It’s a Forever Thing: Where to keep listening and learning about Africville long after this season’s final episode.

So you’ve heard all 5 episodes of the first season of Africville Forever. You’ve been captured by the hosts, guest stories and piercing audio from the archives. What if we told you we’ve only scratched the surface? Africville’s story is forever developing. Through the years, authors, artists, filmmakers and musicians have all been inspired by Africville. We’ve put together a list of places to look, listen and read deeper into the Africville experience. But don’t stop there, share this podcast and the resources on this list with others, talk about Africville and what the future could look like. Travel to experience the Africville land yourself. The story is only just beginning.

1. A Photographic Portrait of Africville, by Bob Brooks

The American-Canadian photojournalist Bob Brooks was a curious observer to the plight and fight of Africville residents. He created his photographic record of Africville between 1962 and 1965. The collection is historically significant, standing as one of the latest visual documents of the community of Africville before its destruction. Brooks took numerous photographs of the public meeting at Seaview African United Baptist Church, held on 23 August 1962, in response to the previous month's report by the Halifax City development department recommending the elimination of Africville.

Photos from his collection can be viewed here, courtesy of Nova Scotia Archives.

2. Remember Africville, by Shelagh Mackenzie (1991)

Often touted as the must-see visual resource on Africville, this documentary was created more than twenty years after the end of the Africville relocation period. At this point, the site of the community of Africville is a stark, under-utilized park. Through the film’s subjects, you can sense the open wound that has been left. Former residents, their descendants and some of the decision-makers, speak out and, with the help of archival photographs and films, tell the story of that painful relocation.

Watch here.

3. One Heart Broken into Song (1999)

For a different take on remembering Africville, take this poetic and dream-like film by one of Canada’s foremost film directors, Clement Virgo, and prolific poet and playwright George Elliot Clarke. The story features a young couple in love, battling the odds of making it out of a small, rural Nova Scotian town. Hoping to find their fortune in Halifax, they end up drifting to the shores of Africville.

Watch here.

4. Africville’s Musical Roots

Africville is known for having been a thriving music hub. Nestled next to the trans-Canada railway, the town was a common stopping and boarding place for travelling musicians from all over North America. It was common to hear of names such as the likes of Duke Ellington making cameos. Here are just a few talented musicians who have dedicated their songs to Africville.

Africville Suite, Joe Sealy

Africville, Faith Nolan (1986, Vinyl)

Africvillean Funk - Aquakulture featuring Trobiz

Africville, Four The Moment

5. Trailblazers in Sports

As you have already heard in Episode 3 of the Africville Forever Podcast, Africville wasn’t only the stomping ground for star musicians, but star athletes as well. One such star was the legendary George Dixon. Born July 28, 1870. Dixon was a professional boxer who became the first ever Black athlete to win a World Championship title in any sport, ever. He was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1955.

Africville also drew semi-professional players to the Colored Hockey League. Haven’t heard of the league before? The Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes (CHL) was an all-Black men’s hockey league. It was organized by Black Baptists and Black intellectuals and was founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

6. Africville Museum

In 2010, the people of Africville finally received an apology for the loss of their community from the city of Halifax. A settlement was reached which established the Africville Heritage Trust that created the Africville Museum. Today, the Africville Museum looks across the land where the people of Africville lived, worked, and raised their families by the water of Bedford Basin. Inside the Museum, exhibits tell the story of a community that met the indignities of racism with grace and faith.

7. Africville (Seaview) Park, National Historic Site of Canada

Africville was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1997. The community was representative of Black settlement in Nova Scotia in its social organization and in its geographical and metaphorical position on the periphery of white society. With the emergence of a more politically conscious and confrontational spirit in Black culture, the clearance of Africville in the name of urban renewal has become an enduring symbol to Black Canadians of the need for vigilance in defence of their communities and institutions. To touch the grounds of Africville, is to recognize its enduring spirit, that is not of the past but the present and future.

8. Keep on Reading On

Literature about Africville is not in short supply, to keep on reading about Africville, check out these books from multiple authors including children’s book “Africville” by Poet and Author Shauntay Grant, available in English and French, Africville: A Novel, by Jeffery Colvin and Love Letters to Africville by Amanda Carvery.

Africville: The Life and Death of a Canadian Community

A work of scholarship by Don Clairmont that details the social injustice that marked both the life and death of Africville.

A Love Letter to Africville 

Amanda Carvery’s book, compiles personal stories and photos from former residents of Africville., correcting the historical narrative and helping former residents heal by emphasizing the beautiful and positive aspects of Africville

Righting Canada’s Wrongs: Africville: An African Canadian Community is Demolished - and Fights Back

This new edition documents the continued fight for compensation by community members and their descendants. Author: Gloria Ann Wesley.

The Spirit of Africville: Second Edition

This extensively illustrated book was prepared by the Africville Genealogy Society and published originally in 1992. Long out of print, it is being republished in a new expanded edition to mark the settlement arrived at this year (2008). 

In the Africville Kitchen: The Comfor

How about Boiled Dinner with potatoes, carrots, turnip, cabbage and sauerkraut… with Blueberry Grunt, or maybe, Apple Pie for dessert? The Kitchens of Africville are steeped in history and Tradition.

Last Days in Africville 

This young adult fiction that follows 12-year-old Selina Palmer growing up in the community of Africville in the 1960s, was short-listed for the 2004 CLA Book of the Year for Children Award, for the 2005 Diamond Willow Award and for the 2005 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award. Author: Dorothy Perkins.

Africville

When a young girl visits the site of Africville, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the stories she’s heard from her family come to mind. She imagines what the community was once like. By renowned poet and author Shauntay Grant, Illustrated by Eva Campbell.

The Hermit of Africville: The Eddie Carvery Story

As Black Lives Matter protests swept the world, one of Canada’s greatest anti-racism fighters returned to reclaim the Black space and Black history to which he’s dedicated his life. Author: John Tattrie.

Africville: A Novel

This Novel has been compared to the likes of Any Known Blood and The Book of Negroes. As it explores notions of identity, passing, cross-racial relationships, the importance of place and the meaning of home, Africville: A Novel tells the larger story of the black experience in parts of Canada and the United States.