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Nova Scotia's Dolly Williams, Wade Smith honoured on black history poster

When Robert Small visited Nova Scotia more than a decade ago, he stayed with an educator named Wade Smith. The two had never met before but Small, an artist from Toronto, needed a place to stay as he toured schools to talk about his posters honouring the achievements of black Canadians.

Smith opened his home to Small, and the two became friends.

Little did Small realize that one day he would be paying tribute to Smith on one of his posters.

"It's bittersweet," said Small. "Ten years ago, to be staying with some person who you don't know. Fast-forward to years later and you're depicting them on the same poster that he was helping you to get into schools."

For 25 years, posters featuring Small's portraits of notable black Canadians have been displayed in schools in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.

While some of the faces on his posters are famous, some people nominate lesser-known heroes from their communities to be featured.

Robert Small
Robert Small

Smith, a Halifax principal and basketball coach, was a leader for many young people in his community.

He died in 2017 at the age of 50. Small says he was a natural choice to be featured among other accomplished black Canadians because of his drive to inspire teens.

"I thought those were attributes that shouldn't be forgotten given his untimely passing," said Small.

Smith is one of two Nova Scotians to be featured in Small's artwork this year. The achievements of Dolly Williams of East Preston, N.S., are also celebrated.

Williams, the author of the book Black Women Who Made a Difference in Nova Scotia, has also worked with many grassroots organizations.

"Specifically, I was told that she doesn't get highlighted as often as she should," Small said.

"I wanted to highlight her for that reason — to show that doing work without looking for a reward should be rewarded in some way shape or form."

Small's artwork isn't just being featured in schools. On Monday, he spent time with incarcerated young people at the Springhill Institution. He hopes that by introducing them to his art and local heroes, they'll find inspiration when they're released.

"I hope they take the feeling of empowerment," he said.

"And also the fact that by seeing [the portraits], they're able to look at them and realize that there's various people with various ethnicities, genders that have accomplished great things in Canadian history and also contributed to Canadian society.

"The people that I profile in my poster are just a sample of them."

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