In the News...

By Joshua Drakes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

An upcoming literary event at the Museum of Dufferin will bring one of Canada’s emerging voices in fiction to the region for an afternoon focused on storytelling, identity and community.

Scheduled for April 25 from 2 to 4 p.m., the event will feature author Antonio Michael Downing in a moderated conversation, followed by a book signing. Hosted at the Museum of Dufferin, the program is part of a broader effort to connect readers with writers in an intimate, community-driven setting.

Moderated by Shelburne Public Library CEO Shannon McGrady, the afternoon is designed to offer attendees not only insight into Downing’s work but also an opportunity to engage directly with the ideas behind it. Tickets are available in advance, with organizers emphasizing accessibility and community participation as key elements of the experience.

Downing’s appearance is part of ongoing initiatives in Dufferin County to bring literary voices into smaller communities, creating spaces where readers can engage with authors beyond the page.

Originally from Trinidad, Downing said that his early life and interest in reading and writing were deeply influenced by his grandmother, who introduced him to reading and storytelling at a young age.

“My grandmother was [the person] who really got me started,” he said. “She raised me and gave me a lot of gifts, but the two that had the biggest impact were singing, which she did a lot of, and reading. She was older, and her eyes were bad, so she taught me how to read at a really young age, so that I could be her eyes, and that kind of stayed with me ever since.”

“It was just the magic of picking up this object made a paper, and reading these markings just scrawled onto it, and somehow that transports you to another place and another time. I was just hooked as a kid.”

After her passing, he relocated to northern Ontario, an experience that profoundly shaped his perspective and creative direction. That transition, marked by a sudden shift in culture, climate and identity, continues to inform much of his work.

“Everything had changed, the weather, the people, the way we spoke,” Downing said. “When someone says, ‘Who are you?’ Usually, we just start talking about where we’re from, who raised us, what kind of food we like, and such. What if every single thing that was part of that was gone, but you still existed?”

“That’s how it felt. That mystery of where exactly is the self, where does the self live, how do we feel, what makes us feel like we belong somewhere? That sense of identity, belonging, becoming, those things are the things I write about almost always, because it was such a big moment for me in my life,” he added.

His novel, Black Cherokee, explores themes of identity, belonging and self-discovery through the story of a young girl navigating complex cultural roots. Spanning her formative years, the narrative examines the pressures of being asked to define oneself within rigid boundaries, while also questioning broader societal ideas about inclusion and exclusion.

“The story is about a young girl, and just like the title sounds, she’s both black and Cherokee,” Downing said. “She gets rejected by both sides, by both communities, and she has both communities asking her to choose one or the other. We meet her when she’s seven, and we leave her when she’s 18, and it’s really about the choices she makes along the way of trying to figure out who she is and who she should be.”

“Really, it’s asking about a lot of the politics of our day. When you really get to the heart of it, it’s about who’s included and who’s excluded. Just like she is being excluded from these communities she belongs to, we’re often asking that about immigrants, are they really Canadian. We’re almost constantly asking ourselves this in our politics, and this story is really a microcosm of this greater debate,” he added.

For Downing, storytelling serves as a fundamental way of understanding both personal and collective experience. His work reflects an ongoing exploration of how individuals come to define themselves, particularly when faced with displacement or competing identities.

Drawing on his own experiences, he approaches writing as a means of making sense of life’s uncertainties, using fiction to examine questions that are often difficult to address directly.

His rich storytelling will be on full display at the Museum of Dufferin on April 25, allowing guests to engage directly with Downing in a moderated setting, rounded off by a book signing.

To buy tickets, go to https://canhist.ca/small-town-big-ideas. Tickets can also be purchased at Booklore in Orangeville.

Click here to view the article on the Orangeville Citizen website.

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By Paula Brown

Shelburne residents will have the opportunity to listen to and ask questions about pressing topics impacting the current zeitgeist with the return of the speaker series – Small Town Big Ideas.  

Launched earlier this year, Small Town Big Ideas is a speaker series hosted by the local organization CanHist and sponsored by multiple small-town groups in Dufferin County. The series looks to welcome some of Canada’s most innovative thinkers to the community to speak intimately with local residents on various topics such as history, politics, environment, gender equality, and journalism.

Speaking with the Free Press, Neil Orford, co-creator of the event, said the idea for the series came from the want to bring community members together to have discussions in-person rather than through social media and online discourse.

“In many cases [social media] forces us to think very quickly and forces us to form opinion that are presumptuous and not fully formed. To have top public intellectuals, who have a wealth of research and experience on topics, come speak to us in-person give us the capacity to reflect upon a lot of the issues and listen to one another, which is extraordinarily important,” said Orford.

The first season of the Small Town Big Ideas speaker series featured known global affairs columnist Gwynne Dyer and freelance political and climate journalist John Lorinc.

“We felt very buoyed by the response that we got, which Gave us the confidence to go ahead and plan for six speakers in the second series,” said Orford. “We certainly felt there was a buzz that came out of each of those evenings and that people wanted more of this kind of thing.”

The second season of Small Town Big Ideas will focus on various topics presented by some of Canada’s top authors and intellectuals including military history, reconciliation effort with Indigenous Peoples, environmental movements with water resource protection, Canadian journalism, and gender equality.

Elizabeth Renzetti, a bestselling Canadian author and journalist, will be the first guest speaker to kick off the second season of Small Town Big Ideas.

Renzetti is a former columnist for the Globe and Mail, where she wrote a popular opinion column and feature stories. In 2020 and 2023 she won the Landsberg Award for reporting on gender issues.

Renzetti will be releasing two new books in 2024: Bury the Lead, a mystery novel co-written with Kate Hilton, and a work of non-fiction about gender equality called, What She Said: Conversation About Equality.

“It would be hard to argue that she’s not one of Canada’s top journalists and now top authors as well. She’s just an amazing writer,” said Orford. “What resonated with me always was the power of her voice and reasoning. She’s a tremendous observer and has a great eye for what’s going on and a good sensibility for how the issues are playing out in communities across the country.”

The conversation with Renzetti will be held on Oct. 30 at the Museum of Dufferin (MoD). Tickets can be purchased for $20.

To learn more about the Small Town Big Ideas series or to purchase tickets for the event visit – www.canhist.ca.

Click here to view the article on the Orangeville Citizen website.

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By Paula Brown

Dufferin County residents will have the opportunity to discuss the intricacies of the war in Ukraine with a local international affairs columnist. 

Gwynne Dyer, a columnist with the Shelburne Free Press and Orangeville Citizen, will be a featured guest at an upcoming event co-hosted by CanHist and Mills & Company, at Grace Tipling Hall on March 19 at 7 p.m. 

“Dufferin County residents know him well through his columns in the Free Press and Citizen and anybody who reads his columns understands the tremendous experience that he has and the voice he brings to global issues, particularly in the realm of conflict and climate,” said Neil Orford, president of CanHist. “We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to bring him in and speak to the community.”

The lecture, titled “In the meantime, Ukraine – A History of War in the 21st Century”, will address the specific strategies, tactics and politics of the war in Ukraine, including the potential nuclear dimension of the conflict. The lecture will also consider the evolving nature and role of war as an institution in the 21st century. 

“To have a chance to engage with an expert on these matters helps in a community, where you get a chance to ask questions, have some public discourse, and really pursue this at an intellectual level,” said Orford. 

Dyer has worked as a freelance journalist, columnist, broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs, but was originally trained as a historian. He’s received degrees from Canadian, American and British universities and completed a Ph.D. in Military and Middle Eastern History from the University of London. 

Before launching his twice-weekly column on international affairs, which is published in more than 20 countries, Dyer served in three navies and held academic appointments at the Canadian Forces College, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and Oxford University. 

In 2010, he was made an officer of the Order of Canada. 

Dyer has published multiple books with his most recent tome, The Shortest History of War, published in 2021, and his upcoming publication Intervention Earth isset for release in spring 2024. 

The presentation featuring Dyer will be an inaugural event in a larger upcoming speaker series brought to the community by co-hosts CanHist and Mills & Company. 

The speaker series called, Small Town Big Ideas, will feature six different speaking guests who will discuss international affairs as well as Canada’s ongoing role in world affairs, particularly through a historical lens. 

“We’re excited to bring these voices to the Grace Tipling Hall,” said Orford. 

Tickets to the Gwynne Dyer event are free and can be obtained by visiting the Small-Town Big Ideas page on the CanHist website – www.canhist.ca.

Click here to view the article on the Orangeville Citizen website.

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