📚🚇ALL ABOARD! Join us for A Different Booklist Cultural Centre's 7th Annual Underground Freedom Train. On Wednesday, July 31st, you, your family, and friends are invited to join us as we welcome in #EmanicpationDay, August 1st, to commemorate the official abolition of slavery in (most of) the British colonies on August 1st, 1834.

The Freedom Train will depart from Union Station and journey to Sheppard West Station (formerly Downsview Station). Assembly and presentations will begin at 10:45PM sharp.

This year's theme is #ResilienceDespitetheOdds. #FTR2019 will feature leaders - activists, artists, politicians - from the Black community in Canada. Among them will be literary critic and poet Dr. George Elliott Clarke, who will perform his work, as well as senator Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard who will act as Conductor. Per tradition, Itah Sadu will be the m.c. for the occasion.

This ride, symbolic of the role of the Underground Railroad in Canadian history, is free and open to the public: Everyone should know and have freedom, and it's our collective responsibility to liberate. But, as the latest article by Toronto-based lawyer Anthony Morgan - as well as numerous other news stories (on Bill 21, immigration officers recently conducting street checks here in Toronto, etc.) - attest, we are not there yet. Morgan writes, "Emancipation Day honors the history, memory, and legacy of Black Canadians’ resistance to white supremacy. It also recognizes Canada’s complicity in the enslaving of Africans and how this colonial heritage stole Black liberation. However, this Black Canadian cultural tradition that once thrived is now barely surviving after more than 184 years. The holiday has significantly waned in terms of its public familiarity, currency, and relevance.

"The resulting failure diminishes the tradition’s potential to unify, organize, and mobilize diverse Black communities around a consciousness of Black liberation in Canada. This is also a lost opportunity for deepening community development and fostering a sense of belonging within Black Canadian communities." (Via The North Star)

#FTR2019 is a continuation of A Different Booklist's traditional effort to strengthen and unify our community. It will inspire you and help us get there - and so will #ReadingDifferently: It's all of our responsibility to emancipate each other's minds. Check out our #EmancipationDayReads and stay tuned for more #RecommendedReads from A Different Booklist - #ReadDifferently. Join us on the eve of #EmanicpationDay--All Aboard!