Mississauga artist crafts handmade art to celebrate Black History Month

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Published February 23, 2021 at 3:22 pm

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Although the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to dominate headlines into 2021, Mississauga residents are still doing their part to celebrate Black History Month and highlight the brave work of inspirational people who shaped Canadian–and world–history.

Luanga (Lue) Nuwame, a Mississauga-based comic booker writer, board game creator and YouTube cardboard craft artist, recently announced the launch of his Reflection of Black Excellence collection.

Nuwame, who recently auctioned off a 3D poster to help raise funds for the Mississauga Food Bank, said the collection was created to help inspire young children and teens to see the best in themselves.

“Especially with depression rates among young kids spiking during the pandemic, this design is an attempt to show our young future leaders what is possible,” Nuwame said in an email to insauga.com

To celebrate Black History Month and give young people a bit of a morale boost amid the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nuwame created a stylized poster made up of six hand-cut layers of industrial cardboard featuring the faces of 14 Black historical figures surrounding a centre mirror.

The Canadian poster features such iconic individuals as Carrie Best, Elijah McCoy, George Bonga, George Dixon, John Ware, Josiah Henson, Lincoln Alexander, Marie Joseph Angelique, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Portia White, Rose Fortune, Rosemary Brown, Viola Desmond and Willie O’Ree.

“This wall-mounted display is meant to remind anyone looking into the mirror that the men and women looking back at them were once young kids/teens with confusion, difficulties and an unsure future. The hope is this display will be a daily reminder of what is possible – past greatness inspiring future greatness,” Nuwame says.

Nuwame, who made 50 copies of both the American and Canadian editions of the poster, says everything is made by hand out of locally-sourced renewable materials.

The artist says he’s also working on limited-edition cardboard articulated action figurines based on people such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, George Dixon and Viola Desmond and plans to make them available later this year.

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