By Sean Graham Black & Immigrant Communities in Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley | RSS.comIn the 1930s, Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver was home to a vibrant community, which was slowly displaced through the construction of the Dunsmuir and Georgia viaducts. This is the settling for Junie, a historical fiction that explores the complexities of community, race, sexuality, substance abuse, and, most importantly,… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/History-Slam-198.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham In the 10 years that we’ve been doing the History Slam Podcast, I’ve learned that there is no correct way to tell historical stories. Over the years we’ve talked with playwrights, musicians, and literary authors about the ways in which they tell accurate (and moving) stories from the past within their respective… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/History-Slam-160.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham New Denver is a small town in southeastern British Columbia. With its population of around 500 along the shores of Slocan Lake, the community attracts people looking to escape urban centres in search of nature. In addition to the campsites and trails listed among the village’s attractions, it is also home… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/History-Slam-140.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham Brotherhood opens for a week-long engagement at the Cineplex Yonge & Dundas in Toronto starting December 6. It will also be shown at the Sudbury Indie Cinema on December 13. In the summer of 1926, a group of young men were attending a camp along the shores of Balsam Lake in… Read more »
By Samantha Cutrara Children’s historical books can serve many purposes. They can teach children about history, as well as develop emotion and empathy about figures from the past. In “Recreating the Past,” Evelyn Freeman and Linda Levstik argue that children’s historical fiction fosters ongoing process of historical interpretation in which the child is an active participant (pg. 331). From my own experience… Read more »
By Zachary Abram Canadian cultural memory of the First World War is conspicuously asexual considering Canadians had among the highest rates for venereal disease in the British Expeditionary Force, with an infection rate that reached as high as 28.7%. [1] Anyone with a passing interest in the First World War is familiar with Trench Foot and its symptoms are synonymous… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Oil-and-Water.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham On February 18, 1942 off the coast of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, the USS Truxton and the USS Pollux ran aground in the midst of a harsh winter storm. Of the 389 sailors on both ships, only 186 survived. Of those, one stood out: Lanier Phillips. After being rescued by a group… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Marsha.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham For as much as history may fall under the ‘Humanities,’ occasionally the humanity of the past gets lost. Writing about the past can become clinical and historians can become immune to some of history’s horrors. Facts and figures of deaths in a war, for example, are faceless and can fail to… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Don-Cummer.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham I can understand if there are people who scoff at the thought of another book on the War of 1812. Given the onslaught of commemoration of the war over the past two years, I’ve definitely sensed some fatigue on the part of some historians. From the television commercials to museum exhibitions… Read more »
By Jeffers Lennox I can trace my interest in the past to a single book: Jack Whyte’s The Skystone, a story set in the time of the legendary King Arthur. First published in 1992, when I was 12, The Skystone had just about everything necessary to hook a young kid: historical imagination, magic, war, heroism, and enough “adult” subject matter… Read more »
