Cheryl Foggo - Pourin Down Rain: A Black Woman Claims Her Place in the Canadian West

I would like to acknowledge the assistance of the following people and organizations:

First and especially, Daisy Williams

Ellis Smith

Bert and Edith Smith

Sidney and Eileen Smith

Olie and Cathy Smith

David and Barbara Smith

Ethel and Lawrence Lewsey

Edith and Andrew Risby

Pearl and Allen Hayes

Pauline and Roy Foggo

Eva Goodman

Clem Martini

Jill Swartz

Penny Williams

Fil Fraser

David Bercuson

Jon Whyte

Larry Pratt

Howard and Tamara Palmer

The Canada Council

The Alberta Foundation for the Literary Arts

Alberta Culture and Multiculturalism

For the second edition:

The late Ted Giles of Detselig/Temeron Books was the original publisher of Pourin Down Rain, which was the most important element in the launch of my career. PDR could easily have not made it to print. I had received a number of rejections for the manuscript, which is not uncommon in the early life of writers. But the substance of the rejections was discouraging in a particular way. The one I remember best said There are not enough Black people in Canada to justify us publishing this work. In other words: you dont belong, you dont have the right to be heard and your story doesnt matter. Although I felt terrible after receiving that letter, I believed the publisher to be wrong on every level and persisted in sending the manuscript out. Ted chose it, and if he hadnt done so Im not sure what path my life might have taken. Ill always be grateful to him.

I would like to acknowledge the family I have found because Pourin Down Rain exists. Somehow it made its way to Smiths across the continent, and Ive received messages of appreciation from several descendants of my grandfathers siblings over the years. This, I love.

Chandra and Miranda, thank you for loving our history as you do. You are beacons and the most important teachers Ive ever had.

Aunt Daisy was the first person I listed in my original acknowledgements. My gratitude toward her has grown. Her faith in the worth of our family story sustained me many times. I am grateful to all the people like her from the Black migration of 1910the keepers of photos, the chroniclers, the guardians against erasure.

And Im grateful to all the people who have kept