Hipster folks, I’m trying my best. It is very difficult to do when I feel like a foreigner on familiar soil almost anytime I step into one of your establishments.

It has now been five months since the Federation of Black Canadians (FBC) officially launched, at the inaugural National Black Canadians Summit.

The first time my husband was pulled over by police, he was on his way to pick me up from work. We had been talking on the phone when he said to me, “Babe, a cop just stopped me. I’ll call you back.”

It all started as a friendly competition. “There’s only room for one JB,” I joked with Tom Power on Q, the radio show he hosts on CBC.

Growing up black and “fitting out” for most of my life, I am a mosaic of my experiences. This personal journey connected me with inspirational black women.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Over the past five years Toronto has undergone (and continues to undergo) one of the fastest restaurant booms of any North American city. Food is a big business.

The first time I heard about the Federation of Black Canadians, an organization that purports to advance the “social, economic, political and cultural interests” of Black Canada, it was through a WhatsApp conversation with a friend.

It was shortly after midnight: December 4, 2014.

A Black high school student in Ajax, Ontario walks into class one February morning and her white teacher is wearing a camouflage do-rag on his head, as a way to celebrate Black History Month.

Dear Sisters, I know that it has been a while since I spoke to you. I seem to have just popped on the scene. Over the last 20 or so years, I have been busy raising a family and growing a business, and we have lost touch.

When I was in my teens, I went with my high school’s journalism club on a trip to Charleston, South Carolina for a conference. During our down-time, we visited the town’s sleepy locales, including the much-renowned Old Slave Mart and the nearby Charleston City Market.