"WE CARRY THE FIRE" by Daramfon Morgan

Part of the InterCHANGE program of temporary public artworks within the redeveloped Cogswell District

Artist: Daramfon Morgan
Artwork title: WE CARRY THE FIRE
Year: 2025
Dimensions: 12”W x 84”H each
Medium: Series of 14 vinyl banners on lightposts
Location: Intersection of Barrington St. and Cogswell St.

About the artist

Daramfon Morgan (@DCM ART CREATIONS) is a Nigerian Canadian visual artist, muralist, and digital painter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As a Black and African Nova Scotian artist, his work blends contemporary storytelling with vibrant cultural symbolism drawn from African folktales, Caribbean traditions, and local Black histories. Through DCM ART CREATIONS, Morgan has exhibited across Nova Scotia and continues to expand his practice into public art, licensing, and large-scale installations.

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About the Artwork

We Carry the Fire is a visual journey rooted in memory, community, and collective imagination. Through this banner series, I explore what it means to inherit and ignite the intangible gifts passed from generation to generation such as resilience, care, creativity, and the will to rise. Each banner represents a stage of that journey, unfolding through symbolic imagery and deeply emotional scenes that speak to cross-generational strength, healing, and hope.

As a Nigerian Canadian artist living and creating in Nova Scotia, my work is grounded in storytelling traditions of the African and Caribbean Diaspora. These banners pull inspiration from those traditions, as well as from community wisdom, Afro-futurist motifs, and everyday acts of care. The flame appearing repeatedly throughout the series is not just fire; it’s a metaphor for spirit, for purpose, for legacy. It reminds us that even in dark times, we carry something powerful within us and between us.

The figures in each piece are Black and African Nova Scotian celebrated not just in their struggle, but in their joy, their leadership, their creativity, and their endurance. I’ve drawn from experiences and themes that center emotion and Black identity with boldness and grace.

This work is my love letter to the community. It’s meant to be public, visible, and accessible to live on street corners and light poles where people walk, talk, and gather. Because the fire doesn’t belong in galleries alone. It belongs to all of us.

Location

Intersection of Barrington St. and Cogswell St.

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