A WALK ALONG THE WALTER BEAN TRAIL WITH BEN GORODETSKY

The rain that greeted us at the Walter Bean Trail in Kitchener did not deter actor/producer/teacher/writer Ben Gorodetsky (he/they) from enjoying our walk.  

“I feel most at home when it’s lightly raining and we’re near a body of water,” Gorodetsky said. “It feels very nourishing.”  

Gorodetsky was born in Edmonton, Alberta, just ten days after his parents immigrated from Donetsk, Ukraine. His mother was not the only pregnant member of their party—they also transported a pet spaniel who gave birth to a litter of puppies two weeks after Gorodetsky was born.  

After a stint in Saskatoon where their father trained as a vet, Gorodetsky grew up in Burnaby, British Columbia, and they developed a connection to large bodies of water and nature to tap into an unbound and energetic sense of self. That connection is one they continue to draw on in their artistic work.  

While living in the Vancouver suburbs, Gorodetsky’s parents enrolled him in a Russian youth theatre to preserve his mother tongue.   

“That was very important to them, cultural…linguistic preservation,” Gorodetsky said. “This theatre [became] a slippery slope…not just to multilinguality but also to a career in the arts.”  

The arts were ever-present in Gorodetsky’s upbringing. In addition to language preservation, their parents provided access to art both inside and outside the home.  

“They took us to see shitloads of theatre and shitloads of music,” Gorodetsky said. “They organized…Soviet alternative folk music festivals all through my childhood. [My dad] was not doing it for the career, was losing money on it every single time, but was doing it because it made life worth living.”  

Our path on the trail took us past the Humane Society, where the barking of dogs enjoying a romp in the rain mixed with the sounds from the Grand River to provide a soundtrack for the conversation.    

Gorodetsky left British Columbia to pursue acting training in the conservatory program at the University of Alberta. He also developed improv skills by performing regularly with Rapid Fire Theatre. After graduation, Gorodetsky began creating his own work.  

“I got really into documentary theatre, working with interviews…artifacts…documents, and making something current and vital,” Gorodetsky said. “For me…[docu-based is] just the only way that I know how to do anything, and it seems to be another pathway into the truth. [I] love oversharing, love TMI.”  

They continued their exploration of truth and art at Brooklyn College in the Performance and Interactive Media Arts Master’s program, moving to New York with their partner. After graduation, and now with a young child, a teaching opportunity brought Gorodetsky and their family back to Canada on what was to be a temporary basis, but the pandemic changed their plans.  

Gorodetsky’s sister-in-law offered her home in Waterloo, and what was meant to be a short-term solution lasted over a year and included the birth of their second child. The pandemic was a challenging time for Gorodetsky’s mental health, but the decision to make roots in this community helped them recover.  

“Without any grand foresight, but with some desire to live rather than not, I started making changes,” Gorodetsky said. “Let’s try and make a go of here…so Fall 2021 I launched Pinch Cabaret to try and meet every cool artist in town.”  

Inspired by the model of production they witnessed at home as a child; Gorodetsky began hosting the monthly variety show which platforms artists from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds. Pinch Arts grew to include improv classes and workshops, as well as the monthly Together We’re Boisterous comedy show.  

Humour and getting a laugh is one artistic fuel for Gorodetsky. As a project for a gifted program in elementary school, they decided to take a performative approach and dance with their dog, eschewing the expectations of a more traditional report.   

From there, Gorodetsky developed a love of the absurd and the audience. He used improv to finely tune his humour and sought ways to layer in drama and catharsis to achieve a surprise tonal shift in his work.  

“I’m interested in dark humour and playful tragedy,” he said. “I think the one is boring without the other, like a chocolate chip cookie without a little bit of sea salt on top.”  

The intersection of family, art, and animals led Gorodetsky to create My Pet Ate What?, a documentary television series for CTV Wild and Crave that follows their veterinarian father as he performs endoscopy on pets to retrieve ingested items.  

Through his work performing, creating, teaching and producing, Gorodetsky has discovered that connection is key for his artistic and emotional well-being. He continues to look for opportunities to create art and foster community in Kitchener-Waterloo.  

“I thought greatness was the only goal,” they said. “I’ve learned that meaning can be derived from joy and happiness and groundedness and community, and it’s about a lateral reach. [I’ve arrived] at the greatest life; I literally never could have imagined,” Gorodetsky said.  

#Alberta #BenGorodetsky #britishColumbia #brooklynCollege #ctvWildAndCrave #documentaryTheatre #edmonton #humaneSociety #kitchenerWaterloo #myPetAteWhat #pandemic #togetherWeReBoisterous #walkInThePark

No one asked but it needs to be announced anyway - Europe is now in full-on autumn 🍁 mode.

#autumn #photo #walkinthepark #Photography #leaves #colors

A Walk on the Benjamin Park Trans Canada Trail with Tanis MacDonald 

My walk with poet, essayist and newly retired English professor Tanis MacDonald was a masterclass in paying attention to details and place. When I arrived at the Benjamin Park section of the Trans Canada Trail, MacDonald already had something to show me.

“Look,” MacDonald said. “Bug sex. I thought it was one, but it’s two.”

On the green leaf attached to a fence were indeed two beetles with red markings, working to ensure the propagation of their species.

Setting out on this trail where MacDonald promised to show me all the “weird bits,” we spotted bees, the elegant curl of a vine and an unexpected cluster of mushrooms worthy of photographing.

“I like to get outside and walk around and look at shit,” MacDonald said. “[Walking is] a good art practice. Because you have to practice noticing.”

She grew up on the prairies in Manitoba, where she walked regularly with her mother.
The habit continued when MacDonald was a student in Toronto as she often saved the transit fare and chose to walk instead. Walking provided cheap entertainment and became a tool to get to know a place and inspire creativity.

“I didn’t do a degree in Creative Writing,” MacDonald said. “There was no such thing when I was an undergrad.”

She found her way to writing through a poet’s workshop run by Susan Ioannou out of the University of Toronto, a workshop that was revelatory for MacDonald. She took the workshop three times, then sought out guidance and community in other writing classes.

When MacDonald moved to Victoria for school a few years later, she connected with the poetry scene there and began going to regular readings, eventually landing a feature performance spot. In 1996, she won a chapbook competition, and her first full-length book of poetry, Holding Ground, was published in 2000.

In 2006, MacDonald joined the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University as a professor and taught academic courses.

“In about 2013…the department said that they wanted to offer more creative writing courses,” MacDonald said. “I said I would design a creative writing minor and concentration.”

Although MacDonald began her writing career as a poet, eventually she felt the pull of another form of written expression, creative nonfiction.

“I had a very long apprenticeship in poetry,” MacDonald said. “Then in scholarly writing. And…the creative nonfiction came together when I thought, ‘Isn’t there some place that these two discourses meet in the middle?’”

The place they met provided material for two books of essays: Out Of Line: Daring to Be an Artist Outside the Big City, published in 2018, and Straggle: Adventures in Walking While Female, published in 2022.

“I think a lot about my place in the world,” MacDonald said. “My literal space that I take up, and what happens when you pass through a space and do it repeatedly.”

For MacDonald, community is at the core of her writing practice. From the beginning MacDonald has sought out the company

of other writers, joining and forming writing groups with diverse memberships to give and receive feedback.

“It’s not enough to say it’s good,” MacDonald said. “You have to
say what you like, because that’s how people know what to keep and what to change…what can I pull off…how can we break this apart…what’s risky and what isn’t.”

The trail offered us community as well, signs of the people nearby that MacDonald was quick to notice. A birdhouse in the tree. A bridge made from slabs of stone to allow for a dry crossing. And the community art project Squeak the Sneak; a serpent made of painted rocks that anyone could contribute to.

Walking has provided more than inspiration and a sense of place for MacDonald. It also provided healing assistance when she struggled with mental health challenges during the pandemic.

“[My doctor] prescribed me some medication, and she
also prescribed me a walk,” MacDonald said. “It was mainly to understand that I was not living in a bubble where I would die. I was living in a much broader universe.”

This September, MacDonald will not be heading back to the university classroom to teach. She retired on July 1, and in addition to multiple writing projects, including a full-length book of poetry titled Tall, Grass, Girl, coming out next year, MacDonald is branching out artistically.

She has been taking classes at the Button Factory in painting and linocut. She is looking to expand her bird watching and

is working on ideas for a new podcast. And she will continue to walk the trails of Waterloo Region, paying careful attention to the weird bits.

#birdhouseInTheTree #ButtonFactory #Column #linocut #LocalArt #LocalArtist #manitoba #outOfLineDaringToBeAnArtistOutsideTheBigCity #serpantPaintedRocks #squeakTheSneak #StraggleAdventuresInWalkingWhileFemale #tallGrassGirl #TanisMacDonald #transCanadaTrail #walkInThePark #waterlooRegion

#SilentSunday

Gorge Waterway Park & the waterfront walkway.

#waterway #watershed #Wsanec #Saanich #VictoriaBC #YYJ #VancouverIsland #VanIsle #PacificNorthwest #Cascadia #PNW #GorgePark #YYJParks #UrbanPark #Esquimalt #Songhees #WalkInThePark #scenery #ScenicWalks #monochrome #WhereILive

#FootpathFriday
I'm not ready for Summer to end yet. Seeing some more signs of Autumn, slowly creeping in, on my park walks.

#Footpath #nature #trail #WalkInThePark #GetOutside #Summer #Wsanec #Saanich #VictoriaBC #YYJ #VancouverIsland #VanIsle #PacificNorthwest #Cascadia #PNW #Arbutus #woodlands #forest #pathway

Took a friend to the #JapaneseGardens in Esquimalt-Gorge Waterway Park. They'd never been there before & really enjoyed it 😊

#GorgePark #WalkInThePark #YYJ #Lekwungen #Wsanec #Esquimalt #ViewRoyal #YYJparks #VancouverIsland #VanIsle #Saanich #PacificNorthwest #PNW #UrbanParks #VictoriaBC #GardenWalk #waterlily #lilypads #ponds #duckweed #nature #landscaping

A WALK IN BREITHAUPT PARK WITH SAM MERCURY

 For self-described homebody and indoor kid Sam Mercury, a walk through Breithaupt Park provided a chance to connect with her new neighbourhood and establish the area as a green space for this stage of life. 

“It just sort of vibes on a frequency that matches where I’m at in an adult way,” Mercury said. “It’s not bustling, but it is occupied.” 

Mercury was born and raised in Kitchener and attended the University of Waterloo for theatre and performance. She wanted to use stories and performance to put positive ideologies into the world after better understanding the impact that media has on our lives. 

“Then I learned how much power actors have, and how it’s basically nothing,” Mercury said. “Where is that power? I want that power […] it was this different kind of triple threat, actor, writer, producer, […] that really sparked my definition of myself as a creative person.” 

While we walked along the path, the shade from the trees provided relief from the hot day. No bunnies were spotted during our detour down Rabbit Trail, but we did pause to enjoy a butterfly flitting around us in the early evening. 

Mercury graduated from university in 2018, ready to pursue performance opportunities, but not even two years later did the industry came to an abrupt halt when the pandemic arrived, and with it the first lockdown. Mercury was an essential worker in a grocery store and feeling the stress of her risky situation. She decided to quit and turn her energies towards making art, focusing on storytelling, given that performance opportunities were scarce. 

“I discovered my love of script writing,” Mercury said. “And that was when I discovered MT Space Arts Exchange.” 

The Arts Exchange program provided opportunities for Indigenous, Black and Racialized artists during the pandemic to engage in partnerships and collaborations. Mercury applied with an idea to explore her biracial identity, and was selected and paired with actor, writer and choreographer Alten Wilmot to create a piece. 

The collaboration with Wilmot resulted in the play mixed(er), the story of Sam, a biracial young woman who learns her parents are throwing her a surprise birthday party, and who tries to navigate the event while keeping her life compartmentalized. Mercury was inspired by old episodes of the TV show Frasier, particularly the more farcical elements. 

The writing process with Wilmot was a very positive experience for Mercury.  

“It’s been this beautiful combination,” she said. “We write and we do the artist thing, but sometimes we also just talk about things we have experienced and try to parse them out. I feel like I have […] the sibling that I always wanted.” 

For Mercury, representation and self-discovery were at the heart of her impulse to create mixed(er). She was deeply impacted by the Black Lives Matter movement that gained momentum during the early stages of the pandemic, as well as by seeing more interracial families in Kitchener.  

“I was having to reckon with my place in Black culture, where I sat with it,” Mercury said. “I had kind of always gotten away with middling out […] I felt out of place, but also in place because [Blackness] is a part of me […] I’ve come so much more into myself by writing this play, and I just hope that it does that for other people.” 

The support and mentorship Mercury received through MT Space was invaluable to the creation process, and she remains grateful for it.  

“I’ve been so lucky, I don’t know how I got so lucky,” she said. “Mentorship has not just shown me what I can do, but it’s also made me think about what else is possible.” 

Mercury sees a lot of possibility in the arts scene in Kitchener and hopes that the area will attract more diverse voices to contribute to artistic creation.  

“I feel so lucky to live here and to be able to create art here and meet so many new people,” she said.   

A love of all aspects of comedy is currently driving Mercury’s artistic interests. She works with the Toronto-based sketch comedy group Potato Potato, performing in the 2020 digital Fringe Collective. She discovered a love of improv through taking classes locally with Pinch Arts and has found a sense of freedom in comedy.  

Watching improv and sketch live and on television provided inspiration for Mercury.  

“Seeing these people and how ridiculous they could be and how hard it made me laugh, I was like, I want to do that,” she said.  

Looking forward, Mercury plans to dig deeper into comedy, both performing and writing, as well as seeking out new connections and opportunities for collaboration. Exploring her community to draw inspiration and recharge through the green spaces will be part of that process. 

#AWalkInThePark #AmyNeufeld #blackAndRacializedArtists #blackCulture #BlackLivesMatter #breihaupt #Column #fraisier #improv #mtSpaceArtsExchange #Neighbourhood #samMercury #sketchLive #walkInThePark #Wilmot