Secret Path: Gord Downie, Jeff Lemire, and Chanie Wenjack
I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I never listened to the Tragically Hip growing up. Where I come from, it was hockey-guy music, and I was far from a hockey guy. But sometimes events force you to reevaluate your prejudices, and with the spotlight back on Gord Downie and the Hip this past month, I started to wonder if I should take another look at them; maybe I was missing something important. Fortunately for me, there's a handy introduction to their oeuvre over on the Book Buzz blog, and I can listen to up to eight of their albums per month (no waiting) on the library's Hoopla media streaming service.
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And with Gord Downie's latest announcement, I'm more convinced than ever that he's someone worth listening to: next month, he'll be releasing a new album of eleven songs in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Anishinaabe residential school student Chanie Wenjack. The album, Secret Path, will be accompanied by an 88-page graphic novel of the same title by graphic novel artist and national treasure Jeff Lemire.
To see why Lemire is the perfect artist for this project, check out some of his graphic fiction:
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Essex County is a collection of graphic short stories. As the title suggests, it's set in rural Ontario, and the stories – about boys and hockey, fathers and sons – have a piercing, spooky, understated beauty and an emotional acuteness that remind you of Alice Munro, if Alice Munro happened to be a hockey guy who made comics. |
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The Underwater Welder: Alone in the deep ocean offshore from a port town in the Maritimes, an underwater welder encounters ghosts from his past. Lemire's drawings are relaxed, vivid and cinematic, and the story's eerie dreaminess, reminiscent of a Hitchcock movie or a Twilight Zone episode, packs an emotional wallop. Overdrive eBook (PDF Download) Hoopla eBook (read in your browser)
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If you'd like to know more about the political and social decisions that led to Chanie Wenjack's death, the library has seven volumes of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Final Report on residential schools available in ebook format; click through to the record to find more volumes. |
And for more information on why this project is important, here's the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's website.
Secret Path will be released on October 18, and an animated short film will air on the CBC on October 23.
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