Publications

There has been a lot of talk about food around Alexandra Park Neighbourhood Learning
Centre these days and what better to include in this year’s newsletter than stories of food and festal celebrations! Whether it happens in the classroom over a light snack, in the new APNLC vegetable garden or back at home around the dinner table, food often brings with it great conversation.

Inspiration comes from various people, often when we least expect it. People have the ability to transform communities and society through their actions and relationships with one another. People from the past inspire us to do amazing things with our own lives.

There are six million lives being lived in the GTA right this moment. There is the person sitting quietly next to you, the shuffling neighbour downstairs (that you never see, but hear), the
courteous and tired shopkeeper locking the door around the corner and the doe-eyed young loves
across the street.

If we look back at our pasts, we remember many traditional ways of caring for each other and ourselves that can do much more than modern medicine: tinctures for fevers and wounds, tricks for curing ailments, and chicken soup for the soul.

To say that things have changed since March 2020 would be an understatement. It
would be more accurate to say that life as we know it has shifted dramatically! The pandemic has altered how we learn, connect with others, and take care of
ourselves and our loved ones.

To say that this year has been challenging would be an understatement. In March 2020, we thought the COVID-19 pandemic would be resolved within a few weeks and looked forward to returning to our in-person programs in the spring. But after several weeks, it was clear that the pandemic would continue for longer than we had expected.

This collection of recipes written by people in the APNLC community offers
new ways to connect and share at the end of a challenging year. It is also
a resource you can return to in the years to come when you are seeking
comfort or looking for a new, exciting recipe.

33 years ago, Sherman Middleton, the president of the Alexandra Park Residents Association, cut the ribbon for the Alexandra Park learning centre. At the ceremony, Sherman emphasized the new Learning Centre belongs to the residents of Alexandra Park. Many things have changed since then, however, some things have remained, such as our deeply embedded value of being a learning centre for everyone in the community.

The theme for this year’s newsletter is Futurities. Futurities means exploring
the relationships between the past, the present and the future. The writers
who submitted pieces are changing the narrative that excludes so many of us
in marginalized communities.

This year, Canada recognizes its 150th year as a country of the world. While many people are celebrating this occasion as a “birthday,” others see it as
an opportunity to consider where we have come from, where we are, and who benefits from this country. APNLC has been doing both.

Love means different things to different people. This year, we wanted to explore
and share stories about the different facets of love. Love is a complicated emotion and action that we associate with people, places, and experiences in our lives. When we think about love, we may think about our family, friends, and neighbours or the love of music, food, or pets, or how we love and take care
of ourselves and our community.