Following in Great Footsteps
NOTE: The following is a feature story about African Heritage Month.
With her hair tied up and swept off of her face with a colourful scarf, Shauntay Grant stood as a tall, proud symbol of the musings in her latest piece of poetry.
"You have shown that the lessons of our mothers are not forgot," she recited at the provincial African Heritage Month launch recently. "For that same love and kindness compassion and feeling with its roots in our ancestral line shines through you."
Ms. Grant, like many other young women of African descent, has built a rewarding and successful career thanks to the hardworking and often unnamed women who came before her.
"Standing rock solid against the torrential rains of poverty and indifference they planted firm a black forest full of muscular, feminine root birthing generations of bright and beautiful fruit," she continued during her performance.
Ms. Grant, poet laureate for Halifax, was commissioned to write a poem that paid homage to the 2010 theme of African Heritage Month, Leading Ladies, Lasting Legacies, which honours six community matriarchs from across the province.
As she called out the names, "Edith Cromwell, Geraldine White, Ada Fells, Ms. May Beryl Braithwaite, Willena Jones," the audience nodded with appreciation and respect for each woman.
Admittedly nervous about taking on the project, Ms. Grant explained that writing to theme is a "beautiful challenge" that requires you to "jot down a note here or there" and "live with [the idea] for some time" before putting pen to paper.
"That way," she explains, "when I finally sit down to write, it's already in my bones."
Through feeling it in her bones and remembering special family moments, Ms. Grant wrote a poem based on the names, faces and events of her past.
"That was important to me," she says. "That the poem came from some place personal, some sense of memory."
The featured artist for African Heritage Month, Ms. Grant has learned the lessons of her mothers and is on her way to becoming a leading lady in her own right.
A talented orator, poet, broadcast journalist, musician and award-winning author, she is building a sturdy foundation for the young women who will come after her. She regularly conducts arts workshops and performances for youth, creating opportunities for them to develop their talents through the literary and performing arts.
"Ms. Shauntay Grant is a very, very dear friend of mine, who I admire immensely," said African Nova Scotian Affairs Minister Percy Paris. "She is a community success story."
A success story that continues grow stronger, like many of her generation that are able to reach higher from the sturdy foundation forged by the many leading ladies who came before them.
For more information on Shauntay Grant, including a copy of the tribute A Poem for our Mothers, visit <a hred="http://www.gov.ns.ca/ansa/specialevents.asp">www.gov.ns.ca/ansa/specialevents.asp</a> .