How to get tickets to a live recording of Ian Williams' 2024 CBC Massey Lectures

The CBC Massey Lectures are back this fall, and they may be coming to a city near you.

This year,novelist and poet Ian Williamswants to start a conversation about conversations. He says we need to address how civic and civil discourse has deteriorated.

"On the civic side, we speak to each other as if we have all become two-dimensional profiles, without history, family, or feelings. On the civil side, our leaders speak to us, goad us, with incendiary rhetoric," Williams said.

His 2024 Massey Lectures are calledWhat I Mean to Say: Remaking Conversation In Our Time.

Both serious and playful at the same time, Williams suggests that we need to realize that one-half of our conversations is, in fact, listening.

And aren't the best conversationalists like the best musicians good listeners?

Williams argues our differences, whether it be cultures, perspectives or values can no longer be ignored.

"Silenced people are speaking. Oppressed groups are pressing. Our increased contact with difference is urging us to actively negotiate our relationships to each other and to the space, both physical and ideological, that we share."

Williams is the author ofseven books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. His novel, Reproduction, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He is a professor of English at the University of Toronto, director of the Creative Writing program, and academic advisor for the Massey College William Southam Journalism Fellowship.

In October,Williams will visit five Canadian provinces for live recordings of hisMassey Lectures. The cities are: Sydney, Iqaluit, Saskatoon, Victoriaand Toronto. The series will be broadcast on CBC Radio'sIDEASand be made available as a podcast and onCBCListenin November.

Tickets will be on sale through the theatre box offices starting August 12.

Sydney | Tuesday, October 1

7 p.m.

Highland Arts Theatre
40 Bentinck St.
Sydney, NS
B1P 1G2

(902) 565-3637
info@highlandartstheatre.com

Buy tickets

Iqaluit | Tuesday, October 8

7 p.m.

Inuksuk High School
501 Niaqunngusiariaq
Iqaluit, NU
X0A 0H0

(867) 979-5281

Tickets are free.Reserve here

Also in Iqaluit:

Tuesday, October 8

Writing Workshop led by Jamesie Fournier and Ian Williams

Iqaluit Centennial Library open to the public 10:30am - 12pm

Junk Drawer: Writing from Objects
Where do we find inspiration for stories? In this free creative writing workshop, we'll turn to physical objects in a junk drawer to imagine the lives their owners have led and create a "junk drawer" of ideas to spark future stories and poems.

Register here for free

Thursday, Oct 10

Writing Workshop led by Jamesie Fournier and Ian Williams

Iqaluit Centennial Library open to the public 10:30am - 12pm

Wayfinding: Writing About Place, Time and Memory
What stories do places and place names hold? How can you give directions to a specific time and place? What kind of landscapes exist inside you? In this free creative writing workshop, we'll turn to place, time and memory to generate stories and poems.

Register here for free

Saskatoon | Wednesday, October 16

7 p.m.

Broadway Theatre
715 Broadway Ave
Saskatoon, SK S7N 1B3

(306) 652-6556 ext 2
office@broadwaytheatre.ca

Buy tickets

Victoria | Saturday, October 19

7 p.m.

McPherson Playhouse
3 Centennial Square
Victoria, BC V8W 1P5

250.386.6121
tickets@rmts.bc.ca

Buy tickets

Toronto | Tuesday, October 29

7 p.m.

Koerner Hall
TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning
273 Bloor St W.
Toronto, ON M5S 1V6

416.408.0208
tickets@rcmusic.ca

Buy tickets

The CBC Massey Lectures is a partnership between CBC,House of Anansi PressandMassey Collegeat the University of Toronto, providing a forum where contemporary thinkers can explore important issues of our time.