By Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
On February 9, author Perry King participated in a book talk about his latest work, Rebound: Sports, Community, and the Inclusive City, at the Central branch of the Burlington Public Library.
The book, King’s literary debut, focuses on how community sports connect with our culture and their role in celebrating diversity and inclusion.
King started writing about sports when he was 18 years old, getting his start at the University of Toronto’s newspaper The Varsity.
King spoke about how his journalism evolved over time.
“It was completely different from what I had initially set out to do,” King said. “You know, you kind of just want to talk about pro sports. But I was met with a moment where I wanted to evolve beyond that.”
“I wanted to produce journalism that was beyond that superficial kind of stuff,” King continued. “It’s not wins and losses, but something that is built out of relationships.”
King said that he wanted to focus on all the ways that sports affect the lives of those who interact with them.
“I also really thought a lot about not necessarily the teams on the court, although there’s a lot of reflection on that, but [more so] people who are watching it, people in the stands,” King said.
“There are really good indications that sports can mean something more. It can be about relationships. It could be about how we relate to one another and how we connect to an idea.”
King said that sports correlate to how well an institution is meeting the needs of its citizens.
He told a story about when a group of students at Toronto’s Valley Park Middle School wanted a cricket ground to illustrate this point.
Go Green, a Toronto Conservation program for schools, worked with the Toronto School District Board to develop the facility.
“It was accomplishing a lot,” King said. “It was getting people to play and getting people interested in cricket, but also really getting them to refocus the educational ecosystem. I couldn’t ignore that these things have importance beyond winning [a game]. I really wanted to show people that there’s something more to it than just what we see, our pure enjoyment.”
King spoke about why he decided to write the book after years of writing journalistically.
“My career was evolving, so I think by the time I was ready to do this, I wanted to honour this part of my life and career and bring light in a more significant way to a beat that has been very rewarding, honestly,” King said.
The publishing of Rebound was delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“That gave me an opportunity to look at it one more time and really think, ‘Okay, so what do people need now,’” King said. “And, you know, I think the genuinely surprising part is that not much has changed.”
King said that Rebound is “archetypal” and that its philosophy can be applied anywhere, not just Toronto, or other urban cities.
“It can be anywhere where people are coming together and trying to figure out how to build a better community,” King said.
King also said that the spirit and power of sports don’t necessarily have to rely on funding and infrastructure to thrive.
“You can find ways to keep it alive and keep things going over time,” King said. “You don’t necessarily have to rely on institutions. The community will always come together and bring ideas forward. I think that’s a special thing.” To find out more about Perry King and Rebound, visit https://perryking.ca/
