DD Wraps Up Its Season with Fun at the Park and a Glowing Night at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche!

Have you ever had a personal reading from a Giller Prize nominee? Or taken a psychogeographic tour of Queen’ s Park? Have you ever had a personal line of verse written just for you by a professional poet? If so, you probably participated in our Literary Scavenger Hunt at Word on the Street this year! We had close to 500 people divulge their favourite Canadian authors and books to us, find writers hidden around the park, and hit the tents and booths of our literary friends—all in competition for our fabulous grand prizes. The weather was lovely, competition was fierce but friendly, and it turned out to be a huge success! It was the perfect way to cap off a busy summer. Check out our pictures and video.


And while our energy was still high, we geared up for collaborative project Future City at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. On a night where the city belongs to pedestrians, artists and art lovers, we transformed the top floor of the Gardiner Museum. With help from poet Heather Hermant and glass artist Melina Young we mounted an installation called “Nice Bumping Into You” — an open exchange of poetry, art, ideas and anything else you can express with a piece of glowing glass, a sharpie, and a crowd of good-spirited and like-minded people. Atop a custom built light table courtesy of Humber College, visitor’ s thoughts, fears, desires, drawings – and sometimes even phone numbers! – glowed. People wrote or drew whatever they wanted, with our artists there to guide them should anyone need inspiration—and our guests didn’ t let us down. One guest captured the night perfectly, writing “ stoplights in the rearview, as the city falls cold” and another advised “ don’t let life and love slip by.” A young sightseer declared his hunger, and an even younger one told us how much her family meant to her. By the time the sun broke through the windows of the Gardiner, “ Nice Bumping Into You” had been an outlet for the whole spectrum of human emotion and thought, and it was hard to know if it was the journey or the all-nighter that had us all so spent. Either way, it was exciting, inspiring and gratifying to see how excited and willing people were to share.

It was a hectic change in season for us, with two major events back-to-back, but WOTS afforded us the opportunity to enjoy one of the last days of summery sunshine by soaking up the air in Queen’ s Park. And we kept warm all night long despite the first chill of autumn, bumping into strangers and huddled over the glow of our art exchange at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. As always, it was beyond worth it to share in the enthusiasm, curiosity and talent of everyone who came out to both events, our endlessly talented writers and artists and our ever-patient volunteers. Thank you to all, and we hope to see you at the next one!