Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
LARGELY THROUGH a movie starring Denzil Washington and a song by Bob Dylan, the story of boxer Reuben 'Hurricane' Carter's false imprisonment for murder and subsequent, eventually successful, efforts to free him have been well publicised.
What is not as widely known is the story of the person who, after the celebrity attention had faded and Carter was still behind bars, read Hurricane's story in a book he had written from prison and jabbed away at the cause, eventually winning a majority decision to set Carter free.
It was this story, the story of Lesra Martin, which was told in a 45-minute film at 14 Seymour Avenue, St. Andrew, on Monday night as the Canadian High Commission marked Black History Month.
Cheryl Foggo, who made the documentary, was on hand to introduce the film, as well as answer questions about it.
She also read a true short story, Camp Meeting, for the small and attentive gathering.
INTERACTION
The interaction between Martin and Carter was significant, but not the sum total of the film, which traced Martin's life from a near illiterate in Brooklyn, New York, to a successful lawyer and family man in Canada.
Key to the transformation was his chance meeting with a group of Canadians who invited him to come north of the border to Toronto. He did and eventually relocated there, where a whole new world opened up.
His personal borders were reset along with his physical ones, Martin being unable to sleep on his first night in the house as he thought that someone was on the roof or outside the window of his upstairs room. It turned out to be a tree; where he came from, there were none to create the unfamiliar sounds.
Martin (fourth in his class of 47 back home) was almost unable to read and the family immersed him in books. On one of his forays to the library, he came upon Carter's book, wrote him in prison and went to meet him.
Carter described the book as his message in a bottle to the outside world, which he hoped someone would open and read; Martin did and, seven years later, Carter was free.
Martin's story continued with him and his wife moving to a more remote area of Canada, where there were no other black people.
CONNECTION
Foggo spoke after a break, noting the lost potential the story of Lesra Martin brought out. She said that he grew eight inches in his first year in Canada, as a result of improved nutrition and said there were so many others who did not get the chance that he had.
Camp Meeting was the story of her meeting her best friend, Melody, a connection made by her preacher uncle who saw that she needed some new best friends.
Foggo was not impressed at first, as "I would not have picked her as a friend. I had seen her before and thought she was mousey."
They were roomed together at a Christian camp and found common ground in the voice of Papa John floating from the radio. Melody introduced the city girl to the stars "I never knew existed" and the two got into various mild enough troubles at camp ("I also drove my brother's car, albeit at low speed, into a tree").
The story ended with Foggo looking at her uncle as they drove away from the camp, knowing that he was connected in a way she was not to the camp grounds of slavery.
RACISM
In the question and answer segment, Professor Carolyn Cooper spoke to the missing element in the documentary, racism in Canada, saying that the country seemed to be presented as a redemptive alternative to the United States.
Foggo said there was racism there towards non-white people and a subsequent contribution from a Jamaican about being refused rental accommodation in Halifax because of fears her children would cause other black children to come in and devalue the neighbourhood underscored the point.
