History on Stage: Performance Art and Commemoration of the Winnipeg General Strike

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by Jamie Trepanier

Strike!Red09: The Strikers' Chorus in the 2009 annual production in Winnipeg. Photo by Andrew Sikorsky

Playwright Danny Schur is convinced that the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 has more than enough compelling storylines for a major musical production, and that its message is one that is still relevant today. “The story has all of the elements of high drama:  societal unrest, government suppression of rights, aftermath of war, dramatic death in the streets,” he wrote by e-mail, “[but] what first inspired me was the untold story of the immigrant at the epicentre of the drama – the forgotten Ukrainian everyman, Mike Sokolowski [killed by police during the violence of a June 21 protest known as “Bloody Saturday”].  It was his story that defined the period for me and lead to a new and, I believe, deeper understanding of the era – one that is relevant to us today:  that the story of the Winnipeg General Strike is a cautionary story about the dangers of nativism.” Continue reading →

Stuart Henderson talks hip Yorkville history at inaugural History Matters series

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Historian, journalist, and musician Stuart Henderson recently presented an engaging talk at the inaugural History Matters lecture series, sponsored by the Toronto Public Library.

In front of a standing-room audience, Henderson’s “Making the Scene in 1960s Yorkville” discussed the fascinating dynamics of a hip community of beatniks, hippies, and greasers that made up one of Canada’s most infamous counter-cultural neighbourhoods.

Henderson’s talk is available here for audio download.

The next History Matters talk takes place Tuesday, September 28th, when Craig Heron talks about the history of booze in Toronto.  Click here for more details.

Hands-on History: Are the archaeologists leading the way to a new mode of public engagement?

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I have a confession.  As much as I love being a historian, I am not a huge fan of spending most of my day sitting at a desk reading.  Some days I am pretty sure that I can feel my fat cells multiplying and the muscle cells slowly decaying.  Most days I long to literally practice active – blood-flowing – history.  About seven ago, I tried to remedy this challenge by becoming involved in archaeology.  After a couple of brief glimpses into an archaeologist’s world, I found myself challenged by the practices of the discipline and increasingly by the way in which the programs of which I was a part engaged the public. Continue reading →

Active History Announcements: Sept 19-25

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The following upcoming events may be of interest to our readers (click on ‘continue reading’ below for full descriptions):

1) When the landlords became tenants: The 1828 Council at Fort York with the Mississauga – Sept 27, 7:30 p.m.

2)  Thought Exchange (History Matters) – Sept 28, 7 p.m.

3)  Approaching the Past: The Past through Place – Sept 30, 7 p.m.

4) CFP: History 2.0: Active History Roundtable on new media

5) This week in the Active History blogosphere!

If you have an announcement that you would like included in this weekly dispatch, please e-mail info@activehistory.ca. Continue reading →

Sharing History Through Used Books and the Internet

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Cuba Books

In honour of both the September crunch and ActiveHistory.ca‘s own expanding book review section — be sure to check out Mitch Primeau’s review of The Second Greatest Disappointment (1999) — I’ll be devoting this month’s post to some of my favourite used book websites.
History tends to involve a few more books than other disciplines — okay, a lot more.

This stems from the fact that all books — not just books about history — become relevant in new ways, as relics of their own time and place. That’s right: physicists and political memoirists alike can look forward to having their every miscalculation and narcissistic indulgence poured over by wave after wave of yet-born historians. But I digress… Continue reading →

The e-Book Revolution

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I bought an iPad. Before you cheer or frown, let me tell you, I’m filled with an immense surge of guilt—not because my purchase left a hefty dent in my wallet, but because I have needlessly contributed to the e-Book revolution. As Thomas Hager explains,

Bottom line is stark: paper and ink books are on the way out. There, I said it. Printed books will still exist – like vinyl records still exist, in vanishingly small numbers, bought by collectors. Printed books – especially hardcovers — will become collectibles. Too many trends are working against print: (1) market economics (e-books are cheaper to produce, ship, and buy); (2) reader convenience (e-books offer immediate delivery, lower price, and bells and whistles like the ability to enlarge text); and (3) electronic infrastructure (a growing number of people are comfortable reading on little screens, they can do it on multiple devices (I just read my first book on my iPod Touch and the experience was fine), the little screens are getting better and cheaper and more attractive, the large-scale computing and communications systems are in place). And the technology just keeps getting better and cheaper. Three years ago, the first Kindle cost $399. Today’s improved version sells for half that. Eventually we’ll have screens you can roll up, put in your pocket, and unfurl as you lay on the couch, like the evening paper (but in full color, with video, web access, and no ink stains). Continue reading →

Reflection: 9/11

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Photo Credit: Chad FurrowToday I write this on 12 September 2010, one day after 11 September 2010, and 9 years after 11 September 2001. In the midst of my first year of living in New York City, this date has caused me special occasion to pause and to take note of the nine year anniversary as I get to know the neighbourhoods and residents of this city. While the events of 11 September obviously had a global impact, the people of New York City have a special relationship to this date and they choose to commemorate it in a myriad of ways. This past Saturday witnessed a number of memorial services at churches, firehouses and an official ceremony at Zuccotti Park near the WTC site. There were also many other events across the city including poetry readings and a floating lantern ceremony at the Hudson River put on by New York’s Buddhist community. Many of these ceremonies were inter-faith and all welcoming, a message that may have been overlooked by a media more closely focused on the controversy over the proposed Islamic center blocks away from Ground Zero. Continue reading →

2010 is Year of the British Home Child in Canada but Some Descendants Want More from Ottawa

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“British immigrant children from Dr. Bernardo’s Homes at landing stage, Saint John, N.B.”, n.d., photo by Isaac Erb, Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN no. 3193366. Copy of an official work published by the Government of Canada, not produced in affiliation with, or with the endorsement of the Government of Canada

The Government of Canada has declared 2010 to be the Year of the British Home Child.  Earlier this month, Canada Post released a commemorative stamp to honour this recognition.

The stamp, designed by Debbie Adams of Adams+Associates Design Consultants, contains three images: the SS Sardinian, on which home children migrated from Britain to Canada; a photograph of a home child engaged in farm labour; a portrait of a newly-arrived boy passing through Halifax en route to Hamilton.  The young boy, looking directly at the camera and whose image is enclosed by a metal frame, emerges as the main focus of the stamp.  Such a visual device is intentional, as Adams notes that the frame represents the “relationships” home children developed in Canada: “It shows that someone cared enough about this child to preserve and display his image.” Continue reading →

Active History Announcements: Sept 12-18

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The following upcoming events may be of interest to our readers (click on ‘continue reading’ below for full descriptions):

1)  Thought Exchange (History Matters) – Sept 14, 2 p.m.

2) Canadain Museum of Civilization: Lunchtime lecture series – Jameson Brant:  Training and Enhancing the Aboriginal Presence in Museums – Sept 16, 12-1.

3) Volunteer Opportunity – Multicultural History Society of Ontario

4) Petition: Preserve Pennhurst State School and Hospital as a memorial to the past.

5) The Toronto Beer Quest – Sept. 26, 11 a.m.

6)  Approaching the Past: The Past through Place – Sept 30, 7 p.m.

7) CFP: History 2.0: Active History Roundtable on new media

8) This week in the Active History blogosphere!

If you have an announcement that you would like included in this weekly dispatch, please e-mail info@activehistory.ca. Continue reading →

New Book Review: Mitch Primeau on Karen Dubinsky’s The Second Greatest Disappointment: Honeymooning and Tourism at Niagara Falls

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ActiveHistory.ca is happy to announce that it has published its second book review written by an individual outside the academy.  Mitch Primeau, a teacher living in Toronto who was raised in Niagara Falls, provides his thoughts on reading Karen Dubinsky’s The Second Greatest Disappointment: Honeymooning and Tourism at Niagara Falls.

We want to expand our book review section.  If you are a non-academic who is interested to review a historical work for ActiveHistory.ca, please contact us at info@activehistory.ca