Heritage Day 2024
Celebrate and explore the life and legacy of William Hall, VC, on Thursday May 9 at Halifax Central Library.
May 9, 2024
I Will Take The Chance
Join us for a provocative, poetic, post-colonial conversation exploring the life, times, and legacy of 2024 Nova Scotia Heritage Day honoree William Hall, VC. On the evening of Thursday, May 9 at Paul O’Regan Hall in Halifax Central Library, AfterWords will host a conversation moderated by professor Asha Jeffers with special guests Sylvia D. Hamilton, Jacob Sampson, and Ajay Parasram, who can speak to the complexity of a Black war hero fighting for British colonialism. The conversation will dig deeper into difficult questions about how we celebrate and honour war heroes in the twenty-first century, how we should think about marginalized people fighting on behalf of colonialism when they had no power to shape imperial policy, etc. Graphic illustrator Bria Miller will capture the conversation in images in front of the audience as it unfolds.
Tickets are free for this event, but please register in advance to ensure your seat is saved.
I Will Take the Chance is presented in partnership with the Halifax Central Library, and with support from the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism, and Heritage.
Moderator
Dr. Asha Jeffers
Dr. Asha Jeffers is a professor of English and Gender and Women’s Studies at Dalhousie University. In her teaching, she specializes in postcolonial and diasporic literatures. Her research focuses on literature about the children of immigrants – the second generation – across national and ethnic lines. She is co-editor of The Daughters of Immigrants: A Multidisciplinary Study and her scholarly work can be found in a variety of journals and edited collections. Her book, Against! Rebellious Daughters in Black Immigrant US Fiction, is forthcoming in 2025 from Ohio State University Press. She is also a creative writer.
Scholar
Ajay Parasram
Ajay Parasram is a transnational, multigenerational byproduct of the British empire, with roots in South Asia, the southern Caribbean, and in unceded Mi'kmaw, Coast Salish, and Algonquin territories. Ajay is the author of Pluriversal Sovereignty and the State: Imperial Encounters in Sri Lanka (Manchester University Press, 2023) and co-author (with Alex Khasnabish) of Frequently Asked White Questions (Fernwood Publishing, 2022).
Poet, historian, documentarian
Sylvia D. Hamilton
Sylvia D. Hamilton is an award-winning writer, filmmaker and artist, whose poetry collection And I Alone Escaped to Tell You was a finalist for the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her honours include the Portia White Prize, the 2019 Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media and the 2021 Luminary Award given by the Documentary Organization of Canada. Her films include Portia White: Think on Me, The Little Black School House and Black Mother Black Daughter among others. Tender, her newest poetry collection, won the 2023 Maxine Tynes Poetry Award and was a finalist for the League of Canadian Poets Pat Lowther Memorial Award. She is an Inglis Professor Emeritus at the University of King’s College in Halifax.
Playwright, actor
Jacob Sampson
Jacob Sampson (he/him) is a Graduate of the Acadia University Theatre Studies program and is a descendant of the Historic Black Nova Scotian community of Beechville. Jacob is the playwright of Chasing Champions, which premiered at Ship’s Company Theatre in 2016, a production that won the Merritt Awards for Outstanding New Play by a Nova Scotian, Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role (Jacob Sampson as Sam Langford), and Best Production. He also travelled with the show to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Jacob was the winner of the 2020 Merritt Award for Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role for 2b theatre’s production of Shauntay Grant’s The Bridge. Jacob is currently a member of The Bus Stop Co-Op’s board of directors and is proud to have served as an ACTRA councillor for six years. He is the associate artistic director at 2b Theatre. He is incredibly passionate about the arts community in Nova Scotia and wishes to contribute in as many ways possible.