A vibrant, revealing memoir about the cultural and familial pressures
that shaped George Elliott Clarke's early life in the Black Canadian
community that he calls Africadia, centred in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
As a boy, George Elliott Clarke knew that a great deal was expected from
him and his two brothers. The descendant of a highly accomplished
lineage on his paternal side--great-grandson to William Andrew White,
the first Black officer (non-commissioned) in the British army--George
felt called to live up to the family name. In contrast, his mother's
relatives were warm, down-to-earth country folk. Such contradictions
underlay much of his life and upbringing--Black and White, country and
city, outstanding and ordinary, high and low. With vulnerability and
humour, George shows us how these dualities shaped him as a poet and
thinker.
At the book's heart is George's turbulent relationship with his father,
an autodidact who valued art, music and books but worked an unfulfilling
railway job. Bill could be loving and patient, but he also acted out
destructive frustrations, assaulting George's mother and sometimes
George and his brothers, too.
Where Beauty Survived is the story of a complicated family, of the
emotional stress that white racism exerts on Black households, of the
unique cultural geography of Africadia, of a child who became a poet,
and of long-kept secrets.
