How a Montreal Artist-Poet’s Vision Continues Through Caribbean Cultural Reclamation
By Livity.Blog
In the heart of Montreal’s Black Canadian arts community, a voice emerged that refused to accept the erasure of Indigenous and African heritage from the cultural narrative. Anthony Trevor Joyette (1949-2014) was more than an artist and poet—he was a spiritual archaeologist, unearthing truths that colonial systems buried beneath centuries of imposed identity.
Today, his vision lives on through Livity Tree Art, where his niece continues the work he began: reclaiming, documenting, and celebrating the interconnected stories of Caribbean Indigenous peoples and the African diaspora.
The Artist as Cultural Historian
Anthony Joyette wore many hats throughout his life, but each one served a singular purpose: to document and elevate Black Canadian and Caribbean experiences that mainstream history ignored. As a contemporary Black Canadian artist based in Montreal, he worked across multiple mediums—visual art, poetry, photography, and cultural journalism—all in service of a larger mission.
As editor of KOLA magazine, Anthony created a platform for Black Canadian writers, artists, and thinkers to share their work and perspectives. He conducted interviews with luminaries like George Elliott Clarke and Clarence Bayne, creating a documented record of Black Canadian intellectual life. His interviews weren’t just conversations; they were acts of preservation, ensuring that these voices would echo through time.
But perhaps his most significant contribution was his unfinished article “Three Great Black Canadian Artists,” which highlighted Robert Scott Duncanson, Edward Mitchell Bannister, and James MacDonald Barnsley—all bi-racially mixed artists of Scottish, Caribbean, and African American descent. These artists, Anthony wrote, “dispelled the notion that the minds of Black people are of substandard quality.” Their existence proved that Black artists had always been part of Canada’s story, even when deliberately excluded from its telling.
The Poet of Redemption and Transcendence
Anthony’s 2005 poetry collection, “For Judas Iscariot in Heaven,” revealed the spiritual depth of his artistic vision. The title poem alone challenged traditional Christian dualities of good and evil, arguing that Christ’s sacrifice redeemed even Judas Iscariot—“the seeds of love / blossom another sacrifice / for life.”
This wasn’t merely theological musing. It was Anthony’s artistic philosophy: refuse binary thinking, transcend imposed categories, and find redemption through truth-telling. His work embraced what he called the diaspora view that “home is the world”—a philosophy that resonates deeply with Indigenous peoples whose homelands span continents and whose histories refuse to fit within colonial borders.
His poems created what reviewers called “a national mosaic of images of black grief and anguish washed by tears of redemption,” with “themes of love / flow[ing] through the veins of time,” fanning the “flame of hope / in noble joy.” This wasn’t pessimism—it was radical hope grounded in acknowledging both pain and possibility.
The Unfinished Work
On September 22, 2014, Anthony suffered a fatal heart attack. He was in the midst of completing his article on Black Canadian artists and finalizing the design of KOLA magazine. His estate passed on “many manuscripts on poetry, art and fiction and countless photographs” to colleagues who promised to “present his vision to the world in the coming years.”
That promise echoes in the work of Livity Tree Art today.
Amplified at Livity Tree Art
What Anthony began in Montreal—documenting erased histories, challenging colonial classifications, celebrating Caribbean and African heritage, and building platforms for cultural reclamation—continues through Livity Tree Art with expanded scope and contemporary urgency.
Continuing the Historical Documentation:
Just as Anthony researched early Black Canadian artists to prove their existence and excellence, Livity Tree Art’s “Ancestral Bridges” project maps genetic and cultural connections between Indigenous peoples across continents—connections that colonial systems deliberately obscured. The “Colonial Reclassification Series” examines precisely the kinds of identity erasure Anthony fought against: how dark-skinned Indigenous Americans were reclassified as “Negro” to facilitate land theft, how Caribbean Indigenous peoples were declared “extinct” while their descendants lived on.
Expanding the Diaspora Vision:
Anthony’s belief that “home is the world” for diaspora peoples finds fuller expression in Livity Tree Art’s pan-Indigenous framework. Where Anthony documented Black Canadian experience within Canada, Livity Tree Art traces Indigenous connections from the Kalinago and Arawak of the Caribbean to global populations, challenging the Bering Strait narrative with the Equatorial Genesis Theory—a decolonial reframing that honors oral histories while incorporating archaeological evidence from sites like Caral-Supe and Monte Verde.
Spiritual Reclamation Through Art:
Anthony’s poetry transcended Christian dualities to offer redemption. Livity Tree Art’s contemporary Aboriginal art channels goddess energies—Sekhmet, Yemayá, Lakota spirits—through ceremonial practice, transforming cultural challenges into spiritual reclamation. Both approaches use art as medicine, as healing, as resistance to imposed narratives.
Building Economic Sovereignty:
Anthony created KOLA magazine as a Black-owned platform. Livity Tree Art builds on this with a full cultural education enterprise—art, clothing, educational content—creating economic models around cultural reclamation. This is Anthony’s vision scaled: not just documenting our existence but building the infrastructure for our self-determination.
Rejecting Colonial Proof Standards:
Anthony questioned who gets to define “famous” Black Canadian artists when white-dominated institutions control the narrative. Livity Tree Art applies this same critical lens to archaeological and genealogical “proof,” centering Indigenous oral histories and questioning who benefits when Indigenous peoples must prove their existence and connections through colonial validation systems.
The Message Amplified
If Anthony Trevor Joyette’s core message was “we have always been here, we have always been excellent, and our stories deserve to be told on our own terms,” then Livity Tree Art amplifies that message across multiple frequencies:
∙ We have always been here—and our presence spans continents through ancient maritime connections
∙ We have always been excellent—and our civilizations built pyramids, developed astronomy, created sophisticated water management systems
∙ Our stories deserve to be told on our own terms—and we will build the platforms, create the art, develop the theories, and reclaim the narratives ourselves
A Legacy Living
Anthony Joyette died before he could finish his article on three great Black Canadian artists. But the work didn’t die with him. It transformed. It grew. It crossed borders and disciplines.
In every piece of contemporary Aboriginal art created at Livity Tree Art, in every blog post challenging colonial narratives, in every grant application for community cultural reclamation programming, in every social media post educating 20,000+ followers about Indigenous sovereignty—Anthony’s vision lives.
He believed that creating space for Black Canadian voices was revolutionary. Livity Tree Art expands that revolution to all colonized peoples, all erased histories, all falsified classifications. He used poetry to transcend imposed dualities. Livity Tree Art uses multiple media to transcend imposed borders—between Indigenous groups, between art and activism, between academic research and accessible education.
The legacy isn’t just preserved—it’s amplified, evolved, expanded into spaces Anthony might not have imagined but would absolutely recognize as kin to his own mission.
Because at the core, the message remains the same: They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.
Anthony planted those seeds through decades of artistic and editorial work. Today, Livity Tree Art tends the garden, cultivating a future where Caribbean Indigenous heritage isn’t erased but celebrated, where diaspora identity isn’t fragmented but connected, where art isn’t just beautiful but revolutionary.
This is how a legacy lives—not as a monument to the past, but as living work that grows with each generation, rooted in what came before while reaching toward what’s possible.
Anthony Trevor Joyette may have laid down his pen in 2014, but his words, his vision, and his revolutionary love continue to write themselves into the world through those who carry his name and his mission forward.
Rest in power and in poetry, Uncle Anthony. The work continues.
References
Primary Sources on Anthony Joyette:
Joyette, Anthony. “Three Great Black Canadian Artists.” Kola, vol. 26, issue 2, 2014. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&u=googlescholar&id=GALE%7CA393211753&v=2.1&it=r&sid=googleScholar&asid=90fe8f53
Joyette, Anthony. For Judas Iscariot in Heaven and Other Poems. AFO Enterprises, 2005.
“Anthony Joyette, For Judas Iscariot in Heaven and Other Poem.” Kola, 2007. The Free Library, Black Writers’ Guild, https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Anthony+Joyette,+For+Judas+Iscariot+in+Heave+and+other+poem.-a0171442208
Interviews and Articles by Anthony Joyette:
Joyette, Anthony. “Anthony Joyette Shares a Moment with George Elliott Clarke, a Native Black Canadian Writer.” Kola. The Free Library, https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Anthony+Joyette+shares+a+moment+with+George+Elliott+Clarke,+a+native…-a0309590854
Joyette, Anthony. “Anthony Joyette Interviews Clarence Bayne, Author of Windows to the Soul.” Kola, vol. 22, issue 1, 2010. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA228496554
Book Reviews and Critical Analysis:
“A Book for All Times.” Kola, vol. 18, issue 1, 22 March 2006. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA146957039
Artist Directories and Profiles:
“Anthony Joyette.” Artists in Canada, https://artistsincanada.com/montreal/artist/anthony-joyette-6687/
“Anthony Joyette, Painter.” Artist Membership Services, https://www.artistsincanada.com/montreal/artist/anthony-joyette-painter-6687/5/
Obituary Information:
Editor’s Note in “Three Great Black Canadian Artists.” Kola, vol. 26, issue 2, September 2014. “Anthony was in the process of completing this article and finalizing the design of KOLA when he died suddenly of a heart attack on September 22, 2014. He was buried on October 3, 2014.”
Note on Sources:
Anthony Joyette’s work was primarily published in Kola magazine, a publication dedicated to Black Canadian literature and arts. Much of his literary and artistic legacy remains in the archives of this magazine and in manuscripts held by his estate. His contributions as editor, interviewer, poet, and visual artist documented a crucial period in Black Canadian cultural history, particularly within Montreal’s artistic community.
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