Toronto Reference Library Blog

How to talk about the JFK assassination, half a century later?

• The where I was story: For me?–Home sick from school, in a rocking chair in the living room, my farm family paren'ts and grandparen'ts inexplicably watching television in the middle of the afternoon.  For more stories see November 22, 1963: ordinary and extraordinary people recall their reactions when they heard the news

• The who did this story: Hundreds of books and theories, and the 26 volumes of the Warren Commission, available at the Toronto Reference Library.

• The Camelot story: "Don't let it be forgot."                   

As we prepare to commemorate that day in Dallas, fifty years ago, here are two special views.

1) What might have happened: author and political analyst Jeff Greenfield imagines a world where John Kennedy did not die in Dallas. If Kennedy lived: the first and second terms of President John F. Kennedy: an alternate history
2) What did happen: Toronto poet laureate George Elliott Clarke hosts poets and musicians as they explore the legacy of activism and search for social justice that swept through American youth during the sixties.
 

John F. Kennedy Remembered

George Elliott Clarke, Poet Laureate of Toronto, invites poets and musicians to reflect on John F. Kennedy and his legacy. With Ron Charach and Catherine Graham.

Atrium
Friday, November 22, 1 pm

How to talk about the JFK assassination, half a century later?

• The where I was story: For me?–Home sick from school, in a rocking chair in the living room, my farm family paren'ts and grandparen'ts inexplicably watching television in the middle of the afternoon.  For more stories see November 22, 1963: ordinary and extraordinary people recall their reactions when they heard the news

• The who did this story: Hundreds of books and theories, and the 26 volumes of the Warren Commission, available at the Toronto Reference Library.

• The Camelot story: "Don't let it be forgot."                   

As we prepare to commemorate that day in Dallas, fifty years ago, here are two special views.

1) What might have happened: author and political analyst Jeff Greenfield imagines a world where John Kennedy did not die in Dallas. If Kennedy lived: the first and second terms of President John F. Kennedy: an alternate history
2) What did happen: Toronto poet laureate George Elliott Clarke hosts poets and musicians as they explore the legacy of activism and search for social justice that swept through American youth during the sixties.
 

John F. Kennedy Remembered

George Elliott Clarke, Poet Laureate of Toronto, invites poets and musicians to reflect on John F. Kennedy and his legacy. With Ron Charach and Catherine Graham.

Atrium
Friday, November 22, 1 pm