by Live Music Head
 |
| Dan Hill - Canadian singer-songwriter, author |
Not only do I sing the praises of his 2009 book,
I Am My Father’s Son,
but ever since last February when I had
the honour of interviewing Dan Hill,
(the Canadian author most of us first got to know as
the Sometimes-When-We-Touch guy),
I can now honestly say
I’ve never met a more wonderfully real human being.
The words funny, honest, understanding,
non-judgemental, and caring,
not to mention brilliant writer and storyteller,
all come to mind to describe this Grammy award winning artist.
But recently I discovered I can now add
the word friend to describe Dan Hill.
And at the Toronto Reference Library tonight,
I caught up with my new friend, again.
Published in the year 1960,
the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird
is now celebrating its 50th anniversary.
As a result,
Dan was invited along with three other panelists
to discuss the impact the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel had
at the time of its release;
and the impact that’s still being felt today.
told through the eyes of a child about her family and community,
is also about the kind of courage and compassion it takes
to examine serious subject matters
such as rape, racial inequality,
and injustice.
Dan Hill, as a mixed child of eleven,
remembered reading the story of 1936
depression-era deep south America,
in the summertime yard of his 1965 home
in Don Mills, Ontario, Canada.
Dan was born to a black father and a white mother.
The panel stimulated much thought and discussion
around a full house inside the gratefully
air conditioned Salon of Bram and Bluma Appel on this night.
But for the folks who couldn’t battle
the week-long heat wave Toronto’s been having,
that’s okay.
Because Dan Hill wrote about what To Kill a Mockingbird
meant to him then, and means to him now
in another brilliantly written article published in last Friday’s Globe and Mail...
www.theglobeandmail.com/books/a-novel-about-family/article1626778/
Perhaps after you read A Novel About Family,
you’ll be like me and think of a song;
a song of Freedom by an American singer-songwriter that,
not unlike To Kill a Mockingbird,
still resonates some decades after it was first heard.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Richie Havens...
The official website of Dan Hill...
danhill.com/
The official website of Richie Havens...
http://www.richiehavens.com/
For information on other upcoming events at
the Toronto Reference Library, visit the official website...
beta.torontopubliclibrary.ca/programs-and-classes/appel-salon/
