Proposal time for Church Street mural project
NEIGHBOURHOOD / Painting expected to begin in the spring
Andrea Houston / Toronto / Tuesday, February 05, 2013
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Which moments in Canada’s sexual liberation movement should be immortalized on Church Street as part of an upcoming mural project? 

This is the question that was asked of community members at a recent Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association meeting.

Some possibilities include the bathhouse riots, Toronto's response to HIV/AIDS, the We Demand demonstration in Ottawa and the cultural impact of Will Munro.
 
A call for proposals will go out this week, says 10x10 curator James Fowler, who is coordinating the project with AGO educator Syrus Marcus Ware.
 
Ward 27 Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam first proposed the idea at the Church Wellesley Village Business Improvement Area (BIA) annual general meeting in December. She wants to take public art “out of the alleyways and onto the streets” by bringing artists and business owners together to create an open-air art gallery that reflects the culture and history of the neighbourhood, similar to San Francisco’s Mission District.
An example of the kind of mural Ward 27 Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam envisions for Church Street.
(Courtesy photo)


Concepts for the murals will come from the community, Fowler says. Once the list of artists is finalized, by February, the group will host a public forum to get feedback from the community. The project is working closely with the BIA, the neighbourhood association and the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA), he says.
 
“We want to ensure we represent the history and heroes of the Church and Wellesley area and of those who have worked hard to push forward for the rights of the LGBTQ community,” he says.
 
Eight to 10 walls have already been secured as sites for the murals, on Church Street between Charles and Carlton. Fowler is promising to release a complete list once everything is finalized.
 
Painting will likely begin in May and will run until September or October, he says.
 
“Some people have depicted the Village as something tired and over. I think Church Street is far from over. It's going through a huge rejuvenation.
 
“The enthusiasm we're getting on this project has been encouraging.”
 
Follow the project on Twitter @churchstmurals and contact churchstreetmurals@gmail.com. 
 


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Reader Comments


 
Queer history and a murdered boy, Part 1
There should be a mural to serve as a memorial to Emanuel Jacques. On July 28, 1977, 12-year-old Emanuel Jaques, who worked daily shining shoes on what was then the seedy Yonge Street Strip in Toronto, was lured into an apartment above the Charlie's Angels body-rub parlour at 245 Yonge Street with the promise of $35 for help moving photographic equipment. He was then restrained and repeatedly sexually assaulted over a period of twelve hours before being strangled and drowned in a kitchen sink. Several days after Jaques's disappearance, Toronto Queer activist George Hislop received a late-night call from Saul David Betesh (a Queer man who knew Hislop), who confessed to the murder and told Hislop that Jaques's body had been hidden under a pile of wood on the roof of the building at which he had been abducted. Hislop arranged for Betesh to hire a lawyer, contacted Toronto Police and then persuaded Betesh to turn himself in. On a tipoff from Betesh, three other men — Robert Wayne Kribs, Joseph Woods and Werner Gruener — were arrested after they fled Toronto. The three were employed as security doormen at Charlie's Angels. The four were charged with Jaques's murder. According to evidence introduced at trial, Betesh held the boy under water until he drowned while Kribs restrained Jaques's legs. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Jaques Jaques's murder stunned and outraged the citizens of Toronto.
Jacob, Toronto Ontario
02/06/13 11:33 PM EST
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Queer history and a murdered boy, Part 2
About four months after the murder, on November 21, 1977, The Body Politic (the predecessor to Xtra, owned by Pink Triangle Press) published an article entitled Men Loving Boys Loving Men. It was about the lives of three men who had sex with younger men and boys. In the wake of the Jacques murder, the article further outraged the citizens of Toronto. Source: http://www.clga.ca/Material/Records/docs/hannon/ox/chronos.htm The Jacques murder caused the authorities to clamp down on Yonge Street massage parlours. The Body Politic article caused the authorities to lay obscenity charges against certain principals of Pink Triangle Press. The Jacques murder and the Body Politic article were probably contributing factors to the ensuing bath house raids in Toronto, which galvanized the local Queer community. The rest is history. While the past actions of Queer activists of the time are regularly acknowledged and remembered by the Toronto Queer establishment in public ceremonies, there is no memorial to Emanuel Jaques in Toronto.
Jacob, Toronto Ontario
02/06/13 11:43 PM EST
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are you out of your mind
What a horrible idea. Were you there when this happened. I was. And the entire series of events is not something that anyone would want to remember let alone memorizalize in a poster! The Body Politic article about NAMBLA was totally unconnected to the Jacques murder just as the murder of a child had nothing to do with the gay community or gay people in Toronto. Saul Betesh was not ``Queer` since that term did not exist then as you are using it. No one was Queer. I have no idea what the muderer`s sexuality was and always presumed he was just one of those street people who hung out on Yonge St leeching onto the street gays in what was then a very small town. Surely the 1981 bathhouse raids would be a fitting topic but the murder of a kid that was conflated and put onto the gay community by the Toronto Sun and other fascist freaks of the day is appalling!
david, Toronto ON
02/07/13 7:46 AM EST
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disturbing suggestion
Jacob, the gruesome murder of a child street worker on Yonge St. 35 years ago does not represent the Church St. community now or at any time in the past. What a terrible idea for a mural.
Ryan, Toronto ON
02/07/13 9:57 AM EST
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Comment
I would certainly hope that we can pick a more positive symbol of our community to decorate Church Street with. I think a multicultural, diverse representation of Pride would be something worth considering. Some of our gay icons could be included in the crowd scenes. Certainly something more representative of our community.
John, Toronto Ontario
02/07/13 11:56 AM EST
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Yuck
I just hope it isn't more ugly shit like pictured in that photo. Yikes.
Josefa Stalin, Odessa CCCP
02/08/13 3:39 PM EST
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The twilight of common dreams
Art by committee, complete with consultations? This process should be fun to watch. Make sure to include a gluten-eschewing vegan bisexual cross-addicted polyamorous transsexual Palestinian sex worker who is wholly committed to overturning the racist, partiarchal hegemonic neoliberal regime. In a wheelchair.
Joe Jr.s little brother, (has been disappeared from) Oaxaca
02/09/13 4:14 PM EST
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Horrible
This mural idea is terrible. When I read that the owner of the Vic is on board I was appalled. The Vic is a lovely Victorian home and it will be defaced with these murals? This won't add vitality to the village, it will cheapen it. STOP THE MURALS! Boycott the establishments that allow their facades to be ruined.
Pete, Toronto ON
04/06/13 1:22 PM EST
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