Faith Nolan

Biography

Faith Nolan (born 1957) is a Canadian social activist, folk and jazz singer-songwriter and guitarist. She currently resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

History

Nolan is considered part of a Canadian feminist music movement of the 1980s and 90s. In the early years of her career, she performed with the feminist band, The Heretics. Nolan's music is described as "her political work, a politics firmly rooted in her being working class, a woman, African Canadian and queer." Nolan is openly lesbian, and uses her music to link her sexuality with the musical history of black North America.
Part of her activist work has been documenting the social, political and cultural history of Africville, a historic African Canadian settlement in Maritime Canada. Rinaldo Walcott cites her as one of the African-Canadian artists working to prevent the erasure of the black presence in Canadian history.,
Nolan has spent her recent years working with women prisoners at various prisons worldwide including Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, Ontario and the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario.
Her aim is "to see social changes occur that will stop the degradation of women and will stop unjustly punishing women for defending themselves."
She also runs a musical therapy workshop at Vanier Centre for Women and at Sistering, a women's organization located in downtown which provides support to homeless, marginalized, and low-income women.
In her quest, she has founded and directed several choirs including Singing Elementary Teachers of Toronto, CUPE Freedom Singers, the Women of Central East Correctional Centre, and Sistering Sisters.
In 1994, Nolan in conjunction with the Toronto Women of Colour Collective, once known as the Toronto Multicultural Womyn in Concert, helped establish Camp SIS (Sisters in Struggle) located in the Kawarthas, 2 hours northeast of Toronto.
In 2009, Nolan was named Honoured Dyke for Toronto's 2009 Pride celebrations and led the 2009 Dyke March.
On November 29, 2014, Nolan was recognized at the third annual Min Sook Lee Labour Arts Award Gala for her contribution to the arts and labour movement.
In 2021, her album Africville was named the jury winner of the Polaris Heritage Prize at the 2021 Polaris Music Prize.

Personal life

Nolan and her family lived in Africville, a predominantly black community in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At a young age, she and her family moved to Toronto, Ontario's Cabbagetown neighbourhood. Her mother is a white woman of Irish descent and her father is of African Canadian and Mi'kmaq heritage.