Cheryl Foggo

Self-possessed and poised, Cheryl Foggo, a descendant of the Black 1000, smiles triumphantly as she looks boldly into the camera. Foggo says, “My people escaped Jim Crow, the Red Summer, the Grandfather Clause, and so much more.”

Foggo was born in Calgary, Alberta. A writer, playwright, filmmaker, and storyteller, Foggo’s work over the last three decades has focused on the lives of Western Canadians of African descent such as John Ware, who was born in the United States and was a skilled and successful farmer and horseman who had several ranches in Alberta. Foggo is a descendant of Black Oklahomans who settled near Maidstone, Saskatchewan, in 1910-1911. She also had ancestors who lived in Amber Valley (formerly Pine Creek) and Campsie, Alberta.