and also go on to write their own stories.
The second day of the festival was featured singers, dancers, writers and speakers, including the Toronto Children’s Concert Choir (TC3). The choir performed multiple show-stopping numbers as they sang and danced with huge smiles. One of their pieces, which included African drummers, had me fighting the urge to dance.
The show also featured renowned storyteller Phyllis Walker’s performance of a tale about Anansi, a spider character at the focus of many traditional African stories. Walker put emphasis on the festival’s passing on good values to its audience. She believes children who are taught how important education and literacy are will grow up to be great members of the community.
She’s right – it takes a village to raise a child, something demonstrated throughout the festival. As children heard speakers and performers and participated in workshops, there was a real sense of community in learning while having fun at the same time.