February 2, 2010 Literary Arts

Speaking the same language

New project aims to find out how têtes carrées fit into the city’s geometry

by Madeline Coleman

Anglo artists should feel at home in Montreal. GRAPHIC VIVIEN LEUNG

Forget succeeding in Montreal if your first language ain’t French. Any good Anglo with their head square on their shoulders and even a scrape of ambition knows to follow the money—and that money is in Toronto.

Not so, says Louis Rastelli. The co-founder of Archive Montreal says the group behind Expozine and Distroboto is out to prove that Montreal wants its Anglo inhabitants just as bad as they want to find a way to stay.

This week the non-profit organization launches the inaugural edition of Making It Montreal, a research project and website that will shine the spotlight on English-speaking artists who choose to make Montreal their home and investigate how they did it.

“In the ‘90s one of the myths [about Montreal]—and thank god it’s over now—was that people would yell at you if they heard you speaking English,” says Rastelli. “Part of what we want to show with this project is that there are anglophones that come here and they’re not going to erode culture. They’re here and they’re part of the community.”

Making It Montreal kicks off with a show and roundtable discussion at Le Divan Orange to be followed by the launch of a website, which Archive Montreal hopes will become home to discussion and debate about making it in Montreal en anglais.

Rastelli points out that Montreal’s underground arts scene has always had an inclusive approach to language.

“There was a lot of freaking out [about the 1995 referendum],” he admits, “but I think when it comes to the alternative or independent music and publishing scene, whether it’s English or French, it’s not that big a community anywhere so people kind of collaborate.”

StatsCan’s 2006 figures report that about 18 per cent of Montrealers speak English at home, compared to 70 per cent who speak French.

There’s power in numbers, but maybe not in the way you might expect. One of the bands playing at Making It Montreal’s launch, Lake of Stew, became the poster children for linguistic cross-pollination when they were almost banned from playing at a St-Jean Baptiste Day celebration last summer.

“There was a tiny bunch of people who got this controversy going by resenting an English band playing at the celebration,” Rastelli explains, “but that tiny bunch of people elicited this wave of people from the francophone community who said, ‘Hey, let’s not go back to those days!’ There was this huge visceral response not to go there again.

“It showed that francophones are starting to think of anglophone Montrealers as a unique part of their community,” he continued. “They’re realizing more and more that it isn’t the same as Toronto or American culture. It has its own identity.”

Making it Montreal launches Feb. 4 at 8:30 p.m. at Le Divan Orange (4234 St-Laurent Blvd.). The night begins with a roundtable discussion, followed by performances from Lake of Stew and Tony Ezzy. Free.
The website launches Feb. 4 at makingitmontreal.org.