Latest news with #TorontoPublicLibrary
National Post
09-05-2025
- Sport
- National Post
Florida library claps back at Toronto's after being trolled over Leafs hockey win
Article content The folks at a Florida library and the Toronto library are in the midst of a friendly troll-off, as their hometown teams face each other in an NHL playoff rivalry. Article content Article content The Toronto Maple Leafs, prevailed in their first two games of their second-round showdown against the defending Stanley Cup champion-Florida Panthers. Article content The Leafs took game two on Wednesday night, winning 4-3. Article content Playful hometown trolling often accompanies NHL playoff matchups, especially when teams from different countries or regions face each other. It falls in the same good-natured support as city mayors betting on a playoff outcome. For example, that happened between the mayors of Edmonton and Sunrise, Florida (the Panthers' hometown) in 2024. Article content 'Panthers are red/ The Leafs are blue/ Tonight is the night That we win Game 2,' the X post read. Article content Panthers are red, The Leafs are blue, Tonight is the night That we win Game 2. Your turn, @BrowardLibrary 😜 @MapleLeafs #LeafsForever #BookSpinePoetry — Toronto Public Library (@torontolibrary) May 7, 2025 Article content Article content The bibliophiles with the Broward County Library in Sunrise, Florida rose to the challenge. (They operate 37 branch locations in the area surrounding the Panthers' home arena.) Article content They responded with their own X post: 'We love Toronto / Their team is quite nice / But the Florida Panthers? / Well, we rule the ice!' Article content We love Toronto Their team is quite nice But the Florida Panthers? Well, we rule the ice! @FlaPanthers @torontolibrary #BookSpinePoetry #floridapanthers #stanleycup #hockey #library — Broward County Library (@BrowardLibrary) May 7, 2025
Toronto Star
03-05-2025
- Automotive
- Toronto Star
Vehicles have become weapons by design — and public space is in their crosshairs
Last Saturday afternoon I wandered into the Toronto Public Library Black Creek branch in North York Sheridan Mall. On the magazine rack was the current issue of Car and Driver magazine with the headline 'Weapons of Choice' and a photo of three luxury sedans being tested in race formation on the cover. It was a shock to see. Cars and other vehicles have been used explicitly as weapons in attacks around the world — like just this week in Japan — and other drivers have caused an incredible amount of damage, human or otherwise, through carelessness and dangerous driving.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Severance' star Britt Lower leads Canadian film 'Darkest Miriam,' playing a Toronto librarian
Between filming Season 1 and Season 2 of the Apple TV+ hit Severance as Helly R., Britt Lower shot the Canadian film Darkest Miriam (now in theatres), from filmmaker Naomi Jaye, executive produced by Oscar-winner Charlie Kaufman. An adaptation of the novel "The Incident Report" by Martha Baillie, librarian Miriam Gordon (Lower) is dealing with the grief of her father's death, working at a branch of the Toronto Public Library, and hides behind book in this "prison" she's created for herself. While you may think that Jaye was a Severance fan who sought out Lower for the film, it's quite the opposite. In fact, the filmmaker hadn't watched Severance before the casting director brought it up. But after seeing Lower's first scene on the show, Jaye knew she was perfect for Miriam. "She's so alive and fearless and feral, and her voice is so distinct and amazing," Jaye told Yahoo Canada. "She had just finished the first season of Severance and was going to go back right after our shoot to shoot the second season. ... Who knew it would explode in the way that it did?" "But what I can say about Britt is that she is truly an incredibly talented actor. She really understands her process. She is an incredibly generous person and performer, and she understands low budget filmmaking and what that means, and what that requires. And every day she just brought everything to it." Not unlike the quick reaction Jaye had to Lower's acting, the second the filmmaker picked up Baillie's book she knew she wanted to adapt it, calling the publisher after reading just the first page. "It was love at first sight," Jaye said. "Then it was the voice of Miriam, just this character and what she went through, and the people that she met, and this meeting of tragedy and comedy in one novel." "And it was just such an interesting format. I had never seen a book written in this way before, in these very short, discrete moments. It just felt like how I feel life and process life. It's like these tiny little moments that, when connected, make something momentous. So they can be these tiny little things that happen, or moments, ... interactions that end up having a profound effect on who you are and what your journey is going to be." Part of the story of Darkest Miriam is the title character starting a relationship with Janko Priajtelj (Tom Mercier), a Slovenian artist who is a Toronto taxi driver. But as she starts opening herself up to love, Miriam receives threatening letters, left in books at the library, which prompts her to document her feelings in library incident report forms she stashes away. But what's particularly interesting is that while many assume any love story in a film is the focus, that's not the case with Darkest Miriam. Rather, Miriam being confined and almost trapped in the library, and the feeling of breaking free, feels more central to the story. "For me it's not a story about a woman who falls in love, it's a story about a woman who chooses to live her life, chooses to break herself out of this prison she's created, the circumstance of her father's death, in this library," Jaye said. "He killed himself surrounded by books. She literally surrounds herself by books every day. So I call her an emotional suicide, where she just can't deal and ... she doesn't recognize that she's recreating the circumstance of her father's life. She's so terrified to end up like him, but yet she's doing it." Smartly, Jaye also makes room for the audience to dive into this love story, as much as they feel compelled to do so. "Janko is a huge part of that story, but the central arc of this is Miriam breaking free. It's not Miriam falls in love," she said. "But people will choose to see what they choose, and if people choose to see it as a love story, then that's beautiful. It's a beautiful love story."
CBC
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Severance star Britt Lower takes a new job as a Toronto librarian
Social Sharing Fresh from captivating audiences with her performance in the successful series Severance, American actress Britt Lower ignites the Canadian Film Festival with her lead role in the Darkest Miriam. The Canadian drama opened the Toronto festival earlier this week and hits theatres today. For the actress, it's a plunge into the quiet storm of Miriam, a character Lower sculpted from raw emotion and lived-in physicality. Directed by Naomi Jaye and adapted from Martha Baillie's novel The Incident Report, the film follows Miriam Gordon (played by Lower), who is grief-stricken after the death of her father and lives a quiet life as a librarian at the Allan Gardens branch of the Toronto Public Library. Her life is disrupted when she begins to receive oddly threatening letters addressed to her, coinciding with a new romantic relationship with a young cab driver. Finding the right Miriam was a journey for Jaye. But as soon as she saw Lower's first scene in Severance, she knew she'd found her Miriam. The director penned a letter to the actress, who was touched by it. "On our first Zoom, we were just immediately kindred," Lower says in an interview with CBC Arts. "I think we were both in tears by the end of the Zoom. It felt like such kismet, like we were coming together and meant to tell this story together." Her connection to Miriam was immediate, she explains, noting it might sound sort of magical. "Sometimes, roles just come and tap on my shoulder and I can't look away," she says while enacting the gesture. "It's almost like they're choosing me." "I admire [Miriam's] bravery and the courage to kind of come out of her shell when life really takes her to her knees," Lower says. She was drawn to Miriam's ability to find strength in vulnerability. There is a quiet intensity Lower brings to Miriam that's rooted in meticulous character work and a profound understanding of human behaviour, allowing for remarkable authenticity. Her work in the film has led to a Canadian Screen Award nomination for best performance in a lead role. The film also earned a best picture nomination and best director nod for Jaye. Lower has a uniquely artistic understanding of her craft; she thinks of acting as making a sculpture, she says. "I'm building the inner life of the character that then informs how they move through the world." This approach extends to her collaborators. "It felt like the three of us were building Miriam's world together," she says, referring to her work with Jaye and Baillie. To ground the portrayal in reality, Lower focused on the physical aspects of Miriam's world. "Moving through the library with Martha, the writer of the book, she took me through a sort of librarian school of sorts," the actress says. "I got to move a lot of the books through collections and circulation, the actual day-to-day [tasks]." This immersive experience helped Lower understand the daily routines and physical movements shaping Miriam's existence. Toronto is baked into the DNA of the film, which features recognizable landmarks like Allan Gardens Conservatory as well as the city's bike lanes — something Lower enjoyed while filming on location. "I went biking through the city and got to feel the commuter culture in Toronto, " she says. "You have to have a kind of toughness and a protectiveness to be on a bicycle. But also the culture of biking in the city of Toronto, I think, is really respectful…. I loved biking around Toronto." Like her character, Lower herself knows the liberating feeling of stepping out of one's comfort zone. "I feel like every day is like a little leap of faith," she says. During the hiatus between filming seasons one and two of Severance, the actress joined the circus. It's something she's been obsessed with her whole life (which is perhaps unsurprising considering her mother's face-painting career and the 2020 short film Circus Person she wrote and directed). "I feel really at home at a circus, and the backlot of a circus is quite similar to the backlot of a film or a TV set. There's this kind of mobile art family that comes together to build something. But each time I do that, each new project, it's, 'Oh, I'm going to meet all these new people and make all these new friends and step into that unknown space.'" Whether she's navigating the mysteries of the severed mind, the emotional journey of a low-spirited librarian or the chaos of a circus ring, Lower eagerly ventures into new territories in pursuit of artistic growth. Her work signals a performer who's deeply invested in the art of human connection and vulnerability — be it on big-budget studio projects or this small Canadian indie film.
