Videos

A Selection of Videos Featuring Montgomery’s Inn

---

Kitchen Concerts at the Inn

Kitchen Concerts at the Inn is a music series celebrating life and honouring the story of Joshua Glover, a freedom seeker who escaped enslavement and jail in the United States and then lived and worked at Montgomery’s Inn.

Toronto History Museums – Kitchen Concerts at the Inn

Chapter I: Freedom Heights (A Song for Joshua Glover)

Chapter I launches with a powerful lyric video for the commissioned new song “Freedom Heights (A song for Joshua Glover),” which reflects on Joshua Glover’s fight for freedom and his will to survive and live as a free man.

“Freedom Heights” speaks directly to his journey and celebrates his spirit, courage and determination. After escaping enslavement and capture in Missouri and Wisconsin, in 1854 he found refuge in Toronto, where the abolitionist movement was prominent at the time. Here Joshua Glover created a new life ― one that was a true testimony to resilience and human dignity. He still inspires us today to fight for life and freedom, not only our own, but for those who need help the most. For Joshua Glover himself wouldn’t have made it to Toronto, if it wasn’t for the extended network of mutual care that was the Underground Railroad.

Toronto History Museums – Kitchen Concerts at the Inn

Mission Sankofa Awakening

(a part of the City of Toronto’s virtual Awakenings program)

Behind the Curtain (2 Videos)

Featuring: Roger Mooking, Shad Kabango & Byron Kent Wong

(a part of the City of Toronto’s virtual Awakenings program)

Behind the Curtain

In conversation with award-winning hip-hop recording artist and broadcaster Shad and producer and multidisciplinary artist Byron Kent Wong, Food Network host, restaurateur, author and award-winning recording artist Roger Mooking reflects on the effects of racism on mental health and shares untold stories of his experiences growing up in the Canadian Prairies and working in the American South. The conversation explores how food, art and music formed his journey. […] Behind the Curtain was filmed at Toronto History Museums’ Montgomery’s Inn.

Toronto History Museums launches virtual Awakenings program

A Tour of Montgomery’s Inn for Albanian Speakers

Një turne në konakun e Montgomery për Folësit Shqiptarë

Pasqyra Shqiptare (starts at 11:25 – Fillon në 11:25)

The Montgomery’s Inn Restoration Won the 2020 Cornerstone Award of the National Trust for Canada

A bustling museum in the suburb of Etobicoke, this historic former inn underwent a major restoration to position it as a hub for generations to come. This project demonstrates how historic museums can adapt to become even more vibrant gathering places in the service of their communities.

The project’s staged construction allowed the museum to continue to operate normally while integrating the restoration work into tours, using it to enhance the Inn’s “discovery” narrative.

While respecting the large historical spaces, the project successfully increased the inn’s spatial transparency, accessibility, and flexibility. Period spaces can now easily be transformed into a gathering place or farmers market, aided by a new lighting system.

Montgomery’s Inn Museum Restoration

“Joshua” — an Opera by Colin Mendez Morris and ArsMusica (6 Videos)

Scenes from an opera based on the life of Joshua Glover, who worked for twenty years for Thomas Montgomery

Joshua Glover was a Missouri slave who sought asylum in Racine Wisconsin in 1854. His former slavemaster came to Wisconsin with federal marshals and had Glover arrested and jailed under the federal Fugitive Slave Act. Abolitionists, led by Sherman Booth, came from all around southeastern Wisconsin, surrounded the jail, broke down its doors, and got Glover safely to Canada.

Once in Canada, Joshua Glover married twice and lived a relatively quiet life as a farmer and labourer. Sherman Booth was arrested for breaking the Fugitive Slave Act and spent many years fighting the federal government in court. Booth went on to become one of the founders of the Republican party with Abraham Lincoln. 

Composer Colin Mendez Morris and ArsMusica are producing an opera based on the life of Joshua Glover. The new opera will bring together music, drama, and a trove of local history.  A 4 scene chamber opera version was performed at  Montgomery’s Inn Museum in October and November 2018.

A full, 3 act version of the opera is planned for fall 2021 involving production partners from Canada, the USA, and the UK.

https://arsmusica.ca/opera

A Sample of “Thirsty Thursdays” Entertainment

(Pre-Pandemic)

Kaeja d’Dance at Montgomery’s Inn (2 Videos)

ReGeneration: Etobicoke Dances 2016

Conceived by Allen Kaeja, further developed by Karen Kaeja

A Kaeja Community Animation Project: Real People Dancing in Real Spaces

ReGeneration: Etobicoke Dances was presented at Montgomery’s Inn in 2016, in community partnership with Montgomery’s Inn, Arts Etobicoke, Lakeshore Arts, The Music Studio, Creative Village, and the Village of Islington BIA, and funded by the Metcalf Foundation and Animating Historic Sites: a partnership between Toronto Arts Council and City of Toronto Museums & Heritage Services.

https://youtu.be/Zi5WuLDBMTI