Excerpt from You May Not Take the Sad and Angry Consolations

My brother Bill would be 65 this year. Retirement age. I like to imagine he’d have mixed feelings about leaving his job, whatever that job might be. He’d be sad because he’d miss the chance to laugh with and play tricks on his co-workers; happy because he’d now be able to spend days in front of the TV, drawing with crayons and creating his own art. I like to imagine he’d do this in a home he shared with people he loved, maybe in a community run by L’Arche, or a group home, or maybe in an apartment with a spouse. My dreams of what Bill’s life might have been like are small and ordinary, but they centre on what makes life worth living: a home, a job or other occupation to fill his days, a chance to love and be loved.

By Catherine McKercher, author of Shut Away: When Down Syndrome was a Life Sentence

With a new season comes a new roster of books to add to your shelf! From a coming-of-age story set during the Vietnam War to a rare photographic record of an early-20th-century queer relationship, here’s what you can look forward to from us this spring.

Excerpt from Aloha Wanderwell

In 1922, a 15-year-old girl, fed up with life in a French convent school, answered an ad for a travelling secretary. Tall, blonde, and swaggering with confidence, she might have passed for twenty. She also knew what she wanted: to become the first female to drive around the world. Her name was Aloha Wanderwell.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the launch of It Was Dark There All the Time: Sophia Burthen and the Legacy of Slavery in Canada. Done in partnership with the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre, the event was hosted by Talibah Howard, Youth Program Manager at the Afro-Canadian Caribbean Association, and included  readings by the author, Andrew Hunter, and featured guests Reighen Grineage and Chantal Gibson. The event ended with insightful questions from the audience, such as “How do you connect the threads between the abolition of slavery to the broader goal of abolition, which is to eliminate all carceral institutions?” or “Why do you focus on aspects of nature in Sophia’s story?” and “Is Joseph Brant as a slave owner a taboo subject?”

For those who were unable to join us live, or who want to hear Andrew and Talibah dive into the questions above and more, we’d like to share a recording of the event. Enjoy!