This is an anthology of critical writing on Black Canadian culture. The anthology is meant to convey the idea of a burgeoning response to Black Canadian cultural expression and what it means both for various Black communities and the Canadian nation. The anthology departs from uncritical celebration to critically engage with Black Canadian expressive cultures. The essayists do more than celebrate Canadian nationalism: they attempt to cast a complex analysis of its limits and its possibilities through the examination of Black lives, cultures and events in Canada and abroad. The book fills a void in the Canadian cultural landscape, where Black responses to the nation are always framed in terms of anti-racism. It attempts to open debate among and across Black communities in Canada, to uncover the complexities of Black life and Black living. It moves beyond the sentimental and the romantic to usher in the era of a forceful Black public cultural criticism, unlike anything that's come before it.