Introducing the Hopewell Garden Audio Story

This episode introduces the limited series The Hopewell Garden Audio Story. Listen to hear about what this exciting new series has in store.

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The Hopewell Garden Audio Story is created by Christine Malec, Rebecca Singh and Katherine Sanders. They are a trio of artists who came together for the purpose of creating audio experiences of the natural world from a Blind-led perspective.

The Hopewell Garden Audio Story is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Toronto Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Foundation.

Logo Image Description: A square with large yellow text that reads, "Described Toronto" and below it "PODCAST" in all capital letters, within a yellow rectangle. The title is layered on top of a photo of four diverse women standing side by side outdoors in front of a garden in a park. The woman at centre who is white speaks into a mic. She has a white cane strapped to her shoulder bag.

Transcript

Hello. It‘s early summer 2024.  We’re here to announce the Hopewell Garden Audio Story a new limited podcast series.

My name is Rebecca Singh. Storyteller, producer and Audio describer.

I’m working with Described Toronto to create innovative, description-rich content. We live in, you guessed it- Toronto Canada, and our goal is to make our home city more accessible and inclusive to everyone. We’re thrilled to launch the Hopewell Garden Audio Story.

I’m Katherine Sanders, I’m an artist, arts worker, and grant writer living in Scarborough near the Warden Woods ravine. 

And I’m Christine Malec, a member of Toronto’s Blind community. I’m a podcaster and accessibility consultant, looking for ways to make more of our world accessible to more of my community. There’s no end to what can be described and how. 

We’re so excited to participate in the Toronto Arts Foundation‘s  Arts in the Parks program! Through live events and this podcast, we’ll share the story of the Hopewell Community Pollinator Garden, a garden funded through PollinateTO and a thriving force for change. We will connect with community gardeners and hear from experts on garden ecosystems and draw on audio description and conversation to bring this small but remarkable part of Toronto to life in new ways for Blind and low vision audiences here and around the world. Over 5 episodes as we will explore:

What does a garden look like? What does a park look like? What’s the story of a garden? Join us as we seek out the answers in this new audio storytelling project. Subscribe to Described Toronto‘s Hopewell Garden Audio Story podcast. Do it now!

That’s right! Over the course of 6 months. Described Toronto is painting an audible portrait of one garden in one park in the North York community of the city. You‘ll hear Christine Malec interview the community gardeners and learn about the land and creation of the garden, I‘ll provide audio description of the park and garden, and we will bring you along to a live presentation with native plant expert Lorraine Johnson, and an in-person guided walk of Walter Saunders park which is the park the Garden is in. Join us! Described Toronto invites you in – from wherever you are in the world.

If you will be in Toronto on September 21st you can join us live at the Hopewell Garden for an in person described walk. Just look up Described Toronto on Facebook or check the show notes. We will be releasing episodes once or twice a month and we‘ll be posting lots of resources about this great park in the show notes. To experience the fascinating world of native plants and be inspired by the hope that is cultivated when natural habitats are restored subscribe to Describe Toronto, wherever you get your podcasts.

Described Toronto would like to thank the Toronto Arts Foundation and the Toronto Arts Council for their generous support and the Hopewell Community Garden for their partnership on this project.