A Life in Pictures

with Christina Wong, Daniel Innes and Tessa Hulls

Hosted by Kim Quiogue Andrews

In Person Streaming Fiction History Memoir

General

$25

$30 at door

65+ / Students

$20

$25 at door

Friday Pass

$40

$45 at door

Watch Online

$20

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Tuesday

Oct

6:25am

Eastern

Library and Archives Canada

395 Wellington street • Ottawa

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Christina Wong Daniel Innes Tessa Hulls

Feeding Ghosts is a tremendous achievement?a fierce and artful recounting of generational and historical trauma, and a tale of mothers and daughters that is rife with hard-won wisdom and surprising humour…. This book is a demonstration of how closed hearts can be opened.

Peter Rock

Join the University of Ottawa’s Kim Quiogue Andrews for a deep dive into two remarkable books that combine written language with illustrated storytelling: Canada Reads finalist, Denison Avenue and the graphic memoir, Feeding Ghosts. Christina Wong and Tessa Hulls will be here in person and Daniel Innes will join the conversation virtually from Japan.

Bringing together ink artwork and fiction, Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes (illustrations) and Christina Wong (text) follows the elderly Wong Cho Sum in Toronto’s gentrifying Chinatown–Kensington Market. A poignant meditation on loss, aging, gentrification, and the barriers that Chinese Canadian seniors experience in big cities, Denison Avenue beautifully combines visual art, fiction, and the endangered Toisan dialect to create a book that is truly unforgettable.

In her evocative, genre-defying graphic memoir, Feeding Ghosts, Tessa Hulls tells the story of three generations of women: her grandmother, Sun Yi; her mother, Rose; and herself. Extensively researched and gorgeously rendered, it is a vivid journey into the beating heart of one family, set against the dark backdrop of modern Chinese history.

Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.

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The Authors

Christina Wong

Christina Wong is a playwright, prose writer, and a multidisciplinary artist who also works in sound installation, audio documentaries, and photography. Her plays have been performed at Factory Studio, Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, and Palmerston Library Theatre. Her work has also appeared in TOK Magazine, the Toronto Star, and on CJRU 1280AM. Christina grew up with the sights, smells, and sounds of Toronto’s Chinatown and Kensington Market neighbourhoods, which have shaped her identity and view of the world.

Daniel Innes

Daniel Innes’s extensive portfolio includes painting, installation, graphic and textile design, illustration, sign painting, and tattooing. He uses traditional commercial art techniques, with a focus on the process. He has a special interest in creating works that have the possibility of an immersive physical experience. Daniel was born in the north end of Toronto and has lived in the Spadina–Chinatown neighbourhood for over 20 years. Watching the neighbourhood change over the years has ended his love affair with Toronto. His time is now spent between Toronto and his studio (an artist residency project) in Hy?go, Japan.

Tessa Hulls

Tessa Hulls is an artist, a writer, and an adventurer. Her essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Atlas Obscura, and Adventure Journal, and her comics have been published in The Rumpus, City Arts, and Spark. She has been awarded grants from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, 4Culture, and the McMillen Foundation, and is the recipient of the Washington Artist Trust Arts Innovator Award. Feeding Ghosts is her first book.