2014 Local Hero Award to be presented at Trent University Oshawa Black History Event

“One Song, Many Voices” features lectures, workshops, musical entertainment, local artisans, children’s activities, and more 

Friday, February 28, 2014, Oshawa, ON

For a third year, Trent University Oshawa will host an annual Black History month event, One Song, Many Voices – Continuing the Dialogue at the Thornton Road Campus on Saturday, March 1 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., featuring a special series of lectures, workshops, musical entertainment, local artisan vendors, exhibitors, children’s activities and more.

“This free and open to the public event is an opportunity to bring together communities within the Durham region to embrace diversity,” said Rose Marcells, student chair of this year’s Black History event at Trent Oshawa. “I think it is essential to acknowledge, reexamine and observe the history of slavery, but also to promote peace, leave behind the past and look forward to the future.”

Highlights of the event include an appearance by two-time Juno award winner Liberty Silver who will provide musical entertainment in celebration of black history. Ms. Silver shaped the foundation of R&B/ soul for an entire generation of black female singers in Canada. To date she has opened for several famous musicians including, Bob Marley, B.B. King and Celine Dion, and has performed for U.S. President Barack Obama.

The Black History event will also be the venue for the presentation of the 2014 Local Hero Award, an annual accolade presented by Trent Oshawa to a deserving community member in the spirit of equality and diversity. The award will be presented by Durham Regional Chair Roger Anderson to Mr. Marvin Ishmael, an actor, director, educator, and champion of Caribbean culture on an international scale. Mr. Ishmael appears as Mr. Bhandari on television’s Degrassi: The Next Generation, and is currently writing a new comedy series, Dreaming, featuring a multi-ethnic cast. Mr. Ishmael has been instrumental in creating cross-cultural awareness with The Caribbean Dinner Theatre in Scarborough and on stage through his theatrical work with We Are One Theatre Productions, for which he received a Chalmers award and a Dora Maver Moore award.

The Trent Oshawa event will also feature keynote speaker Paula Madden, a Ph.D. candidate in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University and author of African Nova Scotian-Mi’kmaw Relations. Ms. Madden’s research examines the history and outcome of rights legislation in Canada and the United States.

Sharing the floor with Ms. Madden is David Austin, author of Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security and Sixties Montreal, a text which won the 2014 Casa de las Americas Prize for Caribbean Literature in English or Creole. He is also the author of the forthcoming The Unfinished Revolution: Linton Kwesi Johnson, Poetry, and the New Society. Mr. Austin’s talk is entitled Fear in the Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in the making of Canada.

Throughout the day, visitors are encouraged to browse the campus hallways where local artisan and food vendors will sell local goods and where community information booths will be on display. Further, the International African Inventors Museum, a mobile museum, will be located in the front atrium for the day.

The full schedule is as follows:

1:00 p.m.: Welcome Ceremony, Room 121
Formal welcome, introductory remarks and tribute to Nelson Mandela

1:10 p.m. -2:10 p.m.: “Ubuntu” Community Drumming Celebration, Room 121
Ubuntu”: Our heritage, our roots, our gift. A celebration of Black History – Community Drumming
2:20 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.:  Academic Panel: Paula Madden and David Austin, Room 125
Paula Madden – African Nova Scotian-Mi’kmaw Relations
David Austin – Fear in the Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in the making of Canada

3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.:  History of Oral Presentation Workshop and History of Jazz Lecture (running concurrently) Rooms 103, 115
Choice of workshop or lecture
History of Oral Presentations (Workshop – Roger Gibbs and Tara Woods)
History of Jazz (Lecture - Professor Michael Morse)
4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.: Liberty Silver - Entertainment, 121
Two-time Juno award winner Liberty Silver takes the stage for a special musical performance

5:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.: Local Hero Award Ceremony, Room 121
Remarks from Durham Regional Chair Roger Anderson, Oshawa Mayor John Henry and Pickering-Scarborough East MPP Tracy MacCharles.

This event is free and open to the public. All are welcome to attend. Last year’s Black History Month event attracted hundreds of visitors.

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