This is a free online event with registration through Eventbrite.
The talk is presented by CAFKA21 in collaboration with UWAG.
Tamarack Drive is a series of images taken in 1969 by Aaron Francis’ grandfather; Jamaican-born, Waterloo based photographer Roy Francis. Originally captured on Kodak Ektachrome 35mm transparency film, the series offers a candid glimpse of early Caribbean-Canadian life in Waterloo Region. Curated by Aaron Francis, the series includes images of his grandmother, mother, and uncles outside the family home, and on family trips to Niagara Falls and the Canadian National Exhibition.
Installed as a series of window graphics on the street-facing side of East Campus Hall, 263 Phillip Street is a 25-minute walk from the Tamarack Drive neighbourhood where many of the images where taken. The window takeover establishes a positive public presence for these archival images while providing a new context for the work Aaron presents on Instagram under the Vintage Black Canada hashtag. In curating his family’s archive of photography and slides he presents a proud Caribbean-Canadian community that has traditionally been underrepresented in Waterloo, while connecting with the broader African diaspora across Canada.
Aaron T. Francis is a doctoral student at the University of Waterloo, a multidisciplinary artist, and curator. He is the former chair of the City of Kitchener’s Arts and Culture Advisory Committee, and has exhibited works from his Vintage Black Canada initiative at the BAND Gallery Toronto, the Gladstone Hotel, the Contact Photography Festival, the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) as well as with Ryerson University’s Fashion and Race Database.
The University of Waterloo Art Gallery acknowledges the generous support of the Region of Waterloo Art Fund.