All posts on November 28th, 2019

Egbert Gaye For thousands of Montrealers, it has become a signature of the holiday season in this city to spend an evening in the bliss with Jireh Gospel Choir and Montreal Gospel Choir. Last December, more than 2,000 packed the majestic sanctuary of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church at 309 rue Rachel East in downtown Montreal for a feast of music prepared by Carol Bernard, director of the two choirs: Jireh Gospel Choir, a long-standing institution in the city and the Montreal Gospel Choir, a 100-voice emerging musical force on the Gospel circuit. Bernard says both groups offer a combination of “authenticity …

For three decades this community association has been an integral part of their city… Egbert Gaye About one-fifth of the 50,000 or so people that call Chateauguay home are identified as Black. They come from the Caribbean, Africa and other regions around the world and many have distinguished themselves by their achievements and their contributions to their community, their city and the province. For well over 30 years The Chateauguay Horizon Community Association has been striving to be a unifying force for the 9,000 or so Black people living in the region, many of who were there from quite early …

Book Launch on Friday November 29 Douglas Gary Freeman’s life has been colored by the many instances of forced movements and self-imposed exile, which he details with literary heft in his book, Exile Blues. The former civil rights activist’s life is framed by the extraordinary journey that has seen him run out of the US to Canada; taken from this country back to the US and then forcefully barred from Canada. Born Joseph Pannell in Washington D.C, he grew up in the 60’s in the south side of Chicago during the time of the Civil Rights movement and became a …