uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto
Pages Books & Magazines, NOW, Coach House Books, Spacing and the rabble.ca book lounge present a This Is Not A Reading Series book launch: editors Jason McBride & Alana Wilcox celebrate Toronto with contributors from uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto. Scroll down to see the day’s full programme.
The Big Smoke is on fire! Since the election of Mayor David Miller in late 2003, Toronto has experienced a wave of civic pride and enthusiasm. There’s renewed interest in a waterfront revitalization and the TTC, and in transforming important buildings like the ROM, the AGO, OCAD and the Gladstone Hotel. The indie music scene has exploded, and projects like Spacing magazine and This Is Not A Reading Series have brought new life to Hogtown. Toronto has once again become a place of possibility.
The new Coach House book uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto aims to capture and chronicle that spirit, and we invite you to come celebrate its publication with a day of panels and partying at the Gladstone Hotel. Scroll down to see the lineup for the day. You can attend panels in the afternoon to hear contributors from uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto discussing vital issues that concern all Torontonians. There will also be interactive activities run by the panelists. And in the evening, please join us for a rocking party with live music by Republic of Safety, Tinkertoy and Free School.
uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto is a compendium of pie-in-the-sky speculations and pragmatic suggestions for everything from public toilets to the Island airport. Along the way, it profiles Torontonians like the Zeidler family, a pair of Queen Street gallery owners and a self-proclaimed ‘infrastructure geek’ obsessed with sidewalk stamps. It considers fifties-style strip malls, the TTC, gentrification, crumbling sidewalks, why Toronto is more interesting than Paris and the perils of a car-free Kensington Market.
uTOpia Contributors: uTOpia includes two full-colour fold-out maps of perfectly utopian Torontos and a foreword by Mayor David Miller. Contributors include Howard Akler, Andrew Alfred-Duggan, Jacob Allderdice, Bert Archer, James Bow, Nicole Cohen, Jonny Dovercourt, Dale Duncan, Philip Evans, Mark Fram, Misha Glouberman, Chris Hardwicke, Alfred Holden, Luis Jacob, Lorraine Johnson, Edward Keenan, Mark Kingwell, John Lorinc, Sally McKay, Heather McLean, Dave Meslin, Shawn Micallef, Derek Murr, Ninjalicious, Darren O’Donnell, Planning Action, Barbara Rahder, Dylan Reid, Erik Rutherford, Jeffrey Stinson, Deanne Taylor, Conan Tobias, Stéphanie Verge, Adam Vaughan and Marlena Zuber.
Jason McBride is an editor at Toronto Life magazine and the former managing editor of Coach House Books. He is also a filmmaker and freelance journalist, having contributed to Lola, the Village Voice, Cinema Scope, the National Post and The Believer.
Alana Wilcox is the senior editor of Coach House Books. She is also the author of a novel, A Grammar of Endings, published by the Mercury Press.
uTOpian AFTERNOON PROGRAMME 2:00-5:00pm: three one-hour sessions consisting of a 20-30 minute panel in the Gladstone Ballroom, followed by interactive activities designed by/with the panelists. Panel members and moderators are all uTOpia contributors.
uTOpian panel 1: PUBLIC SPACE - sponsored by Spacing Magazine
A look at how Toronto functions as a community in the use of its public spaces, with emphasis on how we can better use our public spaces in the future.
PUBLIC SPACE PANEL
- Mark Kingwell
- Jonny Dovercourt
- Lorraine Johnson
- Erik Rutherford
- Shawn Micallef (Moderator)
uTOpian panel 2: PRIVATE SPACE - sponsored by Pages Books & Magazines and Coach House Books
The city is made up of individuals. Each of us has her/his own version of Toronto. The panel will examine how individual contribution and vision shapes the city.
PRIVATE SPACE PANEL
- Sheila Heti
- Bert Archer
- Sally McKay
- Misha Gouberman (Moderator)
uTOpian panel 3: POLITICAL SPACE - sponsored by the rabble.ca book lounge
Panelists will examine how the Public and Private meet in the Political realm and how we can improve the city through political action.
POLITICAL SPACE PANEL
- David Meslin
- Heather McLean
- Darren O’Donnell
- Adam Vaughan
- Edward Keenan (Moderator)
uTOpian AFTERNOON ACTIVITIES
• Build a Marshmallow Toronto (sponsored by Torontoist.com)
• If Toronto was a … (a cheese, a bird, a car) what kind of (cheese or bird or car) would it be?
• Guerilla gardening
• Year 2020 Headlines contest
• CN Tower makeover
• Toronto monopoly
• Vote for the best playground, neighbourhood, tree, bike lane and subway station
• Face painting
• Slideshow by Alfred Holden
• Mayoral auditions
uTOpian EVENING PROGRAMME 8-12pm: Come raise a glass to celebrate our great city, and to congratulate the contributors and editors from uTOpia, at a rocking launch party in the Gladstone Ballroom, with live music by Republic of Safety, Free School and Tinkertoy!
