Lived experience informs power of change through art
Black History Month feature
When Making Change was looking to add a theatre component to its anti- black racism programming, Laura LaChapelle proved to be a good fit.
LaChapelle has been in theatre from a young age and it had connected her in many ways to her family, community and culture.
Sitting down to discuss her experience of growing up in Creemore as one of the only Black people in town, LaChapelle pulls out a clipping from The Creemore Star newspaper. It’s a picture of LaChapelle as a young girl. With her brother Jim, she had the chance to meet Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander – the first Black Canadian to be appointed to a viceregal position in Canada – when she was a finalist in a speech contest in the mid-1980s. Parents of Black children sponsored an essay contest during Black History Month, the caption reads. As a finalist, LaChapelle was invited to Toronto to read her essay, which she remembers vaguely as having a unique perspective on the history of slavery.
She remembers Alexander as an imposing figure and learning that he was in a position of importance. The meeting had an impact on her.
“Representation matters,” says LaChapelle, who was named one of Canada’s Top-100 Black women to watch in 2023 by the Canada International Black Women Excellence.
As the daughter of Shakespearean actor and community theatre coordinator Tony LaChapelle, one could say theatre is in her blood. She is a drama teacher for The Town of Wasaga Beach, where she now lives, and a teacher with the Spaulding School of Drama.
She has gone on to become the program director for Making Change, whose mission is to educate communities throughout the County of Simcoe by facilitating self-awareness through impactful programs that spark conversation about equity, diversity,inclusion and equality to invoke change.
With a father who was White and a mother who is Black, LaChapelle said she struggles with not feeling fully accepted by either race – not White enough and not Black enough.
Her brother, who has darker skin, was 12 when they moved to the area and had a completely different lived experience, said LaChapelle.
She said, coming of age in Creemore was difficult. She remembers a feeling of having lots of eyeballs on her and hearing whispers.
“When you are the only one you almost feel like a new animal on exhibit,” said LaChapelle, adding that people would touch her hair or ask her where she was from, a coded way of saying you don’t belong.
The LaChapelle family moved from Toronto to the Creemore area in 1981. They moved from the busy and multicultural neighbourhood of Jane and Eglinton to Dunedin in search of the simple life.
She remembers being at the new house when a truckload of yahoos drove by yelling obscenities.
“My dad was so good at explaining why people act like jerks,” said LaChapelle, “and my mom has a quiet strength.”
“I learned to be strong and call people out,” she said. “I learned to use words to insult them right back. I had to learn to be strong and to put the negative comments in perspective.”
She was in Grade 2 at the elementary in Creemore and didn’t know a soul until she was befriended by Ginny Smith. They are best friends to this day.
She looks back on that time and wishes she could have learned about the area’s rich Black history. She sees it as a missed opportunity.
Once in high school and near the top of her class, LaChapelle’s father championed a move to Collingwood Collegiate Institute (CCI) in search of more opportunities. Her dad successfully advocated for his daughter and two of her friends, including Ginny.
She said the move was very good for her mental health but even at the bigger high school it would be assumed that she was related to the small number of other Black students.
At CCI, LaChapelle had a Black teacher, Mr Charlton Jones, who taught ancient civilizations.
“It was life changing for me to have that representation,” she said. “When you see someone that you can relate to on a cultural level it affects your learning.”
It was what inspired her to study anthropology at University of Toronto.
LaChapelle said she and her brother moved to Toronto at different times but they both loved being immersed in a multicultural city where she met people of all races, and other people of mixed race.
“I was suddenly seen as having a unique beauty,” said LaChapelle.
She was taking a summer off and was living back at home when her father died suddenly.
She ended up commuting to the city while she finished her degree.
“Coming back, it was nice to reconnect with old friends,” said LaChapelle, adding that she did receive some sincere apologies from formers schoolmates.
“I don’t think people understand the effect of micro aggressions,” she said, talking about the little insults that are experienced on a daily basis.
For example, she said her mother, Gertrude King, would get asked if she was nannying when pushing her own grandson, who has light skin, around town in a stroller.
In 2009, LaChapelle made a fresh start in Wasaga Beach with her husband Bryon after losing her ex- partner, and the father of her first two children.
LaChapelle says of her three children, her youngest is the most racialized. Her two eldest did not have the same experiences growing up as she did but her youngest son experiences colourism and those same types of micro aggressions from his teenage peers.
She now works with teenagers across the county, encouraging them to change the narrative about diversity and inclusion. As the drama mentor, she would teach youth how to be an ally through skits and scenarios, building empathy through theatre.
As program director, LaChapelle is building the organization’s presence in the area and continues to get grants to grow art engagement, taking BIPOC artists into more schools.
During February, for Black History Month, Making Change has curated the work of 10 youth artists into a show called Canvas for Change, which runs until Feb. 29 at the Rotary Education Centre, in the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie and is hosting Radiant Roots – A Black Cultural Expo in Innisfil on March 2. For details visit, makingchangesc.com.
