Black History Month at FRC

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/02/2018 (2792 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Olumide (Olu) Afolabi, a Grade 12 student at Fort Richmond Collegiate, is a 17-year old immigrant from British-colonized, English-speaking Nigeria.

Now a Canadian citizen, he is leading a school club he co-founded, known as Know Your Roots, in presenting special a Black History Month event called The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (a title inspired by U.S. black activist Gil Scott-Heron’s spoken-word poem of the same name).

The event, co-presented by FRC’s Peaceful Village, intends to celebrate the excellence in black history while simultaneously educating the public and creating awareness of the struggles people of colour face within their schools, communities and in their day-to-day activities.

It will be held at 6 p.m. on Wed., Feb. 28, in the FRC theatre and will feature singing, drumming, poetry, spoken word, dance, and a fashion show. A local black barber will showcase his work.

Afolabi will co-host the program and will also take part in the slam poetry, fashion show and drumming portions of the event.  

Afolabi is perfecting his art as a spoken-word performer. During a CBC radio broadcast on Feb. 4, he briefly shared the struggles most newcomers to Canada confront, such as difficult acceptance, slow adjustment, and undue pressure to know and fit in into the system.

At the reporter’s request, he even did a quick piece of spoken-word performance at the end of the interview.

Sunday Olukoju is a community correspondent for Fort Richmond. You can contact him at sunday.olukoju@gmail.com