Compton, Wayde

Author Wayde Compton (Douglas College) contributed the chapter "Signifying, text and movement in the art of Jan Wade" (2022).

In the spring and summer of 1858, 600 blacks moved from San Francisco to the colonies that would eventually become British Columbia. The move was in part initiated by an invitation penned by the governor of the British colonies, James Douglas, who is commonly believed to have had African ancestry, a rumour he neither confirmed nor denied. His appearance was such that he could "pass" for white. By 1871, after swelling to over 1,000, the Black population in BC had dwindled to fewer than 500. But in the late 19th century, and on into the twentieth, Blacks continued to come to BC From the time of the first arrivals, the population and history of BC's Black community has been always in flux. If there is a unifying characteristic of black identity in BC, it is surely the talent for reinvention and for pioneering new versions of traditional identities that such conditions demand. And in all this time, BC's Black citizens created poems and stories and lyrics. Some were written, others spoken. "Bluesprint" is a groundbreaking, first-time collection of this creative output, and includes the work of such individuals as: Rebecca Gibbs, Nora Hendrix (grandmother to Jimi), Austin Phillips, Rosemary Brown, Yvonne Brown, Hope Anderson, Lorena Gale, Mercedes Baines, David Nandi Odhiambo, and many others dealing with issues surrounding race, community, gender, and genre. From the literal writings of James Douglas, a figure whose "Blackness" can only be construed from rumour and speculation, through to the contemporary hip hop lyrics of Rascalz, and including the work of poets, journalists, letter writers, biographers, fiction writers, and speech givers, "Bluesprint" is a comprehensive anthology of literature and orature by black British Columbians.

"The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them" is a vibrant and diverse collection from a who’s who of the west coast poetry scene. The poems assembled here range from the lyric to the experimental and address the theme of disconnection in an urban environment from a variety of positions, concerns, and cultural perspectives. The collection also includes short reflections on the poems, written by the poets themselves, providing readers with an intimate insight into the inspiration and meaning behind the poems. "The Revolving City" anthology evolved out of the "Lunch Poems" reading series, a stimulating exchange of poetic ideas and cadence held the third Wednesday of every month in public space at Simon Fraser University’s Vancouver campus. "The Revolving City" seeks to build community, extend poetry to new audiences, and reflect the rich diversity of the poetry scene both local and distant. Edited by much-lauded writer and director of the Writer’s Studio, Wayde Compton, and award-winning poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar.<p>From publisher description.

"Written from the perspective of someone who was born and lives outside of African American culture, it riffs on the concept of Canada as a promised land (or "Canaan") encoded in African American myth and song since the days of slavery. These varied essays, steeped in a kind of history rarely written about, explore the language of racial misrecognition (also known as "passing"), the failure of urban renewal, humor as a counterweight to "official" multiculturalism, the poetics of hip hop turntablism, and the impact of the Obama phenomenon on the way we speak about race itself."--Provided by publisher.

City of Vancouver Book Award Winner. "In his debut story collection, poet Wayde Compton explores the concept of place and identity in which characters and space merge to make narrative. These interconnected stories, imbued with the colour of speculative fiction, are towering in their conceits. As much as characters are revealed by what they do and say, in The Outer Harbour, places also speak, in the way that they shape us. One strand of stories follows the relationship between an artist obsessed with shipping containers and a drug-addicted student, each of mixed-race, who seek in art a response to unclear identities. Another set of stories follows the geological development of a volcanic island in Burrard Inlet--Vancouver's harbour--which becomes the site of a radical Indigenous occupation, and later, in increasingly absurd shadings, a real estate development, and then a detention centre for illegal migrants. And a final suite tells the story of Donald and Albert, biracial conjoined twins, and their father, an eccentric figure whose enigmatic expression divides them. Moving from 2001 through to 2025, The Outer Harbour is at once a history book and a cautionary tale of the future. Collectively, these stories condense and confound our preconceived ideas around race, migration, and home, creating a singular world in a city built on the legacies of racism and colonialism, hurtling towards a future both impossible and inevitable." --From publisher description.