Edmonton’s Black Arts Matter is an unapologetic celebration of Blackness where you may not expect it

The story of Ritalin a black youth, who’s been in child services most of their life, within a couple years she’ll be an adult and age out of care. What happens then when she doesn’t have the necessary skills to survive in mainstream society.
She is repeatedly kicked out of school due to bad behavior and undiagnosed illness.

Festival founder and director Nasra Adem’s journey to Edmonton is reflective of BAM’s own origin story. They were born in Calgary, grew up in Toronto and Ottawa, and eventually made their way to Edmonton at the age of 12.
As first-generation children of immigrants, we carry an uneven weight. We simultaneously hold within us our parents’ homes, our bloodlines — our Blackness — and we also hold our identities as Canadians. And as a result of this tension, we are often left to reconcile the question of how we balance each of those identities as they push and pull against each other.

Courtesy of Edmonton Journal