REMEMBERING TENT CITY: commemorating Toronto’s waterfront Tent City (1998-2002)
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Event is hosted as part of GUDSKUL: Knowledge Garden Festival at AGYU
“Miki discovered an empty field on the waterfront, so we went there. I bought a piece of plastic from a hardware store. We ended up under a tree, the plastic over us held down by rocks. That was the beginning of Tent City.”
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REMEMBERING TENT CITY: Join the Department of Public Memory to remember Toronto’s waterfront Tent City (1998 – 2002) and its role in bringing housing and homelessness in Toronto to international attention. This commemorative event will lead participants through a process of listening, remembering, and sharing their own memories as they learn about Tent City’s struggles and successes. We will then reflect together on the current struggles for affordable housing in Toronto and beyond.
WHERE: Online – virtual event.
WHEN: Tuesday October 26th, 7- 8:30pm.
REGISTER HERE: You must preregister to attend this event.
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“I was part of the City Hall meetings with Jack Layton when we worked together to try to save or relocate Tent City somewhere else on the waterfront. At night, we would all go looking at other sites like Cherry Beach to move to.”
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Since 2011 the DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC MEMORY has been working to celebrate and commemorate overlooked and under acknowledged community programs, services and inspiring initiatives of social activism that have worked to make this city a more socially just place to live. Our job at the Department is to make and install street signs honouring these places, organizations and actions. One of our sign honours Tent City and the struggle to create affordable housing in Toronto. Between 1998 and 2002 a community of homeless people made their homes on a piece of industrial land on Toronto’s waterfront. With support from street nurses, housing activists and a few allies at City Hall, they not only managed to build temporary housing on the site but to turn their story into a plea for better housing policies in Canada.
On October the 26th the Department will host an event to share what we learned about the struggle, ingenuity and dedication to fighting for housing during the years of Tent City activism. During our event we will share our Tent City sign, memory quotes, and physical objects from our Memory Archive to celebrate and remember the heroism of housing activists and Tent City residents. Our ceremony will lead participants through a process of listening, remembering, and sharing their own memories as they learn about Tent City and then reflect on the current issues and activism on homelessness and affordable housing in Toronto today.
