Cy McLean and the Trailblazers of Black Jazz in Prewar Central and Eastern Canada

WADE PFAFF is currently enrolled in the Communication and Culture program at both York University and TMU (Toronto Metropolitan University – formerly Ryerson) and is continuing to work with his former MA thesis advisor, Dr. Afua Cooper, as a researcher, interviewer, content creator, and organizational liaison, in A Black People’s History of Canada – the Black Canadian history curriculum development project. His doctoral dissertation will expand on his master’s thesis’s focus on Black Canadian jazz history and culture from 1918-1939 by covering events from the years between 1890 and 1950 while also discussing matters of Black Canadian identity formation, tolerance and resistance, and transculturation in Black communities. He is also a multimedia artist and blues and jazz guitarist whose heritage comes from South Africa, and he conducts ethnographic interviews with scholars and artists, videotapes live events, creates social media content and music history posts, and networks with university groups who are trying to use media and technology to bring awareness of Black Canadian history to the public.