A memory walk, remembering migration and growing up in the high rises of the area and the use of the park, will feature a walk around the block and end in appreciating the flood pond in G. Lord Ross and its bird watching.

 

Participants will be encouraged to share their own stories as well as discussions about the park and its connection with the block of rental high rises stretching to Steeles ave, a home of the Russian-speaking Jewish community. The last part of the walk will be open ended, allowing participants to stay and explore, mingle, document, head home on the bus together or check out a local restaurant or cafe nearby.

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• Walk Start Location: Tim Hortons at Bathurst and Drewry. One can take Bus 125 from Finch Station.

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About the Walk Leader: 

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Eugene Slonimerov is a Belarusan-Canadian urban and conflict studies educator and researcher with a background in the arts. He conducts field research, interviews and is now adding map making and photography to his methods. He has lived between Toronto (Canada) and Tbilisi over the last ten years. In Tbilisi, he has lectured Urban Studies at Caucasus University and Conflict Studies at Tbilisi State University. He has researched and published work on displacement and housing, gun control and gun culture, photographed buildings, has spoken on gentrification and conducted surveys of refugee settled buildings with his students.

Eugene has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Toronto Metropolitan University and an MA in European Russian and Eurasian Studies from University of Toronto. He is currently completing courses in map making at Seneca College.  
 

Most currently Eugene has produced photos and interviews for his article on displacement and gentrification for Tbilisi Architecture Biennale, and is making maps and doing anthropological research and interviews about neglected public spaces of Tbilisi with a consortium of Georgian and Canadian universities researching Georgia’s urban forests and gardens jointly funded by Canada’s Social Sciences Research Councils and the Georgian Academy of Sciences.

He has previously worked as an assistant to late Canadian artist Michael Snow and produced music and theatre even earlier.