VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR

By Greg Quill
Entertainment Reporter

Esi Edugyan, 33, was awarded the $50,000 Giller Prize — Canada’s richest literary award — at a gala ceremony in Toronto Tuesday night for her second novel, Half-Blood Blues.

Edugyan, the Calgary-born daughter of Ghanaian immigrants (she’s based now in Victoria), wrote the winning novel — about an African-German jazz musician in the Rhineland who disappears during the first months of World War II — after an academic residency in the German city of Stuttgart in 2007.

“I didn’t expect this, and I’ve only scrawled a few things on a piece of paper,” she said breathlessly after fighting her way to the podium through a crowd of about 400 of the country’s top literary figures, publishers, politicians and business leaders, standing in her honour.

Edugyan thanked Giller Prize founder Jack Rabinovitch, husband of the late literary editor and journalist Doris Giller, after whom the annual award is named, “for keeping me in diapers for a while.” (She and her husband, poet and novelist Steven Price, are first-time parents of a daughter, born in August.)

After the ceremony Edugyan told the Star she felt no additional pressure about winning such an important award, after triumphing over fellow nominees Patrick deWitt (The Sisters Brothers), Zsuzsi Gartner (Better Living Through Plastic Explosives), Michael Ondaatje (The Cat’s Table), David Bezmozgis (The Free World) and Lynn Coady (The Antagonist).

“No pressure,” she said. “I feel a bit removed from everything out on the West Coast, and I’ll continue to do what I do, and at my own pace.”

Along with Vancouver-born novelist deWitt, Edugyan was shortlisted this season for the Man Booker Prize, the Writers’ Trust Award, the Giller and the Governor General’s Award, which is to be announced Nov. 15.

DeWitt, based in Portland, Ore., won the Writer’s Trust Award on Nov. 1.

Edugyan’s win Tuesday evens the field in what has been described as this year’s big stakes literary horse race.

Edugyan is a graduate of the creative writing program at the University of Victoria. Her work has appeared in several major anthologies, including Best New American.

“Any jazz musician would be happy to play the way Edugyan writes,” says the Giller jury citation. “Her style is deceptively conversational and easy, but with the simultaneous exuberance and discipline of a true prodigy.”

The awards ceremony was staged at the Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville and broadcast live on CBC’s digital TV service, bold.

The event, which was hosted by CBC radio and TV presenter Jian Ghomeshi, opened with a performance by renowned Chinese classical pianist Lang Lang.

In an attempt to upgrade what has been viewed in the past as a solemn event, the public broadcaster brought in pop and rock stars Robbie Robertson (who has started writing his own memoir, due in 2014), Jacob Hoggard from the band Hedley, Nelly Furtado, actors Lisa Ray and Zaib Shaik (Little Mosque on the Prairie) and CBC hockey commentator Ron MacLean to introduce pre-produced monologues with Giller contenders.

Republished with permission from toronto.com

By Fabien Alexis

$50,000 was the goal.

Whether or not the goal was achieved is yet to be known, but Literature for Life’s Third Annual Black, White and Read All Over Fundraising Gala was undeniably a success.

On October 26^th, a fundraiser was held on the 40^th floor of the posh RBC Tower downtown Toronto.

Guests honoured the theme dressing in black and white attire.

Over 85 people attended the event, leaving only standing room around the podium where the various guests would speak. The Carlo Berardinucci band played jazz music on one end of the room while a 30” screen streamed images of Women with Words, a documentary on the participants in the program by director Ania Piszczkiewicz.

The gala was hosted by Jemeni, an award-winning poet and program facilitator for Literature for Life. She spoke briefly on how she was roped into filling in for Wendy “Motion” Braithwaite and then fell in love with the program and never looked back.

Tamara Shelly, the organization’s PR noted, “It was really great having Jemeni as a host, and it’s definitely a treat having her as a program facilitator. She just brings such great perspective and just insight into what we’re trying to do: empowering young mothers in their role as their child’s first teacher.”

For Jacqueline Graham, Literature for Life was all about the reading circle operating independently within her own school eight years ago.

Literature for Life Ambassador Jaqueline Graham/AMBER KING

She laughed, “It’s been a very interesting, experience, just  because it opened up many doors for me where I was able to meet people but also reach people through my words, because I started to write for them [Literature for Life]… It was a very rewarding experience for me to get my voice out there and encourage other young women.”

Shelly explained more about the program: “The books that we read aren’t typical books these women receive in school. And a lot of the time the literature doesn’t reflect them or anybody that they know. It’s not intriguing, it doesn’t grab them it doesn’t resonate and I think the books that we choose do… A lot of the books we have often feature strong female protagonist characters. I think that we really focus on resilience, because we want to inspire young women beyond their circumstances to realize they have a world of opportunity ahead of them. The writing is more introspective… Their opinions are shared around the table. It allows them to put aside any boundaries or barriers that they may have in expressing themselves.”

Graham, a 24-year-old mother, acts as a speaker for the program and delivered a speech on how the organization facilitated her drive for education and will to succeed. Today she is a writer, poet, motivational speaker – and the list will only grow over time.

“Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘the mind is a terrible thing to waste’,” recalls Graham. “Always stimulate your mind with positivity. And you can always find that within literacy and it will help improve your life in many different ways.”

Attorney Julian Falconer was the evening’s keynote speaker and brought attention to the need for monetary support across the board. “Jo [Altilia] has gone to the house. She goes to the house and she meets with others. She’s teaching mothers how to read to their children. She’s created a program that goes into homes.”

Spoken word poet, writer and Literature for Life Ambassador Roots Kizzy was introduced to the program only a year ago through her own home.

She said, “I love the movement, I love the cause they’re working for right now. Building healthy women  and children is important right now, especially for young Black women. It helped me to be able to interact, to be able to move into networking with women across the city. The writing circle is what helped build up my motivation because I was already writing and I was already performing and needed an outlet to explore different venues different people.”

Literature for Life Ambassador Roots Kizzy/AMBER KING

Kizzy delivered two powerful pieces to a resounding applause throughout the room. Her voice alone dictated control and authority. Writing since the age of ten, Kizzy grew through the program and is now looking forward to her first work of poetry being published in December.

Kizzy was mentoring young women within her own community before becoming an ambassador for Literature for Life.

“The program inspired me to be a better woman,” she said thoughtfully, “to be a better researcher and to just pursue my dreams as a woman, as a mother, to growing my child the way that’s best.”

Valerie Pringle, the honorary chair for the evening also touched on the importance of the program

“The genius is seeing this and acting and reaching out,” said Pringle, “and obviously a difference is being made. I think it’s a lovely concept to think of a mother as a child’s first teacher. And supporting that mother, and giving her the skills, the tools and really the self-esteem as well, to move forward in her own life, to make changes in her own life.”

The evening ended with a speech from the founder, Jo Altilia, who encouraged attendees to not only spread the word, but to support the unique and important organization.

A silent auction capped off the evening with items ranging from earrings to paintings, to pillows and postcards.

For more information about this program visit www.LiteratureForLife.org.

Twitter: @Literature4Life
Facebook: Literature for Life (Canada)

L to R: Rosanna Tanti, board member; Sue Bell, Board member; Jo Altilia, Founder/Executive Director of Literature for Life; Tamara Shelly, Event Chair/DENNIS HANAGAN

Amber King, left, and Dahlia Eagle-Ellis, right, Literature for Life program participants/DENNIS HANAGAN

L to R: Rocio, Jemeni Gairy, Roots Kizzy and Jacqueline Graham/AMBER KING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Literature for Life selects books that reinforce their goals and reflect the women they guide.

 

Fimo Mitchell

By Krysta Celestine

Fimo Mitchell wanted to be a news anchor.  When the Concordia graduate landed an internship with a well known television network in Washington, DC, he was sorely disappointed.  “It ruined my passion,” he says. “I felt like a lot of the (news) stories spoke to the middle class and upper class environments.  I realized that the news didn’t really speak to regular folk.  I always had story ideas, but they’d get shot down all the time.”

Disillusioned and wanting to escape what he calls the “North American reality”, Fimo headed to China, where he lived for nine years teaching English as a second language.  Ironically, it was in China where he realized his passion.  “I went out there alone.  I had no one to talk to, so I began to write,” he says.  What started out as a few chapters turned into his first book, Lost and Found, which took three years to write.   “I never went to China with the intent of writing.  I wanted to escape. In a communist country, I became free.”

Fast forward ten years later, and Fimo Mitchell is now the author of his second book, Kingston’s Return, published earlier this year.  Kingston’s Return is the story about friendship and forgiveness and the pursuit of passion in life.

The novel revolves around Kingston Yearwood, who, like Mitchell, is a black Canadian who has just returned to Montreal after living in China for years.  “Kingston’s changed.  The people he knew have changed.  How does he reconcile that?” says the author.   “It’s an introspective piece about passion, living the life and not letting the fire in you die.” As for the inspiration behind the novel, Fimo likens the book as a “soundtrack” to Marvin Gaye’s masterpiece, “What’s Going On?”

While the author is quick to remind his audience that Kingston’s Return is a work of fiction, he does acknowledge that some elements of the protagonist’s life mirror his own. “There’s a bit of me in every character.  You can only write what you feel.  Clearly I’m writing from experience, but it’s fiction in the sense that it is a story that has been created.” says Fimo.

“When I read it now, I look at some of the things that the characters go through and it’s similar to the Occupy Toronto and Occupy Montreal movements of today.   It’s interesting how fiction can become reality.”While his first book was hip, young, urban, sex and action packed, Kingston’s Return is almost devoid of these elements. “There’s no sex in Kingston’s Return.  It’s less about action and more about vulnerability and self-interrogation of characters. I didn’t think that anyone would appreciate it,” he admits.   Thankfully, the feedback has been great.  Published by a small company in Philadelphia, Kingston’s Return has received great feedback from Americans, which has surprised him.

So what’s next for Fimo Mitchell, Journalism graduate-turned author?  He’s putting the finishing touches on his third novel, AI in China, a book that he’s been writing for three years.  “It hasn’t come out yet because there are brutally honest people in my life who told me that they didn’t think that it was that great,” he laughs.  He hopes that Kington’s Return will to take to the musical stage in 2013.

As for the immediate future, Mr. Mitchell heads to Toronto’s A Different Book List on Saturday, November 5 at 2 pm for a book reading of Kingston’s Return. For more information on Fimo Mitchell, visit www.fimomitchell.com.

Sister Souljah graced Toronto last Friday after nearly two decades away from Canada.

The vibrant activist said, “I had to exert a lot of pressure to get any date in Canada. Unfortunately, I’m normally told things like, I don’t have any readers in Canada or any of these foreign ‘territories’ and so I have to be very vigilant that yes, in fact I do.”

A packed auditorium awaits the arrival of writer and activist Sister Souljah.

Nearly 300 people attended the two-hour book launch held at Ontario Institute for Studies Education (OISE), for Sister Souljah’s fourth work Midnight and the Meaning of Love, originally released in November 2010.

The whopping 624-page novel is the continuation to Midnight: A Gangster Love Story, and centres on Midnight, the young Sudanese man living in Brooklyn with Akemi, his Japanese wife.

The Centre for Urban Schooling (CUS) and A Different Booklist partnered to bring Sister Souljah to Toronto.

“It was more of a synergy than a one-way kind of thing. I was insisting to my book company that I wanted to come to Canada and do several dates,” said Sister Souljah. “And at the same time I was getting tweets from twitter… So a lot of my Canadian fans were contacting me through twitter.”

Other notable sponsors included Literature for Life and Simon and Schuster, who were both acknowledged by A Different Booklist’s Itah Sadu.

Sadu opened the evening, followed by a spoken word performance by Toronto’s own Motion, followed by an in-depth introduction of the multifaceted Souljah.

CUS director of school services, Nicole West-Burns said, “when our close friend Itah Sadu asked us if we’d be interested in co-sponsoring this event, it made perfect sense. Sister Souljah is one representative of women, women of African descent, who has pushed boundaries, thinking, stood up against injustices, both locally and globally.”

The director concluded with an introduction of Sister Souljah: “I’m inspired by your presence and energy. It’s an energy that is positive, an energy that’s warm and centered, and it’s an energy that indicates a future for positivity and future for change.”

Sister Souljah was welcomed with thunderous applause and standing ovation.

The Q-and-A session began shortly afterwards, with Motion acting as the moderator. However, audience members were slightly reluctant to be the first on the mike.

Souljah prompted the audience saying “don’t be shy”.

Midnight and the Meaning of Love was a hot topic during the Q&A session with Sister Souljah.

Fifteen individuals eventually made their way to the mike, questioning Souljah about everything from tBlack love to her thoughts on Tyler Perry and Troy Davis.

“I hope to give that human feeling, that effect of presence,” explained the activist, “so I’m not just a voice or some pages off in the distance; to allow them to see me and me to see them. And for them to hear me and for me to hear them, and them to question me and me to try and respond sincerely and in a meaningful way.”

Souljah’s passion promoted an open and honest environment for discussion and growth. Her stage presence and genuine replies, were welcomed but also touched a nerve with women in the audience when she delved into “toxic love” in the Black community.

While the conversation did not centre entirely on Souljah’s latest work, an audience member did ask the burning question in most readers’ minds: why couldn’t Midnight find a Black woman? Why did Sister Souljah choose a Japanese girl?

Souljah’s reply was candid and thorough:

As most of you should know, I don’t run from any question. I chose the Japanese girl on purpose, because I perceive there to be a crisis in African womanhood. That crisis is ignited and compelled by a great deal of arrogance that makes many African women, at least in America, feel like that we’ve been thru so much that we don’t have to discuss anything, about something we may be doing correctly or could be doing better. What I was seeing was a population of African-American women, who blamed most of their problems on African-American men. And the relationships were all about the men they were with, and I’m sure that some of the causes came from the men that they were, we were with, but I’m sure that some of the problems also came from the women, their mentality, their approach and etc. And so I began to think about the topic of how women love, not just African am women, but women around the globe love. And what would happen if I had to take the volume out of the relationship. Meaning, there’s a lot of talking in the African am relationship. The woman is telling off the man, the man is telling off the woman, you know there’s a lot of painful words spoken between black men and women in the US of A. There’s a great deal of pressure going on in African love in America. Court orders, court restraints. People stealing their kids, women saying fathers can never see their kids unless they pay child support. The man is saying he paid some, but he couldn’t pay it all, he doesn’t have a job or he’s out of work, everybody’s working the system… and just a whole kind of very toxic love going on between African people in the US of A.

So, I took a culture of people that are known for their silence, and are known for their expressiveness in silence, and known to be able to communicate with each other without necessarily a lot of words, yelling, screaming. I thought it would be interesting to show how the character Midnight looked at the girls in his hood. You said, ‘could he not find any African woman in his country?’ Well he is like a regular guy that’s living in the neighbourhood. So he’s seeing what I saw or what you saw… and he’s coming from a very conservative Islamic background… he’s used to all women being covered in a particular way, and he sees the opposite… the lack of any kind of modesty. And the lack of any kind of focus on the issue of sex and sex in relation to marriage, and virginity. I knew that all of these were very explosive topics. But I also knew that they were topics needed to be discussed. If I just went along and gave you a very ordinary story, we as African women would just continue to ignore the explosion that’s happening right beneath our feet… I need to open up that kind of a dialogue I needed to reflect a mirror for African women to be able to see ourselves. Look at what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. And look at how these foreign girls can come swipe your man from right under you. Because they coming with the culture.”

Although Black women are the generally thought to be the main demographic for Sister Souljah’s works, the artist mentioned No Disrespect, her first work of non-fiction was “embraced by black men in prisons across the United States. It was a huge bestseller inside all of the prisons across the country in the USA. No Disrespect was introduced to a lot of African-American women from their men who were incarcerated.”

While Sister Souljah has not been to Toronto in almost two decades, she tours various colleges United States regularly giving speeches and gaining feedback from readers.

Souljah told Sway, “my intention was really to re-familiarize myself, and be able to talk to the audience and to let not only the average, everyday Canadian know, but also the bookstores and businesses know how to contact me so I won’t have that have that kind of interruption, or buffer zone that artists sometimes have when they only have contacts through their corporate company.”

As promised, Sister Souljah stayed after the discussion for autographs. Due to the overwhelming demand, the facilitators moved the crowd outside of the auditorium after 9:30 p.m. The New York native remained with her fans until after 11 p.m. despite the event’s scheduled finish almost two hours earlier.

“I don’t leave my engagements until they are completed, unless it’s a situation where the venue or the venue renter puts us out. I’m not somebody that comes in the back door and runs out the back door and disappears on you. I stay and I sign each and every book,” she stated.

Sister Souljah encourages readers, learners and the curious to find her on twitter @souljahbooks. Not only does she tweet for herself, but Sister Souljah also personally replies to every e-mail she receives.

“I actually enjoy the exchange. It’s not obligatory for me, and it’s just something that I enjoy doing,” she stated. “I like to hear people’s thoughts, and opinions and reactions, whether it’s positive or negative, or maybe they’ll mention a point that nobody else did.”

Sister Souljah also made an appearance at Chapters in Brampton on October 1^st and Knowledge Bookstore on October 2^nd.

Visit www.SisterSouljah.com to find out where she’ll be next.

A Different Booklist also had pre-signed copies of Sister Souljah’s work available.

The Coldest Winter Ever is one of Sister Souljah’s most popular books.

Audience surrounds Sister Souljah as she vowed to autograph each book presented to her

Lola Gray

By Krysta Celestine

We all know the old African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child”. When it comes to educating our youth, it’s a principle that Lola Gray lives by. “Schools can not do it on their own,” says the retired educator. “School leaders must work with the parents and the community to foster good attitudes.”

And Ms. Lola Gray knows of what she speaks. The Jamaican born child advocate, who spent 39 years as a teacher and school principal in Canada, Jamaica and the Bahamas, is also the author of Transformational Leadership taking Responsibility for Successful Schools; a guide for educators that offers a fresh perspective on how to lead people so that they can view their work as a calling instead of a job.

The second of five children, Lola Gray knew that teaching was her “calling” at the tender age of seven. “I grew up in a household where the values of hard work and goal setting were instilled at a very young age,” says Gray. “My mother had a love for teaching and worked on literacy skills at home with us.”

After graduating from St. Joseph`s teachers college in Kinston, Jamaica, she taught at several schools in her homeland. “In Jamaica, you’re not just a teacher. You’re the doctor, the lawyer; the person who takes care of the community. It’s as if the parents hand (the children) over to you,” says Gray.

Although she enjoyed teaching in Jamaica (and later the Bahamas), she did not attend University. “The competition at UWI (University of the West Indies) was too high,” she notes. It was her desire to pursue a university education which prompted her to migrate to Canada in 1969.

To an outsider, Ms. Gray had three strikes against her: she was black, female, and an immigrant. Not so, counters Gray. “My experience was very positive,”she notes.  In fact, while pursuing a degree at York University part time, she was hired by the North York School Board (now the Toronto District School Board) almost immediately, working in a variety of teaching roles. “Fortunately, my settings from Jamaica and the Bahamas helped me to work with students from diverse cultures. My skills enabled me.”

Being a black, immigrant educator actually worked in her favour.  She reflects, “ In the twenty first century, the school population is diverse and this enriches the school system.  As an ESL (English as a second language) teacher, I was able to empathize with newcomers. I had the same experiences as the students.  Schools leaders should be well equipped to deal with the diverse student population.”

After ten years with the North York school board, Gray moved on to the York Catholic District School board, where she held positions as teacher, and later, vice principal and principal for ten years.  It was in these positions that Gray decided that leadership was her passion.  “The last few years that I spent as principal enabled me to write the book.”

In Transformational Leadership, Gray draws on her 39-year experience as an educator to show how transformational leadership can significantly improve a school. Gray’s aim is to share her knowledge and successes with other educators.  The author calls her book a “call to action”.

“It offers a tactical approach on how to lead people so that they can view their work as a calling rather than merely a job, a place to belong rather than a place to work. Additionally, it shows how to infuse meaning into work, and how to engage and energize your staff, thus creating a community of intellectuals seeking new ways of working and new ways to alter the work environment. It speaks to all these concerns and offers a fresh perspective on the art of leadership”.

While the book is mainly for educators, chapters one to three is for any leader who wishes to infuse motivate and energize their staff. So what’s next for Lola Gray? Although she’s retired from teaching, she assures that she’s “very busy”. Gray plans on pursuing a doctorate and writing another book.  As founder and President of Progressive Leadership Consulting Services, an organization designed for and committed to working with educators, students and parents on mediation matters, she plans on pursuing a doctorate and writing another book.  Ms. Gray has definitely found her calling.

Transformational Leadership: Taking Responsibility for Successful Schools: From Theory to Practice can be purchased by visiting www.essencebookstore.com.

By Duane Watson

The mark of a great emcee is the ability to eloquently express emotions in rhyme. Common has always been a rapper without a fear of baring his soul, influencing change or acknowledging his imperfections.

In 1997, he released his third album, One Day It’ll All Make Sense.Addressing topics like fatherhood, enlightenment and family, it galvanized him as a “conscious rapper.” The album artwork is littered with photos from Common’s childhood, while the cover is a picture of his mother Dr. Mahalia Ann Hines and a young boy, almost a decade before he picked up a microphone.

Now, five albums and seven movies later, with the release of his memoir, One Day It’ll All Make Sense, Common is also an author. While his mother isn’t on the book cover, she’s very much included, writing the foreword and sprinkling her anecdotes and perspectives throughout. Common attributes his love for writing, particularly letters, to her. Each chapter begins with a letter to various individuals: His mother, father, daughter, Emmett Till, Erykah Badu and Kanye West among others.

It’s easy to question the necessity of a book from a 39-year-old man who has lived half of his life in the public eye. But Common does an excellent job of telling the story of Lonnie Rashid Lynn the man, more so than the entertainer. “I’ve written this book, so that I can show myself as a man in full,” he says. “That means telling some tough truths, revealing my faults and vulnerabilities. But it also means showing the true strength of my character.”

That character is forged in tales of the overwhelming shame of an eight-year-old boy giving up his bicycle to bullies, telling his mom he’s leaving university to pursue a rap career, or dealing with the loss due to illness of his close friend Jay Dee, who lived with Common until his death. He also recounts how his father kidnapped him and his mother at gunpoint, addresses his sometimes-questionable fashion sense and remembers his feud with Ice Cube during rap music’s east coast versus west coast war.

These stories make clear Common’s evolution from a young man growing up in Chicago’s South Side, drinking, fighting and chasing girls, into a grown man and father, seeking truth and finding love. In comparison, tales of sitting down with Assata Shakur in Cuba, performing with Maya Angelou, or meeting The Notorious B.I.G., Barack Obama, Tupac Shakur and Nelson Mandela seem inconsequential.

One Day It’ll All Make Sense is not only his memoir, but also a hip-hop memoir for anyone who grew up in its golden era. Common lets readers in to witness his struggle with differentiating good decisions from bad ones and his ability to learn from them, which is truly the mark of a great individual.

By Bruce DeMara

Recently, a Dutch anti-slavery group followed through on its threat to symbolically burn a copy of Canadian author Lawrence Hill’s acclaimed Book of Negroes because of  its title. A photocopy of the cover was burned in Oosterpark, which has an anti-slavery monument.

The Dutch group, the Federation for Honour and Reparation of Slavery in Suriname, previously announced it would publicly burn the book if the title weren’t changed. The book has only recently been published in the Netherlands under the title Het Negerboek.

The Book of Negroes is the title of an actual historical record that documents the migration of 3,000 African slaves who supported the British cause in the American Revolution and were allowed to go from New York to Nova Scotia. Many of them later returned to Africa. “The title is not intended to be offensive, but to shed light on a forgotten document and on a forgotten migration, that of thousands of Blacks from the U.S.A. to Canada in 1783,” Hill wrote in reply to the burning.

It’s not the first time the award-winning book’s title has raised controversy. Publishers in the United States and Australia insisted the title be changed to Someone Knows My Name and in Quebec, the book is titled Aminata, the name of a female slave who returned to Sierra Leone after being abducted as an 11-year-old.

Hot button topics surrounded the idea that no one knows who this woman is and how much she has done to advance science, as well as the notion that yet another white author has gained recognition for bringing to light a story about black people, with one member referencing recent hits The Blind Side and The Help.

For this month, group member Shawnette has chosen Half of A Yellow Sun by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Visit the official website, www.halfofayellowsun.com for more information on the book and author.

The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 27 at ING Cafe (main floor), 221 Yonge Street, 6pm.  Please rsvp to [email protected].

Meet the members: Charlene, Melissa, Shawnette, Tanya, Carlene, Latoya, Debbie, Suzette, Darlene & Aisha.

Author

Why he’s powerful: Lawrence Hill is a literary tour de force. His third and most well known novel, published as The Book of Negroes in Canada and the U.K., and as Someone Knows My Name in the U.S.A., won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Ontario Library Association’s Evergreen Award and CBC Radio’s Canada Reads.

But perhaps most importantly, the book was given the seal of approval that many authors (and publishers) only dream of, a place on Oprah Winfrey’s summer reading list in O, The Oprah Magazine.

By Tendisai Cromwell

Producer, editor and TV host, Sharon Ennis has lovingly maintained a diary about all of her children for the last eight years. Though each child has a section devoted entirely to them, the unique experience of raising her third child, 4-year-old Gabrielle, inspired more entries than her other children.

In the pages of her diary, Ennis expressed all of her sentiments of caring for a daughter diagnosed with the most severe form of spina bifida, a birth defect caused by an improperly formed spinal cord resulting in adverse developmental effects.

“Raising Gabrielle has been a journey,” Ennis revealed; a parental journey that for Ennis and her husband, was fraught with many challenges.

At the encouragement of others with whom she shared excerpts of her diary, Ennis was propelled to write a deeply personal book, Gabby’s Gift, about her experiences of rearing a child with special needs. Ennis describes her book, published this past June,  as very honest and emotional, consisting largely of those entries recalling the last four years of Gabrielle’s precious life.

Throughout her pregnancy with Gabrielle, all of the tests for abnormalities came back negative. Resultantly, Ennis was woefully unprepared to deal with the reality of having a child with special needs.

“When we found out at birth, it was quite a shock,” Ennis said.

In the emotionally tumultuous period that followed the birth of Gabrielle, Ennis endured a seemingly endless cycle of pain and anguish.

“In the book, I actually open up and talk about the dark ages, as I call it.”

It was the unfulfilled expectation of a healthy child coupled with her husband leaving for medical school shortly after Gabrielle’s birth that made the “dark ages” descend upon her so relentlessly.

With brute honesty, Ennis describes some of the dark thoughts that tainted her natural love for a child of her own.

“The dark ages involved me not even wanting this child anymore,”Ennis revealed. “I wanted this to end.”

“Inside I was fighting; I was really fighting trying to be a mother and loving this child no matter what and looking at this as a gift from God. God won’t give you more than you can bear,” Ennis said.

How the condition manifests itself in a chid’s development varies and is sometimes difficult to predict accurately, as such, Gabrielle’s capabilities remained very much a mystery to Ennis and her husband, only time would tell. For the first year of Gabrielle’s life, Ennis doubted that her daughter would even be able to walk.

She had later found the optimism that she had so desperately needed emerging from the darkness of despair.

“I had to do a lot of praying,” Ennis said.

Although later than a child’s normal development, Gabrielle began to walk allowing Ennis to truly experience hope.

“Gabby was a fighter,” Ennis stated.

Sharon with Gabby

Ennis began to fully embrace raising Gabrielle and credits her daughter with helping to cultivate patience and improving her parenting skills.

“With a child with special needs, you’re more sensitive, ”Ennis said. “Patience has grown for me tremendously. Because Gabby brought that out of me, I’m able to be more patient with the other children.”

Ennis hopes that her book will be a source of guidance for those lacking the emotional support needed in caring for children with special needs. She has already received positive feedback from people who related to her journey. One mother, herself raising a child with spina bifida, expressed that she was deeply grateful for Ennis’ book which echoed her own sentiments.

Ennis as well aspires to educate the greater public about the condition which she admits she was unaware of prior to Gabrielle’s diagnosis.

“I hope this will help to open people’s eyes,” Ennis said. “A lot of people still need to be educated. I’m hoping that this will educate them emotionally and proactively, that they will do things about it and help spread the word.”

Visit the Gabby’s Gift website to purchase her book.

For more information, visit the Spina Bifida & Hydrocephalus Association of Ontario. www.sbhao.on.ca