“I simply need to see folks win.”
Katrina Lopes is to the purpose about why she’s in Sydney, N.S., for Nova Scotia Music Week this November. The president of KL Management and longtime supervisor of Shawn Desman was born in Halifax, and went to highschool and college within the metropolis earlier than leaving to make a reputation for herself within the music business.
She’s by no means really left the group, although, unofficially championing African Nova Scotian and Black artists within the province from her Toronto base for years. However this 12 months, Lopes has formally approached music business associations with a plan to create infrastructure for artists who’ve systemically fallen by way of the cracks.
“There wasn’t actually anybody for me to look as much as once I was developing,” she continued. “So I simply need to assist present entry and open doorways and assist different folks win as a result of I did not have that.”
Anti-Black racism within the music business has benefitted white musicians for generations, however the hole is far starker in provinces comparable to Nova Scotia that do not have the infrastructure bigger provinces do. The growing stress of the Black Lives Matter protests in the beginning of the pandemic compelled business organizations to take a look at repair what was damaged. At this 12 months’s Nova Scotia Music Week, the occasion’s twenty fifth anniversary, Music Nova Scotia launched a report titled “Black Music Matters” primarily based on a survey of 100 respondents, 60 of whom recognized as African Nova Scotian and Black artists or business professionals.
The report detailed how Black musicians really feel concerning the business, and the way organizations are letting them down — and consists of subsequent steps as to what Music Nova Scotia plans to do to fight systemic racism and supply the mandatory helps. The largest impediment recorded by Black musicians within the report was a scarcity of business assist, infrastructure and networks, adopted carefully by anti-Black racism. Greater than half the respondents didn’t assume that the music business in Nova Scotia both supported or revered Black artists.
“What I feel is so fascinating is there is no scarcity of uncooked expertise [in Nova Scotia],” stated Lopes. “So regardless of the group is doing to assist the expertise is working as a result of the expertise is on level. However there is no infrastructure. So what’s the business doing to assist? Not an entire lot.”
To get music business associations on board earlier this 12 months, she began small: Lopes ran a mini mentorship program for African Nova Scotian and Black musicians by way of the East Coast Music Affiliation within the spring, and adopted it up in August with a music camp just for Black musicians, funded by Charles Taylor Theatre.
“I did the music camp as a result of it got here out of a dialog with some artists who had talked about that one, they do not go to very many music camps; two, in the event that they do, they’re the one Black particular person there…. And that is not likely so frequent in Toronto. I feel most Canadians possibly have not been at an all-Black camp, however it would not be true that they are the one Black particular person in a writing session. So I used to be like, that is one thing we will repair.”
Her followup pitch for Nova Scotia Music Week was larger: a weekend of efficiency teaching from vocal coach Lorraine Lawson (who has labored with Alessia Cara and Roy Woods) and model mentorship for the Black artists showcasing at Music Week. Lopes additionally supported the artists throughout and after the performances, and organized for music consumers and representatives to be within the room who’re properly matched to the music that was being showcased.
To really feel that we have been prioritized, it simply leaves a unique headspace for us after we method weekends like this.– Haliey Smith
Haliey Smith, an rising R&B singer from North Preston and youthful sister to singer Reeney Smith, has been performing since she was 5 years previous — a chance that comes from a gifted musical household and a Baptist pastor grandfather. Now performing and writing authentic music underneath the stage identify Haliey, she initially carried out music underneath her given identify, Mahalia. Haliey was one of many members within the Music Week teaching and branding program, and took what she realized to her Music Week efficiency. She known as the expertise “life-changing.”
“Actually, I do know it made me really feel too particular, due to course, we have by no means been provided something like that,” stated Smith. “However to really feel that we have been prioritized, it simply leaves a unique headspace for us after we method weekends like this. We stay up for it…. It provides us a cause to stroll in dignity and in grace and at school. And actually, it is nice for us to have the ability to have this info and provides it again to the younger youngsters in our group which can be developing and are watching us turn out to be musicians they usually’re eager to do the identical factor. Having this info is rather like, OK, we do not have to attend for different folks to provide it to us now.”
Jody Upshaw, a 19-year-old R&B singer who’s been performing since she was 11 (and who’s Lopes’s cousin), lately received the spot as Music Nova Scotia’s artist in residence — which got here with $10,000 hooked up — and took part in each Lopes’s August music camp and the Music Week mentorship program. Whereas Upshaw stated she’s been showcasing at Nova Scotia Music Week for a “very long time,” this 12 months felt completely different.
“Black artists have at all times felt like there won’t essentially be a spot for us right here on this group, or [were wondering] will it ever work, you understand what I imply?” stated Upshaw. “There’s plenty of white genres, white folks, conventional music, folks music right here in Nova Scotia on the whole, that plenty of the world thinks that that is solely actually what’s right here. However that is so not true in any respect. And we’ve got so many proficient Black artists that deserve large alternatives right here. So it is superb to have Music Nova Scotia hearken to a Black particular person say that that is what these Black artists want, and giving [Lopes] the facility to do what she must do for us.”
Smith and Upshaw are each effusive of their reward of Lopes, and the way essential getting supportive however trustworthy suggestions about their exhibits has been to each of them — and the way affirming it’s to be a part of the group that Lopes is creating. “Katrina is a gem-and-a-half, an angel, a lifesaver,” stated Smith; “Any electronic mail that I get that has Katrina’s identify in it I am like, ‘Signal me up,'” stated Upshaw, who counts herself fortunate to have been mentored by Lopes for years now.
Lopes stated that the mentorship alternatives this 12 months are only a small piece of her larger imaginative and prescient for what future infrastructure may appear to be. Business-wise, she hopes that Nova Scotia can ultimately assist a label, in addition to a administration and publishing firm that’s Black-owned and run. “I am not doing that,” she added, laughing, however she hopes it occurs organically.
So far as what she’s doing, Lopes has a selected dream for the long run: “I would like somebody from Scotia to explode. I would like it to place Nova Scotia on the map. So I simply need to be a part of that course of.”
For extra tales concerning the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success tales throughout the Black group — take a look at Being Black in Canada, a CBC venture Black Canadians will be happy with. You can read more stories here.
