Welcome once again to Word on the Hills with me Felicity Sidnell Reid and our studio editor Anne Sidnell. This week we’re broadcasting our new Christmas program for 2024. Our guests today are storytellers well known to you, Gwynn Scheltema, Christopher Cameron, Ron Mackay and poet, Katie Hoogendam. Gwynn’s story, set in Zimbabwe, recalls how her mother celebrated Christmas in a tropical setting, while Ron’s story is about a young woman struggling to achieve her ambitions in Tenerife. Chris has once again written a new story for this show and Katie will read one of her collection of poems, which she has just released as a chapbook to celebrate the Winter Solstice.
Month: December 2024
Holiday show 1
Welcome once again to Word on the Hills with me, Felicity Sidnell Reid, my co-host Gwynn and our audio editor Anne Sidnell. The approach of Christmas and the holiday season prompts us to make different kinds of programmes from our usual ones. It is a season for stories and poems and songs, so instead of interviews with one writer, we have asked a number of them to read their work for us. This is a re-run of the show we first broadcast in 2019. Today we welcome Shane Joseph, Linda Hutsell Manning, , Chris Cameron, Allan Seymour and Les Robling to read for us and singer songwriter Marie-Lynn Hammond, who will sing one of her own songs.
TJ Best
TJ Best is the host and organizer of a monthly poetry Open Mic called First Tuesday Muse in Madoc and has been published in a number of journals in both Canada and the United States including: The Waterwheel Review, Ghost City Press, Untethered Magazine, and above/ground Press. TJ (formerly known as Tamara ‘tah-mah-rah’) is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. After spending many years in Toronto, TJ moved to the Quinte Region in 2011 and homeschooled their two children for ten years. TJ is also an experienced Community Worker with a focus on client support. In addition to these many “hats”, TJ also maintains a medicinal garden at a historic site and is passionate about outdoor education.
Al Seymour
Al Seymour grew up just north of Cobourg in Creighton Heights, attending Cook’s School, Dale Road and CDCI West, before venturing off to the University of Guelph to earn a degree in Microbiology. For the next 40 years, Al worked in the GTA as a microbiologist, senior food manufacturing manager, logistics consultant and then started his own contracting firm specializing in sustainable buildings and quality renovations. Al also was committed to making his community a better place; co-founding three charitable organizations and chairing each at the start. (FOODPATH – now Foodbanks Mississauga, The Erin Mills Youth Centre, 3rd Erin Mills Scout Group) Seven years ago, Al and his wife Kathy Toivanen retired to Cobourg. Al is a busy retiree – active with the Cobourg Museum, renovating his home, spending time at family cottages, church, skiing, hiking, walking, and gardening.
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