cmast film and literary festival

FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE: Thursday, October 01, 2009


CMAST PAN-AFRICAN LITERARY & FILM FESTIVAL
Friday, October 30, 2009 – Sunday, November 01, 2009.
For Immediate Press Release
Toronto, ON | Thursday, October 01, 2009 –
The committee to Commemorate and Memorialize the Abolition of the Slave Trades proudly presents the CMAST Pan-African Film & Literary Festival. This event takes place from 30 Oct. to 1 Nov. 2009 at the William Doo Auditorium, University of Toronto, 45 Willcocks Street at Spadina. This anticipated 3-day event will feature literary readings, book presentations, and performances by new, emerging, and established authors from Canada, the Caribbean, Continental Africa, and their respective Diasporas, plus exclusive film screenings.
Some confirmed writers and artists: Beverley Anderson Manley, David Austin, Afua Cooper, Carol Duncan (This Spot of Ground: Spiritual Baptists in Toronto), Melanie Newton(The Children of Africa in The Colonies), Award-winning artists such as Kamau Preito Mctair, Waleed Abdulhamid, Keisha-Monique, Heyab Muleneh, Nouvel Exposé, Um’Khondé, Peculiar-I, and L.E.V.I.A.T.H.A.N.
Special features of the Festival include the launch of two historical novels by by Dr. Afua Cooper. These books, My Name is Phillis Wheatley: A Story of Slavery and Freedom and My Name is Henry Bibb: A Story of Slavery and Freedom, are published by Kids Can Press, 2009. The launch takes place at 8p.m. on Friday, 30 Oct. 12, 09 Award-winning poet Ian Kamau and Um’Khondé and Keisha Monique will open the event with exciting poetry performances.
The Festival will culminate on Sunday, 1 Nov. at 6p.m. with a reading and presentation by Dr. Beverley Anderson Manley, author, gender specialist, international social activist, and former First Lady of Jamaica, from her book The Manley Memoirs.
Films
Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work; Breakin’ In; ThomasSankara: On Burkina Faso and The Revolution; Generation Sacriifiée...Memoire Oubliée; Brother Future; and Traces of The Trade.
CMAST is a community-based coalition formed with the specific objective of raising public awareness about and promote education on the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the British and United States Trans-Atlantic Slave Trades. Headed by Dr. Afua Cooper (historian, author, and poet), to date, the CMAST team has planned and organized commemorative events and educational outreach activities including lectures, conferences, cultural events, exhibits, symposia, panel discussions, publications (text-based and on-line) outreach to schools, and teach-ins.
Sponsors for the CMAST Pan-African Literary & Film Festival include the City of Toronto: Access, Equity & Human Rights | Toronto Arts Council | Jamaica National Building Society (Toronto), APUS | Kids Can Press | Big It Up International | New College (Office of Residence and Student Life), University of Toronto, | Alfie Roberts Institute |
For further update and more specific schedules, see below.
Contact: Festival Co-ordinator Eve Labi at special.events.by.eve@gmail.com
Or 647- 444-3353
www.cmast.info
www.afuacooper.com/updates
(blog)

I am now in southern British Columbia. It is really different here from the East (Ontario/Toronto). The weather is milder, January was warm, though it tends to rain a lot. But I prefer that over the snow we battle every winter in the East. My university (SFU) is on its own mountain and the view of the surrounding hills and valleys is spectacular. The school year (08-09) is winding down. I cannot believe it went by so fast. Now I must gear up for the summer and prioritize my various commitments. Continuing with my French studies is one of them; likewise, further research on the abolitionist movement. I have two new books coming out in Sept. o9, and these are published my Kidscan Press. The books are The Young Phillis Wheatley and the Young Henry Bibb. These are historical novels for the young adult audience and they tell the (fictionalized) story of both Wheatley and Bibb as children. It was wonderful writing these books. Let me add they are based on historical facts, more or less. This is my first published foray into fiction so it was quite interesting writing them (wearing both my scholarly and creative writing hats). You may order these books from Kidscan. Just go to their website to do so.

Also, I have a new exhibit which is part of my Ruth Wynn Woodward Chair's initiative. This exhibit is called Black Communities in British Columbia, 1858-2008 and it commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Black presence in BC. Really, it is about teaching Black history with photographs as I have used some really neat photos of 19th century African Canadians in various contexts. I have also used visual images of modern Black people. Go and see this exhibit. It is at the Teck Gallery at the Harbour Centre in downtown Vancouver. The exhibit is up until 10 May 2009. Talk to you soon. A bientot.

Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the United States Transatlantic Slave Trade: Legacy of Black Enslavement and Its Consequences

For Immediate Press Release

In Commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade to the United States (1808-2008) the Committee to Commemorate and Memorialize the Abolition of the Slave Trades (CMAST) presents a public forum on: The Legacy of Black Enslavement and Its Consequences.

Lecturers include distinguished American historians Drs. Colin A. Palmer (Princeton University) and Kate Clifford Larson (Simmons College, MA).
Dr. Afua Cooper (CMAST Founder) will give opening remarks and Dr. Caldwell Taylor (Attorney-at-Law) will make commentary.

Date and Time: Wednesday, March 26, 2008; 7:00pm - 9:30pm
Place: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto)
252 Bloor West, Toronto M5S 1V6 (St. George Subway)
Admission: $10.00

Following the discussion, there will be a book signing by the presenters.

***
Colin A. Palmer is the Dodge Professor of History at Princeton University and author of Human Cargoes: The British Slave Trade to Spanish America and Eric Williams and the Making of the Modern Caribbean.

Kate Clifford Larson is a professor of history at Simmons College and author of Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero.

Afua Cooper is a poet, historian and an award winning author of many publications including The Hanging of Angelique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal and co-author of The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto!

Caldwell Taylor is an attorney-at-law, and a former Grenadan ambassador to the United Nations.

Abolition of Slave Trade Event

2007 marks the Bicentenary of the Abolition of British trafficking in enslaved Africans. The Committee to Commemorate and Memorialize the Abolition of the Slave Trades--CMAST-- presents Dr. Ray Winbush in a keynote lecture on the slave trade, slave, and Abolition. Winbush, professor of Urban Affairs at Morgan State University, is the editor of Should America Pay? Race and the Raging Debate on Reparations. Dr. Afua Cooper will also give a presentation on slavery in Canada.
Place: William Doo Lecture Hall, New College, University of Toronto. North of Harbord on the east side of Spadina.
Time: Sunday, 25 March 2007 at 6p.m.
Cost: $10.00
Contact 905-683-3227 or www.cmast.ca

Commerating the Abolition of the British Trade in Enslaved Africans

Mayor David Miller,
Toronto City Council
and the
Committee to Commemorate and Memorialize the
Abolition of the Slave Trade (CMAST)

cordially invite you to attend a
Black History Month celebration
to launch the commemoration of

the 200h Anniversary of the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Sunday, February 11, 2007
2 p.m.

Toronto City Hall
100 Queen Street West
Rotunda

Please respond to 416-392-7667 or E-mail
TTY 416-338-0889


The United Nations (UN) has designated March 25 as the International Day for the Commemoration of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade to mark the 1807 decision by the British Parliament. The UN has urged governments to carry out education programs to create an understanding of the consequences of slavery and the slave trade. In 1793 Governor Simcoe introduced the first anti-slavery Act in the British Empire making Toronto an important link in the Underground Railroad.

The Committee to Commemorate and Memorialize the Abolition of the Slave Trade (CMAST) in Toronto was established to carry out a program to commemorate the bicentennial of the abolition of the British and American Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Commemorating the Abolition of the British Slave Trade

Mayor David Miller,
Toronto City Council
and the
Committee to Commemorate and Memorialize the
Abolition of the Slave Trade (CMAST)

cordially invite you to attend a
Black History Month celebration
to launch the commemoration of

the 200h Anniversary of the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Sunday, February 11, 2007
2 p.m.

Toronto City Hall
100 Queen Street West
Rotunda

Please respond to 416-392-7667 or E-mail
TTY 416-338-0889


The United Nations (UN) has designated March 25 as the International Day for the Commemoration of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade to mark the 1807 decision by the British Parliament. The UN has urged governments to carry out education programs to create an understanding of the consequences of slavery and the slave trade. In 1793 Governor Simcoe introduced the first anti-slavery Act in the British Empire making Toronto an important link in the Underground Railroad.

The Committee to Commemorate and Memorialize the Abolition of the Slave Trade (CMAST) in Toronto was established to carry out a program to commemorate the bicentennial of the abolition of the British and American Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Fall/Winter Tour

Afua Cooper continues her books tour for the Fall/Winter season 2006.

She reads at the Ottawa International Writers Festival on 1 Oct. 2006 at the National Library. At 4pm. she gives a reading from The Hanging of Angelique and at 8 she is part of the poetry cabaret where she reads from Copper Woman.
See www.writersfest.com for more info.

Between 10-15 Oct. Afua will give various readings and performances in Calgary and Banff, Alberta as part of the Wordfest. Calgary/Banff International Writers Festival. see www.wordfest.com for more info.

17 Oct. Afua reads and performs at University of Victoria, BC. This event is hosted by the history dept. and women’s studies.

18 Oct. Afua presents for the women’s studies dept. at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby Campus in Vancouver.

19 Oct. Afua reads as the guest of the creative writing program at Simon Fraser’s downtown campus.

30 Oct. – 1 Nov. Afua will be the guest of English Studies at the New University of Lisbon, Portugal.

Please come out to see her.