And I Alone Escaped to Tell You
The settlement of African peoples in Nova Scotia is a richly layered story encompassing many waves of settlement and diverse circumstances from captives to ‘freedom runners’ who sailed north from the United States with hopes of establishing a new life. The poems in And I Alone Escaped to Tell You endeavour to give these historical events a human voice, blending documentary material, memory, experience and imagination to evoke the lives of these early Black Nova Scotians and of the generations that followed. This collection is a moving meditation on the place of African-descended people in the Canadian story and on the threads connecting all of us to the African diaspora.
Sylvia Hamilton is a Nova Scotian poet and filmmaker who has won several awards for her publications and films. Her work explores feminism, Black Canadian experiences, family, and community.
Other publications from this author include:
- “Stories from The Little Black School House” in Cultivating Canada: Reconciliation Through the Lens of Cultural Diversity (2011)
- “Searching for Portia White” in Rain/Drizzle/Fog: Film and Television in Atlantic Canada (2008)
- “Visualizing History and Memory in the African Nova Scotian Community” in Multiple Lenses: Voices from the Diaspora Located in Canada (2007)
- “A Daughter’s Journey” in Canadian Woman Studies /l es cahiers de la femme, 23 (2) (2004)