Launch of new podcast series: Voices Revealed
Library and Archives Canada is pleased to announce the launch of a new series as part of its popular podcast Discover Library and Archives Canada.
Voices Revealed draws on the vast and little-known oral history collections from our archives, amplifying the voices of underrepresented and marginalized communities. This innovative series will feature several seasons, each exploring a variety of themes.
Listeners will discover diverse and complex stories that have long brought people together, but have also driven them apart. Voices Revealed highlights stories of injustice, conflict, resilience and reconciliation, all of which help us understand how the past powerfully defines the present, while offering new perspectives for our collective future.
The first season, “Porter Talk,” has been released
The first season of this series, entitled “Porter Talk,” invites you to dive into the interviews conducted by Stanley G. Grizzle, a former porter, labour activist, public servant and citizenship judge known for championing the rights of Black community members throughout his life.
Grizzle travelled across Canada and the United States in 1986 and 1987 to interview Black sleeping car porters alongside their wives and children. A community knowledge keeper in his own right, he documented working conditions on the rails and the men’s struggle to unionize.
These conversations not only speak to the challenges that institutional, systemic and everyday racism posed for porters and their families, but also the strategies that allowed them to overcome these obstacles and build community. In “Porter Talk”, Grizzle’s interviews, which are contextualized by Black scholars, Canadian historians, and community members, speak truth to power, offering valuable insights into how the lived realities of the past continue to impact racialized communities today.
The first episode, “Honouring Stanley G. Grizzle: An Activist for our Times,” is available on Discover Library and Archives Canada or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Subscribe now on your favourite platform, so you can listen to episodes as they are released.