Cheryl Thompson

1 month ago | spacing.ca | Ian Darragh |John Lorinc |Cheryl Thompson

The lack of housing was so acute in Toronto in 1944 that the acting mayor, Robert H. Saunders, posted notices in newspapers warning families not to move to Toronto. This newspaper ad is included in an eye-opening exhibit at the City of Toronto Archives until March 27, 2025. The exhibit includes photos taken by Globe & Mail photographers of a trailer park that sprang up in the 1930s and 1940s on a vacant lot on University Avenue and Gerrard Street within sight of Queen’s Park.

Nov 18, 2024 | spacing.ca | Cheryl Thompson |Trent Weston

Excerpted with permission from Canada and the Blackface Atlantic, published in April 2025 by Wilfrid Laurier Press. Thompson, a Toronto Metropolitan University associate professor in Performance and a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair, specializes in 19th century Black history, visual and performance culture. Canada and the Blackface Atlantic traces the rise of Canadian blackface, including the country’s first stages.

Nov 13, 2024 | spacing.ca | Steven Evans |Cheryl Thompson |Ian Darragh

Between 2021 and 2023 architectural and documentary photographer Steven Evans trained his eye and camera on Ontario Place as plans for its future were unfolding. That work culminated in his book As It Is: A Precarious Moment in the Life of Ontario Place. On October 31, 2024, Evans returned to Ontario Place after hundreds trees were destroyed and removed from the site and as bulldozers began working the landscaping and buildings. This is what he found. – Shawn Micallef

Sep 12, 2024 | spacing.ca | Cheryl Thompson |Dylan Reid

It’s been a while since we had a good, old-fashioned transit talk with friends of the show Tricia Wood (York University urban geography professor and Spacing contributor) and Matt Elliott (Toronto Star columnist and publisher of the City Hall Watcher newsletter). We talk about returning TTC service levels to pre-pandemic levels, what we should look for in the next TTC CEO, what is even happening with the Eglinton Crosstown, and Doug Ford’s transit expansion plans.

Aug 1, 2024 | spacing.ca | Cheryl Thompson |John Lorinc

From November 1, 1972 to September 30, 1975, a Black cultural hub known as the Harriet Tubman Youth Centre operated in a building located at 15 Robina Avenue, just north of the St. Clair West/Oakwood intersection. It was a meeting place, music hall, and after school program all in one. The Harriet Tubman Youth Centre was unique because it was housed within, and financially supported by, the Young Men’s Christian Association’s (YMCA) social program outreach.