Black Diasporas Tkaronto-Toronto

Our Voices Telling Our Stories

Over 500 personal stories from 100 Black Canadian voices. Black Diasporas celebrated the rich, layered histories of Black communities in Toronto and the profound impact they’ve had on the city we share.

Over the course of 2024 year, afrOURban Inc. worked in partnership with over 100 Black Canadians, 50 story contributors, 25 interviewers, and 10 filmmakers to produce a collection of stories that provide a more nuanced understanding of Black lives, and the diversity of diasporas, that contribute to life in our city. The Museum of Toronto is excited and honoured to host these stories and films. 

We invite you in to hear each other’s perspectives, and connect with the realities, experiences, and places that are important to Black Torontonians.

 

Black Diasporas Tkaronto-Toronto

Digital Collection

10 Tkaronto-Toronto Based film directors then selected a story they strongly identify with to create a short film. Short films were made using the approved stories. The experience of filmmakers ranged from first-time filmmakers to professionals with extensive experience.
Content Warning: Black Diasporas Tkaranto-Toronto shares a range of stories. Some are joyful, while others address more challenging subjects. The titles of the works will offer guidance as you explore the videos.

Building

The videos in this section consider the concept of building and rebuilding. Building can take many forms. For some people, it’s about entirely new constructions: lives, homes, careers, friends, or even recipes. For others, building is more of a generational or iterative process: how we construct on the past work of our ancestors, to assemble and reassemble our traditions for the present and future.

Relationships

Which relationships are important to you and your communities? Do these relationships exist because of lineage or blood ties, or do they reflect chosen families and spaces? In these videos, the creators unpack the different connections and associations that keep us grounded — or, sometimes, hold us back. Some relationships are local, while others crisscross time, landmasses, and oceans.

Faith

In these interviews, the contributors give space to the intersections between faith and communities. Faith can inhabit multiple meanings and spaces. For some, it’s about religion or spirituality. For others, faith takes another form — families, friends, traditions, neighbourhoods, or countries. Faith can be unwavering in its dedication and loyalty, or a complicated, lifelong negotiation.

Movement

In this section, the contributors consider movement and its unique duality: to move towards something is to move away from something else. In some of these stories, movement is a state of in-between, a liminal space that exists between the old home and the new one. In others, movement is more an internal state: a fluid ability to shift identities in different spaces, for different communities.

Courage

Courage: the guts or inner strengths that we call on to face change. In this section, the creators examine different acts of courage. It doesn’t matter if the gesture is small and singular, or a wide-spread movement — both actions have the potential to disrupt, reject, and resist the status quo.

Our
Storytellers

We invite you in to hear each other’s perspectives, and connect with the realities, experiences, and places that are important to Black Torontonians. Choose a storyteller, follow their journey, and listen to their unique memories and ideas living in the city.

Zahra’s Story

Video

• 1:56

Vivienne’s Story

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• 3:18

Ubah’s Story

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• 2:06

Troy’s Story

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• 3:08

Telma’s Story

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• 5:46

Sydney’s Story

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• 2:34

Shirley’s Story

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• 10:35

Sasha’s Story

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• 2:36

Samantha’s Story

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• 6:51

Sam’s Story

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• 2:22

Sale’s Story

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• 13:19

Rosemary’s Story

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• 6:51

Rok’s Story

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• 2:58

Raquel’s Story

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• 2:53

Queen’s Story

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• 5:48

Patrina’s Story

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• 3:03

Omo’s Story

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• 3:16

Nuradin’s Story

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• 2:10

Nala’s Story

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• 2:07

Mqedani’s Story

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• 2:36

Monique’s Story

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• 5:31

Michelle’s Story

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• 2:50

Kwame’s Story

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• 2:16

Kathy’s Story

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• 4:22

Julien’s Story

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• 3:49

Jay’s Story

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• 1:01

Jahnelle’s Story

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• 2:17

Isingoma’s Story

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• 4:57

Ian’s Story

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• 2:50

Ian’s Story

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• 3:07

Georgina’s Story

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• 3:37

Gary’s Story

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• 5:57

Erica’s Story

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• 3:28

Eli’s Story

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• 2:28

Courage’s Story

Video

• 1:35

Cliff’s Story

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• 8:01

Clement’s Story

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• 14:49

Christine’s Story

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• 5:03

Chris’s Story

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• 18:27

Audrey’s Story

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• 1:41

Anton’s Story

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• 1:42

Anna’s Story

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• 1:24

Amina’s Story

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• 3:25

Ame’s Story

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• 9:32

Alvin’s Story

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• 8:08

Ahmed’s Story

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• 1:32

Adeyemi’s Story

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• 1:32

Abi’s Story

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• 3:04

More About the Project

The exhibition was co-conceptualized and developed by Museum of Toronto. We are Bria Dietrich, April Hazan, Davin Henson, Rachel Hilton, Heidi Reitmaier, Rosemary Snell, Simon Termine, Sarah Tumaliuan, and Ethelle White.

The exhibition was designed by elsonstudio.

Special thanks to: Farida Abu-Bakare, Louis Bernales, Tura Cousins-Wilson, Kholisile Dhliwayo, Sandra Githinji, Natasha Henry-Dixon, Phillip Johnson, Huy Lam, Timothy Manalo, Dylan Moore, Joseph Mpalirwa, Monica Nawanga, Vicdan Okman, Laura Robb, Dean Vukovic, George Wang, Mia Yaguchi-Chow, Anex Custom Carpentry, and Charles Street Video.

Museum of Toronto would not be possible without the generous support of Diane Blake and Stephen Smith.