Mr. Speaker, I rise to honour a few of the Black and African-Canadian cultural trailblazers of Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park.
Dr. Rita Cox served as the head of the Parkdale branch of the Toronto Public Library for decades, and created the Black and Caribbean Heritage Collection there with more than 16,000 items. She continues to connect us to literature and learning, including as the namesake for a school on Jameson Avenue.
Black visual art will soon be on display at the new home of the BAND gallery on Brock Avenue in Parkdale, Canada's only Black-run, Black-focused art gallery. I toured it last week. With funding from this government's cultural spaces fund, it will become a community-focused, fully accessible, museum-grade space.
The project is the brainchild of a powerful group of women, including Karen Carter, Claudia Pensa Bowen and Joséphine Denis. During renovations, people can check out A Kind of Order, curated by Joséphine Denis, at Toronto's Union Station, which includes work by Timothy Yanick Hunter, a member of our riding's community.
On this 30th Black History Month in Canada, it is Black storytelling that brings Black culture to life.