Arts & Culture

Fahrenheit 451 and the importance of oral storytelling and memory keeping

 In Fahrenheit 451, Toronto Public Library's Keep Toronto Reading Festival 2013 book selection, books are burned, history is re-written, memories are lost and re-invented, screen families replace real families and nobody talks to anyone. There are no stories in the society Ray Bradbury has invented.

When Montag escapes from the city he begins to regain a connection with nature, with other people, and with stories. He meets the book people. "...bums on the outside, libraries inside". They memorize, or 'become' a book, and travel the country, bringing the stories and knowledge back to the world. "We'll pass the books on to our children, by word of mouth, and let our children wait, in turn, on the other people."

In order to live and thrive, stories need to be told, shared, imagined, cherished and passed on to family and community.

 

Storytelling can be many things to many people. Oral traditions keep stories and cultural knowledge alive. Family stories and family narrative connect us to our personal heritage and help us live our lives.

  
                                     

 

In recent years, family memory keeping, storytelling, and oral history have had a resurgence.

Family stories are now being shared on radio and online.  The Moth ("True Stories Told Live") was started in a living room in New York in 1997 and has become hugely popular, with live storytelling,  podcasts and a weekly radio program on NPR.

A study conducted by Dr. Marshall Duke at the Emory Center for Myth and Ritual in American Life found that families that share a family narrative increase their children's resilience in the face of obstacles and challenges.

Why all this interest in sharing personal stories and memories? Do people need to re-connect, in an age of social media where there is very little actual face to face contact? Are many of us, as aging boomers, more conscious of the need to preserve our memories and those of our parents and grandparents? Are newcomers concerned about losing their traditions and cultural history?

In Suddenly They Heard Footsteps: Storytelling for the Twenty-first Century, Canada's best-known storyteller Dan Yashinsky looks at these new trends and the place of storytelling in today's world.

Collecting family stories, by recording or writing them, means that even when the family memory keepers are no longer with us, the stories will be preserved.

My mother, who grew up in Poland during the Second World War, used to tell us stories of her girlhood and wartime experiences. Now that her memory is fading, she has lost many of those stories, but they enriched and informed my life.

From the recitations of the book people in Fahrenheit 451, to family dinner table storytelling to podcasts and radio shows, people have a universal desire to share stories and preserve memories.

Today, Toronto is a city of many nationalities and many stories. For an opportunity to hear some of Toronto's storykeepers, join host Dan Yashinsky and guest storytellers at the library on April 4 and April 22.

To whet your appetite, here's Dan Yashinsky telling a story about his bubbie.

 

Ceramics and Transformation

Ceramics are another art form that intrigues me.  These books are available in the library system. 

 

                                       

                                          

                                         
 

       
The Transformation By Fire exhibition at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto also caught my attention.  Women overcoming violence through clay, on from February 7th to April 28th, 2013.

 

Measure for Measure "On Stage" 2013 at the Toronto Reference Library - Free Shakespeare Lecture

Join us for "Measure to Measure", the last of four thought-provoking Shakespeare lectures, presented by Toronto Public Library and Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

 

 

The guest speaker will be Alexander Leggatt, well known Shakespearean scholar and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto.

The program takes place in the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, 2nd floor, Toronto Reference Library on Tuesday March 26th. Doors open at 6 pm with a cash bar and the lecture will go from 7-8 pm with a question and answer session to follow the talk.  Admission is free but tickets are required. 

Please also look at the wonderful online bibliography to accompany the talk.

This is one of four free lectures that form part of the On Stage Arts Theatre Series at the Toronto Reference Library. They are jointly presented with Stratford Shakespeare Festival  and cover plays being performed in 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

International Day of Happiness or "Pain is part of Life but Suffering is a Choice"

Did you know March 20th was the United Nations International Day of Happiness?  

Did you affirm the pledge, cheer happy heroes or otherwise take part in the day? 

Where I work some waggish ne'er-do-well taped Stephen Covey's  "12 Things Happy People do Differently" in the staff elevator which made me smile when I read them. 

World Happiness Day is an important gesture and the search for happiness is a pervasive and troubling part of modern western culture right now. 

 

On February 8th, during a bad winter storm, 200 brave folks and I heard Gretchen Rubin, the author of the Happiness Project and Happier at Home, speak at the Appel Salon in the Toronto Reference Library.  

 

        

It was a diverse audience of men and women, a wide range of ages, many couples and it had a real funky feel.  She's not loved or viewed without suspicion by all - but I must say I personally found her charming and moving. I've enjoyed reading the books and found they've made a positive difference in my life and home.

 

 

 

Happiness is big business. It's a hot topic in academia, pyschology and the popular press. At Toronto Public Library Self-actualization (Psychology) has 1871 titles associated with it and Happiness has 792 titles linked to it. 

 

There is often a religious association with the concept of happiness, especially through Buddhism. The title quote of this post "Pain is part of life but suffering is a choice" is a Zen koan about detachment.  There are many writings that explain this.

 

               

 

               


  

There is also a strong association of finding happiness through mindfulness. Mindfulness is also used to cope and combat pain (physical, emotional and psychological). Jon Kabat-Zinn and Rick Hanson are a couple of authors closely associated with this idea.

 

     

 

 

For a lighter read I enjoyed Thrive - finding happiness the Blue Zones Way by Dan Buettner. Part armchair travel book and part happiness book, it offers international case studies of happiness.

 

 

My clever friend Jason introduced me to writer Harvard professor Tal Ben-Shahar and his book Happier.  He pointed out it wasn't about making you happy - it was working with what you already had.

I also really enjoyed University of Toronto Professor Thomas Hurka's book The best things in life : a guide to what really matters.  He very nicely and succinctly grapples with key philosophical points around duty, responsibility, being part of a community and personal satisfaction and happiness.

                  

 

What I liked about Hurka's book in particular was exploration of the idea that happiness can come from doing your duty - doing something that is not inherently enjoyable but brings you satisfaction and contentment.   

 

I spent part of autumn a couple of years back visiting an elderly neighbor who was dying in palliative care at our local hospital.  She lived two streets over and I only knew her from walking my dog by her house and stopping to chat on the porch. 

Nevetheless, as she lay dying, I found myself biking over to visit once or twice a week. These were not easy visits - it was not a Tuesdays with Morrie type of passing.   She had a hard life - I heard many family stories that were difficult and painful.  I saw her youngest daughter who lived with her, and was her primary caregiver, carry a heavy burden.  I often took the daughter leftovers from our home. I was blessed to see and hear real love pass between mother and daughter.  Sometimes, there was conflict with the hospital staff as well as among the family.  I emeshed myself, with no good boundaries, into their lives.   She asked to see my dog and I brought him.  I held her hand - I made risque jokes to make her laugh. I did this out of a sense of community, compassion and duty to those in need.  It was not joyful or enjoyable - but it made me happy to be of help. And then she died. 

 

It's taken me a long time to write this blog post. I stayed late at work and didn't finish it. I continued to work on it at home through the night and early morning and really got into "the Flow" (one of the 12 signs of happiness!). Blogging makes me happy.  Being connected to the community makes me happy. Doing my duty makes me happy. Having an impact makes me happy. Acting compassionately and with kindness makes me happy.  Going to Quaker Meeting makes me happy. Finding (free) kindling for the fire place on the way home makes me very happy. Making food for my mom and talking to her every day makes me happy.  My dog and husband snoring together make me happy. Goodnight and good morning.

This corgi dog also makes me happy. Enjoy! 

 

 

 

Tell me a story! Toronto Storytelling Festival

 

"The love for a good story, well told, lies deep in every human heart." (Lillian H. Smith)

We are all storytellers! When you regale friends with anecdotes about your mosquito-plagued camping adventures, or hear your child's account of classroom shenanigans, or sit with a grandparent who reminisces about growing up in the old country...you are telling and hearing stories.

Stories are universal, timeless, essential to how we see and understand the world. We start telling our children stories when we bounce them on our knee and recite a nursery rhyme. These are tiny, perfect stories with a beginning, a middle and an end.

 

 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses, and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again

 

Of course, if your little one asks what happened to Humpty after that, you're on your own. Make up a new story. Omelette?

 

 

 

I had a kindergarten class visit once in my library branch, and told the children that it was time for a story. One of the children asked me where my book was, and I told him that this was a story that I had in my head. They could make up the pictures in their imaginations while they listened.

The oral tradition of storytelling is ancient and fascinating. Storytellers tell traditional tales, original stories, fairy tales, true-life stories, epic poems. The common elements are the voice of the teller and the ears of the listener. It's a unique shared experience which crosses cultures, ages, times and places.

Toronto Public Library has a long and distinguished history of children's services and storytelling. There have been many talented and dedicated librarians whose skill and passion for sharing stories enriched the lives of countless children since Lillian H. Smith established a new Children's Department in 1912.

 

Here is the old Central Library at College and St. George, around 1921, with children patiently waiting for storytime. No TV, no computers!

Other influential Toronto Public Library storyteller-librarians have included Alice Kane, co-founder of the Storytellers School of Toronto, now Storytelling Toronto, and Dr. Rita Cox, who in 1997 was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada for her contribution to storytelling and literacy.

Alice Kane passed away in 2003, but thanks to StorySave, some of her stories have been recorded and are available to us today on CD.

Dr. Cox will be telling at the Festival this year, a wonderful treat!

We were also fortunate a few years ago to have Dan Yashinsky as our Storyteller-in-Residence. Dan co-founded the Storyteller's School of Toronto, began the long-running 1001 Friday Nights of Storytelling, and founded the Toronto Storytelling Festival.

See and hear Dan at TPL's Keep Toronto Reading Festival in April!

 Happily, the storytelling tradition continues today at Toronto Public Library, with younger staff mentored by the more experienced, and training programs offered in-house, and by Storytelling Toronto. Gerrard Ashdale branch holds an annual Summer Storytelling Evening in July, an opportunity for library staff to tell stories to the community - this year will be the 8th anniversary.

For children at home, the library offers 'Dial a Story', with stories to listen to over the phone, in more than a dozen languages.

The library's collection reflects this commitment to storytelling with a wide range of traditional and original tales, and books on the history and technique of storytelling. Here are a few titles, including some of my favourites.

                      

     


                      

One of the highlights of the storyteller's year in Toronto is the Toronto Storytelling Festival. This year marks its 35th anniversary, and as always, there will be a wealth of programs for all ages. Storytelling isn't just for kids - check out the program for a variety of adult sessions. Of course, there will also be wonderful family programs by members of Storytellers for Children.

This year's Festival roster includes Canadian and internationally renowned tellers. It's a rare opportunity to see and hear so many special guests in one short week. Many of the concerts and workshops will be held at the beautiful new Daniels Spectrum, in the heart of Regent Park.

Some of the performances are free, others are ticketed. You can order tickets online through the Festival's website. They're going fast, so don't delay.

Snip, snap, snout. My tale's told out!

St Patrick's Day Vintage Postcards - Céad Míle Fáilte - Toronto Public Library

March 17 is St Patrick's Day and my cousin Betty's birthday.

With large Irish emigre populations in Canada and the United States it's no surprise that the Toronto Public Library's vintage postcard collection is extensive in this genre.

The rich symbolism of Irish folklore shows in the postcards - along with the expected 4 leaf shamrock, there is the Cláirseach, the Shillelagh, the colour green, clay pipes, top hats, Gaelic phrases, a lot of dancing and singing, chasing pigs and, alas, some cliche stereotypes (in particular around liquor).

The first two cards are English by Raphael Tuck & Sons Art Publishers to the King and Queen circa 1908. The pretty girl chases the pig through the four leaf clover/shamrock "St Patrick's Day and I wish you luck" (you would need luck to catch a small pig - but the pig was also seemingly a good luck symbol). The card was sent from Toronto to Miss Evelyn Rugg, 448 Parliament Street. Both cards are part of series 106 - notice the design similarities.  The half moon has an older/stereotypically dressed couple and the mockingly funny phrase "It's niver too high for the Loikes of Us". The Tuck cards are embossed in rich deep colors - chromolithographs - certainly produced in Germany.

  

To quote the amusing and slightly romantic message to Evelyn Rugg:

"My Dear Miss Rugg, Yours to night, last night and tomorrow night and forever" signed the Same and some initials - now that's romantic!

 

The "Céad míle fáilte" / "A Hundred Thousand Welcomes" greeting is postmarked 1914 and was sent from Toronto to Mr Fred Baird in Rome c/o Sebasti & Realli - Clark's Orient Cruise.  It is also a Raphael Tuck & Sons card - always clearly marked on the back and often include series number.  I liked this card for the interesting biplane illustration - a newish technology less than 10 years old at this point.  I see a city skyscraper landscape - possibly New York - home to a large Irish immigrant population.

 

Below we have a much later card mailed in 1920 - it's a much more Art Nouveau moving into Deco designed card - produced by Gibson Art Company.  It was mailed to Miss Clara Waters - YWCA Dundas Street Toronto.   It has a lighter feel - it's not embossed - narrow range of colors and more white space - and the paper stock is much thinner (all factors making them cheaper to produce).

 

The following cards are produced by the Arthur Livingston Co of New York who was active from 1897-1907.  They're working on racist stereotypes of the Irish - Punch Magazine from England often portrayed the Irish as monkeys - or simianized.  The issue of Irish comic and racist caricature especially in the United States and England has been the subject of much research.

Like Raphael Tuck & Sons and others, Livingston marketed his colorful cards in series to increase the sales - you were more likely to buy several rather than a single - as seen here, Andrew V. had two.  These cards are lampooning the St Patrick's Day Parade and the figures do have a distinct suggestion of "monkey" features.  The book Making the Irish American : history and heritage of the Irish in the United States pg 373 talks specifically about Livingston penny postcards and puts them in the context of 19th century prejudice against the Irish in America.

 

 

 

These cards were printed in 1906 - notice the back is not split with message/address sections- it would only have been used for the address. Any message would have been written in the small white space bottom right corner.  Split backs only came into affect circa 1907 with a change in American law - this helps in dating postcards when there is no copyright or postal stamp information.

 

If you are interested in the history of the Irish in Canada you may enjoy the following:

       

Did you know the Toronto Reference Library has an extensive vintage postcard collection?  You may have read earlier blog posts on our

• Halloween 
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas Cats
• Remembrance Day post  WW1 card showing Canadian troops on the French Front.
• Valentine's Day

If you are interested in doing further research you may enjoy the book Vintage postcards for the holidays : identification and value guide.

If you like early photographs / images / postcards of Toronto and Canada visit the Digital Archive which includes rare historical pictures, maps, manuscripts, ephemera and digitized books from our Special Collections for research, study and discovery.

Toronto Public Library has some of its photo/ephemera collections online at  Pinterest and Flickr as well as many of its past exhibits and displays in virtual exhibitions. Come visit us online or in person.

If you are interested in collecting postcards or knowing more about them did you know that Toronto has it's very own Postcard Club - TPC.   We also carry their official newsletter Card Talk in the Arts Dept of the Toronto Reference Library - 5th floor.

Clearance Book Sale: March 14-16, 2013 - Friends of the Library / South Chapter at the Toronto Reference Library

 Like books? Like bargains? Then you'll really like ......the books clearance sale!

 

Not only have the Friends of the Library - South Chapter successfully reopened their used bookstore but they're having a clearance sale this week at the Beeton Auditorium of the Toronto Reference Library.

Join us on Thursday March 14 from 10-8 pm, Friday March 15 from 9:30-4:30 pm and Saturday March 16 from 9-4:00. 

Prices are very reasonable at 50 cents each or 3 for $1.00.

Enjoy !

Othello "On Stage" 2013 at the Toronto Reference Library

Join us for Othello, the second of four thought-provoking Shakespeare lectures, presented by Toronto Public Library and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

 

 

 

The guest speaker will be Philippa Sheppard, who teaches Shakespeare at the University of Toronto. 

The program takes place in the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, 2nd floor, Toronto Reference Library on Tuesday March 12th. Doors open at 6 pm with a cash bar and the lecture will go from 7-8 pm with a question and answer session to follow the talk.  Admission is free but tickets are required. 

Please also look at the wonderful online bibliography to accompany the talk.

 

This is one of four free lectures that form part of the On Stage Arts Theatre Series at the Toronto Reference Library. They are jointly presented with Stratford Shakespeare Festival  and cover plays being performed in 2013.

  

Merchant of Venice - Tuesday March 19 - 7-8 pm 

Measure for Measure - Tuesday March 26 - 7-8 pm 

 

 

 

This clip is from the 1952 movie version of Othello directed and starring Orson Welles.

 

 

 

New Music books in the Arts@TRL

Elmslie and I were leafing through some of the newly arrived rock music books in our Arts Department at the Toronto Reference Library, having a chuckle at the pictures and remembering our younger days when many of these singers and bands were new. 

 

The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal Rev. and Updated Ed.

Encylopedias like this one are very engrossing, full of pictures and information about our favourite bands, and also about some we had NEVER heard of!

 

While Queen's heavy metal credentials are, the Encyclopedia says, 'beyond question',  they have also worked in many styles that other heavy metal bands would 'as soon' soak themselves in gasoline and then 'light a match' than perform.  As for me, I am glad they did so, utilizing Freddie Mercury's amazing vocal abilities to beautiful effect. Photo by Mick Rock.

 

 

 

The Runaways are also included in the Encyclopedia, not the least because the band launched the careers of Joan Jett and Lita Ford, but also because of its trailblazing impact for 'all female' bands.  These two photos (left by Claude Van Heye, right by London Features) show both the early band and their later incarnation towards the end of their career. Can you pick out the young Joan Jett and Lita Ford?

 

Loudness, a hugely popular band in their native Japan known for their non commercial heavy metal sound, signed with the North American label, Atlantic Records, in the mid 80's in hopes of conquering a foreign market.  Somehow, back in the day, neither Elmslie nor I got to hear their popular Thunder in the East album (where were we?) and since they returned to Japan after a short 6 years (to the joy of their loyal Japanese fanbase) we totally missed out.  However, like the Runaways for "all female" bands, they were an inspiration to the Japanese metal bands that followed in their wake.  Photo by Ebet Roberts

 

 

Michael Jackson Style

This book is loads of fun for any connoisseur of (Michael) Jacksonesque.  It follows his whole career from beginning to end from the perspective of his iconic style!  Elsmlie and I had a blast checking out all the pics.  Here are a few favs:

 

Michael the boy, already a person of great fashion and style.  Already embodying the confident look of a star.  Photo by Getty Images

 

This photo by Matthew Rolston moves me every time I see it.  There is something intensely sad and private here, yet nonetheless full of Michael's own magnificence.

 

                   

And here he is with John Landis, his wonderful sense of playfulness on full display from the Thriller days, in this photo by Steven Vaughan.

 

And lastly, another photo by Getty Images, instantly recognizable, instantly Michael.

 

Our Arts Department is always getting in new music books, rock, punk, metal, hip hop.  Here is a sampling of what is available.   Why not come in yourself and check them out?

 

                                   

                                              

 

                                                   
                

 

"Color is the Pain of Light" - Toronto Public Library illuminates Light Art Books

Recently we had a university student asking for books on Light Art. She was visiting from Montreal during reading week. In in a very studious (and admirable!) manner she came to the Toronto Reference Library to do some research.

Why not come, read and enjoy some of the beautiful, substantial and stimulating books on Light Art.

 

Phenomenal : California light, space, surface

 

 

Light art : Targetti Light Art Collection

 

 

 

Olafur Eliasson : your lighthouse : works with light 1991-2004

 

 

Steven Scott : luminous icons, 1999-2011

 

Dan Flavin : a retrospective

 

 

Light art from artificial light : light as a medium in the art of the 20th and 21st centuries

When I was first living on my own I had an old school answering machine. Every week I would record a new message on the tape cassette - this technology is so obsolete now many people now won't even know about it.   Once, while loudly playing a song by the Violent Femmes, I quoted Goethe's phrase "colour is the pain of light"  as my message.  It seemed cool and avant garde - needless to say I got a lot of hangups and soon tired of being that painfully hip. 

 

I won't say I'm hipper or cooler than Richard Meier but he, famous Pritzker winning architectural genius, also famously quoted the phrase as part of his acceptance speech for the award.