By way of photographs, petitions, historical texts and illustrations, Bowen reveals a story of Black-Canadian struggle that had been previously obscured.

To succeed, the colonial project of erasure requires certain threads to be severed; family trees, records of migration, deeds, names, and evidence of life must be buried for white supremacy to saturate the public record. Black Drones in the Hive and the detailed archival work contained within represent a significant problem for this project. While meticulous and vast, the entry point of this work is specific and deeply personal. Bowen’s family, Black settlers who fled north, away from American violence, are the subjects of the initial inquiry. This inquiry unravels in pieces, revealing a constellation of facts, timestamps, and documents that make up the exhibition. A winding trail with anchors in the American South, Canadian Prairies, Vancouver shores, and the National Gallery of Canada.

Migration can mean different things in different contexts.

The human urge to explore and discover.
Generational ruptures in language and culture.
Forced displacement of entire peoples.

In this issue, ISSAY!’s contributors examine migration, transience, and stillness. Ottawa, a hub for diasporic communities and a place of organized state xenophobia, is the backdrop for Yanaminah Thullah’s “Underground & Overground.” Thullah provides the rest of us with snapshots that capture young artists generating life in Canada’s capital, their home for now. Home, a theme throughout this collection, is scrutinized in conversation with Nikki Celis and Annum Shah. And with memory as his vessel, home is visited time and again by Palestinian poet Tariq Luthun.

Through mining our personal histories, like Bowen, we aim to retrieve context that has been lost or intentionally concealed. Without context, meanings unravel, the past is open to alteration, and migration is reduced to mere movement. From point A to point B (C,D,E…) we’re tracking the routes that have brought us, our loved ones, and our communities to this moment. We look to better understand what it is to leave and what it means to arrive.

— Elsha Yeyesuswork Editor-in-Chief