Faith Nolan

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Faith Nolan

| image = Faith Nolan.jpg

| background = solo_singer

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1957}}

| birth_place = Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

| genre = {{hlist|Folk|jazz|blues}}

| occupation = Musician, singer, songwriter, activist

| instrument = Guitar

| years_active =

| label =

| associated_acts =

| website = {{URL|www.faithnolan.org/}}

}}

Faith Nolan (born 1957) is a Canadian social activist, folk and jazz singer-songwriter and guitarist. She currently resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

History

Nolan is considered part of a Canadian feminist music movement of the 1980s and 90s.{{Cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/feminist-music-emc/|title=Feminist Music|last=Kuhns|first=Connie|encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=2018-03-08|language=en}} In the early years of her career, she performed with the feminist band, The Heretics. Nolan's music is described as "her political work, a politics firmly rooted in her being working class, a woman, African Canadian and queer."{{cite web|title=AGO Celebrates Pride Week Big Time|url=http://www.ago.net/ago-celebrates-pride-week-big-time|website=www.ago.net|access-date=3 March 2018|date=17 June 2009}} Nolan is openly lesbian,{{citation |title=Between the Sheets, in the Streets: Queer, Lesbian, and Gay Documentary |first1=Chris |last1=Holmlund |first2=Cynthia |last2=Fuchs |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8166-2774-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780816627752/page/252 252] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780816627752/page/252 }} and uses her music to link her sexuality with the musical history of black North America.{{cite journal |id={{ProQuest|223656756}} |last1=Johnson |first1=Maria V |title='Jelly Jelly Jellyroll': Lesbian Sexuality and Identity in Women's Blues |journal=Women & Music |location=Lincoln |volume=7 |issue=31 December 2003 |pages=31 }}

Part of her activist work has been documenting the social, political and cultural history of Africville, a historic African Canadian settlement in Maritime Canada. Rinaldo Walcott cites her as one of the African-Canadian artists working to prevent the erasure of the black presence in Canadian history.,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rnsKM8QAD8AC&q=%22faith+nolan%22&pg=PA277|title=Unhomely States: Theorizing English-Canadian Postcolonialism|last=Sugars|first=Cynthia|date=2004-02-11|publisher=Broadview Press|isbn=9781551114378|language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Bullen |first1=Pauline |chapter=Black Woman 'Educultural' Feminist |pages=223–236 |jstor=42979969 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xsgegZtNIswC&pg=PA223 |editor1-last=Lea |editor1-first=Virginia |editor2-last=Sims |editor2-first=Erma Jean |title=Undoing Whiteness in the Classroom: Critical Educultural Teaching Approaches for Social Justice Activism |series=Counterpoints |date=2008 |volume=321 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-0-8204-9712-9 }}

Nolan has spent her recent years working with women prisoners at various prisons worldwide including Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, Ontario and the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario.{{cite web|title=Women of Labor and the Arts|url=http://ourtimes.ca/Talking/printer_406.php|website=ourtimes.ca|access-date=3 March 2018|date=1 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171025022114/http://ourtimes.ca/Talking/printer_406.php|archive-date=25 October 2017|url-status=dead}}

Her aim is "to see social changes occur that will stop the degradation of women and will stop unjustly punishing women for defending themselves."

She also runs a musical therapy workshop at Vanier Centre for Women and at Sistering, a women's organization located in downtown which provides support to homeless, marginalized, and low-income women.

In her quest, she has founded and directed several choirs including Singing Elementary Teachers of Toronto, CUPE Freedom Singers, the Women of Central East Correctional Centre, and Sistering Sisters.{{cite web|url=http://peacequest.ca/150-canadians-day-136-faith-nolan/|title=150+ Canadians Day 136: Faith Nolan|date=June 17, 2017|website=Peace Quest|access-date=January 25, 2018|archive-date=January 26, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180126070727/http://peacequest.ca/150-canadians-day-136-faith-nolan/|url-status=dead}}

In 1994, Nolan in conjunction with the Toronto Women of Colour Collective, once known as the Toronto Multicultural Womyn in Concert, helped establish Camp SIS (Sisters in Struggle) located in the Kawarthas, 2 hours northeast of Toronto.{{cite web|url=http://www.faithnolan.org/content/iwd-any-womins-blues-night-march-2011|title=IWD - Any Womins Blues Night: March 2011|date=March 2011|website=Faith Nolan|access-date=January 25, 2018|archive-date=February 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226065817/http://www.faithnolan.org/content/iwd-any-womins-blues-night-march-2011|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/CAMP-SIS-173433642720306/|title=CAMP SIS|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|access-date=2018-03-08}}

In 2009, Nolan was named Honoured Dyke for Toronto's 2009 Pride celebrations and led the 2009 Dyke March.{{Cite news| url=http://toronto.citynews.ca/2009/06/27/pride-weekend-begins-with-remembrance-walk-dyke-march/|title=Pride Weekend Begins with Remembrance Walk, Dyke March| date=June 27, 2009|work=City News|access-date=January 25, 2018}}{{Cite news|url=https://queersagainstapartheid.org/2010/06/07/honourees/|title=Twenty-three Pride Toronto honourees return awards over censorship|date=2010-06-07|work=Queers Against Israeli Apartheid|access-date=2018-03-08|language=en-US|archive-date=2018-03-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308175011/https://queersagainstapartheid.org/2010/06/07/honourees/|url-status=dead}}

On November 29, 2014, Nolan was recognized at the third annual Min Sook Lee Labour Arts Award Gala for her contribution to the arts and labour movement.{{Cite web|url=https://www.blogto.com/events/third-annual-min-sook-lee-labour-arts-awards-fundraising-gala/|title=Third Annual Min Sook Lee Labour Arts Awards - Fundraising Gala|website=blogTO|language=en|access-date=2018-03-08}}

In 2021, her album Africville was named the jury winner of the Polaris Heritage Prize at the 2021 Polaris Music Prize.{{Cite web|url=https://exclaim.ca/music/article/nomeansno_faith_nolan_receive_polaris_heritage_prize_designation|title = Nomeansno, Faith Nolan Receive 2021 Polaris Heritage Prize|website=Exclaim!|author = Calum Slingerland|date = October 26, 2021}}

Personal life

Nolan and her family lived in Africville, a predominantly black community in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At a young age, she and her family moved to Toronto, Ontario's Cabbagetown neighbourhood.{{cite journal |last1=Birch-Bayley |first1=Nicole |title='A Vision Outside the System': A Conversation with Faith Nolan about Social Activism and Black Music in Contemporary Canada |journal=Postcolonial Text |volume=6 |issue=3 |year=2011 |url=https://www.postcolonial.org/index.php/pct/article/download/1285/1213 }} Her mother is a white woman of Irish descent and her father is of African Canadian and Mi'kmaq heritage.{{cite web|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2009/06/18/nolans_social_agenda_plays_out_in_her_music.html |title=Nolan's social agenda plays out in her music |date=18 June 2009 |publisher=Toronto Star |accessdate=2023-01-27}}

Discography

Africville (1986)
Sistership (1987)
Freedom to Love (1989)
Hard to Imagine (1996)
Faith Nolan: A Compilation 1986-1996 (1996)
Overloaded, Fed Up and On the Line (2000)
Let it Shine (2002)
Faith Nolan Live with Mary Watkins (2003)
Day Done Broke (2006)
One World (2008)
Mannish Gal (2008)
Hang On CUPE (CUPE Freedom Singers) (2009)
Jailhouse Blues (2013)

Filmography

Older, Stronger, Wiser (1989)
Sisters in the Struggle (1992)
Long Time Comin, featuring the life and music of Faith Nolan (1993)
"Critical Resistance": Prison Industrial Complex (1996)
Listening to Something (2000)
Within These Cages (2003)
Stand Together (2003)
Till Death Do Us Part (2008)
''Missing Murdered Women "Highway of tears" (2011)

Radio

Queer Black Women Blues (1991)
I am a Prisoner (2004)
CBC Toronto interview (2007)
CBC Vancouver interview (2008)

Awards

Maple Blues Nominee (1999)
Recipient Honored Dyke (2001)
Recipient, Robert Sutherland Award for Activist and Musical Contributions to African Canadians (2005)
Toronto Arts Council Award, Grant (2006/2000)
Ontario Federation Labour Cultural Activist Award Recipient (2008)
Canada Council Awards, Grant (2008/2002/1996)
OAC Award, Grant (2008/2004/2000)
Afro Nova Scotian Cultural Music Award (2009)
EGALE Black History Month Recipient (2011)
Mayworks Social Justice Music Activist Award (2014)

References

External links

[http://www.faithnolan.org/ Official website]
[http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/en/our-collection/?idfilm=29581 Long Time Comin'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180126184911/http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/en/our-collection/?idfilm=29581 |date=2018-01-26 }}

Category:1957 births

Category:Living people

Category:Black Canadian LGBTQ people

Category:21st-century Black Canadian women singers

Category:21st-century Canadian women singers

Category:20th-century Black Canadian women singers

Category:20th-century Canadian women singers

Category:Black Nova Scotians

Category:Lesbian singers

Category:Canadian women activists

Category:Canadian folk guitarists

Category:Canadian women folk guitarists