Jane's Walk

Last weekend was the annual Jane's Walk event. I don't know why I'd never heard of it before, but now that I know about it, it'll be something that I will definitely schedule in each year.
So, for the weekend of May 7th and 8th, there were hundreds of walking tours going on around the city. And not just downtown, but in the suburbs as well. There were historical walks, cultural walks, community walks...the variety was incredible.
As my weekend was pretty booked up with Hot Docs films and other commitments, I only managed to get to one walk this year.
I decided to pick the Graffiti in Toronto walk because the location and time was convenient and I was interested to learn more about graffiti. You see random scrawling on walls when you're a kid, and in adolescence, each time I took the RT, I enjoyed looking at the work between Lawrence East and Kennedy stations.
I wasn't sure how many folks would show up to such a walk. Apparently over 75! I know that some other walks were not well attended, but to show up to my first walk and have this many people also waiting around on a street corner for something official to begin was pretty amazing.
I also didn't really know what kind of person would be interested in these walks. Turns out, everyone! We had tots in strollers and on scooters all the way to more mature folks with canes or in wheelchairs.
Our two hour walk was lead by the folks at Tour Guys and although it wasn't a super in-depth look at graffiti in the city, it was a good introduction. I guess for an event such as this, you can't go too intense. And also with a group this large. The guide wanted the tour to be as interactive as possible, which probably also helped him to gauge the knowledge/interest level of his massive audience.
For me, not really knowing anything about graffiti, it was a perfect tour. I learned about tags, throw-ups and pieces and can even identify a couple artists in the city. Some standouts include Uber5000 (look for yellow birdies having a grand 'ole time! ) and Elicser (of the HUG Me tree fame - FYI, HUG is a crew, not an action...but many people do hug the tree and have stories to share about the tree).
We mainly walked down Graffiti Alley which is just south of Queen Street West, for the most part between Spadina Avenue and Portland Street (but there are sections that span outside of that area). Stopped to look at a couple pieces and discuss basics and issues surrounding graffiti and then continued to walk and just enjoy what surrounded us.
Needless to say, I really enjoyed myself and not only will I pay more attention to the graffiti around the city and sometimes even change my path to see some, but definitely make room for more walking tours in the future!