Black History Month Celebration

Program Type:

Special Guests, Learning at the Library, Events

Age Group:

Adults
Please note you are looking at an event that has already happened.
Registration for this event is no longer open.

About This Program

This year’s theme is February and Forever: Celebrating Black History today and every day. The event features several guest speakers and performances by the Caribbean Association of Grande Prairie. Join us to hear about the transformative work Black Canadians are doing in their communities. 

Featuring:  

  • Deborah Beaver, cofounder of a historical society dedicated to preserving and sharing the stories of Black settlers in Alberta and Saskatchewan
  • Yassannah Nurudeen, Ph.D. candidate and a sessional instructor at the University of Calgary, and Assistant Assistant Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Presented in partnership with the Grande Prairie Intercultural Association. This event takes place on Zoom. When you register you will receive a confirmation email, including a link to join the meeting. 

Presenter Bios

Deborah Beaver is a fourth generation descendant of American Black Settlers that left Alabama and settled in Amber Valley and Campsie, AB. Her mother’s family migrated from Oklahoma and settled in Maidstone Saskatchewan.

In 2005 she and three other descendants formed Black Settlers of Alberta and Saskatchewan Historical Society (BSAS). The group applied for funding to begin an Oral History Project; In Their Own Words interviewing descendants of Black Settlers over the age of eighty years old. Since then BSAS have interviewed about over forty people and edited and digitized copies of the interviews. BSAS has participated in a number of community events and presentations.

Yassannah Nurudeen, BSW, MSW, is a Ph.D. candidate and a sessional instructor at the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary, Canada, and an Assistant Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.

His scholarship focuses on Afro/Africentric research approaches, Social Work with children and adolescents in street situations, and Social Work's vital role in advancing social justice and equity. He brings a particular research interest in the quality of life of African children in deprived situations, substance use, public policy, community-based participatory research approaches, and social justice.