History
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Black History Month 2025: Racial Discrimination at Toronto’s Nightclubs
Cheryl Thompson is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Black Expressive Culture & Creativity, Associate Professor of Performance at Toronto Metropolitan...
By Cheryl Thompson -
Toronto, City of Gas, 1909-1936
Once they had been declared functionally obsolete, most of the monumental industrial structures that figured on the skylines of North American cities...
By Peter MacCallum -
Chinatown Memory Collectors
A shiny sword, a stack of red packets, old Chinese books and brochures, a wooden folding fan, a souvenir mug, and faded photos of seniors – all are...
By Simon Liao -
Look Back in Anger
Whether it is the scouring of Ontario Place or the war against bikers, it seems the Ford government is getting away with just about everything it sets out...
By Michel Nayrouz -
EVENT: Strollin’ — an evening talking about walking November 28
WHAT: An evening talking about walking on November 28 at 6PM. WHO: Shawn Micallef, Spacing Sr. Editor, Toronto Star columnist and University College...
By Spacing -
Excerpt: Canada and the Blackface Atlantic: Performing Conflict in Blackface
Excerpted with permission from Canada and the Blackface Atlantic, published in April 2025 by Wilfrid Laurier Press. Thompson, a Toronto Metropolitan...
By Cheryl Thompson -
PODCAST: Spacing Radio 082, Toronto’s political gridlock
This month, we respond to Doug Ford’s stated plan of banning new bike lanes in Ontario municipalities and building an underground highway from...
By Spacing Radio -
The Lives of 233–235 Spadina
In the spring of 1984, the social historian and curator Rosemary Donegan commissioned me to take contemporary architectural photos and panoramic views of...
By Peter MacCallum -
LORINC: Booze in the corner store
Until the mid 1970s, you couldn’t buy lottery tickets in Ontario. Ontarians could go to the horse races and place bets; the ponies, after all, have...
By John Lorinc -
Exploring Toronto through its Indigenous heritage
We discovered new avenues of the city we would have never found unless we had a reason to be there. Many places were sitting right under my nose, not far...
By Trent Weston -
Documenting the collapsed Dundas Street buildings
For the most part, the buildings on the north side of Dundas Street West between Spadina and Bathurst are an architectural hodgepodge. The one exception...
By Peter MacCallum -
Remembering the Harriet Tubman Youth Centre On St. Clair West
From November 1, 1972 to September 30, 1975, a Black cultural hub known as the Harriet Tubman Youth Centre operated in a building located at 15 Robina...
By Cheryl Thompson