Toronto’s Provocation Ideas Festival expands to Stratford

A Toronto-based festival aimed at addressing difficult topics through vibrant public discussion, art, theatre, film, music and storytelling is expanding to Stratford this year with new events next month and in the fall.

Launched last year, the Provocation Ideas Festival focuses on new ways of thinking about urgent issues facing communities across the country, such as inequality and systemic racism, the future of health care, the climate crisis, the promise and perils of technology, and truth and reconciliation, by promoting respectful, difficult conversations. This year, the festival’s founding director, Mark Rosenfeld, decided to move ahead with the first phase of his plan to ultimately expand the scope of the Provocation Ideas Festival nationwide.

“Although we started off in Toronto, it is eventually going to be a national festival, but rooted in local communities,” Rosenfeld said. “As the festival expands, local communities will take it upon themselves, if they’re interested in the festival, to organize events, to talk about issues that are prevalent in the communities themselves, and to approach them in a variety of different ways, whether it’s discussion, the arts, performance, film, any number of different things.

“In terms of (expanding to) Stratford, it was kind of a practical consideration in that my partner and I moved here last June from Toronto and we love the city, so it made sense that the first place the festival would expand to is Stratford .”

With plenty of support for the idea from locals, Rosenfeld has planned three free pilot events next month as a way to test the waters of how the festival’s events and concepts might be received in the Festival City.

On June 14, author and journalist Anna Leka Miller will be at Fanfare Books at 2 pm for a signing and reading from her new book, Love Across Borders. The book shares stories about couples around the world who have confronted frustrating immigration systems to be together, something she experienced with her husband.

Miller, who has covered stories about the ways conflict and migration shapes the lives of people around the world, will then join a local refugee family for a discussion on that topic at Avondale United Church from 7 pm to 8:30 pm

Finally, on June 17, the Provocation Ideas Festival will lead Jane’s Walk, a community event inspired the late Jane Jacobs, an American writer, urbanist and activist who championed a community-based approach to city building. The theme of the walk, “Is Stratford a Healthy City,” will be touched on during an initial talk by United Way Perth-Huron executive director Ryan Erb on the topic of affordability and homelessness.

After starting at the Stratford Public Library at 9:30 am, the walk participants will stop at the Stratford Pride Community Center for a discussion around equity, diversity and inclusion led by community center president Bruce Skeaff, followed by a conversation with former Stratford councilor Kathy Vassilakos at the Downie Street bus terminal about active transportation. The walk will end at Bru Garden, where Sammie Orr, co-chair of the Stratford District secondary school Eco Club, will talk about the city’s environmental footprint. After the walk finishes, participants will have the opportunity to stick around to enjoy lunch and a beverage while listening to the fiddle music of Dan Stacey from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

While there are only three local events planned in June, the Provocation Ideas Festival will return in November with a series of programs tackling this year’s festival focus, the promise and perils of technology. The events will include an AI software workshop at the Stratford Public Library, a panel discussion at the University of Waterloo Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business featuring science fiction author and tech journalist Cory Doctorow and the executive director of the master of public policy in digital society program at McMaster University, Vass Bednar. Other events planned include a concert featuring local musicians accompanied by AI-generated visuals, and a presentation and discussion around current and possible technological innovations for Stratford hosted in partnership with investStratford.

“It’s really exciting to expand to Stratford and, so far, the reception has been wonderful,” Rosenfeld said. “We’ve been talking to people and they’ve said, ‘Yes, this is something we’d like to see happen.’ It’s really going to be a great complement to all the other events that are taking place in the city and everyone has been incredibly receptive and supportive and helpful.”

For more information on the Provocation Ideas Festival, visit www.provocation.ca.

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