Tag: North End

Celebrating the Early History of Winnipeg’s North End

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Family history, Uncategorized, WinnipegLeave a comment
Click for more information about Tarbut and to order tickets

I am delighted that Jewish Book Month will bring me back to Winnipeg for a special evening of stories, music and nostalgia.  Join me and the fabulously talented singer, Jane Enkin, on Nov. 22nd at the Rady Centre for the 3rd annual  Tarbut Festival of Jewish Culture.

For me it will be a chance to celebrate the early history of the immigrants in Winnipeg who first settled in what was to become Winnipeg’s famous North End with music, stories, pictures of the early days, and of course, a reading from Ravenscraig.

Click here for more information on programming and tickets.  See you on November 22nd!

Fiddler in the Golden Land

with Sandi Krawchenko Altner, author of Ravenscraig

Join as at Tarbut on Nov. 22nd for a lively evening of musical entertainment and nostalgic memories of the early days in Winnipeg’s North End.

Sandi Krawchenko Altner will present a reading from Ravenscraig, her award-winning historical novel about Winnipeg, and lead a discussion about the dreamers and strivers who first settled the North End.

Sandi will share stories she learned from her many years of research on Winnipeg’s boomtown years a century ago, when it was among the fastest growing cities on the continent.   The research inspired the fictional Zigman family of Ravenscraig, Russian Jewish immigrants who struggled to put down roots in Canada.  Sandi will also describe the living conditions suffered by the North End’s mix of Jews, Ukrainians and other “foreign born” residents, and the passion that developed in “the foreign quarter”  that ultimately led to Winnipeg’s North End becoming known as one of Canada’s greatest neighbourhoods for “rags to riches” success stories.

It is Tarbut’s pleasure to invite all who have a connection to, or affection for Winnipeg’s North End to join us for this special evening of nostalgia and celebration.

Ravenscraig, by Sandi Krawchenko Altner, Winner of the 2012 Carol Shields Book Award

Romance, scandal, and tragedy grip the lives of two families and threaten to destroy them both in Ravenscraig, by Sandi Krawchenko Altner.  Winner of the 2012 Carol Shields Book Award, Ravenscraig, pitches rich against poor in the height of the immigration boom a century ago.

Rupert Willows buries his cruel past and schemes his way to wealth and power when he buys his opulent home, Ravenscraig Hall. Zev Zigman, a devout Jew, mounts a desperate struggle to bring his family out of czarist Russia. At the center is the feisty Maisie, who hides her Jewish roots to enter the world of “The English” as a well paid maid at Ravenscraig. Love, anger and determination fuel the treacherous journey ahead.

Readers Review Ravenscraig

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Jewish Book Council Authors Tour, Ravenscraig ReviewsLeave a comment

Perhaps the greatest enjoyment in writing a book is getting notes from readers who are touched by the book.  This weekend I received two special notes that I would like to share.

The first is from Heidi, a friend from my early days in radio in Winnipeg.

“I lent my book to my 82-year old father who just returned it today. He’s a German immigrant who was a Wpg transit bus driver his entire working life in Canada and spent many a year driving in the north end. He LOVED your book, and that’s high praise from someone who doesn’t have English as his first language.”

The second note is from someone I only know by reputation for her fantastic Deli on Corydon in Winnipeg, Marla Bernstein of Bernstein’s Deli. (I’ve edited the note to be sure there are no spoilers.)

Hello Sandi,

I finished your wonderful book this evening on the way home from the lake . As  a Jewish Winnipegger I knew that I would love RAVENSCRAIG from the first time I heard about it…(I actually do not remember if it was a review in the Jewish Post, or Free Press, or CBC Radio).

Having Grandparents who immigrated here from Eastern Europe about  20 years after your Ravenscraig  characters came to the Golden Land I can appreciate the Jews who were the first and how horrible it was for them at the beginning. By the time my Family arrived here I would think  that a lot of groundwork must have been done and although poverty stricken they must have had more of a support system in place than your immigrants did.

I love the story of the allotment of acreage for those willing to farm. I love the story of the Zigman Family.

Ravenscraig is a wonderful saga. It even prompted me to take a slow joy ride through Armstrong’s Point, which I have never paid much attention to in the past.

Thank you Sandi for providing me with such a good story.

Thanks for hearing me out ! Enjoy life ! When you are back in Winnipeg and you get hungry during the day I would love to invite you to my Deli for a sandwich and a bowl of soup,(another reason I love the Zigman family)>

Sincerely,

Marla Bernstein

Family Research Leads to Writing Ravenscraig

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Family history, Ravenscraig the novel, Ukrainians in Canada, Winnipeg2 Comments
Mary Krawchenko and her mother Tillie Bachynsky with
Mary’s daughters, Sandi and Margaret, 1958

I have a real fascination with old black and white pictures.  I am especially interested in photos of people I know, but can spend days looking into any antique photo collection to learn about how people lived their lives generations ago.

I expect this is a familiar feeling for anyone who has looked through old family pictures and wished that there was someone still around to explain who was in the picture and what was happening on that day. Was it a birthday?  A visit to a relative?  Or just a walk in a park to share good news?  The black and white photos tucked away in shoe boxes so quickly become anonymous faces staring out at us from another century with stories that are rooted in imagination instead of fact.

If I had to settle on a single reason why I wrote Ravenscraig, it would have to be this interest in old pictures.

Ravenscraig is a novel that tells the story of some of the major events in Winnipeg during the height of the immigration boom that began in the 1890s.  Two families– one Jewish, poor and struggling to put down roots in the New World; the other rich and resistant to the foreigners among them–together provide a view of what life was like in a booming frontier city in Canada at the turn of the 20th century.

The research for the story was a most gratifying journey that included wide ranging resources from scholarly works and rare books to archived collections of rare documents, private letters and microfilmed court testimony.  Online sources included such favourite websites as the Manitoba Historical Society, the City of Winnipeg Department of Planning, Canada Census Records and the online newspaper archives like the Manitoba Free Press.

Nikola Strumbicky and Aksana Shmigelsky Strumbicky, 1958, Winnipeg

The inspiration for my desire to learn about the early days of Winnipeg grew out of a fascination with my own family roots.  My family came to Manitoba in 1896  from Zalischiky, Galicia, which is now part of the Ukraine.  They were “Stalwart Peasants in Sheepskin Coats” as Clifford Sifton the minister responsible for immigration had called them.   They came to Canada to farm, answering the invitation for free land in Canada’s determination to populate the prairies.

It is a most gratifying journey to learn about one’s past.  What pictures are in your shoebox?

Ravenscraig Praised in Winnipeg Free Press Book Review

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Books, Canadian Writers, Ravenscraig Reviews, Ravenscraig the novel, Uncategorized, Winnipeg, WritingLeave a comment

Upstairs Downstairs in a Brash Winnipeg

The Manitoba Free Press (as the Winnipeg Free Press was known in its early years) played a very large role in the development of the stories for Ravenscraig.  Every archived page is available on line through subscription.  It’s an amazing resource that has afforded me both  inspiration and education in my research for the novel.  Imagine my joy in seeing the Saturday edition with a big positive review of Ravenscraig, written by Ron Robinson, a Winnipeg broadcaster and book lover.  He writes:

Welcome to Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs with a Winnipeg twist.

Former Winnipeg journalist Sandi Krawchenko Altner has researched and written a wonderful Winnipeg-warts-and-all historical romance set mostly in the early 1900s. It’s a brash, two-faced Winnipeg, but still a recognizable one.

Thank you, Ron!

Click here to see the entire review in the Winnipeg Free Press on line. (Saturday, January 14, 2012).

By the way, I have started doing “Skype visits” to book clubs, which are great fun.  If your group would like to arrange a Q&A session to talk about Ravenscraig and the stories behind the fiction, I would be delighted to join.  Please write to me at Sandi.Altner@gmail.com.

Click on the image below to see the book trailer.

Ted Baryluk’s Store in Winnipeg’s North End

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Films1 Comment


Click here to watch film.

Another classic film. Ted Baryluk’s Grocery is a beautiful short film, made in 1982 by John Paskievich and Mike Mirus for the National Film board.  It is an absolute gem. It depicts honest, unvarnished truths of life in a Point Douglas grocery store and is both poignant and haunting. Warning: the politically correct may find much to complain about in this film, especially those who are running out to purchase the cleaned up version of Mark Twain’s work.

The film features Ted talking about his store, the changing neighbourhood, and his hope that his daughter may take over the store after he has gone, even though she wants to move away. The work received numerous awards including a Genie Award in Toronto, and was chosen to represent Canada at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.

Bravo to the NFB for making these films available for us to enjoy with the click of a mouse.

A background article on the film, by Lois Siegel, was published in Cinema Canada in May, 1982. Click here to read it.

Filmmaker/photographer, John Paskievich, has published his work in a coffee table book: The North End.

The Jews of Winnipeg

On By Sandi Krawchenko AltnerIn Films1 Comment

The NFB has done us a great service in having funded documentaries like this one, The Jews of Winnipeg, by Bill Davies.

Click here to see the film.

It was made in 1973 and is history and nostalgia in one. Most of the people who are interviewed are not identified, which is unfortunate. But it does also feature a number of familiar people like Mira Spivak, Joe Zuken and Arthur Gunn, of Gunn’s Bakery, and most notably, comedian/producer David Steinberg, who is warm and engaging in a visit with his mother, reminiscing about his father and his work in their synagogue as he was growing up. The film runs almost 30 minutes and captures a perspective on the growth of the Jewish community in Winnipeg, and the special nature of this close knit group. If anyone knows the names of those outspoken and articulate young students in the scene outside the Talmud Torah School, please do share them.