Venturing into the Great White North…

Greetings from Toronto!  Those of you who know me, know I don’t have the best relationship with my “hometown.”  I generally think of Brooklyn as home, but I can’t deny the fact that I grew up in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area–Scarborough, to be exact).   This trip has actually been really fun b/c my good friend Rosamond King is also in town visiting her grandmother, and we were able to do a joint reading on Thursday–my fabulous cousin, Bethany, organized a book party for me at OISE (where she just completed her MA in Adult Education and Community Development).  It was mostly a family affair, which was great b/c I don’t get to see a lot of my extended family–my cousins brought food, and bought loads of books, as did my uncle and aunt.  I got a real surprise when my other aunt from Ottawa flew in and magically appeared at the table where I was busy signing books…I felt very honored and touched by the turnout.  My cousin’s teacher friends also came by, as did my college friend, photographer Julia Penman, and fellow playwright, Alicia Payne.  My grandmother’s close friend, Gemma, came out to show her support, and Rosa’s friend, Rhoma Spencer, shared her knowledge of adinkra symbols (she also corrected me when I tried to quote my grandmother: “Show me your friends, and I’ll tell you who you are.  I know you by the company you keep.”  Rosa performed some of her poetry (a combination of sung and spoken verse), which summed up my ambivalent relationship with Toronto–sometimes I do feel like an undervalued or jilted lover!  But all in all, I felt very welcome in the city this time around, and made sure to express my genuine gratitude, pointing out that it was US Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving is in early October).  Today Rosa and I went to a few bookstores, including A Different Booklist–virtually the only black bookstore in Toronto.  We spoke with the owner and hopefully will go back in the new year to hold a full-length reading.  The Toronto Women’s Bookstore said they’re ready to order copies of BIRD, and that’s great b/c the largest bookseller in Canada, Indigo/Chapters, is somehow refusing to carry the book–either online or in their store.  I don’t really like all this hustling, but having Rosa around helped to bolster my courage.  I can’t expect BIRD to just fall into people’s laps, so this work isn’t fun, but it’s necessary.  And I should be proud of my baby, right?  We sold close to 40 copies at the party.  Here are a few of the photos we took on Thursday; the rest are on Facebook.