March 2020 was supposed to be a fun month for me. Starting off with celebrating my 18th birthday, I would follow that with a week-long vacation in Cozumel, a Billie Eilish concert in Detroit, and the chance to see a production of Hamilton: An American Musicalat the Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto. All of those plans were quickly derailed within a few days. Postponed family celebrations, shortened trips and cancelled performances became my new reality.
Some downtowns feel lifeless while others have a real pulse. I have experienced both in our travels around Ontario’s Southwest. The cool thing is how more communities seem to be investing in downtown spaces.
Every downtown feels open or closed. This may be an abstract statement, but listen to the people who frequent the area or live nearby – the way that individuals talk about a downtown space will tell you right away whether the area is considered open or closed. In this context, we use ‘open’ to mean welcoming, inviting, surprising, attractive and distinctive; by contrast, the word ‘closed’ is short-hand for detached, cold, boring, run-down and unexceptional.
Just like driving to a concert and feeling excited for the show, our team at young & free press has developed a way to travel to a community and imagine the whole setting as the performance. We call this life-art … the experience may contain music, paintings, theatre, sculptures, books, virtual reality, sports, businesses, video games, natural environments, culinary experiences, and roadside attractions, but we like to imagine the total picture.
The 2019 Polaris Music Prize short-list features ten artists, all unique, and many I had not heard of before writing this article. My first thought when I saw the list: “Who are these people?”
Recently Andrew Gunn and I met with Sandy Westaway, who runs the Inn Out of the Cold shelter in St. Thomas. Needless to say, I learned a lot about the homeless people in our small town and the details shocked me.
Feeling the need for a jolt of energy to renew the landscape of downtown St. Thomas, multiple organizations and individuals have come together with the aim of making the city one of the true ‘street art capitals’ of Canada!
One thing that our young & free press team has learned since we started-up the business is that there are remarkable things happening every day in our communities … we just have to jump in and explore! Well, we now have the opportunity to take this spirit to a whole new level: beginning this spring, we will be collaborating with the Southwest Ontario Tourism Corporation to present some fun new content on our Instagram page!
Our team at young & free press loves to collaborate with community partners on fun, innovative projects. What’s next? Well, we are excited to help establish new ‘pop-up shops’ around southwestern Ontario, beginning with the first site in our home-base of St. Thomas!
With the JUNO Awards coming to Budweiser Gardens in London on Sunday, March 17th, our team at young & free press have been busy listening to albums and songs by the artists nominated this year. We have a unique dynamic, of course, as our owner & editor Andrew Gunn is 40 years old, and all our journalists are teenagers!
Norfolk County feels a bit unsettled ever since the transformational municipal election back in the fall --- and we think that this is a great thing! New leaders are in place, conversations are happening, and there is a healthy sense of optimism (and skepticism) in the air.
Our team at young & free press is excited to announce that we are partnering with the Elgin Theatre Guild to present Hawksley Workman at the Princess Ave Playhouse in St. Thomas on Monday, May 20th – the perfect way to finish off the May long weekend!
Hayhoe Homes, the St. Thomas / Elgin Regional Campus of Fanshawe College, and the team at young & free press have come together on a special project to build 'little free library' boxes for the whole community!
On February 8th, our young journalists Jenn Klassen and Emily Stage had a chance to chat with Matt Mays, well-known across Canada and beyond for his distinctive voice and lyrics, thunderous live shows and string of rock radio hits.
Adults don’t look at social media from the same perspective as teenagers. Sometimes adults don’t fully understand the apps. Teenagers use social media differently than most might think. They are more than aware of every picture they post and how those images will be received by
Well St. Thomas, set your expectations high! We have a new Mayor and Council at City Hall, our community is growing, and there is a hint of cultural transformation in the air. In our view, we think that St. Thomas can become the next great destination in southwestern Ontario for twenty-something entrepreneurs, tradespeople and makers, young families, and active retirees. Seriously, why not?
Municipal elections can be boring, but this year in Norfolk County there were some compelling storylines. Consider the set-up: the most recent Norfolk County Council lacked diversity, to say the least – nine white men, no women, and definitely trending older.
Joe Preston was elected Mayor of St. Thomas in the October 22nd municipal election with a total of 3,731 votes, defeating the incumbent, Heather Jackson (3,189 votes) and two other challengers, Steve Wookey (2949 votes) and Malichi Malé (338 votes). With four candidates in the running, there was not going to be a landslide, but the margin of victory was still decisive.
Our young & free press team has been heavily involved in the St. Thomas municipal election this year. We have interviewed all the candidates for Mayor and several of the candidates for City Council.
