Now that the weather has been begun to shift and we're faced with colder, often darker days, the nature of the city's free offerings that most appeals - at least for me - begins to change. Not a lover of the cold, I tend to move inside once November hits, no longer looking for street festivals or walking tours, opting instead for more cerebral interests that can be appreciated in comfort indoors. One organization that comes through with an incredible array of stimulating free programming is the Toronto Public Library (I've called this entry Part 1 because there is so much to love about the Toronto Public Library system that I plan to write several entries about it).
The Library hosts a number of different talk, lecture and salon series. While talks are held throughout the city at the various branches, a good number of them are held at the centrally located Reference Library, situated just north of Bloor on Yonge Street. It has many rooms available for these events, including the well appointed Appel Salon. The marquee events are held in the evenings and are generally preceded by a cash bar reception. All events are free, although depending on the series, they may require you to book a ticket in advance. Many events "sell out" well in advance, although the Library usually does offer some rush seating on the night of the talk, or occasionally makes extra space available in an adjoining room where the talk can be watched via video screen.
The only complaint I have with the Library offerings is that there are so many of them, it can be difficult to sift through them on the website. Every time you click on their home page, different lectures or events come up in the Featured Programs section, which provides a nice intro to upcoming events, but to delve more deeply, I find the Program, Classes & Exhibits link provides too many options to be clear. A straightforward calendar would be useful, but so far I have been unable to find one. Every time I go looking, I seem to find a really interesting lecture happening in an hour or two that I had somehow managed to overlook in my previous searches. So good luck with the site. I'll be listing some of the talks - mostly the evening and weekend ones - in the What's On page, but certainly not all of them, and I won't be updating them with notes as to availability.
To give you an idea of the types of people and topics you can experience, here's a brief run-down of just a few of the series:
The Appel Salon: Billed as "New Books. Big Ideas. Join the Conversation." Top notch thinkers and writers, discussing or debating the topics of their latest books. This year's guests include Jeffrey Sachs, Umberto Echo and Peter C. Newman. These talks are recorded and can be watched after the event on the Library website.
The Eh List Author's series, which as you would expect features Canadian writers. These events take place at branches throughout the city and all events are followed by book signings.
The Thought Exchange. This is the one that covers all those interesting topics that don't fit into a neat bucket, and its tagline is "Programs for the Constantly Curious". These take place at branches throughout the city.
As a final note, I wanted to put the value of these talks into perspective. The talk I attended tonight featured Wade Davis, who spoke about the early British expeditions to Everest. Davis is, among other things, the Explorer-in-Residence at National Geographic. As it happens, the National Geographic Toronto Speaker Series is currently running at Roy Thomson Hall, featuring other contributors to the magazine. I'm sure the talks are deeply engaging, but single tickets start at $39.50. The event tonight was free, and at the end, members of the audience could meet Davis, ask questions and get their books signed. Artifacts from those early expeditions were even in attendance, and made available to the audience afterward for up-close viewing. I'd say that's pretty hard to beat.
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