Pourin’ Down Rain

The 30th anniversary edition of Cheryl Foggo’s landmark work about growing up Black on the Canadian prairies

Cheryl Foggo came of age during the 1960s in Calgary, a time when a Black family walking down the street still drew stares from everyone they passed. She grew up in the warm embrace of a community of extended family and friends, with roots in the Black migration of 1910 across the western provinces. But as an adolescent, Cheryl struggled against the negative attitudes towards Blackness she and her family encountered. She struggled against the many ways she was made to feel an outsider in the only place she ever knew as home.

As Cheryl explores her ancestry, what comes to light gives her the confidence to claim her place in the Canadian west as a proud Black woman. In this beautiful, moving work, she celebrates the Black experience and Black resiliency on the prairies.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Meeting Jim Crow
2. Hairday
3. Willis Augustus
4. Ottawa Street
5. In Sharon’s Room
6. The Great-Aunts
7. The March
8. Little Big Man
9. Living in the Middle
10. The Welcome
11. Summer in Winnipeg
12. The Bermudians
13. On the Banks of the Saskatchewan River
14. Belonging
15. Desolation
16. Discoveries
17. The Rumble of Wagons
18. Pin Cherries and Other Berries
Epilogue
Family Tree
Afterword to the Second Edition
About the Author