” February and Forever: Celebrating Black History today and every day.”

LCCMedia will be celebrating Black History and achievements by documenting daily celebratory events across the city.

The theme for 2022 as declared by Edmonton Mayor, Amarjeet Sohi is ” February and Forever: Celebrating Black History today and every day.”

“In celebrating the Black community, we must honour them by committing to anti-racism. This means learning about our history, amplifying Black voices, speaking out about injustices and holding the public and ourselves accountable”.

“While we engage in this work, we must strive to centre Black excellence, but more importantly, Black joy. Edmonton is home to incredible Black artists, athletes, businesses, academics, and activists. Support their work and share it with others all month long”.

We must consciously celebrate Black History not just in the month of February, but everyday of our lives. We deserve to be celebrated.

For we have overcome obstacles to be here.  We have toiled and laboured like everyone else. But, it feels unrewarded. Sometimes.

We have to work twice as hard. Suffering indignities along the way.

Our children face it too – whilst their teachers watch, unable to intervene.

Many times, our children are unable to put into words what they face so they become angry and sometimes disenfranchised.

Some of our men turn to the bottle. Others to mediocrity. The rest of us rise to excellence.

We cannot articulate how we are never enough.

We want a sit at the  table. The elusive table.

We are visible yet we remain unseen. We ignite suspicion, we generate fears.

We are judged harshly and often misunderstood.

It’s exhausting explaining, so we give up.

In spite of daily micro aggressions, we are still expected to keep going.

Excellence calls from within

Black Excellence is labelled with expectations

We pause to celebrate in February. We celebrate those gone ahead.

We celebrate the moment, and we celebrate our achievements, our journeys, our identity.

28 days goes quickly. This is Day one.

Our children must know why we celebrate.

It must be engraved in our hearts that we Black People are one.

From Quebec to Ontario, we remain undivided.

Our Blackness unites us.

We call each other to celebrate a new dawn.

We embrace the best within us

We open doors to possibilities

Ready to bring new meaning to Blackness.

It’s not time to mourn. It’s time for songs.

Its February, we remember forever.

Our Blackness unites us.

 

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