Blackhurst Centre is destined to be a main cultural hub in Toronto
May 2, 2022
As a main cultural hub in the city sets to transition to an enhanced space, it was announced that it would bear a new name.
A Different Booklist Cultural Centre – The People’s Residence has become The Blackhurst Cultural Centre (BCC).
A non-profit centre and destination that provides opportunities to experience the culture and history of Canadians of African and Caribbean ancestry is located in the Bathurst St. and Bloor St. W. neighbourhood that has been home to many Black homeowners and businesses, including the defunct Contrast community newspaper, Mascoll Beauty Supply and a few barbershops.
Six years ago, an exhibition – Welcome to Blackhurst – shone a light on the community’s history, using archival material and original artwork.
Itah Sadu (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
BCC Managing Director Itah Sadu coined the word ‘Blackhurst’.
“In the world that we live in, what is the brand that you are going to create is the new identity that comes out of what came before and what you see going forward,” she said. “In a way, it seemed automatic to play on that word and create Blackhurst. There is the debate on whether we are Black Canadian or African Canadian. Now, we can reimagine Bathurst to be Blackhurst and when we think of that, we think immediately of people like Stanley Grizzle (Canada’s first Black Citizenship Court Judge), Bev Mascoll (entrepreneur) or the barbershops.
“Blackhurst is a statement of the neighbourhood. It is where the ongoing everyday history of Black people is made. So when you come to Bathurst and Bloor, we can take you to Sam Richardson, the spirit of Deborah Brown, and the homes where Austin Clarke and Albert Jackson lived. We can take you to a neighbourhood memory which is very powerful. Then you can come into the centre and create your own legacy.”
Richardson, who died in 1989, competed at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and resided at 222 Lippincott St., Brown – who passed away in 1898 at age 111 -- was a fugitive slave who lived at 691 Markham St., award-winning author Clarke, who died in 2016, was a Patrick McGregor Lane resident and Jackson, Canada’s first Black postman, resided at 213 Brunswick Ave. He died in 1918 and family members lived in the house until 1970.
To coincide with the centre’s name change, a new book, ‘Welcome to Blackhurst: An Iconic Toronto Neighbourhood’, will be launched next week.
“We have put together a document of people who are game changers and trailblazers here in this neighbourhood who have done exceptional things in Canada to change the lives not only of Black Canadians, but all Canadians,” said Sadu.
In December 2020, the City of Toronto approved a 49-year long-term lease of 756 Bathurst St. As part of the rezoning with Westbank Corporation that purchased Mirvish Village in 2013, the property will be transferred to the City.
University-Rosedale Councilor Mike Layton successfully moved the motion for the long-term lease negotiations for the new space.
“This stretch of Bathurst is special and the new name is fitting, “he pointed out.
Mike Layton (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
The centre relocated temporarily to 777-779 Bathurst St. in May 2017 after redevelopment of Mirvish Village started at the beginning of that year.
A capital campaign initiative was launched two years later. So far, $3.3 million has been raised. The target is $10 million.
Sadu and her husband, Miguel San Vicente, assumed ownership of A Different Booklist 26 years ago from Critical Race Intersectional Theorist Dr. Wesley Crichlow.
“Just imagine that out of an independent bookstore came this moment where an entity has given birth,” she said. “I think that is particularly exciting.”
Separate from the bilingual centre, the bookstore, that was the recipient of the 2016 Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, maintains its name.
Construction of the new space starts this summer and the state-of-the-art centre is expected to be opened in late 2023.
