Joy Kogawa in Toronto March 9th, Church of Holy Trinity
Joy
Kogawa addresses the large crowd the filled the Church of the Holy
Trinity for the fundraiser book launch of Emily Kato – photo Henryk
Fibich
A large book launch for Joy Kogawa's rewritten “Emily Kato” and fundraiser event for the Save Kogawa House campaign too place at the Church of Holy Trinity in downtown Toronto on March 9th.
Anton Wagner is the Toronto coordinator and the national chair of
the Save Kogawa House committee. There were several speakers and
lots of pictures taken. And we will do our best to post them.
Joy Kogawa reads from “Emily Kato” at the Church of the Holy Trinity for
the fundraiser book launch of Emily Kato – photo Henryk Fibich
It's going to take me a day or so to write up Joy's reading last night for the www.kogawa.house.com website and to thank all the participants who contributed to its success.
Fortunately
we decided to start the evening early with selling books and
having Joy sign them. There were long line ups before the official
welcome and at the conclusion when Joy again signed books and
spoke to the many
friends who came to see her. I was also glad to see a good number of Japanese
Canadians present and the editor of the Nikkei Voice taking notes for a future
article. Many thanks to Tomoko Makabe who handled the book sales and subsequent accounting so efficiently.
Great
side benefits were a strong show of support for Joy, the big article in
the Globe and Mail, one or two CBC radio spots Joy did.
Regrets
from Bill Graham's and Jack Layton's office for not being able to
attend, a very good turn out that showed the writers groups and donors
that there is public support for what we are doing, and building a
strong base of support at the Church of the Holy Trinity.
There
were five photographers present so we should get some good photos and
the whole event was filmed by videographer Edimburgo Cabrera. I'm
passing on two dvds of the event to Bill for distribution.
Best wishes, Anton.
The
event was also attended by Bill Turner O.C., who is executive director
of The Land Conservancy, which is spearheading the fundraising campaign
for the preservation of Kogawa House.
and friends did a wonderful job and a wonderful thing. It was
packed. Every one was very moved. It has opened
several new doors. We will have some number together
in the next day or so.
I just can't thank the “Toronto” crew enough. It is so good to see these good people working together for a common good.
– Bill Turner, executive director The Land Conservancy