GreenTOpia: towards a sustainable Toronto, the third installment of the uTOpia series from Coach House Books, launches with the usual fanfare of panel discussions and selected entertainments on Sunday, November 11th. A number of Spacing editors and contributors have pieces in this volume, and the green theme compliments next week’s release of our green Spacing issue (a pure coincidence as both were developed separately). It will be an action-packed day, part of Pages’ This is Not a Reading Series, that you can join at any point.
ACT ONE
The afternoon’s events at the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen St. W.) will centre around two interactive panel discussions moderated by Misha Glouberman, featuring numerous GreenTOpia contributors. Attendees are encouraged to bring their thoughts and ideas. And be sure to bring an item for the freecycle swap table. Bring something you no longer want; walk home with something you do! And the afternoon launch will be entirely solar-powered, courtesy of Solera Energies. $5 cover, free with book purchase
First panel – 3:00 p.m. – with panelists Eduardo Sousa, Lorraine Johnson, Todd Irvine, Wayne Reeves and Keith Stewart.
Intermission – 4:00 p.m.
Second panel – 4:30 p.m. – with panelists Eva Ligeti, Graeme Stewart, Cathy Nasmith, John Lorinc and Bert Archer.
ACT TWO
At approximately 5:45-6pm (it’s unclear exactly — we’ll leave when it feels right) I will be leading a psychogeographic walk from the Gladstone to Bathurst and College. We’ll zig and zag through neighbourhoods we think we might know well, forging a new ad hoc route that may give us a new appreciation of how the city is put together. Participants will be encouraged to share bits of information with each other on the walk, or even secret passages they may know of. It should take an hour, perhaps an hour and half. Folks (psychogeographers or not) are then welcome to join the panelists and others at the Plaza Flamingo for dinner (423 College Street, $20 Prix Fixe). Though if you don’t want to eat it’s likely you can hang out at the bar, which is where most psychogeographic walks (should) end. You can’t put a price on a good walk, so that part is free.
ACT THREE
The launch of GreenTOpia will end at Sneaky Dee’s, where the Wavelength music series presents ‘Remember Toronto’, featuring local bands The Two Koreas, The Blankket, the Hip-Hop Karaoke Crew, Etaoin Shrdlu with Jonny Dovercourt, and more, ‘recycling’ the best Toronto songs of all time.
Sneaky Dee’s, 431 College St. (at Bathurst)
8:30 pm (doors open) Pay What You Can
5 comments
Seems like a great day of events.
Very good event! The panelists were well-balanced and covered off a number of topics. The second panel, in particular, hit some of the hard issues of class/income/etc that are relevant in the discussion.
Still don’t really know what a “psychogeographic walk” means, though. Needs to be some sort of “urban issues dictionary”
I look forward to the green issue. I’ve recommended GreenTOpia to my local library in Berkeley, CA, USA.
I am writing with a request: do any of the proposals in GreenTOpia focus on sites designed specifically to achieve ecosystem benefits: stormwater attenuation and water quality improvement, air quality improvement, energy efficiency, or habitat? I am interested in conducting ethnographies and place studies of such sites.
Excellent panel talks this afternoon. Looking forward to reading the essay collection.
tdotg> There’s are a many interpretations of Psychogeography. I like the one that’s about whimsy in the city. Walking for the sake of walking. Getting excited by — or paying attention to — our surroundings. Ending up someplace you wouldn’t expect, in an easy way, with people you like, or meet, and etc. Anybody can do it, that’s the thing.
Tonight was mostly alleys, then down another alley and up through a fire escape ion to an apartment on Dundas like we were all Billy’s from family circus, and back out to the street. We ran into somebody (I swear to god) dressed as King Henry the 8th on College / Latvian House (we were in the alley, they were in they p-lot). Etc. It’s all pretty normal. I was practicing psychogeography before I knew I was. Once you know how easy it is, it’s great. It took me a bunch of years though.