Heritage Plaza and Gasoline Alley Museum are open year-round, while the Historical Village is open on weekends and holidays only. Click here for hours of operation.
Heritage Plaza and Gasoline Alley Museum are open year-round, while the Historical Village is open on weekends and holidays only. Click here for hours of operation.
This event has passed, but there are other dates / times that haven’t. Click here to view all upcoming dates.
While train passengers of a certain era would have undoubtedly interacted with Black sleeping car porters as part of their Canadian train travel experience, rarely would these passengers have known about the sacrifices porters made for the job or been given access to the private, inner lives of these men who served them. Join Suzette Mayr for this presentation as she discusses the process of uncovering who these men were and the “true” stories at the root of her historical novel The Sleeping Car Porter.
Suzette Mayr is the author of six novels including The Sleeping Car Porter, which won the Giller Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award and the 2023 Governor General’s Award for Fiction. She is also the recipient of the ReLit Award, the W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Award, and the Georges Bugnet Fiction Award. Mayr is a professor at the University of Calgary, and worked at Heritage Park one summer in the 1980s as part of the exhibit cleaning crew.
The Sleeping Car Porter is an award-winning novel by Calgary author Suzette Mayr. The book brings to life an important part of Black history in North America, from the perspective of a queer man living in a culture that renders him invisible in two ways. Affecting, imaginative, and visceral enough that you’ll feel the rocking of the train, The Sleeping Car Porter is a stunning accomplishment.
To access the Railway Orientation Centre, enter the Railway Café and proceed to the room on the right-hand side from the entrance.
Part of a series
1900 Heritage DR. S.W. Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2V 2X3
Email: info@heritagepark.ca
Phone: 403.268.8500
There are plenty of ways to get to the Park, whether that be on foot, via transit, or driving. Click here to find the way that works for you!
