With Black History Month getting underway, its a good time to highlight some of the Black artists in the GTA and their work.
Daniel Akinlalu, a multi-talented Toronto artist shared his thoughts as a Black creator working in and around the city.
“I think it’s very important to have a bit of reverence for the long line of Black artists who have served as forms of representations, role models for success and refinement,” Akinlalu said.
“Also, how different crafts have really been pushed forward by various Black artists, even though they tend to get maybe sidelined and co-opted or sometimes stolen by other cultures.”
Akinlalu said that he is interested in owning his own ideas and passions when sharing them but remains open-minded when it comes to how those ideas are received.
“Once it’s put out in the world, it’s expressed, it is going to serve as inspiration for other people, regardless of whether they have the due diligence to credit the person who kind of pioneered it,” he said.
Akinlalu works across multiple mediums, including drawing, music, acting, photography, and modelling, as ways to express himself.
He documents his work his work to reflect on his journey and process.
“I’ve been trying to embrace the fact that being an artist kind of means that you have this ability to realize the progress you make is built on things that you did in the past, the repetition,” Akinlalu said.
Desiree Mckenzie, a Toronto-based spoken word artist, shared her thoughts on representation and her craft via direct message..
To her, representation is about presence — an invitation for Black and racialized stories to be shared in various forms.
“I think there’s been ideas that only having one person from a community can represent it all, but that’s not the case,” Mckenzie said.
“Representation truly means hearing different voices, even within the same groups."
As a Canadian Slam Poetry champion, Mckenzie hopes to tap into the small random things that can often play a bigger role in everyday life.
“Through these insights, I hope to help readers and listeners feel comfortable and that maybe they aren’t alone in that little thing,” she said.
For Mckenzie, Black History Month is about learning from Black experiences throughout history and imagining what the future could look like.
“I hope this is what more people take away from the month – it's not 28 days of trauma,” Mckenzie said, though she does believe that the history of trauma and oppression cannot be overlooked.
Akinlalu hopes people will take the time to research and learn about Black pioneers and their art.
“Regardless of what people are saying about them today, like the rumours or speculations, if people have more empathy to try and make me connect with or at least understand why they did the things they did, they’d be better off as human beings,” he said.
“This understanding and connection with others make it easy to understand and connect with yourself at the end of the day.”
