Rhythm & Blues Cambridge
Welcome!
We are excited to welcome you to this unique hub for community and engagement.
A gathering place to explore our rich and diverse history, our “Rhythm and Blues”. Where we support and showcase the Black community in Cambridge. We promote and appreciate the Black experience by building partnerships, sharing and develop vital resources for our community.
Our mission is “to provide a safe engaging space to empower, inform and inspire the Black community in Cambridge.”
How Rhythm & Blues Cambridge Began
We brought in racialized community members, I gave my vision of what I wanted to do, and Rhythm and Blues Cambridge was born. We had our first event in February 2020 just before the Pandemic shut down. It was a success, and we began to plan for the following year. Still in lock-down, we moved to a virtual format. We looked at ways in which we could engage our Black and Racialized community. We spoke about reaching out to young Black girls and youth.
Working in community Outreach, I saw the need for this sort of programming. If it was not often a school to prison pipeline, it was a school to pregnancy, motherhood, social housing and poverty. How could we reach out to this vulnerable population, and make a difference. This lead to the idea and development of the idea of Krysanne Mclean, Black Girls Excellence. A comprehensive program for Black girls and youth where no topic was off the table, a space where they were celebrated from the inside out.
Marjorie-Ann Knight - Rhythm & Blues Founder
In 2018 following Black History Month celebrations, I took stock and realized that the majority of the Black History Month celebrations were happening outside of my city. They were for the most part happening in Toronto, with a very small percentage of them happening in Kitchener/Waterloo. Further introspection showed that it was not just Black History Month that was missing in Cambridge, but any mention or celebration of Black History, Life, Culture was missing from Cambridge.
There were events happening in Kitchener/Waterloo, the Multicultural, the Link, Bring on the Sunshine, Africa summercamp. There were sponsored activities by organizations such as CAS, and Carizon, but none of these were taking place in Cambridge. I had been a part of a working group with the City of Cambridge working on a Newcomers event, when I mentioned to two of the persons working on the event, that it was sad that Cambridge had no Black History Month events. That I was bound and determined to bring forward an event in Cambridge. They were in agreement that this was something they were interested in. We agreed to each bring some people to the table and we would begin to work on this.
In Memory of Lisa Lewis
We are deeply saddened to share that in October 2022 we lost a member of our Rhythm & Blues family. Lisa Lewis played a huge role on our team at Rhythm & Blues Cambridge. Everyone that met Lisa knew she was special, a bright light filled with love and joy.
Lisa was a huge advocate for the work that we do in Rhythm & Blues. Lisa truly believed in our mission "to provide a safe and engaging space to empower, inform and inspire the Black community in Cambridge".
Over the last few years, she worked incredibly hard volunteering her time to make sure our programs and events were successful and really met the needs of the Black community. Lisa was also instrumental in helping Rhythm & Blues secure grants to ensure that the important work we do can continue.
Lisa, we miss you with all of our hearts, and cannot thank you enough for everything that you did for our community.
Love, The Rhythm & Blues Team
