LUNCH & LEARN SESSION DETAILS:

APRIL 25 - MIKE DALEY
THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG

Dr. Mike Daley presents a fascinating talk on the great Louis Armstrong. You'll learn how a Jewish family in New Orleans helped young Louis get started in music and how Armstrong went on to revolutionize jazz improvisation and popular singing.

Dr. Mike Daley is a freelance popular music history lecturer around Toronto. He holds a Ph.D in musicology and has published widely on a variety of musical subjects. Mike's well-received lectures on the Beatles, Elvis, jazz, folk music and much more have gained him a strong following in the GTA. Mike also offers video lecture series on his website, mikedaleymusic.com and is currently writing a history of live music in the Yorkville coffee house district of Toronto in the 1950s and 1960s. 

Sponsored by: 

MAY 2 - KAREN SHOPSOWITZ
MY GRANDPARENTS HAD A HOTEL:
A Jewish home away from home in the Muskokas when Jews weren’t welcome elsewhere

Karen Shopsowitz is a Peabody-award winning film-maker, whose work has been screened nationally and internationally. She has worked on dozens of productions, ranging from stand-alone documentaries to documentary series for television, music videos, and fiction. She has a Bachelor of Journalism degree from Carletong University, Ottawa, a Masters of Fine Arts in Film and Video from York University, Toronto, and a Certificate in Feature Film Writing from UCLA’s on-line writer’s studio and is an alumna of the WIDC program in Banff. She currently teaches film production and editing at Toronto’s Centennial College.

Her documentary, My Grandparents had a Hotel is the nostalgic story of the Monteith Inn, in the Muskokas, run by Karen Shopsowitz’s grandparents, Harry and Jenny Shopsowitz, from 1935 – 1949. Originally seen as a haven for Canadian (and American) Jews who were kept out of restricted clubs, the hotel soon became a colourful part of the province’s Jewish history. She currently teaches film production and editing at Toronto’s Centennial College’s Broadcasting: Radio, Film, Television & Digital Media program. Her most recent credit is Director and Writer of Magic Shadows, Elwy Yost: A Life in Movies, produced by Firestarter Productions for TVO.

Sponsored by: 

MAY 9 - JERRY GRAY
THE LONESOME TRAVELLER:
The Life and Times of Canada’s Singing Legends, The Travellers.

Jerry Gray is the last living original member of Canada's first iconic folk group, The Travellers, begun in 1953. With Jerry at its head, the group performed over 3000 concerts for over 60 years across Canada and around the world and recorded 19 albums, He and the group have been awarded Lifetime Awards by labor organizations political parties and sang in Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth. He is the only Canadian invited to guest conduct The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Sponsored by: 

MAY 16 - NATHAN M GREENFIELD
HANGED IN MEDICINE HAT:
Murders in a Nazi Prisoner-of-War Camp, and the Disturbing True Story of Canada's Last Mass Execution 

Nathan M Greenfield is the author of seven military histories and a dual biography of the painters Molly and Bruno Bobak.  He will be talking about his latest book  Hanged in Medicine Hat, which tells the story of murders of two German POWs, one in 1943 and the other in 1944-- by German POWs in the POW camp in Medicine Hat, Alberta.  The story includes years of the Mounties not getting their man, the breaking of the case after the war and the murder trials in 1946 that led to the last mass hanging in Canadian history.

Sponsored by: 

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