Photographs by Kevin Robbins

In spite of having lived in Toronto for only three years (so far), I have developed a strong sense of home. The reasons for that sort of attachment I cannot explain, at least off the top of my head. Though they are certainly highly relevant. I came to live in Toronto after having exhausted my desire to live in a small city such as London, Ontario as well as relatively massive cities such as New York, where in both cases, for one reason or another, I never developed a genuine sense of attachment to anything cultural. I never felt that I belonged.

In a rather complex, particularly sudden series of events, I have come to see myself as part of a community in which I wasn’t born, Toronto. And in spite of the relatively few years I have spent in this town I am a part of it, a citizen who is involved in and contributing to, its cultural territory. In considering this, I have actually started to examine myself and seen in my actions basic traits of what it is that makes me ‘a local’.

I make art inspired by and for the local public, and I go to school here. I do my taxes here. I bike or walk everywhere, among other reasons, so I don’t pollute the ‘local’ air. I support local businesses and I drink local beer; etc. This is beside the fact that I do carry in me a sentimental connection (reword) to the life of this city, the crappy streetcars, the Don Valley trails, the cooling breeze from the lake, the elderly Chinese practicing tai chi in Grange Park. All these unique things, even the criticism we get from other Canadians for being too American, I love it all. But this perspective is by no means far from common. Like me, millions of others have come to this city to feel the type of attachment to which I have previously referred to, and which I think is a two-way avenue. Toronto offers you advantages and disadvantages but one must be willing to adapt.

To reafirm,that my settlement story is not the first of its kind, I live a city whose history is largely made up of stories similar to my own. Last week I came across a recently released book titled City of Words: Toronto through Her Writer’s Eyes. Edited by Sarah Elton, City of Words contains a compilation of stories, essays and poems told through the words of over 50 writers from varying cultural and generational backgrounds. The book also offers a variety of  photographs covering  different aspects of Toronto.

Both the written and visual elements attempt to answer the question of what it means to be involved with the city; culturally, geographically, architectonically, historically, economically and even sentimentally, both from the perspective of its citizens (born and raised here), and from new arrivers. The perspectives offered by the latter demographics collide at one point or another, forming a relationship, which in my opinion gives Toronto its unique identity, which signifies the embracement and celebrated allocation of cultural diversity.

And certainly Toronto’s position in regards to diversity is only one of the aspects that highlights this city’s uniqueness, and it is definitely not the only characteristic which so many people find lovable about this city. From my own perspective, when trying to pin down what makes an awesome cultural mosaic, one has to consider and examine not just a place’s cultural variety in terms of diaspora, and what different ethnic groups occupy a city, but how the distinct demographic groups that make up the whole city interconnect with cities profile, its history, geography, laws, economy, moral codes, etc. All of which determine, to a very large extent, social and individual relations, in other words whether they feel at home in their city, love it, hate it, feel indifferent and what have you.

The complex group of relations found in Toronto also plays a very similar role in the majority of modern cities particularly in North America. However, by comparison not all cities offer the – for the most part – favorable social atmosphere to such a relatively large number of people as does the city of Toronto. In City of Words I got a chance (important) to experience an embodiment and not just an illustration of what it means be a part of Toronto’s social atmosphere. As a matter of fact, the book has inspired me to further address my own social awareness.