Black History Month has not gone unnoticed by Winnipeg’s major museums.
The Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and the Winnipeg Art Gallery are hosting events related to Black culture and experiences in Winnipeg and Manitoba. They are offering free or discounted admissions throughout February, a month set aside to honour the legacy of Black people in Canada and their communities which in 2023 has the theme Ours to Tell.
The Manitoba Museum has partnered with Black History Manitoba for programming that kicks off tonight with free admission between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. as part of First Fridays in the Exchange.
ELEVATION PICTURES Black Ice, a 2022 film that explores the racism Black hockey players face, will be screened on Feb. 16 at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
The museum’s Alloway Hall will host an evening of entertainment, including a marketplace, pop-up booths and food and drink, along with Black-owned businesses and organizations such as the Afro-Caribbean Association of Manitoba, the Jamaican Association of Manitoba and NAFRO Dance.
Students from Winnipeg’s ANANSI School for the Performing Arts, whose mission is to share African and Caribbean culture, will dance to the Soweto Gospel Choir’s performance of Hlohonolofatsa (“blessing” in Sesotho, a language spoken in South Africa and Lesotho) at the Planetarium at 6:30 p.m., 7:45 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
Two films will be screened on an alternating loop throughout the evening. Black Soul is an animated short that follows a boy’s discovery of Black history through his grandmother’s stories. The other is Oscar, a portrait of Canadian jazz great Oscar Peterson.
The museum is also hosting free virtual field trips focusing on Black History Month for schools on Feb. 8 and Feb. 22. Visit wfp.to/virtualfieldtrips to register.
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is offering $5 admissions throughout February, which includes a panel discussion at 10 a.m. titled Métissages, a joint presentation with Réseau en immigration francophone du Manitoba, which will focus on dual identities and includes franco-Manitobans from African, Caribbean and Métis backgrounds.
A second panel discussion, scheduled for Feb. 22 at 6 p.m., will study the mental-health repercussions of anti-Black racism in Canada and the difficulties in receiving treatment. The event is hosted by the Afro-Caribbean Mentorship Program and the University of Manitoba Black Alliance.
The CMHR will host a Noir à Fier maker market Feb. 10 and 11 that will showcase designs by Black artisans and on Feb. 16, it will screen the 2022 film Black Ice, a documentary that explores the racism Black hockey players have faced and continue to experience.
The Winnipeg Art Gallery hosts dance performances by the Ariya Afrika Cultural Dancers and Kb Fujumelody and His Motherland Tunes, and an artists’ talk at Feb. 18 at 1 p.m., at the Muriel Richardson Auditorium. The free event is curated by Canadian Black Artists United founder Yisa Akinbolaji.
Black Professionals in Music will present an evening of music at the gallery’s Eckhardt Hall on Feb. 24.
Twitter: @AlanDSmall
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Alan Small
Reporter
Alan Small has been a journalist at the Free Press for more than 22 years in a variety of roles, the latest being a reporter in the Arts and Life section.
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