The Blackhurst Cultural Centre will welcome Mayor Olivia Chow and a new lease that signals the construction phase for the permanent home of the Cultural Centre, 777 Bathurst Street at Bloor Street. The event will take place on Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 10 AM.

The timing couldn’t be more significant, as this week marks the 70th anniversary of the 35-member delegation, which travelled to Ottawa to petition the government to open up immigration from the Caribbean.

The first stream of Black women coming to Canada through the domestic programme resulted from that fateful intervention led by Barbados-born Donald Willard Moore on 27^th April 1954.

Little did Moore imagine that the descendants of those early women would be instrumental in building permanent infrastructure at Bathurst & Bloor.  

Bathurst became a gathering place for the women when they arrived. They held dances and meetings, had church, got their hair done, and discussed matters that were important to the Black community. The Black newspaper, Contrast, was also an iconic institution in the Bathurst and Bloor community.

The Blackhurst Cultural centre, which emerged emerging out of the bookstore A Different Booklist with 30 years of legacy in the neighbourhood, is embarking on a new chapter in the formation of a permanent home in the new Mirvish Village at Bathurst and Bloor.  In attendance will be community, builders, “early domestics,” and legacy makers, so, come join this historic event.

Thursday 25th, 10-11 am, 777 Bathurst Street.

Media contact: Itah Sadu at info@blackhurstcc.org