Searching for Serafim
Publisher

Publication Year

Author(s)

ISBN: 9781551529752

Categories:

 
View more details about this title on the publisher's website:

Go to publisher’s site

Searching for Serafim

The Life and Legacy of Serafim "Joe" Fortes

New!

In Searching for Serafim, author Ruby Smith Díaz seeks to unravel the complicated legacy of a local legend Serafim "Joe" Fortes. She draws from historical documents to form an insightful critique of the role that settler colonialism and anti-Black racism played in Fortes’s story, reconstructing his life through a contemporary Black perspective.

Contributors

Ruby Smith Diaz

Ruby Smith Diaz is an Afro Latina multidisciplinary artist, educator, and award-winning body-positive personal trainer. Her experiences growing up in a migrant, poor, single-parent family in amiskwaciy (Edmonton, AB) have inspired her to dedicate her life's work to exploring and addressing issues of equity and social justice.

Chapter Contributors Pages Year Price
Ruby Smith Díaz shares her experience searching for images of Black Canadians throughout history and why she chose to research the life of Serafim "Joe" Fortes.
View

 6 $0.60
This chapter recounts the early life and background of Serafim Fortes. Included is an image of a handwritten note signed by Serafim.
View

 5 $0.50
This chapter further discusses Serafim’s early life, him leaving his home in Kairi, his travels and treatment while sailing on the Robert Kerr.
View

 12 $1.20
This chapter details how the crew aboard the Robert Kerr, including Serafim, came to land in Vancouver and the communities settling on the land at this time.
View

 16 $1.60
This chapter discusses the impact racism and white supremacy had on the preservation of Black history in Vancouver and why it made difficult for Díaz to locate true details of …
View

 10 $1.00
This chapter uses archival materials to showcase the ways Serafim’s Blackness was quantified, classified and written about by white residents in Vancouver, a practice that has throughout …
View

 10 $1.00
This chapter, using historical excerpts and images, highlights the racism experienced by non-white communities and by Serafim in the early 1900s.
View

 12 $1.20
This chapter explores what life, love and relationships might have looked like throughout Serafim’s life at a time in history where, much like today, racialized communities were forced to …
View

 20 $2.00
This chapter recounts the final years of Serafim’s life, sharing Serafim’s final reflections on the life he lived and how he was chosen to be remembered by those in Vancouver.
View

 12 $1.20
In this final chapter the author shares her thoughts and recounts the life of Serafim Fortes.
View

 9 $0.90
This chapter includes the authors notes and bibliography.
View

 8 $0.80