This is a hybrid meeting:
- Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall. Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.
- Join online by registering here
. This registration covers both events.
Middlemore Children: In Their Own Words
Presenters: Patricia Roberts-Pichette; Glenn Wright
Home children in Canada have been the focus of extensive research and writing for many years, but rarely have we heard the children themselves. Drawing on the records of Middlemore‘s Children’s Emigration Homes, Patricia Roberts-Pichette and Glenn Wright let the children speak of their hopes, fears and experiences in coming to Canada as young immigrants.
Patricia Roberts-Pichette and Glenn Wright are both longtime members of BIFHSGO. Patrica began her work on the Middlemore project in 2001, and Glenn Wright is thrilled for the opportunity to explore and bring to life the experiences of home children in their own words.
Exciting Cause: an investigation into women confined in the 1890s to the Kingston Asylum for the Insane (Rockwood) in Kingston, Ontario / 10 a.m. EDT
Presenter: Laurie Fyffe
Laurie Fyffe’s journey into the fascinating history of the Kingston Asylum for the Insane began with the discovery that her great-great grandmother, Sarah Ann Gerrard, died in that institution in 1901. How did Sarah Ann, a mother of four and a devout Anglican, come to spend the last eighteen months of her life in an asylum for the insane? Tracing Sarah’s surprising personal history led Laurie to the medical case history files of Rockwood’s female patients, where she found compelling stories and tragic outcomes for women who fell short of the ideal for female behaviour in late 19th century Victorian Canada.
An Ottawa based playwright and dramaturge, Laurie Fyffe has written and produced multiple theatrical presentations at the Ottawa Fringe Festival. In the spring of 2023, Laurie’s play Exciting Cause, created with choreographer Allison Burns, premiered at Arts Court Theatre, eventually receiving multiple Prix Rideau Award nominations. In the fall of 2022, Beowulf In Afghanistan was selected for development through the Great Canadian Theatre Company’s Tributary Project. A member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Canadian Authors Association, Laurie was Artistic Manager of Ottawa StoryTellers from 2014 to 2017, and now teaches at the Algonquin College School of Media and Design.