Arts & Science graduate’s graphic novella illustrates love for Hamilton

“For four years, Hamilton was my playground. This is a story of its stories… Mostly,
this is a story of how I came to fall in love with a place, with its imagination and
creativity, and how I began to see that the spirit of activism lives in stories, our
collective visions of what we can build, the grass through concrete.”

And so begins Where the Concrete Desert Blooms, a self-published graphic novella by
McMaster Arts & Science graduate Tings Chak.

Already in its second printing, the book is a visual journey through Hamilton, featuring
the people and the places that Chak fell in love with during her years living in the city.

With an earnest narrative and engaging illustrations, Chak shares the story of how she
ventured out beyond the borders of campus and Westdale and discovered Hamilton –
a
city, she writes, that “could be so many things, and is so many things.”

Chak began the research for the graphic novel several years ago.

“All I knew was that I wanted to have a reason to meet with people, listen to stories,
and
wander around unfamiliar places, all in the discovery of what makes a space a place,”
she said.

After graduation, during a year spent in Paris, Chak put pen to paper and created
Where
the Concrete Desert Blooms. While she is now studying architecture in Toronto, it is
clear that she harbours great admiration for the city of Hamilton.

“Hamilton is filled with such a diversity of experiences, from the waterfalls to the
industrial waterfront, we span across the socio-economic and cultural spectrum, the
architectural transition from Victorian to Modern to derelict, the suburban to the urban
to the natural environment of Cootes Paradise,” she said. “In this sense, Hamilton is
more abundant and rich than it seems to be. I think that anyone who takes the time to
venture around the city sees this.”

With the respect and affection that she uses to describe the city's people and places,
Chak has penned a loving endorsement of image-challenged Hamilton that can serve
as
a how-to of sorts for McMaster students.

“I think we all strive to connect with the people around us and the spaces we inhabit.
We
want to be an actor in a place, not just a passive bystander who after four years at
University might only know the way to Hess Village,” she said. “I think the best advice I
could give any McMaster student is finding that thing that you like to do, and finding a
way to do it in the city, and if the infrastructure isn't there yet, try to make it happen
creatively.”

Where the Concrete Desert Blooms is the story of how Chak found a way to do just
that.

“There is a tendency for us to think of Hamilton as a place of lacking rather than a
place

of opportunity, but if there's anything I've learned while putting this book together, it's
that Hamilton is a place that is welcoming and generous and will give you the support
that you need once you begin looking for it,” she said. “Living in Toronto now, I can
safely say that this is not the case in every city.”