Little Burgundy – Evolving Montreal, a photographic exhibition of one of Quebec’s first Black neighbourhoods

Little Burgundy – Evolving Montreal by Andrew Jackson

Black space: Resistance, resilience and the search for belonging

Andrew Jackson, Svens Telemaque, Union United Church, 2022

Through September 28, 2025, the McCord Stewart Museum presents Andrew Jackson’s exhibition Little Burgundy – Evolving Montreal, a foray into this south-western district of the city. Over a two-year period, the photographer documented important landmarks for the Black community and met people who grew up there, live there or still have ties to the area. The result is an exhibition featuring 61 photographs of the individuals and sites that bear witness to the urban and social transformations that have impacted Little Burgundy. Three hard-hitting yet touching short films capture local residents’ lived experiences. The exhibition also features some twenty objects and images selected by Andrew Jackson from the Museum’s collection. These artefacts, juxtaposed with contemporary objects loaned by residents, create a dialogue between the past and the present.

Andrew Jackson, Jason’s Hands, 1965 Saint-Jacques Street, 2024

Through this project, the photographer exposes the duality involved in designating a place or neighbourhood as a “Black space.” For Black people, it invokes a sense of security, freedom and belonging, while for non-Black persons it conveys a negative image: “When city spaces, such as Little Burgundy, are designated as Black spaces, there are profound implications for Black occupants. This is especially true in North America, where historically, in non-Black minds at least, Black spaces have not existed as places of acceptance or celebration of difference. Rather, they have been linked to notions of failure – notions that become catalysts for urban renewal, gentrification and the ensuing erasure of Black communities,” says Andrew Jackson.

Andrew Jackson, Nancy Oliver-Mackenzie, Vinet Park, 2024

Black space: a pilgrimage site

As part of his research carried out for the Evolving Montreal photographic commission, Andrew Jackson investigates how Black spaces – both physical and discursive – are experienced by Black communities. He is especially interested in how these sites are created and maintained, whether tangibly or symbolically, and in historically occupied physical spaces. His work highlights how these spaces continue to exist in collective memory and how attachment to them endures, long after they have been obliterated by urban renewal and new communities have moved in. As Andrew Jackson states: “This is so powerful that long after Black residents have left, involuntarily or otherwise, they continue to make the pilgrimage of return.”

Little Burgundy

Andrew Jackson, Willie Rosario, Oscar-Peterson Park, 2024

Although the Black population today makes up only about 18% of the neighbourhood’s 11,000 inhabitants, Little Burgundy remains an important historical site for the community. As one of Quebec’s first Black neighbourhoods, it offers a unique perspective on the impact of urban renewal and gentrification on historic populations, as experienced in Montreal and throughout North America in the 20th century. While certain important gathering places like the Union United Church – the oldest Black congregation in Canada – now find themselves outside the neighbourhood’s contemporary borders, they remain intimately linked to the history of the community that founded and animated them.

“After Robert Walker, who photographed Griffintown, and Joannie Lafrenière, who captured Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, we’ve commissioned Andrew Jackson to explore the urban transformations that have occurred in Little Burgundy, as well as its residents’ experiences and memories of such transformations, as part of our Evolving Montreal series. The resulting exhibition is an opportunity to discover Montreal’s Black communities and a neighbourhood whose identity was irrevocably altered in the name of ‘urban renewal’ in the late 1960s and 1970s,” says Anne Eschapasse, President and CEO.

For more information, including opening hours and ticket prices, visit: www.musee-mccord-stewart.ca

Photo: Roger Aziz – Musée McCord Stewart Museum