Selling Kensington

Last week he was on Augusta, on the sidewalk between the fruit store and the egg wholesalers which had just closed down. He was selling T-shirts which he had spray painted with the words “Kensington Market”. He was lying underneath the clothing rack, trying unsuccessfully to shade himself from the blazing midday sun.
This week he had moved his merchandise across the street, into The Empire’s Tea and Curios. The store had formerly sold political zines espousing the luddite views of its owner, Michael Rosenberg. The store sign had been spray painted over in black, but was still mostly visible.
Rosenberg was renting him the space, but he preferred to think of it as a showcase for his work. He told me that there were still a lot of materials belonging to Who’s Emma?, an anarchist store that had operated on Nassau.
-It was named after the anarchist, Emma Goldberg.
I told him that her name was Emma Goldman, and that she used to give talks in Toronto.
-Yes, he said, and she died here.
-She lay in state at the Labour Lyceum, where the Bright Pearl Restaurant is today, at the corner of St. Andrew and Spadina.
-What was the Labour Lyceum?
-A centre for Jewish labour unions.
These days, it is the anarchists which are commodifying the Market, selling its image on hand lettered tourist T-shirts. But at least they know their history.