The experiences of African-Nova Scotians around the time of the Halifax Explosion on Dec. 6, 1917, provide the framework of the new storytelling performance Black Explosion on Friday, Dec. 14, 7:30 p.m. at the Black Cultural Centre.
Artist and playwright David Woods has been collecting these stories for the past two years while researching his new play Extraordinary Acts, and will present them with the Voices storytellers, including Halifax’s Wanda Lewis, North Sydney resident (and sister of Viola Desmond) Wanda Robson and guest storyteller Geraldine Browning from Kentville. There will also be performances of traditional gospel hymns of the period by North Preston’s Rose and Alexander Fraser.
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While Extraordinary Acts is not expected to go into production for at least a year, Woods is eager to share the stories he’s discovered while doing his research. Lewis will present the story of Rachael Brown, widowed by the explosion and facing new hardships in its aftermath. Robson will tell her sister Viola’s story of being blown off her baby chair and covered with shards of glass from the shattered window, while Browning relates the struggle for survival faced by Windsor’s Upshaw family when husband and father Albert was killed in the explosion.
Woods himself will present the story of Nova Scotia’s first black physician, Dr. Clement Ligoure, who turned his private practice Amanda Hospital on North Street into a dressing station in the wake of the 1917 catastrophe, saving hundreds of lives in the process. Woods will also narrate biographies of the explosion’s 14 African-Nova Scotian fatalities and relate anecdotes passed on by survivors, like North Preston’s Edward Cain who discovered money falling from the sky after a North End bank was demolished by the blast.
“Black Explosion is not an attempt to separate the black community’s history from the larger narrative of the Halifax Explosion but to ensure that the black community’s history is recognized,” said Woods in a news release for the event. “In the past the black community’s experiences were either ignored or misrepresented in most official writings and representations about the Halifax Explosion including the number of black victims.”
Admission for Black Explosion: Stories of the Black Experience is $5 at the door; doors open at 7 p.m. so it’s best to arrive early to guarantee seating. The Black Cultural Centre is located on Cherry Brook Road, just off of Main Street. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/VoicesBlackTheatreNS.
