I just finished reading the Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill.
I was an intersting one, and really makes one think about the historical legacy of slavery. I was thinking as well about the actual globalization that this involved. It was really about the movement of people physically across oceans.
It also made me think about the role of education in emancipating people. That seems to be the subtext to the book, as the protagonist, is able to escape from her situation in part because of her education and her ability to read.
It reminded me of an recent article on another blog about the importance of the Public Broadcasting in terms of education here . It was a really interesting one and made me think even more about how the CBC has made me feel Canadian. I think it's been one secret ingredient in the successful integration of immigrants as well. This important function of public broadcasting, particularly in my experience CBC is underrated.
May 23, 2009
May 02, 2009
Ottawa International Writer's Festival
So I've been volunteering and enjoying the Ottawa International Writer's Festival over the past few weeks.
It's been a blast and it ends today, so I thought I'd post about some of my highlights. (I have a feeling that the two sessions I'm going to today, will be fantastic as well.)
One of my favorite sessions actually came unexpectedly, it was a session on "Our Urban Future" with Alan Broadbent and Jeb Brugmann.
Now I read Alan Broadbent's recent book and wasn't too impressed and I found the same thing about his presentation. It made me think about the importance of presentation skills. It wasn't that his ideas weren't good (though everything he said was extremely Toronto centric) , it was that he wasn't a very good speaker.
It was even more evident because the first presentation was so good. I'd never heard of Jeb Brugmann before, but I will keep an eye on him in the future. He was fantatsic, read from his new book. Being a writer's festival of course the authors are there to sell their book, and he really sold me on his. He has a conception of "ubranisms" and the global city which were new to me and seem quite exciting.
I'm not all that interested in urban theory and having recently bought the "Canadian" edition of Richard Florida's new book Who's Your City, and that has just about filled up my desire for urban books, but this one is a welcome exception.
Another session that i enjoyed was with Andrew Cohen and Nino Ricci about leadership. It was a bit disappointing to hear how dismal they thought our current political leadership is. It was interesting because they are both authors of biographies in the current Extraordinary Canadian series. ANdrew Cohen wrote a biography of Lester B. Pearson, while Ricci did a biography on Pierre Trudeau. Both were great.
Finally I was lucky enough to get the last question to Michael Ignatieff after his presentation about his new book. I asked about how he feels about the fact that his call for national unity goes over better in some parts of the country than others. While I disagreed with his answer I was surprised that he wouldn't repeat his comment about I think "it's ok for "Quebecois" to be Quebecers first and Canadians second, or Canadians first and Quebecers second" in English, and only said it in French.
I enjoyed the festival and I'm hoping that there's some good sessions left. Joseph Heath is presenting today on his nwe book Filthy Lucre, and a former professor of mine Heather Menzies is promoting her new book, about dealing with her mother's dementia.
It's been a blast and it ends today, so I thought I'd post about some of my highlights. (I have a feeling that the two sessions I'm going to today, will be fantastic as well.)
One of my favorite sessions actually came unexpectedly, it was a session on "Our Urban Future" with Alan Broadbent and Jeb Brugmann.
Now I read Alan Broadbent's recent book and wasn't too impressed and I found the same thing about his presentation. It made me think about the importance of presentation skills. It wasn't that his ideas weren't good (though everything he said was extremely Toronto centric) , it was that he wasn't a very good speaker.
It was even more evident because the first presentation was so good. I'd never heard of Jeb Brugmann before, but I will keep an eye on him in the future. He was fantatsic, read from his new book. Being a writer's festival of course the authors are there to sell their book, and he really sold me on his. He has a conception of "ubranisms" and the global city which were new to me and seem quite exciting.
I'm not all that interested in urban theory and having recently bought the "Canadian" edition of Richard Florida's new book Who's Your City, and that has just about filled up my desire for urban books, but this one is a welcome exception.
Another session that i enjoyed was with Andrew Cohen and Nino Ricci about leadership. It was a bit disappointing to hear how dismal they thought our current political leadership is. It was interesting because they are both authors of biographies in the current Extraordinary Canadian series. ANdrew Cohen wrote a biography of Lester B. Pearson, while Ricci did a biography on Pierre Trudeau. Both were great.
Finally I was lucky enough to get the last question to Michael Ignatieff after his presentation about his new book. I asked about how he feels about the fact that his call for national unity goes over better in some parts of the country than others. While I disagreed with his answer I was surprised that he wouldn't repeat his comment about I think "it's ok for "Quebecois" to be Quebecers first and Canadians second, or Canadians first and Quebecers second" in English, and only said it in French.
I enjoyed the festival and I'm hoping that there's some good sessions left. Joseph Heath is presenting today on his nwe book Filthy Lucre, and a former professor of mine Heather Menzies is promoting her new book, about dealing with her mother's dementia.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)