Here's how you can take part in Black History Month events in Ottawa

A Black History Month exhibit is set up at Ottawa City Hall on Laurier Avenue. (Peter Szperling/CTV News Ottawa)

It’s Black History Month and there are many events throughout the city of Ottawa for you to learn about African, Caribbean and Black history, culture and art in the city.

Black History Month kicked off with a red carpet event at the National Arts Centre, and a screening of the film 'Black Ice'.

The award-winning documentary examines anti-black racism in hockey. It recently won the People’s Choice Documentary Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022.

The broadcast premiere for the film is Thursday on TSN and Crave; both services are owned by CTV’s parent company, Bell Media.

The National Arts Centre is also holding events throughout the month, including "Cabaret Noir", and "Is God Is".

The just-released city of Ottawa 2023 draft budget also allocated more funding into anti-racism initiatives.

"I’m actually pleased in this proposed budget that we are going to see an extra $250,000 allocated to the implementation of the anti-racism strategy that was recently approved by the city to address issues such as employment equity, youth development, health outcomes," Coun. Rawlson King said.

King is Ottawa’s first black city councillor and is the Liaison for the City’s Anti-Racism and Ethnocultural Relations initiatives.

"Diversity matters and representation matters, and we build a better city if we’re more representative of the people who are within it," he says.

The Ottawa Public Library is celebrating Black History Month with events planned throughout February, including workshops, talks, and featured books.

"This year, we’re actually highlighting the theme of black resistance, so a lot of the programing that we’re going to be putting on will be exploring how Black Canadians have resisted oppression historically, and even today,” says Christopher Benitez of the Ottawa Public Library.