Legislative Building alive with music, culture to celebrate Black History Month

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This article was published 16/02/2024 (687 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Poetry, dancing and jazz saxophone music are not often featured inside the historic walls of Manitoba’s Legislative Building.

But Friday’s celebration, marking Black History Month, provided a notable — and significant — exception.

“There’s still a long way for our government to go to ensure that all of Manitoba is reflected at all levels of government and in all spaces in government,” said Health Minister and deputy premier Uzoma Asagwara.

Asagwara and Economic Development, Investment, Trade and Natural Resources Minister Jamie Moses — both elected as MLAs in 2019 — are among the first Black members of cabinet in the province’s history.

Participants and guests in the building Friday were celebrating Black excellence and culture, Moses said.

“This music here… having it at the Manitoba legislature is significant,” he said. “It’s part of how Manitoba expresses ourselves, and all those expressions need to be part of this building.”

Black History Manitoba organizes and promotes many of the month’s events, including luncheons, history lessons and Tuesday’s upcoming Winnipeg Jets Black History Night game against the Minnesota Wild at Canada Life Centre.

Black History Manitoba chairperson and program director Nadia Thompson said she’s seen the organization grow from hosting fewer than 10 events in the designated month of February to more than 40 during the year.

African-American Harvard-trained scholar Carter G. Woodson, whose dedication to celebrating the historic contributions of Black people led to the establishment of Black History Month, marked every February since 1976.

“We have a lot more support than we did even five, 10 years ago,” she said. “So that’s an encouraging thing for us, especially for us volunteers, who do this just because we believe in it.”

Thompson encouraged the crowd of community members, advocates and politicians at the legislature to remember where they came from, and keep looking to the future even after Black History Month has ended.

“Continue having those conversations, continue acknowledging these young people, encouraging these young people, and giving them something to believe in and letting them know that they’re worth,” she said. “What you say now, what you do now, and who you are now, is important.”

Among those young people was 13-year-old Grade 8 student Fisayo Bakenne, the youngest speaker of the day.

“It’s all about making our voices heard — perseverance, patience and bravery are three key things to fight racism,” he said.

“And it’s not a physical fight, but an emotional fight, because attacking racism is not about the person, it’s about the ideas.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca