She created a major awards show for Black Quebecers. She says the real work is just beginning

CBC Quebec is highlighting people from the province's Black communities who are giving back, inspiring others and helping to shape our future. These are the 2024 Black Changemakers.

In the days leading up to the inaugural edition of Gala Dynastie in 2017, the tiny but mighty production team behind the event was forced to hold meetings in an unusual location: A hospital room.

Carla Beauvais, one of the event's creators, was close to giving birth.

"I've never seen a person so driven and so fearless," Marjorie Morin-Lapointe, Beauvais's friend of more than 20 years, recalled with a smile.

"We would meet there, and honestly we had fun.… She was just so motivated to give birth to this other baby at about the same time as her real baby."

Heading into its ninth year, Gala Dynastie has cemented its place as a major event in Quebec's arts and culture scene, bringing together a who's who from the province's Black communities.

Although the gala garners the most attention, the Fondation Dynastie she co-founded also offers programs for Black people aspiring to venture into arts, media and culture.

The foundation and the gala were born, at least in part, out of Beauvais's desire to highlight Quebec Black excellence while simultaneously addressing the inequities that made the event so essential in the first place.

That divide between the privileged and the unprivileged has been top of mind for Beauvais going back to her childhood in Montreal's Saint-Michel neighbourhood.

'I'm going to start my own thing'

Beauvais was born to working-class parents from Haiti.

They scraped together whatever they earned working in textiles on Chabanel Street — the heart of Montreal's garment district — to send their daughter to private school.

To go from her home to Collège Français in the Mile End neighbourhood, she hopped on city buses. Many of her classmates, however, pulled up in luxury cars.

Whenever she'd lose her bus pass, she felt so guilty that she would sometimes take the hour-long walk to school instead of asking her parents to buy a replacement.

She was focused on making them proud and showing them that their sacrifices were worth it. 

"At a young age, I felt a bit of pressure," said Beauvais, who serves as the executive director of Fondation Dynastie. "It felt like I had to succeed and I had to make a difference."

Long before the creation of Gala Dynastie, Beauvais, who's now 46, worked at a student paper and had dreams of becoming a sports journalist. She was a huge hockey fan at the time.

Looking to get into a field that had very few Black women, she sent samples of her work everywhere she could. But she never heard back from anyone.

"I thought I was an excellent writer," said Beauvais. She's now able to say this in a playful and emphatic tone, but at the time the rejection had her thinking hard work doesn't always pay off.

"That was my first slap in the face that said, 'Oh well, maybe not,'" she said. 

She enrolled at Conservatoire Lassalle, a private college that closed in 2016, and thanks to a teacher with connections she was able to find work at Radio-Canada.

In her three years there as a researcher in the early 2000s, the lows far outweighed the highs. She says she endured countless microaggressions from colleagues and just never felt at home as a Black woman working for the public broadcaster.

"One time, a host I used to work for asked me: 'why do you always pitch Black stories?'" she recalled. 

"And it's around that time, with everything that I went through, that I told myself that I will never again work for someone else and that I'm going to start my own thing."

The birth of Dynastie

There's no elaborate origin story behind the launch of Fondation Dynastie and its flagship gala.

Like many of her ventures, Beauvais says Dynastie was simply the fruit of an idea and immediate action.

After a decade of running her own public relations firm, Groupe Style Communications, and helping promote artists who rarely got attention from established media platforms, she was looking for a new challenge.

It was 2016 and the #OscarsSoWhite movement had intensified debate about the lack of Black, brown and Indigenous people on mainstream platforms, including in Quebec.

At the time, Beauvais was a member of the province's Black History Month roundtable and often spoke out on the issue of diversity.

She felt it was time to do less talking and focus on making moves.

"You ask yourself about what we can do.… What are we doing to help show this diversity? So we decided to do the gala," she said.

The first edition, which took place at L'Olympia in downtown Montreal, was put together in about four months.

Morin-Lapointe still oversees the production of the gala. She had experience producing the Sound of Blackness Awards, also known as SOBA.

"It was positively shocking," she said, describing the turnout and the vibe at the first Gala Dynastie. 

"I don't think we expected to have that many people show up. The Olympia was packed. It was unbelievable the way everyone was just happy."

The gala is now known for its pomp, flair, stylish Black carpet appearances, heartfelt speeches from winners and an overall celebratory mood.

By its fourth year, in 2020, the event was moved to the city's renowned Place des Arts. 

"That's when I told myself that we've got something here," Beauvais said.

"We got to a point where we were able to say that you have no choice but to accept us in these spaces, because we've become undeniable."

More than a gala

Tracy Paulotte still has the note on her smartphone, dated Jan. 2, 2020.

"I want to work for Gala Dynastie," reads the note, which included a list of her New Year's resolutions.

The year prior, she volunteered at the gala. She led a team that welcomed nominees and presenters while co-ordinating with the production team.

"I love Montreal. I'm a Montreal girl and I wanted to work with organizations that would put Montreal on the map but that would also highlight, celebrate and want to make change in the community," she said.

About a year later, Paulotte became the foundation's first official employee. She's now their head of programs and outreach.

Her work is key in establishing the foundation as much more than a gala. The organization offers programs to develop Black authors, comedians and music entrepreneurs.

"A lot of times we see working in culture as being this beautiful [unattainable] dream, but it can be a career. It doesn't have to be just a side quest," Paulotte said.

"To be able to create these opportunities for them, for me that's the real change."

In addition to a long list of suppliers and collaborators, Fondation Dynastie now has eight staff members working out of a third-floor office on St-Laurent Boulevard. 

Over the years, Paulotte's relationship with Beauvais — whom she affectionately refers to as her boss "even though she doesn't like it" — has blossomed. She credits Beauvais with establishing the foundation's vision.

"As Black women, we take on a big burden and we keep our faces straight even in times of hardship," said Paulotte.

"She doesn't give up. She always tries to find a solution."

Finding balance

Fondation Dynastie has grown a lot, and so has Beauvais. 

Her determination is a big reason for her accomplishments, but Beauvais admits it can also take a toll.

"As women we put so much pressure on ourselves to be good: good women, good mothers, good entrepreneurs," Beauvais shared.

Now, she tries to slow down. The work ethic hasn't necessarily changed, but it's more targeted. She tries to devote her energy to Fondation Dynastie and her true baby, Eva, who's now seven years old.

"Carla can be very guarded with her emotions, but you can tell how much she just lets herself go with her daughter," said Morin-Lapointe. "Eva just removes all of her barriers."

Beauvais is a proud mother and social entrepreneur. Her daughter and Fondation Dynastie are forever linked, and not just because they were pretty much born at the same time.

"I ask myself, 'what's the legacy I'm leaving behind for my daughter and all the young girls that look like my daughter?'" she said.

"For everything that we do now, how are we affecting the next generations?"

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.