Although one month falls short of recognizing and celebrating the myriad of accomplishments and contributions that North Americans of African heritage past and present have made in the fields of science and medicine, literature, the arts, politics, human and civil rights, athletics and fashion, to name a few, Our Lady of the Rosary would like to honour the importance of Black History Month during the month of February.
Many of the staff and students at OLR will be directly involved in a variety of learning opportunities throughout this month based on diverse aspects of Black History, as they learn the stories of famous and lesser known Canadians of African heritage and how they have shaped the Canada that we know today.
Specific events that have been planned at OLR this month include:
- A virtual author visit by Nova Scotia native and Canadian poet and author, Shauntay Grant (Author of My Hair is Beautiful, The City Speaks in Drums among other works) on Wed Feb. 10, 2021 from 10-11 a.m. via Zoom for our Grade 1 and 2 students.
- Virtual Prayer Service will be taking place at 12:50 p.m. for all students from JK/SK to Gr. 8 on Thursday, February 4th, 2021.
- Jazz and blues musician, Chris Whitely, and Vocalist, Diana Braithwaite will be visiting OLR virtually to share their presentation which integrates the project “Share Their Stories,” a joint project through Ryerson University and the Ontario Black History Organization that is accented by music, readings, and narration. It is a virtual presentation which aims to celebrate the stories of lesser known Canadians of Africa Heritage, such as John
Weir, Canada’s first black cowboy and Marianne Shadd, Canada’s first
black editor. The date and time for this presentation: TBD.
- Participation in the YCDSB Reading Rainbow Project . All classes will take part in live streamed read-alouds of books written by Black authors on Feb. 16, 2021. The live readings will take place at these times:
9:30 am – Primary Division
10:30 am – Junior Division
1:15 pm – Intermediate Division
We thank all of the students and staff from the Afro Caribbean Culture Club (A3C) at St. Brother Andre CHS for coordinating the reading and making this experience possible for the students.