Local Events Celebrate Mary Ann Shadd Cary’s 200th Birthday

She was a teacher, a noted anti-slavery writer and lecturer, Canada’s first woman publisher, and the first Black woman in all of North America to publish a newspaper. And she achieved all of that right here in Windsor!

Born on October 9, 1823, Mary Ann Shadd Cary is now recognized as a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada and an inductee of the U.S. Women’s Hall of Fame, with plaques, murals, and sculptures in multiple North American cities including two murals and a sculpture here in Windsor.

Her name graces an elementary school and a street in Toronto as well as the National Newspaper Award for columnists. Fittingly, Shadd Cary’s 200th birthday is being celebrated this month across North America, including a series of activities in Windsor.

Film screenings, exhibits, two tea parties, educational displays, a dramatic performance by Leslie McCurdy and a book signing by American scholar and Shadd Cary expert Jane Rhodes are all on the list.

Windsor’s bicentennial celebrations are being spearheaded by the Essex County Black Historical Research Society in partnership with a variety of other local organizations.

University of Illinois Chicago Professor of Black Studies Jane Rhodes will visit Windsor to speak at BookFest/Festival du Livre Windsor on Saturday, October 14 from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the School of Creative Arts, 353 Freedom Way.

A new edition of her book, Mary Ann Shadd Cary: The Black Press and Protest in the Nineteenth Century (Indiana University Press) has been released this fall. Her talk will be moderated by Essex County Black Historical Research Society board member and Governor General’s Award-winning local history teacher Shantelle Browning-Morgan.

The Breaking the Ice: Mary Ann Shadd Cary Bicentennial Celebration event at BookFest Windsor also features a performance by Leslie McCurdy in the role of Mary Ann Shadd Cary from her one woman play, Things My Fore-Sisters Saw.

On Monday, October 16, from 1 to 2:30 p.m., Jane Rhodes will also appear at the University of Windsor (Oak Room, Vanier Hall.)

In addition to a multimedia installation, creative writing workshop and poetry event already held at Artcite Inc. in March 2023, other local Mary Ann Shadd Cary bicentennial activities will include . . .

• A display in the Concourse at the Chimczuk Museum (Museum Windsor), 401 Riverside Drive East, starting October 10, will highlight the contributions of Mary Ann Shadd Cary in Windsor
• An installation at Artspeak Gallery, 1942 Wyandotte Street East, October 10 to 14 comprising an Essex County Black Historical Research Society exhibit and short film by Peter James Billing and Blair Gagne Vaz (The Faculty of Wonderment)
• A Revolutionary Tea Party hosted by the Essex County Black Historical Research Society, Literary Arts Windsor, and the Arts Council Windsor & Region happening October 11from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. with poetry, history, light refreshments, and live DJ from CJAM Radio
• Interactive displays, art workshops, cultural performances, a Liberation Tea Party, and all-day screenings of a new short film produced by the Essex County Black Historical Research Society and Literary Arts Windsor, Mary Ann Shadd Cary in Her Own Words, at Art Windsor Essex, 401 Riverside Dr. E. Saturday, October 28 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a panel discussion on Mary Ann Shadd Cary, 1 to 2 p.m.
• Educational display materials and presentations which will be made available to local schools throughout this academic year with generous support from the City of Windsor’s Arts, Culture, and Heritage Fund