the truth is real

Presence.
Truth.
Humour.
Honesty.
Art.
History.
a spoonful of honey
with Stanley G Grizzle
on April 6, 2009
Thank you Eimear and Ed for the lovely hospitality and support.
15 in the south west corner is a haven in the downtown core.
This circle was blessed with four elders from three of the four directions and a ten month old baby girl.
Intergenerational storytelling from ten months to 91.
Stanley graced us with his honesty and humour.
Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters.
He spoke about truth and truth in the story.
He took us back to a time when black people, Jewish people and anyone of coloured skin lived south of Bloor Street. You wouldn't find a coloured church or Synagogue north of Bloor.
At the age of eight Stanley witnessed the violence of racism when his father came home with a knife wound from his temple to his jaw. His father had fallen asleep in his taxi cab and someone had opened the door and cut his face with a knife while he was sleeping.
The white taxi cab drivers wanted to run him out of a job. It didn't work. Stanley's daddy was the first black taxi cab driver and he had the nicest Packard on the road. No knife could scare him from a job. This horrific incident awoke the activist and the social justice organizer in Stanley. At eight he embarked on a life of change, movement, gathering people together in the labour movement, passing bills in Parliament so that black people could eat in restaurants along side their white brothers and sisters, searching for equity and justice.
Stanley is Canadian history in action. He has the jokes, accents, and songs to go along with the story.
Jazz singing kept him sane when he was drafted into the second world war.
He couldn't say enough about the wonderful parents he was blessed with.
He shared his regrets at his long periods away from his own family in the twenty years that he worked as a sleeping car porter for CPR. And how these long periods effected his wife and his children.
The presence of the circle was powerful. All who were there were there to learn, share and face each other. We were there to hear the truth and spread the truth.
Please go out and talk to your elders. Talk to the teenagers on the corner. Talk to the woman next to you on the bus. Get the stories of the people. Share your stories. Hunger for the truth. Ask the questions that are on your lips and in your chest. Demand the truth. We are not getting the truth from our TV screens, our news papers, our radios, or our history books. The truth is on the streets, on the buses, at the libraries, in the laundromats, at the corner store, in the park, on the bikes, and at the bingo halls. Ask for stories and if that doesn't work ask for memories.
We want the People's History of the World. Stories unite around the fire and over cookies.
May the truth be told.

Next circle is April 20, 2009 at Extempore Studio and Gallery in Kensington
A Spoonful of Honey presents
Benjamin Santamaria

Benjamin is a writer, journalist, poet, actor, and activist for the human rights of children. In 1997, he was appointed the first ombudsman for the children in Durango, Mexico. However, in 2002, after his life was threatened due to his activism. Benjamin fled his homeland and came to Canada as a Convention refugee. He has since been Writer-in Residence at Trent University's Champlain College, and writer-in-Exile in residence at both George Brown College and Acadia University. Through his writing, Benjamin is committed to building a bridge of understanding and support between Canadian and Latin American children.

words over action

Eimear O'Neill on the 9th Spoonful of Honey Circle:

"We had an extraordinary Youth Elder circle here Monday night with 91 year old Stanley Grizzle, author of "My Name's Not George", black labour organiser and history buff, citizenship judge, jazz singer and charmer! We got wonderful footage that will probably end up in Ottawa's archives with the rest of Stan's papers and artifacts. And we gave him the attached painting (Words Over Action) of Obama done by my son, artist Jeremy Bennison. The multi-media project will be itself an archive of elders filmed in environments that bring out what is soulful instead of just academic or staged. A Spoonful of Honey attracts a diversity of youths, elders and artists. Can't wait for the film! Editing will be done as a group project over the next two months."

a spoonful of honey

a stencil in work. the sun is shining. I have been in a heavy mood lately. I don't even listen to the radio or watch tv. It must be rubbing off on me. or is the moon? or the pressure on this poor sweet planet that we call home? how do we create relief? how do we apply a bandage or some ointment?
Are we the anchor? Am I the ointment? In my calm manner do I create a balm? Am I milk on a burn? If I quiet my mind and mediate on the pleasures and presence of life am I the ice pack? Questions for the gurus. Questions for myself. I have been a bee hive of hectic and worried energy. Stormy tummy and dark of the night furrowed brow. night terrors over money. cold sweats over gentle paces. questioning. questioning. what brings me back to calmness? meditation. exercise. community. the circle. art. action. action. action.
this is a time to act. action buddha. thank you for remembering. in the act of writing this out. I remembered. action. gentleness. surrender. tenderness. simplicity. love.
I am going to get on my bike and participate in an action. end the tar sands. RBC has invested 50 BILLION $$$$ in the tar sands. system access fees. pay us to keep your money safe.