Culture
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Searching for Black history in Niagara-on-the-Lake
We did the Black thing as we passed each other on the trail — nods of mutual recognition, a celebration that we are still here. I had cycled from Niagara...
By Jacqueline L. Scott -
Q&A with Umbereen Inayet: How to decolonize a city’s museums
Toronto’s history museums are in the midst of a transformation. The City’s Awakenings project, lead by Artistic Producer Umbereen Inayet, seeks to...
By Tyler Cheese -
Preserving the queer identity in safe spaces
LGBTQ+ spaces in urban areas have been establishing themselves for decades, growing larger and larger as each generation brings its voice and creativity...
By Emily Wilson -
The Moccasin Identifier Project: Marking Indigenous history on the land
Earlier this month, I spoke to Carolyn King, historian, former Chief of the Mississaugas of the Credit, and founder of the Moccasin Identifier Project...
By Mnawaate Gordon-Corbiere -
Urban Oral History: Understanding The Village of 1970s and ’80s, Part III
This is the third of a four-part series on urban oral history. My first conversation with Bart Birmingham (he/him) was a little awkward. After six months...
By Hannah Curtis -
How to collect oral histories about cities in the age of COVID-19, Part I
This is the first of a four-part series on urban oral history. Do you want to learn about a city by talking to people who have been walking its streets...
By Alexa Mills -
The Tranzac Club: “Toronto’s Living Room”
As Toronto begins the process or re-opening the economy for the summer, Spacing will occasionally look at businesses and venues that have either survived...
By Susan Grimbly -
Mapping Indigenous history on the TTC
June has begun, marking the start of Indigenous History Month. The recent discovery of an unmarked grave of 215 Indigenous children at a Kamloops, B.C...
By Mnawaate Gordon-Corbiere -
Chinatown: Uncovering the future in the past, and the present in the future
The new issue of Spacing includes an article by Paula Tran, “What will happen to Toronto’s Chinatown?” In conjunction with that...
By Linda Zhang -
Recording Hart Massey’s Factory and Concert Hall
In 1986, I photographed the historic, sprawling Massey Ferguson farm machinery plant in Toronto just as demolition work was getting underway. Staying one...
By Peter MacCallum -
EXCERPT: Indigenous Toronto, Stories That Carry This Place
This essay is excerpted with permission from Indigenous Toronto: Stories That Carry This Place (Coach House Books, 2021). NOW THAT WE KNOW When I first...
By Lila Pine -
Poetry in community: Q&A with poet Ronna Bloom
Ronna Bloom is former Poet in Residence at Mount Sinai Hospital, now Sinai Health System. Long before face coverings became mandatory on the TTC or...
By Emily Macrae