Harriet's Legacies: Race, Historical Memory, and Futures in Canada

by Ronald Cummings (Editor), Natalee Caple (Editor)

Overview

Historic freedom fighter and conductor of the Underground Railroad Harriet Tubman risked her life to ferry enslaved people from America to freedom in Canada. Her legacy instigates and orients this exploration of the history of Black lives and the future of collective struggle in Canada.Harriet’s Legacies recuperates the significance of Tubman’s time in Canada as more than just an interlude in her American narrative: it is a new point from which to think about Black diasporic mobilities, possibilities, and histories. Through essays and creative works this collection articulates new territory for Tubman in relation to the Black Atlantic archive, connecting her legacies of survival, freedom, and cultural expression within a transnational framework. Contributors take up the question of legacy in ways that remap discourses of genealogy and belonging, positioning Tubman as an important part of today’s freedom struggles. Integrating scholarship with creative and curatorial practices, the volume expands conversations about culture and expression in African Canadian life across art, literature, performance, politics, and public pedagogy.Considering questions of culture, community, and futures, Harriet’s Legacies explores what happened in the wake of Tubman’s legacy and situates Canada as a key part of that dialogue.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780228010654
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	05/15/2022
Series:	Carleton Library Series , #259
Pages:	440
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Ronald Cummings is associate professor of Black studies at McMaster University. Natalee Caple is associate professor of Canadian literature and creative writing at Brock University.

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables ix

Acknowledgments and a Brief Note on Editorial Choice xi

Introduction On the Non-linearity of Legacy: Harriet Tubman and Our Current Historical Juncture Ronald Cummings Natalee Caple 17

Section 1 On the Legacies of Radical Mobility

1 The Cataract House Hotel: Underground to Canada through the Niagara River Borderlands Karolyn Smardz Frost 41

2 A Selection of "Canticles" (Meditations on Slavery and Imperialism) George Elliott Clarke 80

3 Radical Legacies in Black Nineteenth-Century Canadian Writing Nele Sawallisch 104

4 The Miracle of Ann Maria Jackson, Slave Fugitive and Heroine of the Underground Railroad Afua Cooper 118

5 Free Black North: Photography and Transnational Identities in Nineteenth-Century Southern Ontario Julie Crooks 141

6 Colour-Phobia in Canada: William Wells Brown's Cosmopolitan Mobility Carole Lynn Stewart 151

Section 2 Transnational Poetics of Space Making

7 Before the Bricks and Mortar: The Grassroots Development of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument dann j. Broyld Shaun Winton 171

8 M is for Migrant: Scenes in Response to Three Questions and a Statement from M. Jacqui Alexander's Pedagogies of Crossing Alexis Pauline Gumbs 196

9 She Balances the Border Kaie Kellougb 200

10 Dionne Brand, Map-Maker Nalini Mohabir 204

11 From Site to Sound and Film: Critical Black Canadian Memory Culture and Sylvia Hamilton's The Little Black School House Winfried Siemerling 226

Section 3 Strategizing Survival and Rethinking Colonial Ordering

12 We Were Here: Reclaiming African Canadian History through Heritage Plaques Natasha Henry 245

13 On the Aggrecultural Poetics of Sonnet's Shakespeare Sonnet L'Abbé 256

14 Mobilizing the Bard: Joseph Pierre's Shakespeare's Nigga (2013) Pilar Cuder-Domínguez 264

15 Building Black and Indigenous Alliances for HIV Prevention and Health Promotion Ciann L. Wilson Sarah Flicker Jean-Paul Restoule 278

16 Blood is a Politic of Place-Making: Blackness, Queerness, and the Construction of the Donor OmiSoore H. Dryden 304

Section 4 Creation is Legacy: Creativity and Futures

17 The Story of Sister Vision: Black Women and Women of Colour Press - We Had to Fight, Cuss, and Kick Every Inch of the Way Makeda Silvera 323

18 Dub and the Right to Exist: An Interview with Lillian Allen Lillian Allen with Natalee Caple Ronald Cummings 344

19 Dub Pedagogies: An Interview with d'bi.young anitafrika Ronald Cummings 357

20 Spoken Word: A Signifying Gesture Toward Possibility Andrea Thompson 372

21 Wordsoundsystemsengineering: Meta-dub and Creation Klyde Broox 392

Contributors 409

Index 417

Editorial Reviews

Harriet’s Legacies uses the brief but important residence of Harriet Tubman in southern Ontario (Canada West, to be precise) as a starting point to explore new meanings of the origins, experiences, and trajectory of the Black diaspora in Canada. The book sheds new light on the profound transnational significance of the American cultural figure and activist by moving existing discourses beyond national boundaries in ways that invite us to think more fully about the diasporic dynamics that inform African Canadian life. Adopting a resolutely multidisciplinary approach and gathering the work of various artists and scholars in Black Studies, the 21-chapter volume does not simply look back but sees the impact of Harriet Tubman “as ongoing, collective practices of antiracism and freedom seeking.” In doing so, Harriet’s Legacies provides a renewed vigour for both African Canadian Studies and the pursuit of social justice in our times.” Canadian Studies Network 2023 Best Edited Collection Prize jury


“This volume is timely … as it situates Harriet Tubman as a starting point for a variety of approaches to Black Canada, past and present. The collaborative thinking, affiliative longing, and creative visioning that this volume models and brings together powerfully demonstrate how a nonlinear view of legacy can enrich our turn towards the future even in the face of so much uncertainty.” Canadian Geographer


“This book extends Harriet Tubman’s legacy in Black intellectual, political, and artistic life. In its impressive range across disciplines and fields, Harriet's Legacies asserts Tubman as a still-living presence and inspiration for the work of artists and scholars alike, and it demonstrates how a uniquely Canadian reading of Tubman produces new intellectual paths for our time.” Rinaldo Walcott, University of Toronto and author of The Long Emancipation: Moving toward Black Freedom

From the Publisher