Fresh from two sold-out screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival, <!--break-->SURVIVING PROGRESS is the film inspired by Ronald Wright's bestseller and CBC Massey Lectures, "A Short History of Progress”. 

Journey to Ourselves: An Intentional Space for Writing Life Stories
A Five-week Writing Course facilitated by Dianah Smith

Writing about our lives is a journey of healing and reclamation. Through honest exploration, we will find many stories worth telling and in the telling, we will begin to heal old wounds, recognize our resiliency, and celebrate our survival.
This course will consist of in-class writing activities and weekly homework assignments.

Participants will:
•    Learn how to give and receive constructive feedback
•    Explore their authentic voice
•    Learn how to write through trauma

When she was nine years old, Claudette Boulanger told a lie that may have saved her life. In July of that year she had arrived from Jamaica to live with an aunt in Toronto. By October that same year she had begun running away to escape from her aunt's sexually abusive husband. One winter evening, while on the run, she phoned a friend and told her that she needed to spend the night at her house because otherwise she might freeze to death on the street. She laughs a deep, mirthful laugh as she explains that because she had never before experienced winter in Canada she had no idea that people could actually freeze to death in the winter.