Queering Black History 2011 Recipient: Faith Nolan

Read more about the Queering Black History Campaign and past recipients

Faith Nolan

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Faith Nolan is an award-winning singer-songwriter, film producer, and ardent advocate for social justice. Her music and politics are one in the same, both firmly entrenched in her experiences as a queer woman of African, Miq Maq, and Irish heritage raised in the working-class neighbourhood of Regent Park, Toronto. These experiences have instilled in her an immutable commitment to social justice education and to the eradication of oppression in all its forms.

Currently, Nolan is Founder and Director of numerous women’s choirs, including the Central East Correctional Centre Singers (Lindsay, ON), Central North Correction Centre Women’s Singers (Penetang, ON), Sistering Singers (Toronto, ON) for homeless women, and the Singing Elementary Teachers of Toronto. Alongside these and other musical projects, Nolan has produced a film about women in prison entitled Within These Cages. This film is emblematic of her tireless efforts to increase understanding of the links between poverty and incarceration, drawing explicit attention to the disproportionately high number of poor women—especially poor women of colour—in Canadian prisons.

Nolan’s artistic work is a testament to the capacity of music to serve as a powerful tool for cultural and political expression. In January 2010, her accomplishments earned her the African Nova Scotian Music Heritage award. Over the course of her career as a musician, she has recorded fourteen albums, the most recent of which, Hang on CUPE, was released in 2009.

Website: www.faithnolan.org
Email: faith@nexicom.net

Gigs and thangs Feb.2011: February 2011

FEB. 17th - OISE  with Elementary Teachers of Toronto  Student  Conference