FROM JUNE 2022 ISSUE OF WEST END PHOENIX

When Jalani Morgan set out to document the scene surrounding the 2022 Toronto Blue Jays, he chose to centre Black identity. But what you’re also seeing when you look at these photographs is joy – on the faces of fans, players and coaches, faces that are not regularly featured in baseball culture, despite the sport’s history with civil rights, Black labour and liberation.

Morgan’s visual project for West End Phoenix is a conversation with his subjects, but also a reflection of a lifelong pull toward baseball, a sport he loves to its core. And while normalizing Black Torontonians at the ballpark is central to the work, so is the reminder of whose lens is being turned on the game: “I’m not the only Black photographer in sports, and I want others to know that there’s a continuum that I’m a part of.”

What drew you to the game of baseball and to launching the #BlackJays project?

Baseball was the first team sport that I was introduced to by my dad; it was 1986 and I would have been five – it was the year my sister was born. And because I was a child during the real ascension of the Jays, I saw the pain before I saw the joy. And I think the pain is what sort of forged my love for the Jays. I remember them losing to Oakland, I remember them losing to Minnesota in 1991. And I was crying. But it didn’t take long for them to come back. And then they won the World Series on my 11th birthday. October 24, 1992. As a child – are you kidding me?

That brings me to now. I’m not the inventor of the Black Jays – we know who the inventors of the Black Jays are, right [a Toronto musical collective and production company, specializing in hip-hop, R&B and reggae, led by Kardinal Offishall and Solitair]? They didn’t name themselves the Black Jays because of anything other than the fact that they were in Toronto, and they love the fucking Jays. For me, it is trying to resurrect the name, to reposition it in a space it deserves.

My effort in this project, and in the totality of the work that I do, is to produce images of visual culture that truly represent our community – a community that I know exists, and loves the sport that I love. I’ve turned my eye to thinking about how I can produce imagery to show possibility. I try my best to find Black folks in the crowd.

What’s your process like, being in conversation with the people you want to document? And how are subjects taking away something from that experience, just as you are?

Ultimately, the folks I’m photographing made the decision to come to a game, and I think it’s nice to acknowledge that their existence matters to someone other than them. Their existence in the ballpark, for me, is a gift. It shows me that the things that I’m thinking about are possible. And so my way of showing that appreciation is a photograph.

I feel like I’m a caretaker for this project. I’m the caregiver. I’m doing this for the long game of Black folks participating in a sport that I love. I want to make it an exchange.

I know this means a lot to you, but can you put into words what this project means to you as you’re experiencing it?

There’s a lot of discourse in the visual culture of Blackness that is a response to trauma. But I think what’s enjoyable about this specific project is that I’m producing it in a place where I feel comfortable in my mind. So it brings a lot of joy.

Are there any special moments that stand out to you? Was it photographing Dusty Baker*, or was it something else?

I would definitely include photographing Dusty in that list. And I think during the opening series, my photographs of Teo [Jays outfielder Teoscar Hernandez] and Danny Jansen [Jays catcher] helped set the tone for the type of energy that I wanted to show the Jays bringing.

I also really enjoyed making a photograph of a Black auntie, because I saw the joy she had when she had the baseball in her hand. And another, of two Black boys that I had seen, the gaze that we gave each other – you know, you could tell that there was purpose in that moment. That, to me, felt really great.

* Dusty Baker is the current manager of the Houston Astros and the first African-American manager to win 2,000 games. Before that, he played 19 seasons in the majors, and won the World Series in 1981.