Tuesday Night Talk, free
6:30 pm
Author Gloria Ann Wesley will provide an historical overview of the No. 2 Construction Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, also known as the Black Battalion. Created on July 5, 1916, during the First World War, it was a segregated non-combatant unit, the first and only all-Black battalion-sized formation in Canadian military history.
Gloria will share a reading from her latest book, Shovels Not Rifles, a historical young adult fiction set in the First World War. Her novel features a young African Nova Scotian in the No. 2 Construction Battalion who faces racism and discrimination from his fellow Canadians.
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GLORIA ANN WESLEY is a distinguished African Nova Scotian novelist, poet and retired teacher. She holds the distinction being the first published Black Nova Scotian poet (To My Someday Child,1975). Her young adult fiction novel, Chasing Freedom (2011) was short-listed for the Ann Connor Brimer Award. If This Is Freedom (2013) was the winner of One Book Nova Scotia (2016). Winner of the 2024 Atlantic Legacy Award. Her novels include Chasing Freedom (2011), If this is Freedom (2013), Abigail's Wish (2016). and Righting Canada's Wrongs: Africville (2019). Her latest release, Shovels Not Rifles (2023) is about Wilbur Coleman, a recruit in the No. 2 Construction Battalion.
As part of our free admission, community evening, we want to help our communities. On Tuesday nights, we welcome donations to Feed Nova Scotia to help our communities, and curb food insecurity, together!