Wayde Compton
Pacific Central Station, 1150 Station St.
"I too am archival, if not archived; I’m in this project of drawing a line from what was then to what is now. I am in an afterimage of our history."
From After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, & Region
As the foremost proponent of black literature in Vancouver, poet, historian and turntablist Wayde Compton edited Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature & Orature (2001) and he remains acutely aware that this bustling CN train station (that gave rise to the nickname Terminal City) is where most immigrants arrived in B.C. up until the 1950s. This was also the place where many black men went to work each day. Because so many black men in Vancouver worked as porters on the CN trains, there arose, in close proximity, a thriving black community called Hogan’s Alley. Compton has since anthologized the writing of more than 40 black writers of B.C.
