History

  • Gritty City documents early Winnipeg hip-hop scene

    In December 2019, former Stylus Magazine hip-hop writer Nigel Webber dug into researching his passion project, Gritty City: An Oral History of Winnipeg Hip-Hop Music 1980 to 2005, not knowing that the world was about to shut down.

  • How the Village was won

    Where young people congregate, they will also create. The rule has proven itself many times in many cities over the years.

  • What the history of streetcars tells us

    I often see people commenting on photos of Winnipeg in the 20th century on social media. Many of these comments express yearning for a time when Winnipeg was a multi-modal city.

  • Black pride, no prejudice

    When Joseph Ahissou first moved to Canada from his home in the Republic of Benin, he became distinctly aware of a part of his identity for the first time.

  • Ushering a Yiddish renaissance

    Throughout its thousand-year history, Yiddish formed the linguistic foundation of a rich world of literature, music, folklore and fine arts.

  • First left-wing mayor rode anger toward streetcars to office

    A day before the November 1922 Winnipeg civic election, mayoral candidate and alderman J.K. Sparling ran an ad in the Manitoba Free Press attacking his opponent S.J. Farmer.

  • Signs of the times

    Like most cities, Winnipeg’s buildings tell a story about its past. Well, maybe it’s not a single story with a clearly defined arc. Perhaps, more accurately, Winnipeg’s buildings are a scattershot anthology of short stories. They range from the old and beautifully preserved to the rundown and decrepit, from quaint character neighbourhoods to rows of identical strip malls, like so many cubes of Lego, devoid of any personality whatsoever.

  • Something’s been brewing

    Inside the West Broadway coffee shop Thom Bargen, the whirring of coffee grinders and espresso machines mixes with the buzz of people mingling in the shop.

  • Favourite date activity

    1. See a local comedy show

    2. See a movie

    3. Visit the Manitoba Museum

  • Thoroughly modern milliner

    Tucked away in a quiet corner at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and Qaumajuq’s 2023 CRAFTED show, couture milliner Helen Gair of Helen Gair Millinery selects a red beret from her display and carefully places it on the head of a curious attendee.

  • The 1906 streetcar strike

    A black-and-white photo of a crowd of strikers overturning a streetcar has become one of the most endearing images of the 1919 General Strike. When the event was memorialized with a statue on Winnipeg’s main street, it became one of the signature images associated with the city.

  • The streetcar emerges

    The terms “suburbs” and “suburbanization” often bring to mind the period after the Second World War, defined by rows of bungalows on tree-lined streets. Another image of the suburbs are the more recent stucco McMansions in far-flung areas of the city with garages standing guard over sidewalk-less streets.

  • A people’s history of streetcars

    In September of 1955, a streetcar made its final run down Portage Avenue. This was the last time a streetcar went down a Winnipeg street – nearly 70 years ago.

  • Ghosts of Winnipeg past

    As I write these words on Wednesday afternoon, the Windsor Hotel is on fire.

    The hotel and music venue on Garry Street, built in 1903, has sat vacant since March, when it was closed due to a provincial health hazard order. Its future remained in doubt before the fire. Now, its fate is sealed.

  • Hancox’s feminist interventions into Canadian socialist organizing

    Edith Hancox was a high-profile feminist involved in the Communist Party in Winnipeg as both an organizer and a writer.

  • ‘Police really do one thing’

    Winnipeg community groups and members have criticized the local school resource officer (SRO) program, especially in the wake of an equity-based report researcher Fadi Enaab released through the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in October 2022.

  • Loss prevention at a cost

    As more Canadians struggle to afford groceries, the country’s supermarket chains are enjoying record profits.

  • Slow ride to safety

    In a city that relies on its single major mode of public transportation, the issue of safety on Winnipeg Transit is frequently in the public consciousness.

  • Tough talk at tea

    Sitting down with family for dinner or coffee can often lead to awkward conversations.

  • City briefs

    Death records for residential-school children// True North proposal for Portage Place// Renaming three Winnipeg streets// HSC to open minor-treatment clinic// ntroduction of Addiction Services Act// Release of 2022 fatal overdose data

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