Celebrate the history of Allan Gardens at People, Power, & the Park
From Thursday, September 22 to Sunday, September 25, community members are invited to attend People, Power, & the Park, a four-day festival celebrating the history of Allan Gardens!
For over 125 years, Allan Gardens has welcomed communities from a broad spectrum. From suffragists and Oscar Wilde in the 19th century to disabled veterans in the 50s and 21st century environmentalists, people have come together in Allan Gardens to enjoy the greenspace, celebrate their communities, and advocate for their causes. The park is also a place of great significance to Indigenous communities who have lived and gathered there for millennia.
People, Power, & the Park celebrates this rich history, recalling the impact these gatherings have had and continue to have on shifting attitudes, laws, and conditions here in our city and civil society. The four-day festival will feature an archival exhibit curated by TMU students, staff and community members, as well as a series of free activities and events.
Technical Theatre Design student, Brenda Diep, works on assembling an archival exhibit for the festival.
The archival exhibit will feature an imposing multi-tiered “gallery” composed of thirty display cases that tell stories of some of the individuals, organizations, and events in the continuing history of Allan Gardens. The festival will also have drumming, storytelling, poetry, children’s activities, guided walks and music from Lillian Allen & Band, Joaquín Hidalgo’s Caribbean Jazz Trio, and the Counterpoint Community Orchestra!
People, Power, & the Park is a part of Imagine the Park, (external link) an ongoing programme of events presented in and around Allan Gardens by the Office of Social Innovation at TMU in partnership with community stakeholders.
It’s impossible to overestimate the importance of this green space to those who come here. For the last two years, our team has been collaborating with multiple communities and university partners to showcase what we’ve come to think of as a ‘community centre without walls’.
People, Power, & the Park will kick off on Thursday, September 22 at 6:00 pm with an opening ceremony featuring storytelling, drumming, fire and food sharing with Philip Cote. For more information and the full event schedule, visit torontomu.ca/peoplepowerpark.