The Good Word: University of Toronto lecturer explores lineage, faith and Black history in spoken word album

Andrea Thompson, a sessional lecturer at U of T Mississauga, has dug deep into her roots - and the lives of Black historical figures - in The Good Word One of Andrea Thompson 's treasured family photographs shows a young couple seated with their twin daughters. A beam of light bathes the family of four in a warm glow. Thompson, a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto Mississauga, says one of the little girls is her great-grandmother Emiline, a woman whom she remembers visiting when she was a child. Emiline later married the son of Cornelius Thompson, who escaped from slavery by following the Underground Railroad. "We used to play tag around her chair, because she didn't move much," says Thompson. "And that's pretty much all I remember about her, which is so sad because I was a kid and didn't appreciate who she was." While she may not have fully understood her ancestors' experiences when she was a child, Thompson has now dug deep into her roots - and the lives of Black historical figures - to tell their harrowing stories in her new spoken word album The Good Word . The album focuses on the experiences of historical Black figures, including Harriet Tubman, American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and Martin Luther King Jr.