Creative Pulse: Music, Literature, and Independent Spaces
From iconic venues and precision instruments to award-winning publishers, discover the independent Canadian businesses shaping our cultural landscape.
Prestige Guitars Ltd.
The Prestige Custom Shop represents 20 years of building world-class Custom, Acoustic and Electric Guitars in Vancouver.
Factory Tours are available year-round. Recognizing global reforestation needs, a tree is planted with every purchase of a PRESTIGE guitar. The Heritage Series electrics feature Solid carved Flame, Quilt, Burl and Spalt Maple Tops; while the Eclipse series acoustics feature Solid Spruce, Cedar, Khaya, Rosewood and Koa.
Shaw Percussion
World drums, full service drum repairs and rentals, best source for African djembes to cajons, bodhrans and world percussion instruments in Georgina, Ontario.
Phil Shaw has been a drummer for over 40 years. With a passion for woodworking and drumming, his handcrafted bodhran, ashiko, djembe, and snare drum, as well as other hand drums and percussion instruments, are renowned for their sound and beauty. He designs, constructs and teaches, alongside his wife Wendy and sons Graham and Alex, who are skilled musicians.
Bluesound
This audio company produces an award-winning wireless hi-res sound system that lets you play music anywhere in your home.
Wireless, crisp, Dolby-certified, hi-fidelity audio with App and voice control, connect with Apple and 20 + streaming services. Products include wireless multi-room music streaming Speakers, Sound system, Amplifier, powered subwoofer, and Hard drive CD.
Lee’s Palace
Dance Club and Concert Venue for Indie & Alternative music lovers, near Bathurst Station on Bloor in Toronto.
In-house promotion and production of local, Canadian, and international touring artists and events.
Lee’s Palace and the Dance Cave are available for private rentals, including birthday parties, bachelor parties, corporate parties, book launches, speaking events and other functions.
Gladstone House
Toronto Hotel and engaging, art-filled, eco-friendly, urban experience.
Book a hotel room, plan an event or wedding, or get information on our upcoming opportunities for artists. Ontario’s first hotel to use 100% renewable energy through Bullfrog Power. Guests at the Gladstone get unlimited access to the Hotel’s exhibitions and events.
Fresh Paint Studio & Café
A community art space where kids and adults can feel inspired to create and connect through art.
This Toronto Art Studio supplies the materials so you can relax and unwind in this warm and inviting studio. Roxane Tracey, visual artist and poet, created the Studio as a community space to inspire a love for creating while bringing out each person’s inner artist.
House of Anansi Press Inc.
Focus on publishing works by Canadian authors and outstanding books from other countries.
Specializing in finding and developing Canadian writers of literary fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction, and in maintaining the culturally significant backlist that has accumulated since 1967.
Dennis Lee and David Godfrey founded Anansi as a small press with a mandate to publish Canadian writers. Shop Fiction, Thrillers, Poetry, Children's Books, CBC Massey Lectures, Ebooks, translated French authors and Classics.
A Different Booklist
Toronto Bookstore showcases a diverse selection from major Publishers and Independents.
The literature of the African & Caribbean Diaspora, and the Global South, featuring a deep selection for Children and Young Adults. Browse over 2300 Active Titles, 55 subject categories from Bestsellers, Black Feminist/Gender Titles, Juvenile themes, Pandemic-related and Canadian Authors.
Booksellers.ca
Les libraires is the Québec Cooperative of Independent Bookstores representing independent bookstores in Quebec, the Maritimes, Ontario and Manitoba.
Booksellers.ca is a pan-Canadian one-stop shop that brings together 150 independent booksellers from sea to sea online, fostering accessibility, diversity and the discovery of books by Canadian authors, in both official languages.
Check whether a book is available at your local bookstore, find recommendations or search by topic. Independent bookstores are a place where you can find advice and where back catalogue books often have pride of place.
revue.leslibraires.ca is a French-language literary magazine published by the Québec Cooperative of Independent Bookstores since 1998.