Blacks in Montreal 1628-1986: An Urban Demography ($29.95), by Dorothy W. Williams, BA (hist.) 84, MA (hist.) 99, first appeared in 1989.
Written for the Quebec Human Rights Commission, the book provided an historical study of the Montreal black community’s residential pattern and population demographics. But that mundane description does not do justice to the book’s scope.
Blacks in Montreal covers more than 450 years of the black experience in Greater Montreal, from the days of slavery through post-Second-World-War immigration until the later part of the 20th century, providing an overview of the discrimination, job segmentation and housing exclusion faced by community members. Blacks in Montreal has been reprinted, with an accompanying CD that features an interview with Williams discussing her childhood in Montreal’s Little Burgundy district.
Williams is also author of Road to Now: History of Blacks in Canada (1997) and earned a PhD from McGill University’s School of Library Information and Science in 2006. In 2002, she was named a Quebec Laureate and awarded the Anne Greenup Prize for the Fight against Racism and the Promotion of Civic Participation.
Blacks in Montreal is available through dorothywilliams.ca, the Concordia University Bookstore and several other Montreal locations.
Dimitris Ilias, BFA 92, GrDip (adv. music perf.) 99, is an operatic tenor and cofounder and artistic director of Montreal-based Chroma Musika, which promotes Hellenic classical music. Chroma Musika recently released two charming, Greek-language children’s books and accompanying CDs.
The first, The Little Fugitives and the House (Chroma Musika, $30), by George Papadakis, follows the adventures of four children who get trapped in a haunted house.
The second, The Carnival of Miracles and Monsters (Chroma Musika, $35), by Mihalis Makropoulos relates the story of how two children dressed in homemade costumes visit a carnival, where they are abducted by the jealous King of the Night.
The accompanying CDs include narration and vocals by Montreal-area children of Greek origin, as directed by Ilias and recorded by Concordia Associate Professor of Music Marc Corwin at the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall.
The books/CDs are available at chromamusika.com and the Greek Bookstore in Montreal.
Patricia J. Moser-Stern, MBA 84, and Barbara Kathleen Moser are successful business women with a special interest in coaching and mentoring women. In 1 Piece Of Advice (1 Piece Of Advice, $34.95, 1pieceofadvice.com), the duo gathered words of wisdom from career women all around the world that are meant to encourage young women to unlock their potentials.
The impressive list of international contributors includes Helen Gurley Brown, editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, and Joyce Alouch, a Kenyan Court of Appeal Judge.
From Canada, it includes journalist and diplomat Pamela Wallin, CEO and co-founder of Indigo Books & Music Heather Reisman and film director Deepa Mehta. Moser-Stern lives in Markham, Ontario.
Denise Roig, BA 94, has published two collections of short stories, A Quiet Night and a Perfect End (1995) and Any Day Now (2004). She has written professionally for 30 years and taught creative writing and journalism at Concordia. But Butter Cream: A Year in a Montreal Pastry School (Signature Editions, $18.95) is Roig’s first, non-fiction book.
In it, she chronicles her deliciously intense, 11-month experience learning the finer skills of baking while interacting with teachers and students at the Pearson Adult and Career Centre in Montreal. A native of Los Angeles, Calif., Roig lived in Montreal for many years and recently moved to Abu Dhabi with her husband, Raymond Beauchemin, MA 92, and their daughter.
The poetry of OanaAvasilichioaei, MA 02, has gained international attention. Avasilichioaei’s first poetry collection, Abandon (2005), will soon appear in a Spanish translation. Her English translation of Occupational Sickness, by Romanian poet and Nobel Prize nominee Nichita Stanescu, was published in 2006. Her writings have also appeared in Canadian, American, Australian and Norwegian literary journals.
In feria: a poempark (Wolsak andWynn Publishers Ltd., $17), Avasilichioaei uses Vancouver’s Hastings Park as a natural palimpsest, creating and recreating her interpretations of the park’s landscape, history and architecture. She lives in Montreal and coordinates the Atwater Poetry Project reading series.
Being called an “idiot” is never a good thing. But in Idiocy: A Cultural History (University of Chicago Press, $50.95), Patrick McDonagh, PhD 98, explains that the term’s meaning has shifted as a result to time, place and established social and cultural considerations.
McDonagh focuses on 19th century Britain and examines influences from the United States and France, citing literary, popular, scientific and socio-political discussions of the day. Through his study, he offers a better understanding of our changing concepts of intellectual disability. McDonagh is a Montreal-based freelance writer .
In Blue Infinity (PublishAmerica, $19.95), the latest novel by Constantine (Konstantine) Komborozos, BA 06 (English lit.), a husband and wife set out to circumnavigate the Aegean Sea.
But they soon lose track of time and place and eventually encounter others who come from different historic periods. The couple discover the sea is a manifestation of a consciousness that transcends time and space.
Komborozos is a Montreal-based writer whose previous novel was Tempus Fugit (2008).
