Street Words
So I had a lovely day at the Word on the Street today. Queen’s park road was closed off from car traffic for the day and the park itself was full of cool people doing cool things.
The main reason I went was to see Katrina Onstad read, whose book How Happy To Be I read in just one sitting yesterday. It had sounded just like the kind of book I would enjoy - a cutting, satirical look at the Toronto media scene around the days of the Film Festival, circa 2001 - and enjoy it I did.
I have a strange nostalgia for the early days of the National Post - where Onstad used to write movie reviews - even though its political slant was too conservative for my liking. I loved that their culture articles were cheeky and interesting and full of wit and insight, I loved that there were little expressive line drawings of the smirking authors above the bylines instead of self-conscious photos, I loved the pretty fonts and the punchy layout. But eventually all those writers with the expressive line drawings left the paper, including Onstad, and I stopped reading. The paper may now be using photos above the byline instead.
So seeing her name on a book, a book promising a satire of that newspaper for which I have this strange nostalgia, was exciting, and I picked it up and devoured it in just one day. And yes, I loved it.
But what really thrilled me was how much I loved Word on the Street. My usual instinct at street festivals is to avoid talking to the people sitting in the booths behind piles of merchandise, but today my overwhelming response was yes, please tell me all about your literary journal/Marxist press/artistic association. I collected bookmarks and buttons and back issues and marvelled at how everyone seemed to be so happy and engaged despite the drizzling rain, how many interesting things are going on in the city that I had no idea existed, how many books there were to read and authors to listen to. I guess, being from small towns and small cities, I’m not yet used to this kind of thing being on my doorstep.
And yes, I heard Katrina Onstad read and got her to sign my copy still fresh from yesterday’s fevered page-turning. I also saw the Long Pen (although not in action). And I think What We All Long For (Dionne Brand) must be next on my list.
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