Volume 50 No. 16
BEACHMETRO.COM
November 2, 2021
Local author George Elliott Clarke pens Africadian memoir By Amanda Gibb
PHOTOS: ALAN SHACKLETON
Halloween fun at Variety Village food truck festival The Trick or Treat Food Truck Festival took place at Variety Village in southwest Scarborough last weekend. The nice weather on Halloween day brought lots of people out to the festival in their trick-or-treating costumes. Photos (clockwise from top left) show Matthew, 9, and Renna, 11; Kristine, 8, and Dayton, 2, make Halloween crafts with their parents Kaitlyn and Arlo; Amelia, 3, and Archer, 2, enjoy ice cream cones; and Cohen, 5, and Lincoln, 4, in front of a decorated Jeep from Beast OffRoad on Gerrard Street East.
FORMER TORONTO Poet Laureate George Elliott Clarke’s recently published book, Where Beauty Survived: An Africadian Memoir, weaves a narrative about his experiences growing up Black and part Indigenous in Nova Scotia. Clarke was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, and raised in Halifax. Today, he’s a Beach resident and English professor at the University of Toronto. He was Toronto’s Poet Laureate from 2012 to 2015, and the National Poet Laureate of Canada from 2016 to 2017. Toronto’s Poet Laureate attends events in the city and attracts people to the wonders of the literary world. Toronto’s Poet Laureates are chosen based on the excellence of their work and themes relevant to Torontonians. Clarke is an accomplished author and poet with many published works before he decided to chronicle his early life in a vulnerable, insightful way. He said he started writing his memoir while in a little Italian town called Tropea in 2017, and that his first draft covered his entire life and explored the significance of particular objects. He said his editor, Amanda Betts, suggested it was too broad of a subject, and recommended he start on a narrative covering the first 20 years of his life. “Finally I’m once again in Tropea but it’s 2018 and I start to write it more appropriately with a greater sense of direction and Continued on Page 4
Number of Remembrance Day ceremonies planned for East Toronto A NUMBER of Remembrance Day ceremonies are planned for the East Toronto area on Thursday, Nov. 11. With COVID-19 rules on out-
SAFETY
again this year. Last year, due to the pandemic, large official events were not able to take place to mark Remembrance Day.
Those who wish to attend services this year can do so at the Beach Cenotaph, at the entrance to Kew Gardens on Queen Street East; at the East York Civic Cen-
tre’s Memorial Gardens, 850 Coxwell Ave.; and at the Scarborough Cenotaph, at Kingston Road and Danforth Avenue. Ceremonies begin at 10:45 a.m., with two minutes of silence at 11 a.m.
TORONTO ROOFING INDUSTRIES
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door gatherings now less stringent than they were last year, the ceremonies for the cenotaphs in the Beach, East York and Scarborough will be taking place
YOUR LOCAL ROOFING CONTRACTOR Above all, you want the very best!
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