https://www.laurietownshend.com/home daily 1.0 2025-12-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1724361308330-Y7EH0I53DNTT9LP52KFJ/__IMG_2055.JPG Miller https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1709080318604-NT462XU18ICAQYT18KX0/LTedit-1-153.jpg Miller - Bio Writer, director, and former middle school Drama teacher Laurie Townshend believes that before we shape stories, stories shape us. Raised by a Jamaican mother—the family’s eloquent griot—she learned early that storytelling is both inheritance and power. Her award-winning debut feature, A Mother Apart (2024), recently earned her The DGC Allan King Award for Best Direction in a Canadian Documentary and has screened at more than 20 festivals, including Hot Docs, BlackStar, DOC NYC, BFI Flare, and Frameline. Now available on PBS, the film follows poet-activist Staceyann Chin on a journey of healing and radical mothering. Laurie is currently developing Tallawah, a documentary about the young women of a burgeoning Jamaican basketball league, fighting for something beyond the game—a future of their own making. In 2025, Tallawah was one of 16 projects selected for the Chicken & Egg Films Research & Development Grant, supported by Netflix. Her much-anticipated podcast, That One Teacher—a reunion series that brings together adult changemakers with the teacher who changed them—is scheduled to launch officially in 2026. Photo: J Quazi King (2024) https://www.laurietownshend.com/narrative daily 0.75 2020-11-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603746641290-YFPYMKJI0SLOU6IS3KVJ/Railpath+Hero+TIFF+laurels+.jpg Drama https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603754849027-FTN0FML015Z5Y312RK6X/Railpath+Hero+prod+stills++IMG_8128.jpg Drama https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603754855822-6BTG6X1S4NNJ61KGMID2/Railpath+Hero+prod+still+++IMG_8037.JPG Drama https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603754878982-MHAJM7VY8LWQCK2CM9J0/1+Reel+IMG_7583.jpg Drama https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603754894361-519T0YNXOINR3R825OS1/Railpath+Hero+Festival+Guide+bw+IMG_7743.jpg Drama https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603762830547-WJZC9XFD98H1BW8UVXLB/IMG_7581.JPG Drama 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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603928010654-7KW8GXXKN4Z7POQSDKG3/IMG_8034.JPG Drama https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603928254641-COPXJ9GIJQ5SZ08TMD0F/IMG_8151.JPG Drama https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603928271689-W80CR71JM98B5OLTWMI5/IMG_8164.JPG Drama https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603762935360-P77JWDB2Q6VAPY3RMHKF/Reel+IMG_8156.JPG Drama https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603928288871-42X58UVHZP2Z0Q2LHYY7/IMG_8185.JPG Drama https://www.laurietownshend.com/documentaries daily 0.75 2026-01-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/09e30657-4905-4116-add5-630b9a862b86/WINNER+DGCs_pic+for+website.jpg Documentary Laurie Townshend won the DGC’s Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary for A Mother Apart. It’s about how 2SLGBTQ+ activist Staceyann Chin is reclaiming the art of mothering. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/2d7bc493-7c26-4999-9f77-482f7d94efe6/Copy+of+AMA_2025+LAURELS+updates.png Documentary An emotionally sweeping tale of healing and forgiveness, A Mother Apart accompanies powerhouse Jamaican-American poet and LGBTQ+ activist Staceyann Chin as she re-imagines the essential art of mothering—having been abandoned by her own mother. How do you raise a child when your own mother abandoned you? In a remarkable story of healing and forgiveness, Jamaican-American poet and LGBTQ+ activist Staceyann Chin, renowned for performances in Def Poetry Slam and hit solo shows like MotherStruck!, radically re-imagines the essential art of mothering. In seeking her elusive mother—a trail that leads to Brooklyn, Montreal, Cologne and, finally, Jamaica—Staceyann and her daughter forge a new sense of home. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603747325589-0XL2VEDAAFDXD8I50XFR/Charley+screen+shot.png Documentary This extraordinary mini doc captures the life of civil rights lawyer/ activist Charles Roach and his activism on immigration in Toronto in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. It was directed by Laurie Townshend for the Akua Benjamin Legacy Project celebrating 50 years of black activism in Toronto. Executive Produced by Alison Duke. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603759011272-CSWX6I3UMLF8WINUBGF9/HFcollageResized+copy.jpg Documentary Many conversations with strangers. 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Laurie Townshend https://www.laurietownshend.com/new-page-1 daily 0.75 2020-10-26 https://www.laurietownshend.com/photography-1 daily 0.75 2021-05-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1604878501043-9WA0IDFA88HDFEXX9XQT/logo_Banner+image_DSCF5487.jpg Photography - sugarcane photo essay As featured in CONTACT PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL 2020 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621312219456-C3ZO0DH2R8LYUHNHEY9R/_DSCF7249_edit_.jpg Photography - harvest photo essay Surviving the rescue a year later https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603764593265-IN0IHEPI6N69M00LWHNT/IMG_7748.jpg Photography https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603764364440-CUWBKXLWPJOLMFD3KGGS/BW-maya+maryam_7780.jpg Photography https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603764390211-61B21KNKGFYWEQYZ46ZY/Preston+BW.jpg Photography 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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603839184315-PIUAM3CKEXVQSALOA1BH/P1011825.JPG Photography https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603839191000-S4B1L345S7SX6FGQDX9N/P1011832.JPG Photography https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1603839205824-7T9FKI5BFM8C505JGF0G/P1011859.JPG Photography https://www.laurietownshend.com/sugarcane-i-photo-essay-2020 daily 0.75 2021-05-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621293324845-WMUTREMKUDB940LFBG1D/Banner+image_DSCF5487.JPG SUGARCANE I Photo Essay (2020) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621293496728-JWEG4AIG43DVBI06YEMS/02_Sugarcane_LT.JPG SUGARCANE I Photo Essay (2020) This is my mom Laurel Yvonne. She’d prefer that you didn’t know her age. She’s never had internet service. She loves watching Ellen’s Game of Games. She sang in her church choir for more than 35 years. She’s diabetic. She was born in Kingston, Jamaica and immigrated to Canada in 1969. She cooks a variety of healthy meals for herself. She prays for an hour every morning. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621293631397-FNPE2QBJ7ME9O4821DEH/04_Sugarcane%29LT.JPG SUGARCANE I Photo Essay (2020) - Make it stand out She administers her own insulin injections twice a day. She knows all her local bank tellers and pharmacists by first name and brings them individually wrapped pieces of Jamaican black cake every Christmas. I think she’s a soprano. I recently had to go into her apartment to set up her new modem and tablet that will help us check in on her. It’s her first touchscreen device. In the 90s she joined a senior’s tour to Scandinavia. Her bagpiper keychain was a gift from a friend. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621293731535-M1TH49KM0M3UBMXSR9KP/06_Sugarcane_LT.JPG SUGARCANE I Photo Essay (2020) - Make it stand out She does not like peanut butter and thinks apples are overrated. Her two surviving siblings live in the U.S. as does her first born with his family. She refuses to throw out or donate her once-coveted 80s wardrobe. She still mends small tears by hand-drawn needle and thread. She hasn’t been on a plane since just before her stroke in the late 90s. Our goal is to video conference once she gets a hang of her tablet. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621293899498-E95GR0IRBNKKYKW5U9VS/08_Sugarcane_LT.jpg SUGARCANE I Photo Essay (2020) - Make it stand out She had a beloved Shih Tzu named Kelsey who we had to put down after 15 years. She loves getting colourful drawings signed “To Nana” from her 11-year-old grandson. She can’t reach her back to apply lotion after a shower. She prides herself on always remembering family members’ birthdays and sending them hand-written cards through the mail. She likes Judge Judy but thinks she can be inappropriately rude to some of the plaintiffs. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621294765021-XP40I2OFNSOJN6MBDKF7/010_EDIT_Sugarcane_LT-2.jpg SUGARCANE I Photo Essay (2020) - Make it stand out Her phone was recently acting up and she was unable to get a hold of me. She panicked and concluded that her “monk-monk” had contracted the coronavirus. Chanaka let her use his phone to call one of my brothers. When I stopped by to drop off groceries, she said that if anything were to happen to me, she would “lose it”. I giggled because I had never heard her use that expression. I really wanted to hug her and tell her that if anything were to happen to her, I would lose it too. Instead, I washed my hands, held my breath behind my facemask and quickly lotioned the dry, chapped skin of her back. Driving home, I exhaled through tears because I knew I shouldn’t have touched her and I’m never sure if prayers work. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621295279607-CLPO4FQLRL8U0VADQQ09/Screen+Shot+2021-05-17+at+7.47.39+PM.png SUGARCANE I Photo Essay (2020) - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621293505202-7402MWNJ0TFSR7IA2LTM/03_Sugarcane_LT.JPG SUGARCANE I Photo Essay (2020) She lives on her own in the condo my brother bought for her in 2005. Her childhood nickname is Vonnie. Her father was a strict pastor. She hates that I’m posting images of her without her hair done (sorry mom!). She has high blood pressure and occasional gout flare ups. She loves doing crossword puzzles and considers dictionary use cheating. She wears a medical alert device that connects her landline phone to emergency personnel. She really likes the head concierge of her building, a kind man named Chanaka. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621293646206-3G6RYWQ7TH7DK8W5NBW1/05_Sugarcane_LT_.JPG SUGARCANE I Photo Essay (2020) - Make it stand out She had a minor stroke back in 1997. On Good Friday. It affected her left side. She did data entry at a major bank for 25 years. She loves cornmeal porridge, weak instant coffee and Jamaica’s national dish of ackee and saltfish. After my tech set-up visit, she prayed, asking that our precautions would keep the virus away. She just started using a top-of -the-line mobility walker. She is the second youngest of seven children. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621293750463-WUDAM1KKFUHOI1ZHCPZY/07_Sugarcane_LT.JPG SUGARCANE I Photo Essay (2020) - Make it stand out She recently opened an email from me successfully. She has the sharpest memory. As a young girl in Jamaica, she yearned to take piano lessons but her father reserved that privilege for her younger brother - the family’s only son. She makes small talk easily with everyone. She loves kids and although it’s more difficult for her now, she always bends down to the eye level of a toddler to say hello. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621294192971-DACS7NBN7L3PPOWM8R28/09_Sugarcane_LT+cropped.jpg SUGARCANE I Photo Essay (2020) - Make it stand out She single-handedly raised me and my two brothers in Toronto public housing. Her stroke blinded her in her left eye. It took a good 5 years before she was ready to put Kelsey’s collar and food bowl into storage. Her email password is an iteration of the nickname she has for me. The first line of her favourite hymn is “Pray when the storm clouds gather overhead”. Yesterday, she successfully logged into Facebook to watch a streamed church service. She worries that I, her youngest, will get sick during this pandemic. She still uses the green felt pincushion my 54-year-old brother made for her in elementary school. https://www.laurietownshend.com/harvest daily 0.75 2021-05-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621312108631-H3QH78XV51UCHAWCJDDO/_DSCF7249_edit_.jpg Harvest 2021 - Surviving the rescue In the aftermath of a different wide-scale health disaster, a harrowing image emerged that, much like the current COVID-19 crisis, defined all that is wrong with a world that prioritizes politics and profit over people. 91-year-old Ethel Freeman’s lifeless body slumped forward in her wheelchair outside a New Orleans convention centre used to house Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Days before, her son had rescued her from the rising waters and brought her to the centre where she was to receive medical assistance. That help never arrived. Ethel died right there in her wheelchair underneath the entrance sign. A year later, a lawyer for the family uttered words that still haunt me, “Let’s not forget, she survived the storm. The storm didn’t get her. She didn’t survive the rescue.” Ethel Freeman didn’t survive the rescue because the rescue presumes robust contingencies, compassionate safeguards, and reliable resources that frankly do not exist for racialized people. Particularly not for those who are old, female, and Black. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621307931098-J26FAFX1ICY5CEEMM5D4/_DSCF7115_EDIT.jpg Harvest 2021 - Touch Because they don’t produce seeds, sugarcane stalks must be laid down by hand in 8-inch trenches. A machete is used to chop the tough cane, allowing new stalks to shoot up at the joints of the smaller pieces. By far one of the most difficult things we’ve all grappled with over the course of the year is a lack of touch. I love that just like the hardy sugarcane stalk, my mom’s thriving depends on human touch. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621299604823-FERMSTU9JHLY19N9YGGB/IMG_3109.JPG Harvest 2021 In November 2019, I took my mom to a physiotherapist to get an assessment and the necessary paperwork completed for Ontario’s Assistive Devices Program. The Ontario government covers 75% of the $500 cost for one of these rolling walkers. As an independent and fairly mobile senior, it was really important that we get her something that would give her the confidence to get around. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621298908167-VSF6TTX9UZ55LKMB5FRS/_DSCF7056.JPG Harvest 2021 - Make it stand out 18 months and a global pandemic later, we visited a physiotherapist again. This time for a little tune up. Over the months, taking care of my ageing mom meant monitoring her activity/inactivity and trying to keep her moving. But it turns out quarantine life made for weekly jaunts to the mailbox and not much else. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621301935696-CPLGUWRAM4YCPZQ3SGF0/_DSCF7063.JPG Harvest 2021 - Make it stand out Our healthcare system has a lot going for it, but there are many hidden cracks that pose major impediments to seniors - in more ways than just their physical mobility. My mom happens to have a pension from the bank that she worked at for 30 years. She is fortunate to have benefits that cover the majority of the costs for physiotherapy. Throughout the pandemic, my two older brothers and I supplemented her grocery, phone, cable, and new internet bills substantially. This is not the reality for many seniors - particularly Indigenous, racialized, and immigrant seniors who according to a recent report, are twice as likely to live in poverty compared to non-racialized seniors (Social Planning Toronto, 2020). Of course poverty is typically compounded by food insecurity, the threat of eviction, and homelessness, physical and mental health decline, and social isolation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621381477082-LUOHDZZ6OU4O9TGT4BD3/_Mom+Christmas+2020_IMG_9552.jpg Harvest 2021 - “Resilience” When I look at my mother and her friends and what they’ve endured over the last 16 months, I can’t help but wonder if they’ve figured out a way to harness the power of the storm while standing within it. It’s a feat worthy of all the reverence and praise we give to Black women. However, we must not allow conversations about their unmatched “resilience” to distract us from interrogating the very conditions for which that resilience is needed. When sugarcane is threatened by disease, folks don’t ask the struggling crop to be more resilient. Measures are taken to assess the soil and eliminate the environmental conditions that led to the problem. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621379463512-4CP04JA7BBST2966BX0B/_Mom_iphone+fail_JPEG+image-750054F66350-1.jpeg Harvest 2021 - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621381440910-EIDLTOHHJXFG5PN7JYW7/_Mom+Bible+Study_EDIT_IMG_4763.jpg Harvest 2021 After the worst of COVID-19 has come and gone, and resources have been redistributed or withdrawn, many will try to go back to business as usual. Business owners will start to rebuild their brands. Line-ups outside of Costco will turn into circulating hoards inside. Restaurants and bars will welcome back their loyal patrons who kept them alive thanks to Uber Eats. People will forget the slowed pace of pandemic life in lockdown. They’ll forget the lessons it taught us about resource-sharing and checking in… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621380194217-O1NBAQKHK3UUJRBVUBPD/_DSCF7180_edit_.jpg Harvest 2021 - Sweet Yield People will also forget that for many seniors, the end of the pandemic will not mean the end of social isolation, food scarcity, precarious housing, health concerns, medication costs. They’ll forget that all of these social determinants of health are tied to race and gender in predictably unfavourable ways. Will the safety nets put in place for the greater population during the pandemic still be there for racialized seniors in the days and months thereafter? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1621381218861-CGNAX4M0DIADUI02UTTL/IMG_8287.jpg Harvest 2021 - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.laurietownshend.com/thatoneteacherreunionpodcast daily 0.75 2025-12-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59b01d63ccc5c51518e72ed7/1ce58e52-1ea0-45da-a412-fca7104eb579/__2025_FINAL_TOT+REUNION+Podcast+COVER+ART.PNG That One Teacher Reunion Podcast - Coming Soon! Listen to the first few episodes now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts