Tale of a Town Tells Queen West Story
If the names Mary Margaret O’Hara, Razorbacks, Leslie Spit Treeo, Scary Mary, Gordie Johnson and Handsome Ned mean anything to you, then you’ll probably enjoy Tale of A Town. Opening Saturday night (May 1 – 16), the site-specific theatrical journey traces the transformation of Queen Street West from a bohemian, rock ‘n’ roll drag into an upscale strip of condos and chain stores.
Although it’s essentially a one-woman show led by actor Lisa Marie DiLiberto, above right, Tale of a Town has been a collaborative effort by the members of Fixt Point, an indie theatre group based in Parkdale. DiLiberto and musical director Treasa Levasseur set up shop at the soon-to-be defunct Cameron House where they interviewed local luminaries from years gone by, assembling the cultural history of this famous and infamous stretch of Toronto.
Storytelling Fest Brings Historic Sites to Life
The premise is simple and thoroughly compelling: during the summer of 1847, 38,000 poverty-stricken Irish immigrants passed through Toronto, then a city of 20,000. Responding to the tragedy, innkeeper Thomas Montgomery hosted a benefit to aid the refugees. Tomorrow night at 8 pm, storyteller Nan Brien, left, and historical music ensemble Gin Lane recreate that night 163 years later in the very same room at Montgomery’s Inn.
Titled No Irish Need Apply, Brien relates the stories of seven women ranging from an Irish tenant farmer’s wife, to a sea captain’s wife to a midwife and soothsayer. Some storytellers are very clear about a distinction between what they do and theatrical performance; not so for Brien who spent her career teaching high school drama, acting and directing amateur theatre.
“Because of my background, it’s easy for me to step into a different voice or mood,” says Brien. “I like being close to the audience and as a storyteller I feed somewhat off their reactions.” Brien has been telling stories in the historic Montgomery’s Inn for about 15 years and says the rustic rooms “are like a live stage setting.”
Toronto Museum Project Unveiled
A sizeable crowd converged on Fort York National Historic Site yesterday afternoon for the official launch of the Toronto Museum Project, a virtual home for 100 artifacts and stories (so far) told by a range of Torontonians from every corner of the city. Politicians, city museums staff and TMP storytellers were on hand to introduce the project and help create some buzz about this impressive new site, which was built with support from Canadian Heritage’s Canadian Culture Online Strategy.
Mayor Miller told those assembled, “We’re just scratching the surface of the knowledge that we share collectively . . . the Museum Project gives us a chance to share the true richness of our city with each other. And what better way to start than online? I think this project is terrific. I look forward to even more stories being told and I look forward, a few years from now, to seeing the Toronto Museum established in Old City Hall so that all of us can share those stories in person.”
Joining the officials were four of the people whose stories are captured on the site. Shakil A. (above from left) talked about a prayer rug he brought with him from Pakistan and spoke of feeling welcome to practice his religion in Toronto’s mosques; Evelyn S. told a story about working as a junior bank teller in one of Toronto’s Chinatown’s and how a 1923 bank loan document for a Chinese Canadian resonated with her own family history; former Toronto Mayor David Crombie spoke about William Jarvis’s Queen’s Rangers Uniform Jacket from 1791 making a connection between Toronto’s past and its present: “Toronto’s history is always at work whether we’re paying attention or not,” he said; and Anna B. spoke to a 1960 photograph of the corner of Jane Street and Finch Avenue West, expounding on this community where she grew up, was educated and found her strength and voice. “This street corner has talent, aspirations and skills, this street corner shaped who I am today.”
Black History Unfolds at Mackenzie House
Black History Month begins today and one of Toronto’s most inspiring true stories – that of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, the first woman in North America to publish a newspaper — is being told at Mackenzie House Museum (82 Bond Street), former home of Toronto’s first mayor, William Lyon Mackenzie.
The “rebel mayor” responsible for starting the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837, was also a newspaper publisher and he used his broadsheets to condemn slavery and to encourage the equal treatment of Upper Canada’s Black population. In 1837, he wrote: “as a public journalist we have never failed to espouse, and delight in advocating the heaven-born principle of abolition of slavery, of every race of which it may be the curse.”
Mac House, as we affectionately call the museum, boasts a recreated 1800s printshop, the perfect place to explore Shadd Cary’s role as publisher of the Provincial Freeman, founded in 1853.
