Cheryl Foggo

Cheryl Foggo is a Canadian award-winning author, documentary film director, screenwriter and playwright.

Biography

Born in Calgary, Alberta in 1956,[1][2] she is descended from black Oklahomans who settled in Maidstone, Saskatchewan in 1910.[3] She also had ancestors who lived in Amber Valley, Alberta and Campsie, Alberta. Foggo knew CTrain designer Oliver Bowen when she was growing up in Calgary and her mother's bridesmaid and close friend was Violet King Henry, the first black woman lawyer in Canada.[4][5]

Advocacy

A keen researcher and voice for black pioneers in Western Canada, Foggo has also had multiple showings of her multi-media presentations: Ranchers, Rebels and the Righteous, Creole, Travelling On, Five Voices and Unlocking Sacred Codes.[6] She began work on the play John Ware Re-Imagined,[4] hoping to bring attention to the Black Albertan cowboy and rancher John Ware in time for the centennial of the Calgary Stampede in 2012.[7][8]

She has been profiled in Who's Who in Black Canada.[6]

She volunteers on multiple boards as an advocate for writers and Black artists and is an active mentor and lecturer.

Journalism

Foggo has written for Theatre Alberta, Reader's Digest.ca, Avenue, AlbertaViews, Alberta Ventures, Calgary, Canadian, Western Living, Sunday Magazine, Arts Bridge, Muse, Canadian Consumer, the Calgary Herald, The Globe and Mail and Legacy.[6]

Her work has been anthologized in multiple collections, including The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology edited by Karina Vernon, Calgary Through The Eyes of Writers edited by Shaun Hunter, Alberta Encore, One Step Over The Line, Directions-The Bicentenary of the Abolition of the British Slave Trade, Remembering Chinook Country and Unsettled Pasts.

Plays

In August 2014, her play John Ware Reimagined premiered in Calgary,[9] produced by Ellipsis Tree Collective Theatre Company. John Ware Reimagined had its first public reading in February 2012.[6] The script won the Writers' Guild of Alberta 2015 Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama.[6]

In August 2012, The Devil We Know, her play co-written with Clem Martini, premiered at the Blyth Theatre Festival.[6]

In 2010, she created a stage adaptation of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, receiving workshops and staged readings during Theatre Calgary's Fuse Festival and Afrikadey.[6]

Her play Heaven was produced by Lunchbox Theatre Company in 2001 and aired on CBC Radio Sunday Showcase and Monday Night Playhouse in 2004.

Her play Turnaround, co-written with Clem Martini was produced by Lunchbox Theatre and Quest Theatre Company in 1999.

Books

Her first book Pourin’ Down Rain: A Black Woman Claims Her Place in the Canadian West is a memoir about five generations of her family and talks about growing up Black on the Canadian prairies. It was a finalist for the Alberta Culture Non-fiction Award in 1990.[1] In 2020, Brush Education released the 30th anniversary edition.[10]

Her three children's/YA books - One Thing That's True (1998), I Have Been in Danger (2001), Dear Baobab, (2011)[3] - offer positive representations of black and mixed-race childhoods.[1]

Filmmaking

Foggo made John Ware Reclaimed, a documentary film about legendary black cowboy John Ware with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).[9][11]John Ware Reclaimed had its world premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival in 2020, where it received the CTV Alberta Feature Audience Choice Award.[12]

In 2019 she wrote and directed the short film Kicking Up A Fuss: The Charles Daniels Story, which was a finalist for an AMPIA in 2020.

In 2002, she wrote and directed the NFB documentary film The Journey of Lesra Martin.[3]

Screenwriting
  • Carol's Mirror (1992), winner of national and international educational film awards[3]
  • member, story-writing team, North of Sixty TV series, for 2.5 seasons[3]
  • "The Higher Law", co-written for North of Sixty[3]
  • Love Hurts (1998), finalist, Alberta Motion Picture Industry Awards[3]
  • consultant, NFB's Race is a Four Letter Word (2006)[3]
  • researcher, National Film Board's (NFB), Mighty Jerome (2010)[3]

Awards
  • 2020 Calgary International Film Festival CTV Alberta Feature Audience Choice Award for John Ware Reclaimed.
  • 2015 Writers Guild of Alberta Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama for John Ware Reimagined.[6]
  • 2015 Obsidian Black Achievement Award for Professional Excellence.
  • 2014 Writers Guild of Canada Sondra Kelly Screenplay Award
  • 2008 national Harry Jerome Award For The Arts
  • Merit Award, Fort Calgary (2004)[3]
  • Chris Award for Journey of Lesra Martin, Columbus International Film Festival (2003)[3]
  • Best Education Program, Gold Apple Award & Short Drama Award, for Carol's Mirror (1992)[3]
  • Great North TV Writing Competition (1995)[3]
  • Achievement Award, BAASA (1998)[3]

Award nominations
  • Governor General[3]
  • Silver Birch[3]
  • Blue Heron[3]
  • Mr. Christie[3]
  • The Writers Guild of Alberta R. Ross Annett[3]
  • finalist in Theatre BC's National Playwriting Competition (2000)
  • Love Hurts (1998), finalist, Alberta Motion Picture Industry Awards
  • Kicking Up a Fuss: The Charles Daniels Story, finalist, Alberta Motion Picture Industry Awards (2019)

References
  1. Vernon, Karina (2020). The Black Prairie Archives : An Anthology. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 232. ISBN 978-1-77112-376-1.
  2. Williams, Dawn P. (2006). Who's who in Black Canada 2: Black Success and Black Excellence in Canada : a Contemporary Directory. ISBN 978-0973138412.
  3. "Cheryl Foggo". Black in Canada. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  4. Hunt, Stephen (5 March 2014). "Thanks to The Real McCoy, Andrew Moodie found a way to celebrate our black heroes". Calgary Herald. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  5. "Cheryl Foggo | Black In Canada". www.blackincanada.com. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
  6. "Cheryl Foggo". Playwrights Guild of Canada. Archived from the original on 15 December 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  7. White, Ryan (20 August 2014). "Reintroducing Albertans to John Ware". CTV News. CTV News. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  8. Klaszus, Jeremy (June 6, 2020). "Sprawlcast: Cheryl Foggo on Black life in Alberta". The Sprawl. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
  9. Bonikowsky, Laura Neilson (June 28, 2019). "John Ware | The Canadian Encyclopedia". thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
  10. "Pourin' Down Rain". Brush Education. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
  11. "Freed slave who became Alberta rancher to be featured in National Film Board production". CBC News. 15 August 2017. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  12. Eric Volmers, "Finding John Ware: Documentary separates the man from the myth". North Bay Nugget, September 22, 2020.
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