Arts grant will help turn family's history into novel, play and poetry

One family's road to freedom is going to become a novel, a poetry book and a one-person play thanks to an arts grant.

Teajai Travis won a City of Windsor Arts, Culture and Heritage fund grant to help him preserve his family history.

"My family, like so many other families that survived slavery in the United States, they're a collection of warriors that made it to freedom," said Travis.

"In 1745 my oldest known ancestry was born enslaved in Virginia. He self-liberated and started a black settlement known as Liberia."

After the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, Travis's ancestors moved to Canada.

Travis has been researching since 2012, but began focusing seriously on developing his collection of poetry, anovel and a one-person play for the last two years.

"The poetry and the play, they're coming out of the larger story," said Travis."There's such a wonderful collection of stories of so many people represented. Spoken word, performance art seems to be the best way to get those stories across."

Listen to Teajai Travis and Tony Doucettetalk about how the heritage grant will help turn this family's history into art:

A drive to Virginia helped Travis get deeper into his family's history he didn't know much about the path his ancestors had taken before he went on the road trip.

"I knew that we were in Virginia," said Travis. "I didn't know exactly where in Virginia."

He "happened upon" a historical marker on the site where his ancestors had started their black settlement.

The arts and heritage fund grant is for $3,500 which Travis said will fund about 35 working hours including research and travel.

Travis hopes the one-person play will be completed by August 2019.