October 5, 2011—On Thursday, October 6, Hamilton will become home to the ninth installation in the Project Bookmark Canada series, when a plaque bearing Hamilton writer John Terpstra’s poem “Giants” is unveiled in Sam Lawrence Park. “Giants” is featured in Terpstra’s poetry collection Two or Three Guitars, which is published by Gaspereau Press.
“We’re delighted to bring ‘Giants’ to Sam Lawrence Park, and to highlight both the poem and also the escarpment, which is vital to the poem and to our area,” says Miranda Hill, Founder and Executive Director of Project Bookmark Canada. “It’s also particularly gratifying to have a Bookmark right here in Hamilton, where our charity has its head office.”
Project Bookmark Canada installs plaques (called “Bookmarks”) bearing text from stories and poems in the exact physical locations where literary scenes are set. The nationally registered charitable organization is building a cross-Canada network of site-specific literary installations that will allow Canadians and visitors to read their way right across the country.
This ninth Bookmark is made possible through an initiative called Ontario: Read It Here, produced in partnership with Open Book Ontario (OpenBookOntario.com)—the organization that connects the public to Ontario’s vibrant literary scene—and the Creative Book Publishing Program at Humber College. Ontario: Read It Here is generously funded by the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
Each Bookmark in the Project Bookmark Canada series is installed on public—or publicly accessible—land, and the enthusiasm of local governments is vital to the initiative. “Hamilton has really embraced this cultural initiative, and welcomed it into the city’s landscape,” Hill says. “It’s great to live and work in a place that celebrates its artists and its art in this way.”
“The City of Hamilton is very pleased to be a part of this Project Bookmark Canada initiative,” says Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina. “The ‘Giants’ Bookmark highlights the richness of Hamilton’s literary community as well as celebrating Hamilton’s unique geography.”
Poet John Terpstra agrees. “Project Bookmark Canada shows how creative writers and writing are woven into our civic and community fabric,” Terpstra says.
Whether in non-fiction or in poetry, Terpstra’s theme is often place, and the place in question is likely to be Hamilton: its geography, its history and, as he says, “the way it gets into your head.”
“It’s all about geography, here in Hamilton,” Terpstra says. “Geography, and what we’ve done with it. Seeing a poem that I wrote be planted on rock at the top of the escarpment where it can be declaimed to the world is not just a literary thrill. It goes to the bones.”
The Bookmark for “Giants” will be unveiled by poet John Terpstra and Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina on Thursday, October 6 at 10 a.m. at Sam Lawrence Park. Members of the public are invited to attend the unveiling. To learn more about the Bookmark series, visit projectbookmarkcanada.ca and find articles and interviews about the poem, the poet and the area at OpenBookOntario.com.
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Contact:
Miranda Hill, Founder and Executive Director
Project Bookmark Canada
905-975-1797
miranda.hill@projectbookmarkcanada.ca
www.projectbookmarkcanada.ca
@BookmarkCanada
