AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
A long way home movie 20104/29/2023 ![]() Randy and Christal have packed the car and are about to put their 2-year-old son Joe in the car so they can pick up their other two sons and head for vacation. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.REVIEW: THE WAY HOME is not based on a true story with dramatic ingredients added, it IS a TRUE story, about how a rural Southern community came together to search for a missing 2-year-old boy. Published by Scribner Canada, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. But not in the way you might think.Įxcerpted from The Long Road Home by Debra Thompson. They escaped and I returned to lay claim to the opportunities and the humanity they were refused. When I decided to move to the United States a decade ago, I thought the ghosts of my ancestors would welcome me home. I felt like I was returning to the land of my ancestors' birth, the country they built, where they prayed, and sweated, and toiled, and were tortured, and resisted, and fought, and wept as their children were stolen and sold, and were traumatized as they were raped for profit and murdered for sport, the country where they died, the places they still haunt. Being Black in Canada: Highlighting the stories and experiences of Black Canadians.You're looking for evidence left behind by people who were trying to hide, and whose lives depended on how well and for how long they could do it." He thought he heard someone talking about West Virginia or Alabama once, "but Debra," he said, "you're looking for ghosts. (Submitted by Debra Thompson)ĭad doesn't know where my grandfather's grandfather, Cornelius Thompson, or the others in the overgrown Shrewsbury graveyard escaped from. He says things like, "You know, Debra, those politicians got nothing more than a nodding acquaintance with the truth." But he is also staunchly, proudly, fiercely Canadian and his accent appears plainly in words like "about" and "sorry."Ĭornelius Thompson followed the Underground Railroad to freedom in Shrewsbury, Ont. My father says, "thee-ater" and pronounces the "w-h" in "white." He talks in the same rhythmic riddles that characterize barbershop talk in African American communities and cultures. Generations of those descended from Black American refugees from slavery still live in southwestern Ontario, including my father's family. Because the communities were rural and segregated, my kin have the most wonderful way of speaking, their southern intonations inflected with unambiguously Canadian accents. Many of the people that escaped to Canada on the Underground Railroad went back to the United States after the Civil War to find the loved ones left behind, stolen from them, or lost along the way.īut generations of those descended from Black American refugees from slavery still live in southwestern Ontario, including my father's family. You can read an excerpt from The Long Road Homebelow. It's the biggest prize for nonfiction in the country. The winner will be announced on Nov. The $60,000 prize annually recognizes the best nonfiction book in Canada. The Long Road Homeis one of five books shortlisted for the 2022 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. The book explores Black cultural identity and activism in places such as Boston, Chicago and Shrewsbury, Ont., one of the termini of the Underground Railroad and the place where the formerly enslaved - including her grandfather's grandfather, Cornelius Thompson - found freedom. The Long Road Home is a researched look at themes such as belonging and family history. The CBC Books fall reading list: 30 Canadian books to read now. ![]() When Thompson moved to the United States in 2010, she felt like she was returning to the land of her Black ancestors, those who had escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |