John Wilson (born in Youngstown, OH, USA; lives in Toronto, ON, Canada) is an independent community engagement specialist and waterfront advocate. Wilson leads public walks with the Lost Rivers project, a collaboration of the Toronto Green Community and Toronto Field Naturalists. He serves as co-chair of the West Don Lands Committee and board member of Waterfront for All. From 2000 to 2011, Wilson served as chair of the Task Force to Bring Back the Don, a citizens’ advisory committee of Toronto City Council with a mandate to restore a clean, green, accessible Don River.
Programs
Storytelling: Lost Rivers
Location: Small Arms Inspection Building (2019)
John Wilson of the Lost Rivers initiative guides a walk entitled Walk the treaty boundary of the “Toronto Purchase” through Marie Curtis Park to the mouth of Etobicoke Creek, on the border between Toronto (Etobicoke) and Mississauga. This river mouth was one of two points along Etobicoke Creek, used to…
Poetry Walk with Toronto’s River Poets, Lost Rivers, and Rivers Rising
Location: St. Matthews Clubhouse
A poetry walk in conjunction with artist Maria Thereza Alves’s project Phantom Pain at Riverdale Park W. Toronto’s River Poets, together with the initiatives Lost Rivers and Rivers Rising, and knowledge keepers investigate Toronto’s lost rivers, the forgotten network of water that runs beneath our feet. Meeting point: St. Matthews…