Jan Wade’s altarpiece Obamanation captures the optimism felt worldwide when Barack Obama was elected as the first African American president in 2008. Rousing symbols and words are situated alongside reminders that there is still much more work to be done. “I never believed in the post-racial society…acclaimed when Barack Obama was elected President,” says Wade. Her parents faced bigotry when they entered into an interracial marriage as teenagers, and Wade recalls being the only student of colour while enrolled at OCAD University. She explains that Obama’s presidential victory “was a powerful sign…but most Black people will tell you we held our breath and prayed…For we as much as anyone know that we live in a society held together by a shaky history of miseducation…the histories still left out of history…the denial of the fact that in Canada as well as America we are still denied our full share of belonging no matter how long we have been here…that the blood of our ancestors…held in bondage…who helped to build these dreams…is still in the soil…”