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ArtsSmarts Nova Scotia Exhibition opens at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS)

                                   

Since 2004, ArtsSmarts Nova Scotia has been working with the African Canadian Services Division of the Nova Scotia Department of Education to support school-based projects incorporating African Nova Scotia history and culture.  This year, the Department launched

their new English 12: African Heritage course.  This course encompasses the experience, study, and appreciation of language, literature, media, and communication from an African heritage perspective.

Five of the schools chosen to participate in piloting this course were selected to work with

an ArtsSmarts Nova Scotia artist and incorporate the ArtsSmarts model of engagement.

At Eastern Shore District High School and Prince Andrew High School (two of the schools chosen for the English 12: African Heritage/ArtsSmarts Nova Scotia project) students had

the opportunity to work with ArtsSmarts Nova Scotia artist Shauntay Grant, in conjunction

with the course’s Visual and Performing Arts component.  This component provides an opportunity to look at some of the pioneers who helped to establish black cultural

expression in the arts.

 

Shauntay Grant, Poet ~

My relationship with Diane Smaggus’ classes at Eastern Shore District High School goes back

about two years.  I can still remember the first time I walked into her classroom.  Both the classroom and the outside hallway function as a permanent art installation.  Large display cases chart the African Diaspora through words, paintings and sculpture.  The phrase “Keepers Of The Culture” appears next to a miniature depiction of two West African griots (oral storytellers, historians, philosophers…).  And proverbs from acclaimed African American writers like of Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston are used to accentuate the meaning of the various

items on display.

Smaggus has taught African history and literature courses at Eastern Shore District High for 12 years and is now piloting the new English 12: African Heritage course.  This pilot program is a

grade 12 English equivalent with an afro centric focus.  Throughout the course, students explore

the writings of some of the most prominent historical writers of African descent.

 

As a way of connecting artists from the community with schools, ArtsSmarts Nova Scotia has joined with the Department to make it possible for three African Nova Scotia artists to work with students

in five of the participating schools to explore the course material from an artist’s perspective.

I began working with Diane Smaggus’ English 12: African Heritage class in November 2007.  I arrived smack dab in the middle of the Harlem Renaissance period, a perfect fit considering the cultural significance of this period (roughly 1919 – 1933).  As a writer/poet, the two biggest

lessons I’ve learned are: 1) Write the way you speak, and 2) Know that your life is an important story.  I learned these lessons largely through my discovery of Harlem Renaissance writers like Langston Hughes and Zora Neal Hurston, artists who gravitated towards vernacular expression

and prided themselves on embracing the black experience in their work.

 

Starting with these two small literary lessons, I began exploring the words, rhythms, and history

of the black Diaspora with the students at Eastern Shore District High.  The work you see here was created by some of the most talented, driven, and knowledge-hungry students I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.  This vibrant marriage of art, words, and black culture is a reflection

of the people, places and expressions that moved the students most.

 

Enjoy!

Shauntay Grant is actively involved with numerous arts organizations and has been working with the ArtsSmarts Nova Scotia program for many years.  She is an accomplished spoken word performer, journalist, musician and choir director.

This exhibition will be on display at the AGNS from Feb 5 - March 31, 2008.