February 2017 marks the 26th anniversary of Black Historical past Month in Montréal, and this yr’s version contains a full slate of movie screenings, artwork exhibitions, live shows and different particular occasions. This yr’s theme is “Right here we keep, right here we stand!”

Listed here are some highlights throughout BHM 2017:

Montréal’s famed Pageant Nuits d’Afrique presents the Afrique en Cirque with Kalabanté, a multi-media spectacle combining dance, acrobatics and digital projections to the rhythmic sounds of percussion, on the Olympia Theatre on February 17.

The oldest skilled Black theatre firm in Canada, Montréal’s Black Theatre Workshop is performing the English-language play Bluenose in faculties from February 6 to March three. There are additionally two public matinees on February 18 at 1 pm and three pm. Bluenose is a musical aimed toward a younger viewers. By way of a gaggle of pirates – together with one referred to as Bluenose – it explores themes of distinction and acceptance.

The ninth annual Massimadi Afro-Caribbean LGBTQ movie and humanities pageant runs February 21 to March four at numerous venues. “Massimadi” comes from the con­traction of two pejorative Haitian Creole phrases: masisi, for homosexual, and madivinez, for lesbian. Organizers mixed them in a bid to reclaim each phrases once they based Canada’s first (and solely) black LGBT movie pageant again in 2009. This yr’s program consists of the movies KIKI and Strike a Pose, the acclaimed documentary concerning the male dancers on Madonna’s 19930 Fact or Dare Tour.

One among Montreal’s most beloved soul divas, Sylvie Desgroseilliers, stars within the Women of Soul tribute at Le Balcon Cabaret Music Hall downtown on February four. Desgroseilliers is such a superb singer, when she shared the stage with Patti LaBelle on the Montreal Worldwide Jazz Pageant, LaBelle went as much as Desgroseilliers – onstage – and advised her, “By no means cease singing!” All through Black Historical past Month, the music of Black tradition (soul, gospel, funk, Motown, jazz, disco, R&B) will probably be celebrated at Le Balcon with Slim Williams (Feb. 14), Kim Richardson (Feb. 18), the Imani Gospel Singers choir (Feb. 21), Dawn Tyler Watson (Feb. 25) and lots of others.

Ivorian roots-reggae sensation Sekouba Bolomba headlines the Groove Nation nightclub on February 10.

The Montréal en Lumiere Pageant presents legendary soulman Lee Fields & The Expressions at L’Astral nightclub on February 24.

The Coloured Women’s Club of Montreal, the oldest Black ladies’s group in Canada, based in 1902 by a gaggle of American ladies whose husbands labored for the railroad as porters, presents its Black Historical past Month Soirée with award-winning American performer Melissa Waddy-Thibodeaux whose one-woman present re-enacts such historic figures as Harriet Tubman, Lavinia Bell (who fled to Montreal) and Cathay Williams (Buffalo Soldier), Feb 25 on the Centre communautaire de Côte-des-Neiges.

Join us at @NeverApartMTL on Thu, Jan 26th for the Winter Exhibitions Vernissage (event link in bio 1/25/17) and see exhibitions by African LGBTQ festival Massimadi, including Limit(less) by Mikael Owunna @mikaelowunna. . Limit(less) explores how LGBTQ African immigrants navigate their identities and find ways to overcome the supposed “tension” between their LGBTQ and African identities through their visual aesthetics and expression. The project seeks to visually deconstruct the colonial binary that has been set up between LGBTQ and African identities. . Mikael is a Nigerian-Swedish American photographer and writer based in Washington D.C. . Mikael’s photography specializes in documentary and portrait work. His mission with his photography is to elevate marginalized community voices. . In this exhibition titled Limit(less), Mikael is exploring the fashion and style of LGBTQ African immigrants and working to debunk the myth that being LGBTQ is “un-African”. . #massimadi #africanlgbtq #art #artist #performance #painting #music #video #fashion #film #culture #unity #montreal #mileex #mileend #neverapart #entrepreneur #creative #creativity #startup #nonprofit #installation #exhibition #gallery #design

Une photograph publiée par By no means Aside (@neverapartmtl) le 25 Janv. 2017 à 19h48 PST

The Never Apart gallery in Mile Ex has three exhibitions of curiosity throughout BHM: Limit(less) explores how LGBTQ African immigrants navigate their identities; Serious Things A Go Happen: Three Many years Of Dancehall Road Indicators; and Assemblage by artist Sandra Brewster which explores the “golden age of the 1960s and 70s of African diaspora.”

Starting on February 24, the Galerie de l’UQAM and curator Louise Déry current Scottish artist Graham Fagen’s first solo exhibition in Canada, The Slave’s Lament,  which consists of a video set up accompanied by music that’s emblematic of his analysis on the slave commerce, the inhumane remedy of deported populations, and on Scottish involvement in Jamaica. This main work permits for a wealthy examination of the motifs that put nationwide and cultural identities at odds.

À surveiller en mars prochain 2017. #blackhistorymonth #bhm #bhm2017 #mhdn2017 #blackhistory #galadynastie

Une photograph publiée par Mois Histoire des Noirs (@moishistoiredesnoirs) le 22 Déc. 2016 à 19h45 PST

To shut BHM, the inaugural Gala Dynastie will honour exceptional Black Montrealers and Quebecers from the worlds of tradition, enterprise, media, sports activities, and group work, nominated in 17 classes in a star-studded award present on the Olympia Theatre on March 5.

The annual BHM blood drive might be held on the Centre CEDA (2515 Delisle) in Little Burgundy, February 18 from 10:30 am to four:30 pm.

Take a look at the entire schedule for Black Historical past Month at www.moishistoiredesnoirs.com

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