Cheryl Foggo

Born in Calgary, Alberta in 1956, she is descended from Black Oklahomans who settled in Maidstone, Saskatchewan in 1910. She also had ancestors who lived in Amber Valley, Alberta and Campsie, Alberta. Foggo knew CTrain designer Oliver Bowen when she was growing up in Calgary and her mother's bridesmaid and close friend was Violet King Henry, the first Black woman lawyer in Canada.

A keen researcher and voice for Black pioneers in Western Canada, Foggo recently served on the advisory board for Black on the Prairies, a multi-platform archive and resource initiated and curated by journalist Omayra Issa and CBC Radio host Ify Chiwetelu on CBC [1] and has also had multiple presentations of her multi-media creations: Ranchers, Rebels and the Righteous, Creole, Travelling On, Five Voices and Unlocking Sacred Codes. She began work on the play John Ware Re-Imagined, hoping to bring attention to the Black Albertan cowboy and rancher John Ware in time for the centennial of the Calgary Stampede in 2012.

She has been profiled in Who's Who in Black Canada.

She volunteers on multiple boards as an advocate for writers and Black artists and is an active mentor and lecturer.

Foggo has written for Theatre Alberta, Reader's Digest.ca, [2]Avenue, AlbertaViews, Alberta Ventures, Calgary, Canadian, Western Living, Sunday Magazine, Arts Bridge, Muse, Canadian Consumer, the Calgary Herald, The Globe and Mail and Legacy.

Her work has been anthologized in multiple collections, including [3]The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology edited by Karina Vernon, Calgary Through The Eyes of Writers edited by Shaun Hunter, Alberta Encore, One Step Over The Line, Directions-The Bicentenary of the Abolition of the British Slave Trade, Remembering Chinook Country and Unsettled Pasts.

Her short play The Sender was commissioned as part of Obsidian Theatre Company's 21 Black Futures, now streaming on CBC Television Gem.

Her play Heaven is scheduled for production at the Citadel Theatre in summer 2021.

In August 2014, her play John Ware Reimagined premiered in Calgary, produced by Ellipsis Tree Collective Theatre Company. John Ware Reimagined had its second production at [4] Workshop West Theatre Company in 2017. An early version of the play had its first public reading in 2012. The script won the Writers' Guild of Alberta 2015 Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama.

In August 2012, The Devil We Know, her play co-written with Clem Martini, premiered at the Blyth Festival.

In 2010, she created a stage adaptation of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, receiving workshops and staged readings during Theatre Calgary's Fuse Festival and Afrikadey.

Heaven was first produced by [5] Lunchbox Theatre Company in 2001 and aired on CBC Radio Sunday Showcase and Monday Night Playhouse in 2004.

Her play Turnaround, co-written with Clem Martini, was produced by Lunchbox Theatre and Quest Theatre Company in 1999.

Her first book Pourin’ Down Rain: A Black Woman Claims Her Place in the Canadian West is a memoir about five generations of her family and talks about growing up Black on the Canadian prairies. It was a finalist for the Alberta Culture Non-fiction Award in 1990. In 2020, [6] Brush Education released the 30th anniversary edition. The audio version of the 30th anniversary edition is read by acclaimed actor Karen Robinson.

Her three children's/YA books - One Thing That's True (1998), I Have Been in Danger (2001), Dear Baobab, (2011) - offer positive representations of Black and mixed-race childhoods.

Foggo made John Ware Reclaimed, a documentary film about legendary Black cowboy John Ware with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).John Ware Reclaimed had its world premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival in 2020, where it received the CTV Alberta Feature Audience Choice Award.

In 2019 she wrote and directed the short film Kicking Up A Fuss: The Charles Daniels Story, which was a finalist for an AMPIA in 2020.

In 2002, she wrote and directed the NFB documentary film The Journey of Lesra Martin.

She has been a consultant on several other films and was a member of the story team on the CBC drama North of 60 for 2.5 seasons.

Filmography

• Carol's Mirror (1992), winner of national and international educational film awards
• member, story-writing team, North of Sixty TV series, for 2.5 seasons
• The Higher Law, co-written for North of Sixty TV series
• Love Hurts (1998), episode of North of Sixty TV series, finalist for Alberta Motion Picture Industry Awards
• consultant, NFB's Race is a Four Letter Word (2006)
• researcher, National Film Board's (NFB), Mighty Jerome (2010)

• 2021 Grand Prize Regards d'ici category Vues d'Afrique Festival Internationale for John Ware Reclaimed
• 2021 Calgary Black Chambers Arts, Entertainment and Media Award
• 2020 Calgary International Film Festival CTV Alberta Feature Audience Choice Award for John Ware Reclaimed.
• 2015 Writers Guild of Alberta Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama for John Ware Reimagined.
• 2015 Obsidian Black Achievement Award for Professional Excellence.
• 2014 Writers Guild of Canada Sondra Kelly Screenplay Award
• 2008 national Harry Jerome Award For The Arts
• Merit Award, Fort Calgary (2004)
• Chris Award for Journey of Lesra Martin, Columbus International Film Festival (2003)
• Best Education Program, Gold Apple Award & Short Drama Award, for Carol's Mirror (1992)
• Great North TV Writing Competition (1995)
• Achievement Award, BAASA (1998)

• Writers Guild of Canada documentary script
• Governor General
• Silver Birch
• Blue Heron
• Mr. Christie
• The Writers Guild of Alberta R. Ross Annett
• finalist in Theatre BC's National Playwriting Competition
• Love Hurts, finalist, Alberta Motion Picture Industry Awards
• Kicking Up a Fuss: The Charles Daniels Story, finalist, Alberta Motion Picture Industry Awards