Black Matters

Halifax's Poet Laureate Afua Cooper and photographer Wilfried Raussert collaborate in this book of poems and photographs focused on everyday Black experiences. The result is a jambalaya — a dialogue between image and text. Cooper translates Raussert's photos into poetry, painting a profound image of what disembodied historical facts might look like when they are embodied in contemporary characters. This visual and textual conversation honours the multiple layers of Blackness in the African diaspora around North America and Europe. The result is a work that amplifies black beauty and offers audible resistance. (From Roseway Publishing)

Cooper is the poet laureate of Halifax. She's also a historian and teacher. She is the author of five books of poetry and two novels, including The Hanging of Angelique.

Raussert is a Canadian photographer, artist and academic who currently teaches in Germany. He has authored or edited more than 20 scholarly books.

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Interviews with Afua Cooper

Dr. Afua Cooper

10 years ago

Duration 28:38

Dr. Afua Cooper is a scholar, author, and a dub poet.

Ideas0:51Historian Afua Cooper talks about what it's like to be black in Canada today and always under surveillance.

Afua Cooper is James Robinson Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies at Dalhousie University.

Canadian poets speak with CBC News Network's Heather Hiscox about the protests that have swept the continent this year, and share some of their work on Canada Day. Featuring poet, author, playwright and literary critic, George Elliott Clarke, and poet, author, historian and professor at Dalhousie University, Afua Cooper.

2 years ago

Duration 14:32

Canadian poets speak with CBC News Network's Heather Hiscox about the protests that have swept the continent this year, and share some of their work on Canada Day. Featuring poet, author, playwright and literary critic, George Elliott Clarke, and poet, author, historian and professor at Dalhousie University, Afua Cooper.