Toronto producer Ngozi Paul’s FreeUp! arts and activism festival has been teaming up with CBC on an Emancipation Day specials since 2020. But after the House of Commons unanimously voted to recognize Aug. 1 as Emancipation Day last year, it became an opportunity to go “a little bit deeper” with that partnership, Paul says.

This year’s FreeUp! Emancipation Day broadcast on CBC and CBC Gem will be followed by FreeUp! Freedom Talks, providing a two-hour block of back-to-back programs and expanding on the original special that was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award last year.

Paul tells Playback Daily she’s now working with the pubcaster “to make this a long-lasting relationship with CBC, so that we are doing this annually and it’s something that Canadians can count on.”

Produced by Paul’s Toronto-based banner Emancipation Arts in partnership with CBC, this year’s FreeUp! Emancipation Day airing Monday (Aug. 1) was shot in locations across the country that have celebrated the day for years, including Toronto’s Little Jamaica neighbourhood, Halifax, and St. Catharines and Owen Sound in Ontario. It’s also filmed in St. Lawrence Hall in Toronto, where many gathered for three days in 1851 for the North American Convention of Colored Freemen to discuss the abolition of slavery; and at the Buxton National Historic Site, which acted as a refugee settlement for former American slaves in 1849.

Paul wrote, directed and also serves as an executive producer on FreeUp! Freedom Talks, which is a conversation among artists and creators about freedom, culture, art and activism, and what it means to be a person of colour living in Canada. Producers are Sara Schwartz Gellar and Emily Kulasa. Talent in the program include comedian Guled Abdi, R&B musician TiKa, singer Jully Black, soprano Measha Brueggergosman, and spoken word artist Dwayne Morgan.

“CBC gave us the opportunity to create additional programming to go with the Emancipation Day special and I wanted to film a conversation about freedom and culture, where these kinds of conversations can and should be happening all year long,” says Paul, FreeUp!’s founder who co-created the popular Global series ‘da Kink in My Hair.

Paul says she was the one who first approached CBC in 2020. It was after the pandemic scuttled plans for her usual live, open-mic event at Dundas Square and she wanted to see if she could work with the pubcaster on broadcasting a version of the event instead as the Black Lives Matter grew.

“The streets were erupting. There were demonstrations and protests; also the world was closed. I was connected with CBC’s unscripted department, who was really open to broadcasting the festival as a one-hour digital television special,” says Paul, who grew up in Toronto to Pan-African parents from the Caribbean islands.

Emancipation Arts produced the special in its first year with the pubcaster, while CBC produced the second year in-house.

CBC’s executive in charge of programming and factual entertainment, Grazyna Krupa, says the pubcaster was excited by Paul’s mission to ignite a nationwide participation and awareness of Emancipation Day and spark conversations. “At CBC, we are always looking for fresh, community-based programming that champions voices and stories from across the country – the fact that Emancipation Arts is an organization that supports youth, performance and activism in an engaging way made a partnership all the more appealing.”

Paul and her prodco’s passion project are part of CBC’s commitment to diversity, Krupa adds.

She says as a result of the Black Lives Matter and MeToo movements, as well as other social changes, many of her colleagues have had their projects greenlit when previously they had been rejected. Paul also recalls a time when she was working on ‘da Kink in My Hair, where she fought hard to make 25% of her crew be people of colour, adding that she was called a “reversed racist.”

“Now, there’s more opportunity for Black, Indigenous, and people of colour, as well as more content that’s being made and more spaces, funds and new envelopes that are being created.”

Paul says there are also rumblings about bringing ‘da Kink in My Hair “back on TV as a series again” while she also develops her play The Emancipation of Ms. Lovely into a TV series.

However, even with all the progress, Paul explains there are still many back-end changes that need to be made in the industry, such as accessibility issues.

“As a Black creator, we are given extra work and policies that have been in place that, historically, just weren’t made for us in mind,” she says. “It’s one thing to be like, ‘Fill out this form that says x, y, z,’ but then you also need the support to be able to get to the point where you’re able to fill out that form. We have the gears rolling now. This can’t be a phase everyone goes through, where 10 years from now, it’s forgotten. We need to put in place new policies and break it down where everyone is included.”

Photo of Ngozi Paul and DJ L’Oqenz taken by Justin Lovell