Each month, we profile someone connected to CBRC, featuring them in The Update, our monthly newsletter. Check out the February 2025 newsletter here.
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Daphne Dike-Hart (she/they) is the Founder and Executive Director of Black Pride YYC, a volunteer-driven 2S/LGBTQIA+ community service organization that delivers support programs to African, Black, and Caribbean communities in Calgary, Alberta. She is an internationally licensed pharmacist and was also recently a presenter at Summit 2024, where she talked about enhancing healthcare access and equity for Black 2S/LGBTQIA+ folks.
After having moved to Canada from Nigeria, Daphne was looking for queer community in Calgary. “It was hard to find people that looked like me,” she says. “Spaces that cater to Black and queer intersections felt nonexistent.” In the beginning of 2023, she began hosting gatherings like movie nights and networking events for Black queer folks in her house, which soon became too small for the amount of people that showed.
Black Pride YYC seeks to set community members up for success in three ways. Firstly, the organization acts as a social hub for Black queer people to network and connect. Next is the economic sphere—with many members of Black Pride YYC being immigrants, newcomers, and refugees, the organization offers things like resume reviews and job interview preparation, along with teaching folks about economic resilience and financial wellbeing (for example, many members come from countries that do not have a credit card system, which Black Pride YYC helps them navigate in Canada). Lastly, Black Pride YYC takes a holistic approach to health and wellbeing, and offers workout events, art therapy, and events such as Rainbow Brushes, a beauty workshop exclusively for Black trans women interested in makeup and wig installation.
Daphne’s experience in Nigeria as a pharmacist—both in community settings and as the head of a clinical pharmacy—has led to her interest in healthcare research. She is particularly interested in understanding where the community is at in Calgary. “I want to understand what people know about the types of care that are available to them,” she says. At Summit, Daphne’s presentation highlighted the need for healthcare providers to be culturally competent in the experiences of Black 2S/LGBTQIA+ people. “Culturally competent care is ensuring that you know who you're giving care to,” Daphne explains, “and adapting that care to suit the needs of that person.”
Cultural competency is at the core of Black Pride YYC’s work, who offer tailored cultural competency training to community organizations and companies. Daphne says that culturally competent training doesn't necessarily mean folks are trained only on anti-Blackness. Training is also given to Black service providers and organizations that serve Black community members, because of a lack of understanding of queer identities. “It can be hard if you’re seeking care and service providers water down your queer identity, forgetting that queerness is part of your culture,” Daphne says. “All of these identities come together. You can’t separate them—they all have to be affirmed.” In addition to training, Black Pride YYC recommends that healthcare providers incorporate their anti-oppression and anti-racism toolkit into their practices.
Daphne cites Lady Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, founder and CEO of UK Black Pride, as someone who has shaped her leadership and advocacy. She also mentions author James Baldwin as being highly influential in her life: “Something I learned from Baldwin is that we are the future ancestors—the things we do today as Black queer individuals are creating the history that people are going to read about.”
Photo: Daphne Dike-Hart
“As much as I am Black, that is as much as I am queer.”
