A young history of Canada’s oldest Black community

by Andre Fenton

book written by the students

The ABCs and published by the Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute. This is a captivating exploration of history told through the lens of youth who choose to celebrate their home, which happens to be Canada’s oldest Black community. North Preston has over 400 years of history.

The book opens with a warm introduction, featuring Arnold Johnson, a Second World War veteran and former Halifax county councillor. He spent much of his time being active in North Preston, creating many community groups. Anne Johnson-McDonald, Arnold Johnson’s daughter, became the principal of Nelson Whynder Elementary School in 2019.

The students behind this book shine light on current community members who have generational roots in North Preston, such as athletes like former Nelson Whynder Elementary student turned global basketball star Daneesha Provo, who has played professionally in Canada, the United States and Europe, and the widely celebrated NBA player, Lindell Wigginton, who is currently with the Wisconsin Herd.

This book also pays tribute to the many musicians who have roots in North Preston, like Reeny Smith, an award-winning R&B singer who won the 2022 African Nova Scotian Artist of the Year Award from Music Nova Scotia, and multi-talented artist Keonte Beals, who won the 2021 Music Nova Scotia Award for R&B/Soul recording of the year. Keonte has recently published two children’s books: I Am Perfectly Me and I Am A King

The youth of North Preston don’t shy away from more mature topics, such as racial justice and activism. The youth show appreciation to Quentrel Provo, who founded the Stop The Violence organization in April 2015. Quentrel works with youth in many communities across Nova Scotia. Each page of stylized text is accompanied by illustrations that show the community members, history and locations with creativity and grace. This is a tribute handled with love, care and respect to past and present, all while bringing hope to the future, acknowledging that community is a timeless collective where we must inspire one another to find our full protentional. From celebrating the past, like the Jamaican Maroons and the Saint Thomas Baptist Church, to highlighting today’s athletes, artists and politicians, the youth of Nelson Whynder Elementary School showcase the history and present of North Preston openly and honestly, as they set the foundation to become the courageous future leaders of Canada’s oldest Black community.

“Y is for the youth of North Preston. The youth of North Preston are the stars of tomorrow. We are singers, doctors, lawyers, scholars, business owners, and athletes.” ■

ANDRE FENTON is an award-winning spoken word artist and filmmaker who has performed all across Canada while representing Halifax at national poetry slams in Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Victoria and Vancouver. He writes poetry and young adult fiction. Andre lives in Halifax, N.S.

People wind up in cemeteries for all sorts of reasons. For the dead, it’s often carved right into the gravestone. For the living, the rationale is sometimes harder to tease out.

Steve Skafte visits abandoned cemeteries on a journey of discovery. He pins down the exact locations of old, overgrown resting places. He clears tangles of brambles obscuring tiny memorials of children. He uprights toppled stones. He rubs snow into the lettering of weathered memorials to reveal the stories of how the dead wound up there.

The Dead Die Twice collects Skafte’s photos and thoughts as he explores 20 lost cemeteries across Nova Scotia. It’s a window into an ongoing daily writing project Skafte began in 2007. He explores what he calls the “forgotten history” of the province, photographs his discoveries and pens intensely personal reflections on the process.

“There are thousands upon thousands of gravestones abandoned in Nova Scotia, far more than I’d ever imagined,” he writes. “If I spent my life intently searching for nothing else, I’d never visit them all. This is something few people can conceive of, how the woods are alive with the dead and their stories.”

The book chronicles one year’s exploration, organized by seasons, capturing the cycles of life, death and renewal among the elements slowly reclaiming these burying places. Skafte’s lens beautifully captures the moss enveloping the tombs, the winter freeze and thaw that cracks their stones and emerald shoots framing white marble stones tumbled to the ground in spring.

Skafte snaps a photograph of himself at each cemetery; sometimes propping up a gravestone or running his hand along some eroded text to help decipher it. He puts himself in the narrative, reminiscing about a lonely childhood as he stands over the graves of children who died long ago from