February is Black History Month. To celebrate, the City of Toronto Archives is hosting an evening with Dr. Karolyn Smardz Frost on February 5. She is the winner of the 2007 Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction for I’ve Got a Home in Gloryland: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad, which tells the story of two slaves who escaped to Canada in 1833. In an illustrated presentation entitled Fugitive Sources: Finding Clues to our......

Over the past little while, Torontoist has been quietly absorbed in The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol reader. Edited by Darren Wershler-Henry and Lori Emerson, The Alphabet Game is an essential anthology for any reader of bpNichol, and is a great starting point for those who have yet to discover his work. Nichol, who is probably most well-known for his concrete and visual poetry, had achieved many things before dying at the age of 44. He......

An up-close look at the Grey Cup trophy reveals countless dents and scratches attesting to the long and colourful life of probably the most disrespected and abused trophy in sports. Since being donated by Canada’s 9th Governor General, Earl Grey, the trophy has been head-butted, sat on, and snapped in half. It’s been abandoned for years at a time in bank vaults and hall closets. It’s been forgotten in empty stadiums and hotel rooms......

Photo by EIFF. Next week on October 17th, the International Festival of Authors will kick off its 28th year since its inception in 1980 at the Premiere Dance Theatre (207 Queens Quay West). Incorporating some of the best contemporary world literature, the festival is comprised of eleven days and nights of readings, interviews, round-table discussions, lectures, and book signings—not to mention special event readings by Scotiabank Giller Prize and Governor General’s Literary Awards finalists.......

While going to York University may seem like a giant hassle (Torontoist recommends you pack a snack for the trip), this year’s Ioan Davies Memorial Lecture is shaping up to be worth the drive or TTC ride to York. The Ioan Davies Memorial Lecture commemorates the life and work of Ioan Davies, journalist, author, and professor. Each year, invited lecturers have re-invigorated the links between cultural expression, everyday life, and political practice. Dr. Thomas King,......

Lit lovers should head over to Church Street today for the Writing Outside The Margins festival of queer literature, the first of its kind in Toronto. The Gay Village stretch of Church Street will be closed from 11:00 a.m. to 7 p.m. to accommodate stands selling everything from children's books, fiction and poetry to sci-fi, erotica and comic arts. There will also be two stages for readings and performances, where you'll get to participate......

Have you checked out the officially unveiled ROM Crystal yet? Some cool dudes like David Foster, Deborah Cox, Jann Arden, K'naan, Natalie McMaster, David Suzuki and Governor General Michaëlle Jean [AND CLAY AIKEN!!!—Ed.] were on scene for the dedication. A 18-month-old boy is dead after falling off of a 28th-floor balcony of an apartment building near Victoria Park and Danforth Avenue yesterday. Stephane Dion to One Cent Now: No. The Buffalo News on Toronto:......

Get on over to the east end tonight for Exile Editions' Spring Reading. New books will bloom this eve, and others will be ripe for picking throughout spring and summer. Exile Editorial Board Member Chris Doda gives us the layout for tonight’s garden of authors: Priscila Uppal's Ontological Necessities, her fifth book of poetry with Exile, has been shortlisted for the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize. It deals predominantly with the absurdity of the 21st century......

Playing at the Tranzac this evening is Harry and the Potters, a band that inspired a new genre of music called Wizard Rock. While brothers Paul and Joe DeGeorge started playing their Harry Potter-inspired songs just to friends, they developed a massive fan base online and began touring around North America. Pitchfork named their appearance at the New York Public Library one of the top live shows of 2005, and now there are over......

This article is a response to a series of comments you can find on Spacing Wire, in which someone compares Toronto to a "crossroads" or "meeting place." The poster claims this label makes sense because the word Toronto originates from an aboriginal word meaning "meeting place." There was no post contradicting the definition, probably because we have all heard this claim before and most of us accept it. Upon further investigation of the matter,......

Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death for war crimes, and may be hanged within the next few months. What does the international community say? U.S. President George W. Bush calls the verdict "a milestone in the Iraqi people's effort to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law". The UN and European Union criticize the former Iraqi leader's death sentence. Vatican representative, Cardinal Renato Martino, calls the sentence "eye for an......

Who's going to come out on top of the strangest Giller Prize shortlist in years? While the smart money is on Rawi Hage's DeNiro's Game, which is also nominated for the Governor General's Award, writers from the Globe raised a convincing argument for Gaetan Soucy's the Immaculate Conception. Sadly we won't get to see Canada's literati ogle Justin Trudeau but that doesn't mean that you can't celebrate Canada's biggest literary prize, go to a great......

No time…Must get back down to Harbourfront…IFOA in full swing…Here are some other literary events taking place this week…. Monday The Test Reading Series returns on Monday night, 7:30pm, with readings from Rob Read (that could be the best name for a writer I’ve ever heard) and Souvankham Thammavongsa. This night is also doubling for the launch of the new issue of Carousel, one of the best lit mags in the country – Mark Laliberte......

And where can we get some? 110 Spadina Ave. is the building that houses the House of Anansi Press among other things. The medium-sized publisher is having an amazing year. First was the news that two of their books, Rawi Hage's De Niro's Game and Gaetan Soucy's the Immaculate Conception, made it on to the weirdest Giller shortlist in years. Then this morning the boys and girls at Anansi got even more good news. Hage's......

Claws were out at Sunday's Liberal leadership debate. Bob Rae accused Michael Ignatieff of waffling on foreign policy. Stephane Dion compared Rae, former NDP premier, to spendthrift icon Rich Uncle Pennybags ''giving monopoly money to the people''. Ken Dryden compared politics to his hockey career and drew applause. But all agreed one thing: "Liberals, we need to get back to power as soon as possible." Toronto's famous entertainment promoter, Gino Empry, died this weekend at......

A couple of Sunday night events to kick-off or end your week, depending on how you see it. Gypsy Eyes, who is all over the place this week, hosts Last Call Poets at the Cadillac Lounge – 1296 Queen W. – tonight at 8pm. Admission is $7. Depending on how long Last Call Poets runs, you may be able to make it over to the Gladstone – 1214 Queen W. – for Haunted Fishtank poetry......

Torontoist got tipped off that Governor General Award winning artist Istvan Kantor was arrested today at the AGO's Andy Warhol show for staging a blood-filled performance. The exhibit, which shows a darker side to Warhol, has been up for a month so we think it's about time that Kantor showed up. The performance artist has been banned from several museums including the National Gallery of Canada. A part of us wished we could've been there,......

Canadians know that we have to pack in all our activities before the weather gets too cold for us to leave our houses, which is why this weekend is just jam-packed with stuff to do. -Local indie folkie rockers I.An.Eye launch their new album Saturday night at the Horseshoe Tavern. Doors at 9pm, cover $6. -Everyone's favourite fire hazardous country style activity comes to Dundas Square today and tomorrow: a good ol' fashioned corn......

The Governor General Literary Award nominations were announced yesterday morning at the Nicholas Hoare bookstore on Front Street. The joint was packed to the gills with media and publishing types, sucking back java and nibbling at fruit trays as Russell Smith announced the English-language shortlist. Torontoist was pleased to see that retribution was in store for Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road, previously (and, the general consensus is, egregiously) overlooked on the Giller shortlist. Most......

-Another day, another Governor General. But this one has great hair. And 'interior fire.' -Another day, another extreme heat alert. Which brings our total to seventeen. -Another day, another collective band of creative Montrealers. -Another day, another diary entry from collective bandmember Jason Collett. -Another day, another random Canadian statistic. Did you, dear Torontoist reader, know that 8% of Canadians drink rum? -Another day, another new online design mag. -Another day, another amusing photo, via......

For theatre in Toronto, anyway. Houses have reportedly been weak for World Stage: Flying Solo, leading the festival to offer reduced-price tickets to TAPA members. The Seven Lives of Simon Labrosse, a Carole Frechette play that Torontoist actually likes (don't get us started on Helen's Necklace), has been playing to underwhelming houses (except for the night the Governor General dropped by last week). And the cast of The Confessions of Punch and Judy has been......

Not to Thunder Bay or anything, just up to York University. Art lovers can check out Governor General Award winning video artist Istvan Kantor at the Art Gallery of York University. Controversial is the word thrown around when describing Kantor’s work. His regularly uses blood in his work and has been kicked out and had a restraining order placed on him by the National Gallery of Canada. Interestingly his works are now in the National......

Half Life, the new play by mathematician/playwright John Mighton that opens in previews tonight at the Tarragon, is not a memory play – but it is a play about remembering and forgetting. It takes place an old folks home where an elderly man is reacquainted with an old flame from before the war. The couple falls back in love, but their respective children are sceptical that the two ever knew each other at all before......

Parliamentarians, averse to confronting actual problems, have elected this week to take on the Governor General's ostensibly appalling spending habits. Never mind that the engaging Mme. Clarkson's been dipping into the federal kitty in order to boost Canada around the world instead of sitting, Romeo LeBlanc-style, in a Rideau Hall La-Z-Boy and occasionally signing papers. Never mind that she and John John represent a better face for notre pays than puffy, boring-looking P. Martin ever......