imagining toronto copyright © amy lavender harris 1 engaging torontos diverse communities through...

Imagining TorontoCopyright © Amy Lavender Harris

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Engaging Toronto’s Diverse Communities Through the City’s Literature

Training and Development WorkshopToronto Public Library (Staff)

Beeton Auditorium, Toronto Reference Library

Thursday 2 June 2011

“Sometimes when I was sitting on the third floor of the library, gazing down at the street, I would imagine what my friends at Mayaro Composite might think if they could see me now. […] This place, though, was different. There was an elevator with glass sides that went straight up to the fourth floor where a host of people sat before computers. It wasn’t long before I would head straight for the third floor where I had discovered there were Caribbean storybooks, comics, movies, thick old books with mostly pictures, and, here, too, computers all over the place. I sampled all, moving from place to place, watching boys my age concentrating on their monitors. I wondered how many of them were here on a six-month visitor’s visa that would expire in twenty-one days. “

Rabindranath Maharaj, 2010. The Amazing Absorbing Boy. Knopf.


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Cultural Programming at the TPL

• Half of Toronto’s population was born outside Canada.• Foreign-born Torontonians are more likely to use the

library than those born here.• Nearly half of all Toronto residents do not speak

English as a cradle language.• TPL offers resources in 67 + languages.• Library Journal contributor Norman Oder noted in 2003

that among the most requested titles in the TPL’s collection were English language training books by Bruce Rogers, requested by patrons hoping to pass the TOEFL test.

• TPL offers services ranging from language and literary programs to career planning to cultural community outreach.

• The TPL is highly regarded for its cultural programming and services.


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… But the heart of the TPL’s mandate remains putting good, useful books into the hands of interested readers.

And the TPL’s biggest challenge is serving diverse patrons living in a city without a shared history or perhaps even a common cultural language.


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“She likes the mix on the streets here, the mixed skins. Chinatown has taken over mostly, though there are still some Jewish delicatessens, and, further up and off to the side, the Portuguese and West Indian shops of the Kensington Market. Rome in the second century, Constantinople in the tenth, Vienna in the nineteenth. A crossroads. Those from other countries look as if they're trying hard to forget something, those from here as if they're trying hard to remember. Or maybe it's the other way around."

Margaret Atwood, 1993. The Robber Bride. McClelland & Stewart: 39.

“But as at any crossroads there are permutations of existence. People turn into other people imperceptibly, unconsciously. …. Lives in this city are doubled, tripled, conjugated – women and men all trying to handle their own chain of events, trying to keep the story straight in their own heads. At times they catch themselves in sensational lies, embellishing or avoiding a nasty secret here and there, juggling the lines of causality, and before you know it, it’s impossible to tell one thread from another.”

Brand, Dionne, 2006. What We All Long For. Toronto: Knopf: 5


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“They come from everywhere, from Argentina, Nigeria, Russia, Pakistan, but rarely because they have an explicit vision of the place; they aren’t drawn by mythic images of riches and glamour like the immigrants arriving at the airports and harbours of New York. They are exiles, for the most part, who have thrown darts at a map of the world. Arriving, astonished by the cold, bewildered by hockey and our Nordic reserve, they nonetheless build their cities within our city: Chinatown, Little India, Portugal Town. Our city becomes a new city surprised by itself, doubletaking at the profusion of culture: Brazilian dance clubs, Indian cricket matches, Polish delis, Chinese newspapers, Ecuadorian snack stands, somber Italian Easter parades.”

Patricia Pearson, 2003. Playing House. Toronto: Random House Canada: 43-44.


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“[i]n this city there are Bulgarian mechanics, there are Eritrean accountants, Colombian cafe owners, Latvian book publishers, Welsh roofers, Afghani dancers, Iranian mathematicians, Tamil cooks in Thai restaurants, Calabrese boys with Jamaican accents, Fushen deejays, Filipina-Saudi beauticians; Russian doctors changing tires, there are Romanian bill collectors, Cape Croker fishmongers, Japanese grocery clerks, French gas meter readers, German bakers, Haitian and Bengali taxi drivers with Irish dispatchers. “

Dionne Brand, 2005. What We All Long For. Toronto, Knopf: 5.


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“In Toronto, nothing stays for long. There is space enough here to fit us all in. No one remembers. A city for the fish who slipped through the parts of the net that are broken. The most anyone says in Toronto is, “Look, here were Native, then English, then Jewish, Italian, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and other nations will take their place in a few generations.” The most anyone says is, “Look at the Muslims praying in the rush of Kennedy subway station.” “Look, we will lose even the idea of mother tongue or nation.” ]…] We are pigeons, multicoloured, rustling against each other in all the public places, and the twenty-first century belongs to the colour smudge.””

Stephen Marche, Raymond and Hannah.


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Canadian Multiculturalism Act (1985)

It is the policy of the Government of Canada to “(a) recognize and promote the understanding that multiculturalism reflects the cultural and racial diversity of Canadian society and acknowledges the freedom of all members of Canadian society to preserve, enhance and share their cultural heritage; (b) recognize and promote the understanding that multiculturalism is a fundamental characteristic of the Canadian heritage and identity and that it provides an invaluable resource in the shaping of Canada’s future; […]”


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The Myth of the Multicultural City

“The city as anthology.”

“The World Within a City,”

“Expect the World,”

“Diversity our Strength.”

“The most multicultural city in the world.”


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Boutique Multiculturalism

… “the multiculturalism of ethnic restaurants, weekend festivals, and high profile flirtations with the other,” a multiculturalism characterized by a “superficial and cosmetic” commitment to diversity.”

Cultural theorist Stanley Fish, 1997


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“Some say that the only thing race is good for is to divide the population into work categories. Those who wash the dishes will be Sri Lankan, those who drive the cabs will be African, those who run the banks will be European, those who watch the kids will be Filipino, those who mind the store will be Korean and those upon whose bodies the good life is modelled will be, more and more, a hybridization of all of the above – on TV, on billboards, in magazines. But it would be a mistake to believe that these beautifully mixed people represent a race-free future – that people will stop their fixation on difference and settle down to enjoying similarities. It’s just a smokescreen. Part of a dazzling performance.”

Darren O’Donnell, Your Secrets Sleep With Me. Coach House, 2004.


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“Multiculturalism? Is multiculturalism you say? What is so multiculturalistic about Toronto? Toronto is a collection of ghettos. Ethnic ghettos. Cultural ghettos. In other words, racial ghettos, and –“

“Oh Christ, I never looked at it this way! That’s right!”

“You got Rosedale: Anglo-Saxon people. Jane-Finch: black people and visible minorities. High Park: the Poles. Sin-Clair, all up there by Dufferin and Eglinton: the Eye-Talians ...”

“Don’t leave-out the place up north, where the cheapest house cost a million. The rich Eye-talians...”

Austin Clarke, More. Thomas Allen, 2008.


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“When you live here for three months, then you will really understand what racism is. I call the shots the way I see it. That is not racism. Over here racism is a sort of polite thing, not like in Trinidad. Nobody calling you nigger or coolie or names like that, but it’s always inside them. Deep down. You see it in the bus when they refuse to sit by you. In the park when they suddenly change direction if they see somebody black. In the bank, when the teller’s smile suddenly disappear when she look up and see a brown face before her. Over the telephone, when they recognise the foreign accent and tell you that the position is no longer available or the apartment was just rented. That is how racism operate over here. “

Maharaj Rabindranath, Homer in Flight. Goose Lane Editions, 1997.


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“Not Canadian, I assume?”“Yes, Canadian.”“Of course. I keep forgetting that any name may be

Canadian. But quite recently, in your case, I should say.”

“I was born here.”“But your parents were not, I should guess. Now

where did they come from?”“From England.”“And before England?”

Robertson Davies, The Rebel Angels.


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“I want to be able to walk down the street and feel like a citizen of this country! […] This is a Canadian passport in my hand! I said this to my Canadian passport. ‘And this makes me a Canadian. I am not any damn visible minority; or immigrant!”,

Austin Clarke, More. Thomas Allen, 2008.


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Literature and Cultural Understanding

“Literature, given its unique capacity to confront the most pressing contemporary urban concerns—bigotry, poverty and violence, as well as tolerance, asylum, desire and ambition—can help Torontonians transcend difference in this most culturally diverse of cities. [Toronto is] a new kind of city, a city where identity emerges not from shared tradition or a long history but rather is forget out of a commitment to the virtues of diversity, tolerance and cultural understanding.”

Amy Lavender Harris, 2010. Imagining Toronto. Mansfield Press.


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“The city is the place of our meeting with the other. … The city is the privileged site where the other is and where we ourselves are other, as the place where we play the other.”

Roland Barthes, Semiology and the Urban. 1986.

“The literature is catching up with the city, with the city’s new stories.”

Dionne Brand, 2005.


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Why recommend Culturally Resonant Literature?

• To read about ourselves, especially when our lives and experiences are not well or positively represented in popular media.

• To learn about each other and explore similarities and differences across culture.

• As one part of making new homes and communities for ourselves in a new city or country.

• To expose and confront xenophobia, exclusion, discrimination and intolerance.

• To promote diversity, tolerance and cultural understanding.

• As a starting point to writing our own stories.


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Recommending Culturally Resonant Literature to

Readers: Some thematic Suggestions


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Culture and Identity• Brand, Dionne, 2005. What We All Long For. Knopf.• Doctor, Farzana, Stealing Nasreen. Inanna.• Maharaj, Rabindranath, 1997. Homer in Flight.

Goose Lane Editions.• Maharaj, Rabindranath, 2010. The Amazing

Absorbing Boy.• Vassanji, M.G., 1991. No New Land. McClelland &

Stewart.

• Bhaggiyadatta, Krisantha Sri, 1981. Domestic Bliss. Toronto: Is Five Press.

• Hill, Lawrence, 1997. Any Known Blood. Harper Collins (see also Hill’s memoir, Black Berry Sweet Juice.)

• Qureshi, Mobashir, 2006. R.A.C.E. Toronto: Mercury.Imagining Toronto

Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris23

Aboriginal Identity in Toronto

There are more First Nations people currently living in Toronto than at any other time in the region’s history. Recommended reading:

• Boyden, Joseph, 1997 [reissued 2003]. Born With a Tooth. Cormorant.

• Boyden, Joseph, 2008. Through Black Spruce. Penguin.• Dimaline, Cherie, 2007. Red Rooms. Theytus Books.• Macdonald, Bruce, 2007. Coureurs De Bois. Cormorant.• Moses, Daniel David, 2000. Coyote City and City of

Shadows. Imago.


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Asian Experience• Chao, Lien, 2008. The Chinese Knot and Other Stories.

Tsar Books.• Lam, Vincent, 2006. Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures.

Doubleday Canada.• Moritsugu, Kim, 1996. Looks Perfect. Goose Lane

Editions.• Quan, Betty, 1998. Mother Tongue. Sirocco Drama. • Woo, Terry, [2000] 2005, 2010. Banana Boys.

Cormorant.


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Black Experience• Brand, Dionne, 2002. Thirsty. McClelland & Stewart. • Chariandy, David, 2007. Soucouyant. Anvil.• Clarke, Austin, 1967. The Meeting Point. Vintage

Canada. See also Storm of Fortune (1973) and The Bigger Light (1975), the second and third volumes of Clarke’s Toronto Trilogy.

• Clarke, Austin, 2008. More. Thomas Allen.• Hill, Lawrence, 1997. Any Known Blood. Harper Collins.• Hopkinson, Nalo, 1998. Brown Girl in the Ring.

Warner/Aspect.• Kwamdela, Odimumba, 1971; revised 1986. Niggers

This is Canada. Kibo Books.• Prince, Althea, 2001. Loving This Man. Insomniac Press.• Richardson, Karen and Steven Green, eds., 2004. T Dot

Griots: An Anthology of Toronto’s Black Storytellers. Trafford.


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Italian Experience• Chiocca, Olindo Romeo, 2005. College Street. Guernica.• Digiovanni, Caroline Morgan, 2005. Italian Canadian

Voices: A Literary Anthology, 1946-2005. Mosaic Press.• Paci, F.C., 2002. Italian Shoes. Guernica.• Paina, Corrado, 2000. Hoarse Legend. Mansfield Press. • Patriarca, Gianna, 1994. Italian Women and Other

Tragedies. Guernica. (see also Daughters for Sale, Ciao, Baby and What My Arms Can Carry.)


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Jewish Experience• Faessler, Shirley, 1988. A Basket of Apples and other

Stories. McClelland & Stewart.• Fagan, Cary, 1990. History Lessons. Hounslow.• Hayward, Steven, 2005. The Secret Mitzvah of Lucio

Burke. Alfred A. Knopf.• Kreisel, Henry, 1948. The Rich Man. McClelland &

Stewart.• Miller, John, 2006. A Sharp Intake of Breath. Simon &

Pierre / Dundurn.• Rakoff, Alvin, 2007. Baldwin Street. Bunim & Bannigan.• Ross, Stuart, 2011. Snowball Dragonfly Jew. ECW.• Taylor, Kate, 2003. Mme. Proust and the Kosher

Kitchen. Doubleday Canada.• Tulchinsky, Karen X., 2003. The Five Books of Moses

Lapinsky. Polestar / Raincoast.


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Muslim Experience• Hyate, Wasela, 2008. “Mo.” In TOK: Writing the New

Toronto, Book 3 (ed. Helen Walsh). Zephyr Press.• Saujani, Sheyfali, 2006. “The Fast Lane.” In TOK:

Writing the New Toronto, Book 1 (ed. Helen Walsh). Zephyr Press.

• Thawar, Tasleem, 2007. “Packaging Parathas.” In TOK: Writing the New Toronto, Book 2 (ed. Helen Walsh). Zephyr Press.

• Walters, Eric and Deborah Ellis, 2007. Bifocal. Fitzhenry & Whiteside.

• Vassanji, M.G., 1991. No New Land. McClelland & Stewart.


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Portuguese Experience• De Sa, Anthony, 2008. Barnacle Love. Doubleday

Canada.• De Vasconcelos, Erika, 1997. My Darling Dead

Ones. Knopf.• Repo, Satu, 1978. What’s a Friend. Lorimer.


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Polish Experience• Borkowski, Andrew J., 2011. Copernicus Avenue.

Cormorant.• Heffron, Dorris, 1996. A Shark In The House. Key Porter.• Szado, Ania, 2004. Beginning of Was. Penguin Canada.• Weinzweig, Helen, 1980. Basic Black With Pearls.

Anansi.


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Queer• Anderson, Gordon Stewart, 2006. The Toronto You are

Leaving. Untroubled Heart.• Bartley, Jim, 1999. Stephen and Mr. Wilde. Blizzard.

[play about Oscar Wilde's famous 1882 visit to Toronto ]

• Grube, John, 1997. I’m Supposed to Be Crazy and Other Stories. Dartington Press.

• Kramer, Greg, 1999. Hogtown Bonbons. Riverbank Press.

• Symons, Scott, 1969. Civic Square. McClelland & Stewart.

• Whittall, Zoe, 2009. Holding Still for as Long as Possible. Anansi.


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South Asian Disapora• Bissoondath, Neil, 1988. A Casual Brutality. Toronto:

Macmillan of Canada.• Doctor, Farzana, 2007. Stealing Nasreen. Toronto:

Inanna.• Ganeshananthan, V.V., 2008. Love Marriage. New York:

Random House.• Jailall, Peter, 1997. Yet Another Home. Poems. Natural

Heritage.• Maharaj, Rabindranath, 1997. Homer in Flight.

Fredericton, N.B.: Goose Lane Editions.• Persaud, Sasenarine, 1998. Canada Geese and Apple

Chatney. Toronto: TSAR Books. [stories]


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imagining toronto copyright © amy lavender harris 1 engaging torontos diverse communities through...

Documents

toronto reference library

toronto residents

cultural programming

common cultural language

cradle language

useful books

diverse patrons

tpls collection