Immerse yourself in the UNB Art Centre’s newest installment of Rediscovering the Roots of Black New Brunswickers and learn why the lives of Black New Brunswickers have always mattered throughout the province’s history and today.
For the second year in a row, the UNB Art Centre is working in conjunction with the Bi-Campus Standing Committee on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Human Rights to bring back a collection of banners celebrating the lives of Black New Brunwickers, their personal accomplishments, and their contributions to New Brunswick’s history.
Director of the UNB Art Centre Marie Maltais told The Brunswickan that ideas for the project first came about as a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Shortly after that we went into COVID lockdown and there was no public access to our galleries. The UNB Art Centre began to look for alternate ways to exhibit our projects and share them with the community.”
Maltais and the Art Centre scrambled as they attempted to salvage the planned exhibit. Then it struck her:
“I was travelling in the north of the province. I saw banners featuring photographs of high school graduates in that community. It seemed like a really wonderful way to publicly celebrate these students’ accomplishments even though they could have no formal graduation ceremony. It was a way the community could still recognize and celebrate them.”
With most of the research already completed, visuals were drawn from archival and familial sources and the banners were soon printed.
“This is primarily an educational project to familiarize people in the city with the important contributions made by members of the black community. It is important that we recognize their faces and hear their stories. The banners are an important way to hold space to tell these stories,” Maltais explained.
The banners will line Regent and Westmorland streets throughout the month of February.
Research for the project was conducted by UNB students. The 2020 banners were researched by Carlie Manners and Emma Allen and this year’s were researched by The Brunswickan’s own Harrison Dressler.
This year, we as Frederictonians are privileged to recognize nine new faces as part of Rediscovering the Roots of Black New Brunswickers:
Robb Costello – A Fredericton Police Constable killed in the line of duty in 2018.
Eliza Taylor – Known adoringly as the “Belle of Loch Lomond,” an original settler of the community located in Southern New Brunswick.
Cornelius Sparrow – A prominent businessman and entrepreneur.
Anna Minerva Henderson – A poet, federal servicewoman, and newspaper columnist.
Brian Carty – A social worker and educator at St. Thomas University.
John Young – A World War II veteran and community volunteer.
Robert Lawrence Henry – A soldier in the Carleton and York Regiment during World War II.
Frank Hendersen – A paralympian and recipient of over eighty sports medals.
Louis Sterling – A local boxer; winner of Vancouver’s Golden Gloves competition.
The UNB Art Centre is located at Memorial Hall, 9 Bailey Drive. Gallery hours are 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday to Friday. Admission is free; proof of vaccination and masks are required.
“When the banners are displayed on the street or when the exhibit is displayed in the galleries it is very moving to speak with and hear from family members of these individuals. It makes me proud to be able to do what I can to help bring these people to the public consciousness,” Maltais said. “The more we know and understand one another, the more we can achieve together.”