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Black Matters
Halifax's Poet Laureate Afua Cooper and photographer Wilfried Raussert collaborate in this book of poems and photographs focused on everyday Black experiences. The result is a jambalaya -- a dialogue between image and text. Cooper translates Raussert's photos into poetry, painting a profound image of what disembodied historical facts might look like when they are embodied in contemporary characters. This visual and textual conversation honours the multiple layers of Blackness in the African diaspora around North America and Europe. The result is a work that amplifies black beauty and offers audible resistance.
78 pages, Paperback
First published October 12, 2020
122 people want to read
About the author
Afua Cooper
23 books42 followersAfua Cooper is a Jamaican-born Canadian historian, author and dub poet.
Born in Westmoreland, Jamaica, Cooper grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and migrated to Toronto in 1980. She holds a Ph.D. in African-Canadian history with specialties in slavery and abolition. Her dissertation, "Doing Battle in Freedom’s Cause", is a biographical study of Henry Bibb, a 19th-century African-American abolitionist who lived and worked in Ontario. She also has expertise in women's history and New France studies.
She has published four books of poetry, including Memories Have Tongue (1994), one of the finalists in the 1992 Casa de las Americas literary award. She is the co-author of We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women's History (1994), which won the Joseph Brant Award for history. She has also released two albums of her poetry.
Her book The Hanging of Angelique (2006) tells the story of an enslaved African Marie-Joseph Angelique who was executed in Montreal at a time when Quebec was under French colonial rule. It was shortlisted for the 2006 Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction.
Afua Cooper is the James Robinson Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies, at Dalhousie University. Her research interests are African Canadian studies, with specific regard to the period of enslavement and emancipation in 18th and 19th century Canada and the Black Atlantic; African-Nova Scotian history; political consciousness; community building and culture; slavery’s aftermath; Black youth studies.
Dr. Cooper founded the Black Canadian Studies Association (BCSA), which she currently chairs.
Born in Westmoreland, Jamaica, Cooper grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and migrated to Toronto in 1980. She holds a Ph.D. in African-Canadian history with specialties in slavery and abolition. Her dissertation, "Doing Battle in Freedom’s Cause", is a biographical study of Henry Bibb, a 19th-century African-American abolitionist who lived and worked in Ontario. She also has expertise in women's history and New France studies.
She has published four books of poetry, including Memories Have Tongue (1994), one of the finalists in the 1992 Casa de las Americas literary award. She is the co-author of We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women's History (1994), which won the Joseph Brant Award for history. She has also released two albums of her poetry.
Her book The Hanging of Angelique (2006) tells the story of an enslaved African Marie-Joseph Angelique who was executed in Montreal at a time when Quebec was under French colonial rule. It was shortlisted for the 2006 Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction.
Afua Cooper is the James Robinson Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies, at Dalhousie University. Her research interests are African Canadian studies, with specific regard to the period of enslavement and emancipation in 18th and 19th century Canada and the Black Atlantic; African-Nova Scotian history; political consciousness; community building and culture; slavery’s aftermath; Black youth studies.
Dr. Cooper founded the Black Canadian Studies Association (BCSA), which she currently chairs.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 15, 2022
Everything is connected.
John Ware: Magician Cowboy is something that I needed to read. It’s a part of Canadian History that needs to be discussed more. Thanks Afua Cooper for putting me on! Especially as this past year Black Cowboys in both the American and Canadian west and mid-west have been brought into our thoughts by films like Concrete Cowboy and The Harder they Fall, it’s an intriguing piece of history to engage with — https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5006879
Poetry coupled with photography have long been a brilliant combination. Black Matters is both educational and insightful. I loved the poem Lami and Nina - a beautiful tribute to art, Black women, the mother daughter relationship, and music. The combination of these two forms of art referencing other forms of art work so well together and really cover huge ground from era to era!
I love when poets explore the dialect of the their peoples and Caribbean dialects, popular in both Ontario and Halifax, two places the authors visited, are front and center. This was another dope read for this National Poetry Month.
John Ware: Magician Cowboy is something that I needed to read. It’s a part of Canadian History that needs to be discussed more. Thanks Afua Cooper for putting me on! Especially as this past year Black Cowboys in both the American and Canadian west and mid-west have been brought into our thoughts by films like Concrete Cowboy and The Harder they Fall, it’s an intriguing piece of history to engage with — https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5006879
Poetry coupled with photography have long been a brilliant combination. Black Matters is both educational and insightful. I loved the poem Lami and Nina - a beautiful tribute to art, Black women, the mother daughter relationship, and music. The combination of these two forms of art referencing other forms of art work so well together and really cover huge ground from era to era!
I love when poets explore the dialect of the their peoples and Caribbean dialects, popular in both Ontario and Halifax, two places the authors visited, are front and center. This was another dope read for this National Poetry Month.
March 13, 2021
"This book is a dialogue between image and text. Wilfried Raussert is the photographer, Afua Cooper is the poet."
Black Matters is a small powerful book with themes of slavery, flight, resistance, resilience, dispora, exile, triumph, joy, love, hope and survival.
Afua Cooper is a poet and a historian of slavery and freedom. A former poet laureate of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Afua has authored multiple works and is a professor of Black Studies and History at Dalhousie University.
Wilfried Raussert is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar of InterAmerican Studies at Bielefeld University, Germany.
Black Matters is a small powerful book with themes of slavery, flight, resistance, resilience, dispora, exile, triumph, joy, love, hope and survival.
Afua Cooper is a poet and a historian of slavery and freedom. A former poet laureate of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Afua has authored multiple works and is a professor of Black Studies and History at Dalhousie University.
Wilfried Raussert is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar of InterAmerican Studies at Bielefeld University, Germany.
February 16, 2021
This is a fantastic collaboration between a photographer and a poet, taking inspiration from each other and capturing moments of Black history.
April 18, 2023
Loved the combination of images and poetry together!
March 14, 2021
Loved the mix between visual and poetry. Worked well together. Especially loved some of the more story based poems in this collection, but overall there were some wonderful poems in there.
Recommended.
Recommended.
August 18, 2020
Every color lives inside black
February 11, 2021
Love the poems and the photographs.
January 26, 2022
when photographers and poets collaborate >>
September 24, 2023
Well composed but not really my thing
April 19, 2022
Poetry is not my favourite genre. But, this combination of beautiful photos with corresponding poems was quite lovely. It is a quick read but worth the read.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews