Black History Month: Growing up with no Black community in a major city

Opinion: What it was like growing up with no Black community in a major Canadian city

Kardano

Written for Daily Hive by Vancouverite DJ/producer Kardano (David Delgiglio).

As Black History Month begins, I’ve had a chance to reflect on what it was like growing up Black in Vancouver and how that experience influenced my life.

Even though I am a Jamaican-Italian mix, I still always felt like the token Black kid in school. I grew up in North Vancouver with virtually no Black community, which made things interesting as a kid. No one really looked like me, which I felt okay with, but when I changed schools, I would hear people whisper, “Who’s the new Black kid?”

Then I met an African immigrant named Sulomon at Argyle Secondary. Hey, another Black kid! Of course, we became best friends. But even then, I felt like an outsider and was never comfortable fitting into a single box.

Music was one way to put all that aside and discover who I was. My father introduced me to Jimi Hendrix when I was 10, driving around and listening to music in his hot rod. My uncle built me a guitar shortly after, and I was sure I would follow in Hendrix’s footsteps.

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For me, music was a bridge. I was just a kid, but I would jam with anyone. I’m also dyslexic, so the ability to communicate musically was a liberation from that weight.

As a teenager, I played guitar in some rock bands during summer vacations. Some kids would ask me why I wasn’t listening to rap or wearing Wu-Tang swag. How could I be Black and not be into rap music?

I did try it out. Still in my teens, I started a rap trio with my friends Darien (also mixed, like me) and Darius (Black, from Cincinnati). We had fun playing at some clubs in Vancouver but it wasn’t what I was looking for. I wanted to collaborate, not compete.

Around this time, my older brother Daniel had been DJing but was moving on to a career. He handed down his gear to me, and I picked up where he left off.

I DJ’d on cruise ships for a year and a half and at several clubs around Vancouver. And even in these environments, I’m sometimes subject to false assumptions. I’ve been asked why I don’t play hip-hop music, specifically. I’ve been fired from a gig because the booker assumed I would spin hip-hop but didn’t. I’ve even been told by other Black folks that I play white music.

According to a 2016 census, Black Canadians make up only 1.2% of the population of Metro Vancouver. Representation matters. And diversity matters within representation.

My favourite genres of music are house, techno, and disco. These genres are how I express myself musically. Is this white music? Each of these is deeply rooted in Black culture on this continent — house from Chicago, techno from Detroit, and disco from Philadelphia and New York City. These genres were urban before “Urban” was ever used to identify a demographic.

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My love for this music comes from the love in this music. It’s all about positive vibes: collaboration, not competition.

Growing up, my “community” was my family. My Jamaican mother taught me a thing or two about processing racism. My Italian father brought Jimi Hendrix into my life. My uncle built me my first instrument. And my brother gave me a vehicle to embark on the current path of my journey.

I hope the support for BIPOC artists continues and remains strong.

I am hoping that other artists like myself read this and feel like connecting. It’s all about creating a community of dance music lovers, and I am ready to play, produce and collaborate. If anyone wants a DJ with a fresh new sound, please reach out! Just don’t ask me to play hip-hop.

See you on the dance floor, Vancouver!

Hear Kardano on SoundCloud and find him on Instagram here.