creative forces

Blog # 91…March 2019

As our world becomes more multi-everything, less uniform, less predictable, less safe, more edgy, we’re struggling with how to react, how to place ourselves. Do I always seem to be saying that art is the answer to just about everything?  Well I don’t see anything else stepping up, so I’ll just carry on.

Here are some things that have helped contain and explain my world lately.  February was Black History Month and I was lucky enough to catch Trey Anthony (Da Kink in my Hair) in her one night stand trying out Oh no!  I’m Becoming my Mother. Again, she captures the unique experiences and reactions of black women in Canada.

Cecil Foster’s new book, They Call Me George, recalls the world and the role of sleeping car porters, almost always black men, on Canada’s cross country railway trains. A particularly moving passage involves the war brides who arrived in the late 40’s and early 50’s - young women, some with babies or small children. They arrived in Halifax after a sea crossing, ready to make the long journey into a strange country to begin new lives with husbands they may have barely known. The sleeping car porters were their first contact. “George” as all the porters were known (diminishing their identity) welcomed them, introduced them to the country as they travelled, often holding babies and warming their bottles.

And Jordan Peele’s If Beale Street Could Talk, adapted from a story by James Baldwin is a companion piece to Moonlight, giving us a look at an ordinary black family, their hopes and dreams, loves and lives.

A play, a book and a movie to think about.

Kate Harris just won the Charles Taylor non-fiction prize for Land of Lost Borders.  When I was in about grade three, we devoured a series about explorers. They were fabulous books, written from the point of view of a child travelling along on the voyage. My favourite was I Went With Marco Polo (closely followed by I Went With Vasco de Gama). Kate Harris also has a fascination with explorers, a longing to know about what lies outside our personal world. She took her fascination on a bicycle to travel the Silk Road…she went with Marco Polo!  Her trip was exotic and challenging, but her message is that anyone can explore anywhere …”if you’re willing to pay the world a certain intensity of attention”.

I haven’t mentioned our Iraqi family for a while, but our annual International Women’s Day dinner this year included Hiyam (the mum) who helped us welcome two recently arrived Syrian women. Warm feelings and wonderful food, from both east and west.