Cyclops singing a brand new song at the Dufferin Grove Park Sleep-in

On Friday, August 26th CYCLOPS attended the Dufferin Grove ‘Sleep-In’, a peaceful overnight gathering that protested recent and proposed changes to recreational, food and arts programming in Dufferin Grove Park.  Since early June, the municipal department of Parks, Forestry and Recreation (PFR) has been attempting to strictly regulate ‘the anomalies of Dufferin Grove Park’, because the current programming leaves the city ‘vulnerable and open to major risk factors’.  As park-goers may know, Dufferin Grove is an unusually vibrant outdoor commons, largely because of the strong village atmosphere that the many ‘anomalies’ help to cultivate: Pizza ovens, community gardens, artist workshops, farmers’ market, outdoor theatre, Friday night supper, yoga in the park…the list goes on.  The full story of how these programs came to be, and how the proposed changes will stifle them, is available at:

http://dufferinpark.ca/aboutus/wiki/wiki.php/DufferinGroveIsInTrouble2.Chapter1

City-imposed modifications to Dufferin Park programming affect Clay and Paper Theatre directly and indirectly.  For the first time in twelve years, the city has asked artistic director David Anderson to apply for a permit for the annual ‘Night of Dread’ celebration that takes place a week before Halloween.  This is an example of where increased municipal regulation of community-run activities in public space can discourage users.  Indirectly, the changes affect Clay and Paper because our volunteer, donor and audience populations are drawn from people who attend the park on a regular basis, and who participate in other kinds of park activity.  CYCLOPS felt that it was important to attend and perform at the sleep-in as a way of showing solidarity with the Dufferin Grove community.

After a hot and tiring day of performing at Buskerfest and later attending a special critical mass event in honour of Jack Layton’s passing, CYCLOPS was feeling exhausted and ready to go home to eat and sleep.  Arriving in Dufferin Grove Park, we considered forgoing our plan to perform at the sleep-in, but our moods changed as soon as we trudged over to the by-donation community supper.  The picnic benches by the gardens were teaming with families and couples and single people of all ages, and the evening air was glowing with collective purpose.  Across the tiny ravine from the eating area, people had already established a miniature tent city, and children ran around screaming and laughing in hoards.

It was heartening to see an abundance of familiar faces.  While I recognized famers’ market vendors and groups of twenty-somethings, the high family attendance seemed particularly demonstrative of the politically active community that surrounds Dufferin Grove.   After eating, we retrieved our puppets and our accordion and established ourselves in front of a picnic bench just south of the fire pit.  Ellen enthusiastically began to call out for attention, explaining how happy we were to see so many faces that we recognized from our days and evenings preparing, building and performing in the park.  We then struck up the chords for a new song written specifically for the occasion of saving Dufferin Grove Park, in all of its non-regulated beauty:

Once there was a city, of which we sing this ditty
The city was pretty, cause it’s full of parks!

Tell me about this city, where is it pretty?
Tell me about the city, and which parks to see!

Of all the places in T-Ohhh
Duffering Grove’s the place to go!
Built by community,
It’s a safe space for you and me.

In this park of plenty,
You can gather ten or twenty,
People by the fire, on any night.

Friday night’s for cookin’,
there’s acrojam and hoopin’
To keep this park a-groovin’ is worth the fight!

Our Big Backyard
Is being threatened by beaurocracy.
Too much red tape
Is tying the hands of community -
Can we keep our park wild & free?

The city’s getting bossy,
Pushing its own posse,
Trying to make it glossy, but we can see!

If the city wants compliance,
We’re gonna show defiance,
Cause we’re keen on self-reliance
And Democracy!

Hey, Ana Bailao!
We need you to listen and take a stand.
Listen up, Parks & Rec
Saving Dufferin Grove Park is the plan!
Saving Dufferin Grove Park: Yes we CAN!

Campers listened and smiled, and cheers were particularly welcome after our day of performing to a more distracted crowd at Buskerfest.  Afterwards, a woman approached and said, ‘Ana Bailao is listening and taking a stand.  I’m Ana Bailao’.  The city councillor of our ward continued to state that she is quickly realizing the importance of being the community’s voice in city council, and not the city council’s voice in the community.

The Dufferin Grove sleep-in seems a potent example of where gentle but firm insistence on community values over municipal law raises hearts and destroys apathy.  With joy, humour and steadfastness, park-goers enacted the slogan printed on their ‘Dufferin Grove Sleep-In’ t-shirts: ‘Let a Good Thing Be’.

Councillor Ana Bailao says she wants to hear your opinion about the Dufferin Grove changes.
E-mail her at councillor_bailao@toronto.ca or call her office at 416 392-7012.