Pop Culture
She was the longtime news anchor and co-host for CTV's Canada AM, and is currently one of the cohosts on CTV's daytime panel talk show The Social.
a. Marci Ien
b. Sarah Taylor
c. Anne-Marie Green
d. Kayla Grey
Who is Marci Ien?
In 1995 she began reporting from Queen's Park in Toronto, with her reports appearing both on CHCH's local news and on WIC's national newscast Canada Tonight.
In 1995, Ien won a Radio Television Digital News Association Award for her news serial Journey to Freedom, a look at the Underground Railroad.
In 2015, Ien garnered a Canadian Screen Award nomination in the Best Host category for her work on Canada AM.
Ien was a co-host of “Canada AM,” CTV’s morning news magazine show that ended after 43 seasons in June 2016.
CTV's daytime panel talk show "The Social" covers news, pop culture and lifestyle topics.
This sociology, psychology, and social psychology scholar has published five New York Times Best Selling books, including "The Tipping Point" and "Blink".
a. Ta-Nehisi Coates
b. Jacqueline Woodson
c. Malcolm Gladwell
d. Roxane Gay
Who is Malcolm Gladwell?
Gladwell great up in Ontario, spending portions of his childhood in Elmira and Southampton, Ontario. His father was a professor at the University of Waterloo.
In 1987, Gladwell began covering business and science for The Washington Post, where he worked until 1996.
Gladwell's books and articles often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences and make frequent and extended use of academic work.
He was credited for popularizing the "10,000-hour rule" in his book "Outliers", which many consider the key to success in any field of work.
Gladwell was appointed to the Order of Canada on June 30, 2011.
Perhaps Madam C.J. Walker was one of Kylie Jenner's role models, since Walker made her fortune by developing and marketing a line of these products.
a. High fashion footwear
b. Cosmetics
c. Exercise equipment
d. Sunglasses
What are cosmetics?
Sarah Breedlove, known as Madam C. J. Walker, was an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a political and social activist.
Walker was considered the wealthiest African-American businesseswoman and wealthiest self-made woman in America at the time of her death in 1919.
Walker made her fortune by developing and marketing a line of cosmetics products for black women through the business she founded.
In 1907 Walker and her husband traveled around the South and Southeast promoting her products and giving lecture demonstrations of her "Walker Method" — involving her own formula for pomade, brushing and the use of heated combs.
She delivered lectures on political, economic, and social issues at conventions sponsored by powerful black institutions. During World War I Walker was a leader in the Circle For Negro War Relief and advocated for the establishment of a training camp for black army officers.
In 2018, this actress portrayed the matriarch of the movie's most powerful family in the afrofuturistic hit "Black Panther".
a. Angela Bassett
b. Regina King
c. Octavia Spencer
d. Kerry Washington
Who is Angela Bassett?
Angela Bassett is an American actress who has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as Tina Turner in the biopic "What's Love Got to Do with It".
In addition to Tina Turner, she has famously portrayed Rosa Parks, Betty Shabazz, and Coretta Scott King.
Bassett began her film career in the 1980s, after earning a bachelor of arts degree from Yale University and a master of fine arts degree from the Yale School of Drama.
Bassett has had a prolific acting career, having acted in at least one movie throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
This actor starred in a 2016 film chronicling the life of track star Jesse Owens and appeared in several episodes of Degreassi: The Next Generation
a. Mark Taylor
b. Aubrey Graham
c. Lyriq Bent
d. Stephan James
Who is Stephan James?
James was born in Toronto, Ontario. He graduated from Jarvis Collegiate Institute in 2011.
In 2015, James guest-starred in the CBC television mini-series The Book of Negroes, based on the award-winning novel of the same name by Lawrence Hill.
In 2016, James starred in the lead role of African-American track and field sprinter Jesse Owens in the biopic Race.
For his role in Race, James won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.
In 2018, he starred in Barry Jenkins' film adaptation of the James Baldwin novel If Beale Street Could Talk, which was nominated for several Academy Awards. Also that year, he portrayed Walter Cruz, opposite Julia Roberts, in the Amazon series Homecoming. James received a Golden Globe Award nomination for his performance in Homecoming.
This scholar was the the first ever black judge appointed to the Quebec bench.
a. Justice Julius Alexander Isaac
b. Justice Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré
c. Justice Michael Tulloch
d. Justice André Prévost
Who is Justice Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré?
She was called to the Quebec Bar in 1969, and began practising law in 1970 with the law firm of Mergler, Melançon.
Specializing in immigration and citizenship law, human rights law, family law, and non-profit organization law, she was the first Black female law professor at the Université de Montréal (1976) and at Université du Québec á Montréal (1976-1991).
From 1983 to 1985, she was a Commissioner for the Canadian Human Rights Commission. In 1991, she was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec. From 1991 to 1995, she became the first Employment Equity Commissioner of Ontario.
In 1996, Westmoreland-Traoré became the first Black Dean of a law school in Canada.
On 26 June 2017, Westmoreland-Traoré received an honorary Doctors of Laws degree from the Law Society of Upper Canada.
Marcellus Gilmore Edson is an inventor who, after roasting, milling, and cooling a popular snack, became the first to patent this delicious condiment in 1884.
a. Peanut Butter
b. Mustard
c. Relish
d. Orange Marmalade
What is peanut butter?
In 1884, Marcellus Gilmore Edson, born in Bedford, Quebec, patented peanut paste, the finished product from milling roasted peanuts between two heated surfaces.
Edson developed the idea of peanut paste as a delicious and nutritious foodstuff for people who could hardly chew solid food, a common state in those days given the state of dental care.
Peanut paste was initially sold for six cents per pound.
Edson was a chemist and pharmacist who worked in Montreal.
Considered a pioneer of afrofuturism, this artist opened the most recent Academy Awards with a vibrant musical performance.
a. Summer Walker
b. Solange Knowles
c. Lil Nas X
d. Janelle Monáe
Who is Janelle Monáe?
Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science, and philosophy of history that explores the developing intersection of African Diaspora culture with technology.
Janelle Monáe is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, actress, and producer.
Throughout her career, Monáe has received eight Grammy Award nominations.
Monáe's latest album, "Dirty Computer" was nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year.
Monáe played starring roles in the critically acclaimed films "Moonlight" and "Hidden Figures".
She has been described as a "hyper-talented, gender-fluid icon who loves and promotes blackness".
This rapper, who has incorporated funk, rock, and reggae into his music, spent parts of his childhood in Whitby and released the hit album Joyful Rebellion in 2004.
a. Saukrates
b. k-os
c. Maestro
d. Shad
Who is k-os?
From 1996 to 2016, K-os was the third best-selling Canadian hip hop artist in Canada.
Though born in Toronto, k-os spent several years of his childhood in Trinidad. He later returned to Canada and released his first single while a student at York University.
The album Joyful Rebellion was well received and became platinum in Canada in February 2005. The album and the second album single, Crabbuckit, were rated the most downloaded "Hip Hop/Rap" album and track on the iTunes Store in Canada upon their release.
k-os's hits include "B-Boy Stance", "Man I Used to Be", and "Sunday Morning".
This American writer, feminist, poet, and civil rights activist authored The Black Unicorn in 1978, which explored her African heritage.
a. Nikki Giovanni
b. Maya Angelou
c. Lucille Clifton
d. Audre Lorde
Who is Audre Lorde?
Nominated for the National Book Award for poetry in 1973, From a Land Where Other People Live (Broadside Press) shows Lorde's personal struggles with identity and anger at social injustice.
She released Coal in 1976, which celebrated her black identity and called for an intersectional consideration of women's experiences.
Lorde was known for writing on the "theory of difference", which is the idea that the binary opposition between men and women is overly simplistic and that the category of women itself is full of subdivisions.
In Lorde's volume The Black Unicorn (1978), she describes her identity within the mythos of African female deities of creation, fertility, and warrior strength. This reclamation of African female identity both builds and challenges existing Black Arts ideas about pan-Africanism.
Named after this scholar, the Audre Lorde Project was founded in 1994. It is a Brooklyn-based organization that continues to support LGBTQ+ people of color today.
In 2019, Dr. Mashudu Tshifularo and his team at the University of Pretoria in South Africa made history by successfully completing the world's first-ever transplant to resolve which condition.
a. Fibromyalgia
b. Rheumatoid arthritis
c. Hair loss
d. Conductive hearing loss
What is conductive hearing loss?
Dr. Tshifularo and his team conducted the world’s first transplant of middle-ear bones using 3D printed components. It has restored the hearing of a 40-year-old man with conductive hearing loss.
This new procedure offers hope for those suffering from conductive hearing loss, a middle ear problem caused by congenital birth defects, infection, trauma or metabolic diseases.
Dr. Tshifularo grew up as a herdsman in the rural village of Mbahela outside Thohoyandou, South Africa. After studying at the University of Natal, he began his career as a physician at Tshilidzini Hospital in 1990.
He was appointed in 2000 as the youngest and only black professor of otolaryngology (ears, nose, and throat) in South Africa.
Canadian Author Nalo Hopkinson published this novel in 1998, which explores themes of folklore and magical realism.
a. Kindred
b. Sister Mine
c. Brown Girl in the Ring
d. The Fifth Season
What is Brown Girl in the Ring?
Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican-born Canadian writer and editor. As an author, Hopkinson often uses themes of Caribbean folklore, Afro-Caribbean culture, and feminism.
Hopkinson was the curator of "Six Impossible Things", an audio series of Canadian fantastical fiction on CBC Radio One.
Since 2011, Hopkinson has been an associate professor in creative writing with an emphasis on science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism at University of California, Riverside.
Hopkinson's other novels include "Midnight Robber", "The Salt Roads", and "The New Moon's Arms".