For Shayna Jones, a Kaslo-based oral storyteller, there is a strong desire to highlight the importance of listening to Black stories and looking beyond the assumptions of the Black experience in rural B.C.
And for her, the new theatrical production coming to Vancouver which will explore the stories of Black people living in Canada’s countryside is a great avenue to project the challenges of Blacks in the rural communities.
It is germane to note that Jones is the writer and performer of Black and Rural, a production that will share her life story and the story of those who played a crucial role in her journey to rural B.C.
Speaking with newsmen, she said, “Those who come to witness this piece will have the opportunity to hear the real reflections recorded from interviews with Black Canadians”.
“It’s so valuable to create something that pierces through jargon and political speak. And have a piece that can try to touch the hearts of people who are listening.”
According to her, the show will highlight the importance of listening to Black stories and looking beyond the assumptions of the Black experience in rural B.C. She added that people outside of the Black community will also have space to reflect during the show on the choices they’ve made regarding the places where they’ve chosen to live.
She said “It is my deep hope … [the audience] will see something of themselves and their own choice to live where they live, be it urban or rural, and inquire of themselves why and how they want to live in [those] spaces”.
Statistics Canada have it that 61,760 people in B.C. identified as Black in the 2021 census, 41,180 of whom were in the Greater Vancouver area.
The exceptional Jones who was born in Chicago and raised in Vancouver, said 10 years ago, she decided to leave her urban life to settle in a small town.
Now she’s lived in Kaslo, B.C., a town of 800 people, about 70 kilometres northeast of Nelson, for seven years. In her words, aside from herself and her three children, there are only two other Black people living in the area.
Jones stated that her experiences in a quiet setting outside of the city buzz have allowed her and her family to grow closer to their roots.
She said “[I discovered] that living rurally, living close to the land, close to the trees was exactly the healing I needed to discover my ancestry and my heritage more deeply. And I’ve never turned back.”
According to her, the shift in lifestyle fuelled her storytelling and inspired her to listen to others who had made a similar choice.
While noting that “The question of why somebody chooses to remain in such a setting becomes extremely interesting,” she said many of the stories she’s heard are not what people would expect.
She added that “[Those experiences trump] the discomforts and the grief and the pain that can sometimes come from being the only Black face in a sea of rural white faces.”
Reacting, Richard Wolfe, the director of Black and Rural, said he joined Jones’s project after hearing about it two years ago.
He said “I thought it was the kind of story that I would want to see myself if I was an audience member in a theatre because it seemed to me a completely untold story”.
Wolfe added that the show is broken down into three parts featuring folk tales, personal anecdotes from Jones’s life and voice-overs from other Black Canadians.
The director believes that showcasing artists like Jones and their stories is important to help audiences understand the lived experiences of Black Canadians.
He said “Art should tell as many stories as possible. Because for audiences to encounter things that are not familiar to them can only help them grow as people”.
“It can bring people together on a much more essential level because they’re sharing the space with others.”
