The Poet, The Preacher, and The Painter: Calgary’s Black History, A Walking Tour with Cheryl Foggo
Thursday 4 July, 1–4 PM, free.
Meet at Olympic Plaza, Burns Building.
Dress for the weather.
Join author, historian, and filmmaker Cheryl Foggo for a walking tour on Calgary’s Black historical sites and families. Walk through Calgary’s Black History as told through the lives, works, experiences and connections between three seminal figures: ‘The Poet’ Ethel Lewis who lived off and on in Calgary and southern Alberta from 1892 till her passing in 1960; ‘The Preacher’ Andrew Risby (brother of Deanna Bowen’s grandfather) who was born in Campsie, AB in 1917 and pastored a Black church in Calgary from 1946 until his passing in 2002; and ‘The Painter’ Phillip Risby, an artist born in Calgary and still alive today. Phillip Risby will be joining us for the tour.
Cheryl Foggo is an award-winning author, playwright, and filmmaker whose work over the last 30 years has focused on the lives of Western Canadians of African descent. She directed the short film Kicking Up a Fuss: The Charles Daniels Story and is a recipient of the Sondra Kelly Award from the Writers Guild of Canada, as well as the 2015 Alberta Literary Award for Drama from the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. A well-known author, she has been published in dozens of anthologies. Her books include the recently released 30th-anniversary edition of Pourin’ Down Rain: A Black Woman Claims Her Place in the Canadian West; the young adult novels One Thing That’s True and I Have Been in Danger; and a children’s picture book, Dear Baobab.
Ethel Lewis.
Rev. A. G. Risby.
Phillip Risby, painter.
Support for this project provided in part by the Calgary Foundation.
