Torontoist

Torontoist

culture

Historicist: Third World Books and Crafts

The story of Leonard and Gwendolyn Johnston's venerable Black-culture bookstore.

This post originally appeared on February 5, 2015.

Advertisement from the Black Trade and Business Directory (1970)

Advertisement from the Black Trade and Business Directory (1970).

“All through my life the schools avoided me,” explained Leonard Johnston, proprietor of Third World Books and Crafts, to a newspaper reporter who visited his shop in the summer of 1969. “They ignored my history, my culture, my music. Now I’m trying to educate. Politically, culturally, every way I can think of. In fact, I’d rather convince you than sell you a book.” The bookstore, which the militant radical and railway porter had opened with his wife Gwendolyn less than a year earlier, specialized in books on the history and culture of Africa and its diaspora, Black literature, and volumes on radical politics. The store’s purpose was to enable the local Black community to learn about themselves.

Decades later it had succeeded, becoming recognized, in the words of journalist Philip Marchand, as the “nerve centre for black intellectuals in Toronto.” Third World Books thrived for more than 30 years, at numerous addresses but most notably in the heart of Seaton Village—a strip of businesses along Bathurst Street catering to the city’s Black and Caribbean communities—until it closed in early 2000, not long after Lenny Johnston’s death.

Keep reading: Historicist: Third World Books and Crafts

culture

How to Enjoy Aged Wine Without A Cellar

Anyone can do it, and affordably too.

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For most people the idea of aged wine definitely conjures something snobby and stuffy. But if you have patience, there is something to be said about tasting wine after it’s had a few years or more to evolve in the bottle.

The biggest misconception about old wine is that it’s automatically better. Because a bottle is old doesn’t guarantee that it’s going to be good. What is certain is that as a wine ages, it definitely changes. This factor is both exciting and heartbreaking at the same time. A wine that tastes amazing one night might have evolved completely away from your taste in a year if you decide to add a bottle or two to a collection.

Keep reading: How to Enjoy Aged Wine Without A Cellar