Joy Bullen provides platform for young musicians to showcase their talent
February 14, 2023
Service and uplifting people were the hallmarks of Harriet Tubman’s life.
Much of the work Joy Bullen does these days revolve around providing opportunities for young people and serving her community.
It is understandable why the culturepreneur was so pleased after learning she was the recipient of the Harriet Tubman Award for Commitment to a Purpose.
The abolitionist played a pivotal role in the functioning of the Underground Railroad that was the pipeline for freeing hundreds of slaves and leading them to freedom in Canada. She died in 1913 at age 93.
“When you look at Harriet’s body of work and what she was able to achieve under trying circumstances, it made a huge difference in the lives of many,” said Bullen. “I feel really good getting an award bearing her name.”
It was presented at the Ontario Black History Society (OBHS) 35th annual Black History Month (BHM) brunch in Toronto on January 29.
The theme of this year’s celebration was ‘Our Roots: Black History in Canada’.
Part of the OBHS mandate to highlight and celebrate Back Canadians who have made significant contributions to Canadian history clearly resonates with Bullen.
“The award is even more significant because of the OBHS enormous focus on essential parts of our history and bringing it forward in such a way for educational purposes,” she pointed out.
Joy Bullen & her son Andrew Russell (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Working in the banking industry for many years after migrating from Guyana as a teenager in December 1968, Bullen transitioned to fundraising and philanthropic consultancy in the charitable and non-profit sectors.
Since 2015, she has provided a platform for young Black musicians to display their talent to audiences across Canada.
“I wanted to shatter stereotypes by showing people we belong everywhere,” Bullen said. “People need to know that we have composers, classical musicians and alto singers who are excelling. I look for young musicians who are working very hard and are on the path to greatness.”
She purposely selected BHM in February to stage the performances.
“It seems everyone pays attention to Black voices during that month,” said the arts aficionado. “I thought it would be a good thing to add my voice. The big question was how can I lead this in concert with experts in the field and make an impact.”
Bullen started the initiative eight years ago after award-winning jazz pianist/composer/producer Eddie Bullen approached her with an idea to take a show also featuring his son Quincy Bullen, ‘Father and Son Dueling Pianos’, that explores legacy tutelage and music inspirations, across the world.”
“He asked if I can help and, while in the audience watching the show, I thought about how this immigrant came to Canada, built a very successful business, enjoys spending quality time with his sons teaching them music and the business of music and mentors many, many young musicians,” the sixth of nine siblings (two are deceased) recalled. “I wanted everyone to see what I saw when I watched the performance.”
Knowing she needed corporate sponsors to make it happen, Bullen reached out to TD Bank that has amplified Black voices and supported Black success over the years.
“I told them I have got something I think you can use to demonstrate your belief in the Black community, it will be very meaningful and all I need is money to do this show’,” the Culchahworks Arts Collective board member said. “They asked how many cities I can do it in and I suggested four. This was in December 2014 just a week before I was scheduled to go to Guadeloupe for five weeks.”
After successful shows in Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal, Bullen saw trumpeter/pianist William Leathers perform at the OBHS Black History Month brunch in 2018.
“When he started to perform, I was on my feet,” she recounted. “I spoke to his mom afterwards, saying I wanted people across Canada to see him in action.”
With TD as the presenting sponsor partnering with the Aga Khan Museum, Bullen co-ordinated the gifted musician first headlining concert in Toronto in 2019. The Juilliard School graduate is the principal trumpeter with the Nashville Symphony.
This year’s show will feature saxophonist/composer Jesse Ryan & the Kaiso Street Collective performing the music of his late grandfather, The Mighty Bomber, who died in January 2022 at age 93.
“Jesse redid some of the pieces in a modern jazz style,” said Bullen whose niece, Sandra Brewster, is an award-winning visual artist.
The show takes place on February 17, starting at 7 p.m. at the Holy Blossom Temple, 1950 Bathurst St.
Joy Bullen (r) & nominator Paulette Kelly (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Retired Toronto Metropolitan University professor Paulette Kelly nominated Bullen for the award.
“The field of classical music is one that is not highly populated by Blacks in this country,” she said. “By focusing on this area and going out there to get the funding to give them exposure, Joy is doing her part to make a difference in the lives of young people and is most deserving of the recognition.”
Established 44 years ago, the OBHS petitioned the City of Toronto a year later to have February proclaimed BHM. In December 1995, the Canadian parliament finally recognized February as BHM.
Since 1997, the OBHS has hosted an annual brunch and awards ceremony to kick off the month.
Historian Elise Harding-Davis was the recipient of the Daniel Hill Memorial Award for Community Service.
Ontario Black History Society President Natasha Henry-Dixon (l) presented the Daniel Hill Memorial Award for Community Service to historian Elise Harding-Davis (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Disgruntled with the United States after serving as a non-commissioned officer in the American Army during World War II, Hill – an Order of Canada recipient who passed away in 2003 -- brought his family to Canada just over six decades ago.
After completing his Master’s at the University of Toronto, he returned to the U.S for a year to teach sociology at Morgan State College in Baltimore and get married before returning to Canada for good in the summer of 1953.
Hill, the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s first full-time director and commissioner and a provincial ombudsman, and his late wife Donna, along with some friends, co-founded the OBHS and authored significant writings. Dan Hill’s ‘Freedom Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada’ received rave reviews while his wife’s book, ‘A Black Man’s Toronto: The Reminiscences of Harry Gairey 1914-1980’, comprised interviews with the community activist considered the patriarch of Toronto’s Black community.
Bernice Carnegie, the daughter of legendary hockey player Herb Carnegie who was posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last year, was honoured with the Dr. Anderson Abbott Award for Exemplary Achievement.
Bernice Carnegie (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
She co-founded the Herbert H. Carnegie Future Aces Foundation and the Carnegie Initiative that seeks to make the sport more inclusive.
Graduating from the Toronto School of Medicine in 1857, Abbott was the first Canadian-born Black medical doctor.
Kathy Grant was presented with the Mary Matilda Winslow Award for Advocacy in Public Education.
Kathy Grant (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Shortly after her father’s (Owen Rowe) death in 2005, she established the Legacy Voices Institute, the only national project dedicated to the documentation and preservation of Black Canadian military history.
Winslow is considered the University of New Brunswick first female Black graduate, having completed her undergraduate degree in Classics in 1905.
Homeless youth-turned entrepreneur Joel Zola, who started ‘Street Voices’ – a multimedia platform aimed at empowering young people – was presented with the United Nations Decade for People of African Descent Award for Recognition in Justice & Development and the African Canadian Heritage Association was recognized with the Jean Augustine Award for Trailblazing.
Originally launched in 1969 as the Black Heritage Association, the organization underwent a name change in 1992 to preserve its unique identity following the establishment of several Black heritage programs across the city.
Honey Jam founder Ebonnie Rowe and Kardinal Offishall, who was last month named Def Jam Records Global A & R (Artists & Repertoire), were the recipients of the Arts & Culture/Leaders Of Tomorrow Award Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop.
Black History Month evolved from the work of American scholar Dr. Carter G. Woodson who, in an attempt to spread the concept of African-American history, suggested its celebration during a week in the middle of February.
That month was chosen because it is the birth month of Abraham Lincoln and the chosen birth month of Frederick Douglass who was born a slave and therefore was unsure of his actual birth date.
