Our Stories. Our History. Celebrate Black Excellence in February
Moments That Matter, a special from Being Black in Canada, takes you on a journey through the defining moments of 2024 for Black Canadians – the triumphs, the struggles, and the changes that are shaping our future.
Need a good laugh? Lakay Nou is the hilarious story of a Haitian-Canadian family navigating tradition and modernity.
Celebrate Black music with Summer of Soul, (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a powerful documentary that captures the electrifying energy of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.
Feature film Queen of Glory is a relatable story of an immigrant daughter finding her place in a new world.
And finally, documentary series Hollywood Black shines a light on the groundbreaking Black artists who have shaped the entertainment industry. All this and more in CBC's Top 5 picks for February:
Moments That Matter - Watch Free February 8 on CBC Gem
This special from CBC News' Being Black in Canada highlights the events, stories, and achievements that impacted Black Canadians in 2024, from Kamala Harris' trailblazing presidential run to the controversy Katt Williams sparked with his appearance on the Shannon Sharpe podcast, Club Shay Shay, and the ongoing push for make-up inclusivity. Host Jackson Weaver explores the triumphs, struggles, and transformations that inspire change in Black Canadians.
Lakay Nou - Watch Free February 1 on CBC Gem
This Radio-Canada-commissioned comedy series follows Myrlande and Henri, a couple caught between two generations in their tight-knit Haitian community: their modern, Quebec-born children and the expectations of their traditional Haitian parents.
Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) - Watch Free February 1 on CBC Gem
Watch Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson's Oscar®-winning documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion. Not far from Woodstock, NY, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King and more took to the stage in a transformative experience.
Queen of Glory - Watch Free February 7 on CBC Gem
A lighthearted and insightful portrayal of an immigrant daughter navigating the old world and the new, feature film Queen of Glory is the story of Sarah Obeng, the brilliant child of Ghanaian immigrants, who is quitting her Ivy League PhD program to follow her married lover to Ohio. When her mother dies suddenly, she bequeaths her daughter a Christian bookstore in the Pelham Parkway section of the Bronx where Sarah was raised. A follow-up on the classic immigrant's tale, Queen of Glory provokes laughter and empathy, as its heroine is reborn through her inheritance.
Hollywood Black - Watch Free February 12 on CBC Gem
This four-part documentary series tells the epic story of the actors, writers, directors, and producers who fought for their place on the page, behind the camera and on the screen. From blackface to Black Panther, this series is a definitive chronicle of more than a century of the Black experience in Hollywood and a powerful reexamination of a quintessentially American story – in brilliant colour.
Looking for more? Check out our Celebrating Black History Collection with over 60 series, films and documentaries including Invisible Beauty, exploring the life of Black fashion model and activist Bethann Hardison.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
15 hours ago
- CBC
How to travel like comedian Ben Stager this summer
From the OnRoute in Cambridge, Ont., to a parking lot in Hamilton where Bob Dylan once gave an interview, entertainer Ben Stager shows off landmarks you probably haven't heard of. He told CBC Hamilton his advice on how to travel this summer.
Winnipeg Free Press
15 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Bent but not broken
'My story is of broken men, each of whom, at one time, had to transform their legacy and in doing so transform themselves and the inheritance of those to come.' So begins Michael Thomas in the opening lines of The Broken King, his powerful memoir that breaks and heals hearts simultaneously. It's a blunt but beautiful treatise on fatherhood, addiction, intergenerational trauma, mental illness, police brutality and being Black in America. Ben Russell photo Michael Thomas burst onto the literary scene in 2007 with Man Gone Down, a searing novel about an African-American man trying to reunite with his white wife and their three children. Thomas boasts an impressive background, with roles in theatre, hospitality and writing, and now as a professor at New York's Hunter College. He burst onto the literary scene in 2007 with Man Gone Down, a searing novel about an African-American man trying to reunite with his white wife and their three children. Retroactively described by Thomas as a 'suicide note,' it's a semi-autobiographical story about the hopelessness of trying to achieve the American dream as a Black man. In The Broken King, Thomas goes further, telling his history through five interlocking narratives exploring his complex relationships with himself and four of the men around him. Thomas's brother David moves in and out of Thomas's life, caught up in money-making schemes that often leave Thomas and his wife to bail him out. Thomas's father, a voracious reader, philosopher and Boston Red Sox fan, endows Thomas with a love of learning and sports, yet abandons Thomas both emotionally and, later, physically. Determined to do better by his children than his own father, Thomas dedicates as much time as he can to them, but finds himself struggling to meet their needs when his own childhood scars are unhealed. 'I often feel that because I have not completely freed myself from what my father bequeathed me, I will always endanger my son,' Thomas writes of his relationship with his oldest child. Thomas links the segments with his overarching story of self-doubt, artistic development and struggles with mental health. After he finally achieves success with the publication of Man Gone Down, the pressure and undiagnosed depression overwhelm him, leading to what he terms his 'madness.' This is no summer beach read; Thomas spares readers from none of the pain he has experienced. He bluntly states the complexities and often brutalities of living as a racial minority, especially one married to a white woman of a well-meaning but often misfiring family. Thomas notes that his white family members always gave his oldest son 'politically correct toys, games, and books' that they thought 'melanin appropriate,' while being unequipped to actually understand racial identity: '(T)he white people who wanted to claim him as their own hadn't any means or methods to protect him in the world in which they were trying to indoctrinate him,' he recalls. The Broken King While the narrative focuses on Thomas's relationships with key men in his life, the women in his life, especially his wife and sister, appear as powerful sources of strength and support. Even his volatile mother inspires him, with Thomas recognizing that while her own unresolved trauma held her back as a mother, 'she still fed us and loved us with as much of herself as she could offer.' The most brutal scenes — assaults by strangers and, frequently, police and security guards and the like — take place mostly off the page, and Thomas keeps the focus on the effect they had on him. Readers may be reminded of the work of pivotal African-American author James Baldwin, who explored many of the same topics (and whom Thomas references frequently as an inspiration). The Broken King richly pulls references from writers such as Shakespeare, Mark Twain, W.E.B. DuBois, Charles Dickens, W.H. Auden, Frederick Douglass and T.S. Eliot, whose poem Little Gidding gives Thomas his book's title. Meanwhile, Thomas's command of language brings to mind the work of American novelist Vladimir Nabokov — someone else Thomas cites as a writing influence. Like Nabokov's controversial 1955 novel Lolita, Thomas's gorgeous, lush prose overlays a dark subject. But despite that darkness, Thomas infuses his memoir with a powerful, beautiful hope, noting, 'I've come to believe that the effort to make something beautiful — and only the most sincere effort, unaffected by potential outcome, material gain or loss — is the only thing that can prevent us from falling into darkness.' Kathryne Cardwell is a Winnipeg writer.
Edmonton Journal
a day ago
- Edmonton Journal
Fringe Review: Three Ladies spill the comedic tea in this afternoon delight
Three Ladies Article content Stage 12, Rapid Fire Exchange (10437 83 Ave NW) Article content After a long day of running from stage to stage, using my ability to critique an art form I've never practiced myself, it can be nice to meet up with a couple of friends for a spot of tea. Article content That last part is what you'll get if you attend a showing of Three Ladies, which features Belinda Cornish and Jana O'Connor, star of CBC's The Irrelevant Show, sharing an hour-long improvised spot of tea with a surprise guest. My show's guest was Sarah Chan, engagement and operations manager with Alberta Mentoring Partnership. Article content Article content While the stars are dressed in 1950s-style attire, they are not playing any characters. Instead, they share cupcakes and tea made and sold in Edmonton while answering audience-submitted questions that may or may not inspire impromptu improv skits. The trio had excellent comedic timing and chemistry as they found humour in topics like menopause, social circle scandals, and their relationships with their mothers. Article content
