Amazing Black Atlantic Canadians by Lindsay Ruck

Author:Lindsay Ruck
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nimbus
Published: 2021-01-20T15:11:45+00:00

Edward and his wife, Christina, advocated for human rights and social justice. The couple were part of a fundraiser to support Black soldiers who were being paid less than white soldiers in the union army. Christina also established a nursing home for elderly Black women.

Maxine Tynes

Maxine Tynes grew up in the 1950s in the heart of downtown Dartmouth, beside the railway. Maxine’s childhood home was always filled with neighbourhood children, and her father would also bring people he met at work home with him for dinner. Maxine’s father worked at the shipyard, which was just a five-minute walk from their home. People came into the shipyard from all over the world, and Maxine’s father always took it upon himself to welcome them to his city.

Maxine’s ancestors were Black Loyalists who migrated to Nova Scotia in the 1700s. When Maxine was four years old, she was diagnosed with polio, a disease that left her paralyzed from her right hip down to her right foot. When she became really ill, she had to stay home from school for a few years and her mother became her schoolteacher. Maxine’s mother was always telling her children that they could do anything and be anything. Maxine often heard things like, “If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well,” and “If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will.”

Once she was back at elementary school, Maxine began filling notebooks with stories. Her teacher was so impressed with her stories that she would take Maxine around to different classrooms and have her read her writing to some of the older students, which made Maxine nervous, but also very proud. Maxine discovered her love of writing poetry in high school. She wrote what she felt—what made her happy, what made her sad, and what angered her, like racism and war. Her first book of poetry was published in 1987. It was called Borrowed Beauty and it received the Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award, earning her the title of People’s Poet of Canada.

Maxine also used her passion for the English language to teach. She aspired to be as wonderful a teacher as her mother was and she certainly succeeded. Maxine was a beloved high school English teacher and loved sharing a wide variety of poetry with her students. In 1993, she was awarded a Canadian medal from the Governor General. She passed away in 2011, and since then, the Alderney Gate Public Library in downtown Dartmouth has named one of their gathering rooms “The Maxine Tynes Room” to honour her memory.

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