On January 17, 2023, I attended the first CEL talk of the new year. With the new year, the location of Community Engaged Learning talks had changed. It’s now located in the Place of Many Trees room (formerly the multipurpose room), inside the Liu Institute for Global Issues which gave all the attendees a wonderful view of the surroundings trees. The room soon filled with students waiting to hear about Black culture in Vancouver from two guest speakers, Maya Preshyon and Krystal Paraboo. Maya is a current UBC student and founder of Vancouver Black Library (VBL), and Krystal educates people about Black culture through art. Both women have a focus on creating a welcoming community within Vancouver for Black people.
Maya Preshyon https://twitter.com/crisladeras/status/1488969132078874626
Krystal Paraboo https://221a.ca/contributors/krystal-paraboo/
During the talk, both speakers mentioned Hogan’s Alley. They spoke about how an entire community was displaced for something that was never built. Krystal’s mural project in partnership with Black artists around Vancouver puts the focus back onto Hogan’s Alley. She also worked with Chinese and Musqueam artists in this mural project to signify the connection between Hogan’s Alley to Chinatown (which is located nearby) and giving recognition to the fact that Vancouver is on stolen land. Her work piqued my curiosity, so I took a look at the murals after the talk. They feature Black people and tell a story through the colourful murals.
photo of a mural from the project. https://www.artofedge.com/projects/0XNWdY?album_id=1803763
This mural shows community and togetherness, an image of the people that lived in Hogan’s Alley before it was destroyed. It’s a lively scene, the family is making music with what they have-sticks, pipe, and paint cans-and there’s joy in their eyes and a smile dancing on their faces. The foreground uses bright colours, but the background fades out, giving a feeling of nostalgia. This mural feels like a happy memory, remembering what Hogan’s Alley was.
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