Revamping Walking in The City

So the last few messages have been admittedly cranky, and as summer peaks and the fall grows increasingly more real, this site will be going through some content changes.

Aiming to look at Edmonton through the eyes of a few who are interested/intrigued/invested in the construct of this city through various capacities, Walking in The City will now be a shared document between myself, Amy Fung along with Heather Zwicker, Ted Kerr, and possibly additional authors.

A brief primer:

I started this site in 2006 because of this photo*:


You can't really see it, but this was (I think) taken in the fall of 2006 of friends Daniel and Thea walking ahead as we cut through the Legislature. As two of the best people to discuss writing with--and not so coincidentally--to walk with, I grew very fond of this moment frozen in a flash that captured a very significant moment for me as an individual living in this city. D being a vagabond roamer of the city who slept on random roof tops and knew every ridge and fact about Edmonton; and T being a flaneur at heart who was also writing her thesis on the very subject, the two had probably never hung out before or again after this night, but I felt that this deserved a record beyond my own memory bank. Of the night, I surmise that D and I were walking Thea to the foot of the bridge before I crashed on the floor of his then-apartment down on the flats. Fleeting and forgettable, I wanted to begin tracking these transient tales for better or for worse. At the time, these two were always writing short stories about moments in Edmonton, but I was more interested in just tracking the raw unedited versions of what has just transpired.

*(A notable mention must also go to ACD, who started it all with 90 Avenue, but has since quietly moved on.)

However, a couple of years before this photo, Heather taught the first Edmonton undergraduate course at the U of A. On a whim I registered in the course and four years later has decided to extend the basis into a directed reading graduate course. Heather will once again be teaching the undergraduate course in the winter term and will be directing my course in the fall. This site will most likely be a catch all of ideas from the course, but will hopefully stay more public than academic (a balance that frighteningly remains theoretical).

I left the city after school and returned indefinitely to Hong Kong (where I'm originally from, but wasn't sure if I belonged there anymore). Estranged and alienated in my "home" country, I began wondering more about the sentiment of identity and place. After returning and resuming freelance writing for local newspapers, I began getting involved specifically in the arts and exploring how Edmonton was being construed and memorialized through its contemporary arts. (See Prairie Artsters for my ongoing investigation)

At the same time I started this blog, I met Ted who quickly became a frequent collaborator and continues to be a source of inspiration as an engaging artist/writer/curator/activist/producer etc. As the very definition of "community" through his many manifestations, Ted brings heart and wit to everything he does and is a seemingly limitless individual of action and generosity. Many of my previous posts have involved Mr. Kerr in one form or another, and between the three of us, I look forward to seeing the different views unfold.