Rain’s Blog Lotta56Sparks features Friederike Knabe Remembers Lotta Video.
David Rain’s blog Lotta56sparks.ca, is dedicated to the woman who made 56 Sparks Street one of Canada’s most iconic addresses, Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova, C.C. (1909-1990). In his site, Rain a 22 year veteran with Lotta’s Unitarian Service Committee (USC), explores the emotional connections that Lotta made with so many of us, and offers a space for younger folks to learn more about her.
In 2009, more than 50 events were held coast to coast to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr Lotta Hitschmanova (1909-2009). In Ottawa, USC Canada organized a special “Lotta 100” event to honour their founder. Sherry Tompalski and Graham Thompson were on hand and recorded interviews of participants who shared their recollections and stories about Lotta.
As described in Rain’s blog, “Friederike was the Director of Canadian Programs for USC from 1991 to 2001. She travelled frequently across Canada to meet with USC donors and volunteers, and often had the chance to speak directly with people who knew Lotta personally, or who had received a visit from Lotta in their school classroom. In this video, Friederike talks about Lotta’s uniform, her frugality (she wanted all the money donated to go to those in need), the engaging stories she would write during her overseas visits (her “jottings”), her passion to focus on women’s development (years before other aid agencies), and her legendary personal touch with volunteers and donors. Thank you Friederike for these reminiscences, and thank you Sherry and Graham for recording these interviews and for adding to our knowledge about this great Canadian humanitarian.”
The above recording includes a National Research Council Scientist Jim Neelin’s account of the Lotta at the 100 anniversary celebration of Lotta Hitschmanova. In the background of the interview you can see Tompalski’s portraits. Sherry Tompalski’s portraits of Lotta Hitschmanova were painted in 2009.
In the above video, David Rain talks about planning Lotta Hitschmanova’s 100th-anniversary celebration in Ottawa
In the above video, Shirley Cross Remembers Lotta at Lotta Hitschmanova’s 100th Anniversary Celebration in Ottawa.
In the above video, Dr. Susan Walsh spoke at Dr. Lotta Hitschamanova’s 100th anniversary event on November 12, 2009 at Arts Court Theatre in Ottawa Canada.
The above video features Bob Carty’s presentation at Lotta Hitschmanova’s 100th Anniversary Celebration on November 12, 2009 at Arts Court Theatre in Ottawa Canada. Bob Carty is an Ottawa-based documentary radio producer for The Sunday Edition and The Current on CBC Radio One. Prior to entering journalism Bob spent a decade working on human rights and international development in Latin America. In 1981 he joined CBC Radio as a producer (later foreign editor and senior producer) for Sunday Morning. In the late 1980s, Bob and his family spent five years in Central America. His wife, Frances Arbour, worked with internally displaced people in Guatemala and Guatemalan refugees in Mexico while Bob covered military conflicts, human rights, development and ecological issues throughout Latin America for the CBC, The Globe & Mail and National Public Radio. Returning to Canada in 1993, Bob resumed work for the CBC on feature documentaries. Bob’s work has won numerous awards including a Peabody and a Gabriel, several New York International Radio Festival Awards, and multiple investigative journalism prizes.
The above video features Clyde Sanger’s presentation at Lotta Hitschmanova’s 100th Anniversary Celebration on November 12, 2009 at Arts Court Theatre in Ottawa Canada. Clyde Sanger, author of Lotta and the Unitarian Service Committee story, an international journalist, and former Canadian correspondent for The Economist worked for forty years as a journalist in Britain, Africa, and North America. He has served as director of communications with the North-South Institute and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Carleton University.
In the above video, Gatineau Artist / USC Translator, Marie-Jeanne Musiol, speaks at Lotta Hitschmanova’s 100th Anniversary Celebration on November 12, 2009 at Arts Court Theatre in Ottawa Canada. From: http://www.musiol.ca/index-en.php Marie-Jeanne Musiol’s photo installations have evolved from archeological itineraries to journeys exploring the nature of energy. While working in Auschwitz in the 90s, she experienced the limits of photographic representation and began searching for a more direct way to express the felt presence. She now records the luminous imprints of plants in electromagnetic fields. The “energy botany” she is constituting has been the object of several gallery and outdoor exhibitions in Canada, Europe and Asia. Her more recent work probes the light fields surrounding plants to uncover a mirror image of the cosmos enfolded in the light corona. Her presentations of electrophotography in national and international forums speak to the importance of magnetic fields as carriers of information and speculate on the holographic nature of the universe. Marie-Jeanne Musiol lives and works in Gatineau, Quebec.
SHERRY PAINTS 