WHAT WE LOSE, WHAT WE CAN GAIN FOR TRYING
Martin Luther King, space activation, green space, Stevie Wonder, seeing potential
Here sits the Jackson Park bandstand, located in Windsor, Ontario. It has been decommissioned for over thirty years. A couple of years ago, black activists in this community along with many others, lobbied the city council in Windsor to recommission this public space, which has significant historical narrative, including a visit from Martin Luther King Jr. It was a central element of Windsor's Emancipation Day celebrations. Stevie Wonder played on its stage. Diana Ross. You know? A few years ago the council voted to NOT recommission it.
Lets talk about a vision for a city. This is a PLACE. It is steeped in history. Steeped in activism. But also, it is a place of potential. It is architecturally spectacular. It is in a park that is begging to become a place for people. It is begging to be not only honoured, but activated. How do we activate space? How do we convince others to activate space? Needless to say, activating a space like this heals. It empowers our community. We become proud citizens by activating space such as this.
It is an understatement to say that we are in the midst of a global downturn. It is an understatement to say this. In America civic spaces are being muzzled, and controlled. Defunded. I would say that alongside of that, people are still having difficulty shaking of the effects of a global pandemic. We are more and more accustomed to being deep hiders. Deep. I would suspect that there is also an agenda here to maximize the use of an even bigger bandstand near the river. It is a nice facility. There is no shade down there though. There is not the benefit of a green space to decant into after a play, a concert, a reading. There is just concrete. A LOT of concrete, sun beating down. Also: it has to be a biggish production to fully activate the space. I mean, we spent a shit ton of cash to encapsulate a decommissioned street car in glass nearby that space. Wha? Can’t we find it in our city coffers to create a smaller more intimate venue to can only continue to enhance our city?
I think of successful park spaces. I think of the amphitheatre in High Park. I used to help out with a literary festival that used that open air stage in the centre of the park as their main venue. Shakespeare is regularly performed there, hundreds of people walking through the park in the dusk, and settling into the amphitheatre seats fashioned on a hill. Windsor hates a good ‘Toronto does it better analogy’, but c’mon. Can’t you see it? There has been big investment in Jackson Park over the past few years. The city approved a massive holiday light display, turning the park into one of the best walking spaces in the city during the winter months. They have invested in kiosks along the east side of the park, in the corridor heading straight to the amphitheatre. It feels like restoring this space is a missing puzzle piece to even more civic space. Even more success as a city finding itself. Many people think this city is trash. That the downtown is a write off. That we just don’t get it. Recent transplants here, along with many, many locals are flummoxed by just how much potential there is to make this city a fantastically liveable city, but how it just can’t get with a acculturated vision of it self. Self worth as a city. We have been shitkicked over the years, yes, this is true. It is real. It is hard to see how truly lovely this city really is through all of the sadness and loss this place has endured. But it is there. It is inherent.
IMO, this kind of resuscitation is exactly what kickstarts such a thing. Fit it on the budget. Fundraise for it. This lovely site deserves this. The community deserves this.
Can’t you just see Jackson Park becoming as activated as Trinity Bellwoods Park? I know, I know, another Toronto reference. Shoot me. There are markets, festivals, events, and legions of people sitting and enjoying a green space, outside of the bustle of busy modern life. Little in-gatherings everywhere of people being with each other. Getting comfortable in a green space. BEING THERE, instead of a fast whip through without a sense of being able to settle in with a good book and a picnic basket. I see it happening a little in Jackson Park. I see it starting. Gatherings of families, shyly using the space. I feel like starting a wee revolution here. Shall we enact a Sunday at Trinny? Sunday on the mountain in Montreal? I think so. It all starts with a nice cotton picnic blanket, a picnic basket full of snacks to share and a handful of people who want to.
I wish for big things. I would love to see Bookfest on this beautiful old stage, tents of book publishers and sellers in tents lining the park. I know, I know, Word on the Street is so Toronto. I know. But can you see it? I can. Media City screenings? The Windsor Film Festival? The symphony? Local bands playing? Local theatre? C’mon Windsor. See it.
I have come back here to add this amazing radio broadcast on the Jackson Park Band Shell, that was broadcasted on May 8th:
