Griot
A Chapbook by the Nia Centre for the Arts, Black Pen Writing Workshop
Publisher Description
Nia Centre for the Arts is a Toronto-based charity that supports, promotes, and showcases art from across the Afro-Diaspora. We build the creative capacity of our community and support the development of a healthy identity in young people through artistic development, mentorship and employment opportunities. We are a platform for the arts that is rooted in the diversity of Black-Canadian experiences.
In 2021, we hand-selected six emerging writers to participate in the Black Pen writing intensive program. The writers in this program challenged themselves, honed into their craft, stepped into their greatness and dedicated themselves to their collective manuscript—GRIOT: Sojourn into the Dark.
Follow the writers through a deep and authentic exploration of their literary voices as we ‘Sojourn into the Dark’; a collection of fiction and nonfiction that crosses borders, from Nigeria to Jamaica, explores themes of loss and connection, and embraces tradition while pushing the art of storytelling forward.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Prepare to be blown away by the next big names in Black Canadian literature. Committed to amplifying voices from across the African diaspora, Nia Centre for the Arts selected six groundbreaking writers to participate in their Black Pen writing intensive. The result is this transformative collection of short stories and poems made up of haunting memories, poetic musings, and magic. We confront childhood trauma in Yvvana Yeboah Duku’s “Notes from the Child That Never Was,” get pulled into fantastical woodlands with Saherla Osman’s “Nus and Ogona,” and witness the tragic decline of a Jamaican village in Omi Rodney’s “Brother Ellis.” This rich tapestry of storytelling, edited brilliantly by Whitney French, takes us on an emotional journey through challenging themes surrounding the Black experience. Full of courage, hope, and wonderfully fresh perspectives, Griot is a moving read.
