November is Financial Literacy Month
It’sagreattimetotalkaboutmoneywithourkidsandCFEEhasresourcestohelp.“Money andYouth:A Guide
to Financial Literacy”is a
great resource for teens and is
available in print, online or ebook.
Over 500,000 print copies in
distribution.
http://www.moneyandyouth.cfee.org.CFEE Phone: (416)968-2236. Toll Free: (888)570-7610. Email: [email protected]. Website: http://www.cfee.orgsupportedby“TalkWith Our Kids About
Money” is a program helping parents,
guardians, and teachers with fun,
engaging, easy to use activities. Over
700,000 youth participated last year.
http://www.talkwithourkidsaboutmoney.comCANADIANFOUNDATIONFORECONOMICEDUCATION
FONDATIONCANADIENNED’EDUCATIONECONOMIQUEsupportedbyA14 | NEWS OTHE GLOBE AND MAIL | MONDAY,NOVEMBER25,
P
art Timbuktu, partStar Wars
and 100-per-cent black Le-
go, the latest art by Ekow Ni-
mako gleams and beckons, puz-
zles and prods.
Nimako is a Toronto artist who
makes original sculptures from
the plastic building blocks. His
new work is an Afrocentric fanta-
sy city of 100,000 pieces created
for the Aga Khan Museum and
mounted in the midst of the in-
stitution’s permanent collection
of Islamic art. The piece, a low,
walled city about the size of a
pool table, is stuffed with fine ar-
chitectural detail inspired by an-
cient African monuments but,
from a distance, it also looks like
the labyrinthine Death Star
spaceship.
“I’m a big fan of Star Wars. It is
one of those universes that man-
ages to blend the ancient and the
high-tech,” Nimako said during a
recent interview. So, his city is si-
multaneously prehistoric and fu-
turistic; he calls the pieceKumbi
Saleh 3020 CE. The ruins of Kumbi
Saleh are located in Mauritania; it
is believed to have been the cap-
ital of the medieval Ghana Em-
pire and dates to the ninth to 14th
centuries, but Nimako is casting
his mythic fortress forward a
whole millennium into the fu-
ture.
“You think medieval castles,
King Arthur, right?” he said, refer-
ring to images of the Middle Ages
as an exclusively European peri-
od. “I wanted to explore these Af-
ro-diasporic realms, to spin sto-
ries, inspire imagination, rooted
in the continent of Africa.”
And that is why every piece of
Lego he uses is black.
Nimako captured Toronto’s
imagination at Nuit Blanche in
2018 when he exhibited hisCava-
lier Noir, a two-metre-tall all-
black equestrian statue featuring
a warrior mounted on a unicorn.
Intrigued, staff at the Aga Khan
museum invited him to respond
to their current exhibition Cara-
vans of Gold, Fragments in Time,
which explores trade across the
Sahara during the Middle Ages.
That show includes numerous
gold ornaments and several clas-
sic Nigerian statues cast in cop-
per, as well as mysterious terra-
cotta figures from Mali, all dating
from the 10th to 15th centuries.
Faced with this lavish display
of historic African art, Nimako
didn’t want to just copy or pay
tribute, but craft something origi-
nal that would weave new my-thologies. His work also includes
several smaller pieces that direct-
ly construct Afrocentric fantasy
narratives. Beware the Bandit
Queen of Walatahfeatures three
figures of archers, representing
the queen and her twin daugh-
ters, while a text tells the story of
the queen’s narrow escape from a
slave caravan and life as a steal-
from-the-rich-give-to-the-poor
bandit. Meanwhile,Worldona
Camel’s Backincludes three cam-
els, each carrying a turret or
dome in Nimako’s most direct
reference to the historic exhibi-
tion next door.
Nimako got his start with Lego
studying art at York University,
returning to the plastic blocks of
his childhood after metal and
wood failed to please him.
“It’s what I’ve been doing since
I was four,” he said. “It makesperfect sense.”
He now spends long hours in
his Leslieville studio snapping
pieces together – he doesn’t buy
them from Lego directly, but re-
lies on a hobbyists’ site – and
builds fluid sculptures with
smooth surfaces that hide the toy
blocks’ characteristic round pegs.
It took him more than 350 hours
to buildKumbi Saleh.
In his hands, Lego has become
a sophisticated artistic medium,
offering a wealth of cultural refer-
ences and demanding a dedica-
tion that far surpasses child’s
play. Invited to jump in and get
brick-building at a Lego birthday
party recently, he politely de-
clined.BuildingBlack:Civilizations
continuesattheAgaKhanMuseum
untilFeb.23.BuildingaworldofAfrocentricfantasy,brickbybrick
Torontoartist
EkowNimakousesLego
toweavenewAfrican
mythologiesinto
hislatestworkatthe
AgaKhanMuseum
KATETAYLOR
EkowNimako,seenwith
hisinstallationKumbi
Saleh3020CEattheAga
KhanMuseuminToronto
onNov.21,spentmore
than350hourscrafting
thisfantasycityforthe
museum’sCaravansof
Gold,FragmentsinTime
exhibit,whichexplores
tradeacrosstheSahara
duringtheMiddleAges.
CHRISTOPHERKATSAROV/
THEGLOBEANDMAILT
he RBC Taylor Prize was es-
tablished with a mandate
and a mission – to firmly
establish, in the hearts and
minds of Canadian readers, the
importance of literary non-
fiction. With this successfully
accomplished, the prize has now
come to a close.
More than twenty-two years
ago, my husband, Charles Taylor,
edged closer to death. He
broached the subject of creating
a prize for the best book of non-
fiction writing. He had been a cel-
ebrated foreign correspondent
for this paper and had returned
to Canada to continue his career
in journalism, writing the kinds
of books he thought Canadians
needed to read.
Over countless dinners, we
talked about the importance of
non-fiction writing as a major
driver of civil discourse. In-
formed and enlightened Cana-
dians, we believed, would bring
about sound policy decisions
and, through exposure to good
non-fiction, would also develop
the compassion they needed to
make wise and caring decisions.
The social mission of literary
non-fiction was undeniable, yet
we noticed that non-fiction
books often did not reach the
same level of attention as novels.
We were aware that there were
considerably fewer books of non-
fiction being published, and
many of the non-fiction books
were published by academic
presses (and not intended for the
general reader).
There was a clear need to
change and enhance the percep-
tion for the best of what we
called literary non-fiction: Books
about real and factual subjects
whose stories were so well-told
that they would capture and
maintain the interest of a general
reader.
After Charles passed away, I
became determined to honour
his request and set about learn-
ing more about publishers and
what was being published. I
found people who were well-re-
spected in the literary world, whowere willing to help identify the
goals of the prize and knew the
vehicles needed for bringing the
dream into reality. Robert Bring-
hurst brought his poetic vision,
and David Staines brought his
knowledge of both the publish-
ing world and his extensive
knowledge of the field of Cana-
dian Literature. Charles’ sister, Ju-
dith Mappin, brought her experi-
ences as a bookseller, and Mi-
chael Bradley turned his legal
mind onto how to make things
happen.
Together, we decided that theaim of the prize was to develop a
spotlight on the world of non-fic-
tion writing in Canada. Our goal
was to recognize excellence in
the genre in the hope that the
Canadian reading public would
pay attention – so much atten-
tion that the nature of what was
being published and read would
change. Interestingly, the frame-
work we established for the Prize
included benchmarks of antici-
pated achievement.
Twenty years later, change has
occurred, and benchmarks
achieved. To end the prize was
not a funding decision. This was
a decision of the Charles Taylor
Foundation, informed by consid-
erable reflection and discussion
with our stakeholders, including
RBC and Prize staff members.
Above all, we looked at the origi-
nal mandate and benchmarks of
the Prize and considered them in
the context of the Canadian pub-
lishing landscape.
Initially, the prize was award-
ed every two years because there
were not enough books being
published in any one year that
would qualify. This year, the jury
for the 2020 RBC Taylor Prize will
select a top book from amongst
an astounding 155 entrants. In-
creasingly, publishers are giving
over their prime “lead title” spots
on the choice Fall lists to major
non-fiction titles.
While the prize has always
been about quality,it is wonder-
ful to note that a winning au-
thor’s book was found on the be-
stseller list week after week after
week. That was due, in part, to
being identified as a winner by a
panel of jurors that wereesteemed within Canada and in-
ternationally. And, more excit-
ingly, as the genre gained in pop-
ularity and respectability, young-
er writers were attracted to the
field and its ability to address the
issues that they thought we
needed to read.
More than twenty years ago, I
was asked why I wanted to start a
prize such as this. “I want to do
this to be able to talk to my
neighbours. I want to understand
the concerns of this country. I
want to know about lives that are
like mine and, above all, I want to
know about lives that are differ-
ent from mine. I want to read all
these stories because I know that
unless I do, I will never truly un-
derstand the complexities of this
country.”
There is no question in my
mind that all the books found on
our years of shortlists and win-
ners have influenced not only
what people think about but,
even more importantly, how they
approach the diverse subjects ad-
dressed in these books.
After twenty years, I am confi-
dent that the RBC Taylor Prize
has helped to change the percep-
tion of literary non-fiction in
Canada, and that those changes
are entrenched. I personally have
been so thrilled to meet so many
of the amazing writers we are for-
tunate enough to call our own –
both on the page and sometimes
in person. I trust that the writers
who have found their audiences
will continue to write books for
them that will continue to aston-
ish, enlighten, and entertain.Special to The Globe and MailRBCTaylorPrizehelpedchangeperceptionofliterarynon-fictioninCanada
NOREENTAYLOR
TheRBCTaylorPrizefornon-fiction,namedafterCanadianjournalist
CharlesTaylor,willbeawardedforthelasttimein2020.