Dr. Itah Sadu: 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
On November 12, 2026, Dr. Itah Sadu will receive The Children’s Book Bank’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award at our second annual Story Soirée fundraiser at Daniels Spectrum in Regent Park.
Learn more about the remarkable contributions Dr. Sadu has made to literacy, storytelling and community building in the Greater Toronto Area by reading her biography below.
We invite you to attend and join us in celebrating Dr. Sadu’s incredible career! Get your tickets today: https://app.galabid.com/storysoiree
ITAH SADU BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Itah Sadu is a Barbadian-Canadian children’s author, community leader, and award-winning storyteller.
Born in Scarborough, Ontario, she attended school in Barbados before returning to Canada as a teen.
She began writing stories because she wanted to see more of herself and her community reflected in the books she read.
Dr. Sadu comes from a family of entrepreneurs and trailblazers.
In eras when men overwhelmingly dominated business and property ownership, her great-great-grandmother ran a bakery in 19th-century Barbados, and her great-grandmother, Amanda Phillips, owned three rum shops and a car in the early 1900s.
Her maternal grandfather was a master builder who owned seven fishing boats, while her grandmother sold ice, plants, oil, and land.
Her mother, Gloria Walcott, was among the first wave of Caribbean women to arrive in Canada from Barbados in 1955 through the West Indian Domestic Scheme (WIDS).
These family stories inspired Sadu to be “bold, daring, and innovative.”
Over two decades, Dr. Sadu has published numerous titles, including Christopher, Please Clean Up Your Room!, Christopher Changes His Name, and Greetings, Leroy. In 2004, she was honoured with the Marilyn Lastman Award at Artsweek (Toronto Arts Council Foundation Awards).
In her most recent picture book, I Am Big, a young Black hockey player learns to embrace his size and find joy in his talent on the ice.
Illustrated by Toronto artist Marley Berot, the story explores community, confidence, and belonging through Canada's favourite sport.
Dr. Sadu and her husband, Miguel San Vincente, assumed ownership of Toronto independent bookstore A Different Booklist in 1998, taking it over from critical race theorist Dr. Wesley Crichlow.
Specializing in titles from the African and Caribbean diaspora and the Global South, the bookstore became a cultural hub, gathering place, and learning space rooted in Toronto’s Black community.
In 2016, it made history as the first Black-owned business to receive an Ontario Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.
In 2022, Dr. Sadu became Managing Director of Blackhurst Cultural Centre, which evolved from A Different Booklist’s cultural hub, The People’s Residence.
Located in the Bathurst and Bloor neighbourhood, an area with a longstanding history of Black homeownership and businesses, Blackhurst Cultural Centre provides opportunities to learn about the vibrant histories, cultures, and contributions of Canadians of African and Caribbean descent.
Dr. Sadu has also spent decades as a community builder and educator in Toronto, designing and developing programs for racialized youth in high-density neighbourhoods.
Her youth entrepreneurship programs have served as models for job placement, skills development, and leadership training.
Among these initiatives was Fresh Elements/Fresh Arts, a program designed to help young people develop technical and production skills for careers in the cultural industries.
Dr. Sadu has created vital spaces and infrastructure for community development that honors Black histories while looking toward the future.
Her annual Walk with Excellence, developed in partnership with local school principals, high school leaders, and other community partners, celebrates graduating high school students from the Jane & Finch community with parades ending at York University and University of Toronto Scarborough.
Dr. Sadu is also a founding member of the Emancipation Day Underground Freedom Train Ride, held in collaboration with the TTC in recognition of Emancipation Day and the legacy of the Underground Railroad, as well as the MY People Literary Awards and the Black and Caribbean Book Affair.
Dr. Sadu's decades of work have earned her numerous honours. In 2023, she received an honorary Doctor of Laws from her alma mater, York University.
In February 2026, during Black History Month, she was presented with the Key to the City by Mayor Olivia Chow in recognition of her lifelong contributions as an author and cultural leader, who has “strengthened Toronto’s Black community and enriched the city’s broader literary and cultural landscape.”
We invite you to attend and join us in celebrating Dr. Sadu’s incredible career on November 12, 2026 at the Daniel’s Spectrum in Regent Park.
Get your tickets today: https://app.galabid.com/storysoiree