I'm trying to put together the ultimate list of Christmas/New Years events happening on The Drive, so please drop me a line at srduncan@shaw.ca with all your event information and i'll be happy to put you on the list!
BRITANNIA ART GALLERY PRESENTS: December 2, 2009 to January 2, 2010 Opening Reception: Wednesday, Dec. 2, 6:30 - 8:30 pm Performance by Voices Rising Ensemble @ 7 pm Spirit and Ritual is a group exhibition by Avenue for/des Arts (AVA), celebrating the return of the light.
Featuring artwork by: Famous Empty Sky, Harry Grunsky, Jim Heshedahl, Erin Johnson, Trish Mitchell, Sandra Jane Shaw, Helen Spaxman, Jenn Strom, Eva Waldauf and Katie Varney.
As individuals living in multicultural Canada, where no strict religious doctrines are imposed upon us, it is the task of the individual to seek out and define their spiritual beliefs. We have the opportunity to be exposed to diverse cultures, to draw customs from our own heritage, and to combine or reinvent our own unique rituals from all these influences. Whether we choose to gather for our rituals or perform them in solitude, these age-old practices continue to evolve in contemporary society.
Avenue for/des Arts is a Vancouver-based, non-profit, community arts group that has been presenting art exhibitions, events and workshops for over 25 years.
Sunday Dec.13th from 2 to 4 pm
AVA presents a Free Collage Workshop at Britannia Library, 1661 Napier St., Vancouver, BC:
Create your own 3-fold, free-standing, paper altar. All materials supplied. If desired, participants may
bring laser copies of their own photos or images. Please do not bring photos printed on photo paper.
Workshop is limited to 14 participants. Please register at: trish_mitchell@hotmail.com or
604-251-6910
Britannia Art Gallery
1661 Napier St. (in the library)
Vancouver, BC, V5L 4X4
604.718.5800
www.britanniacentre.org
Hours:
Mon, Thurs, Fri: 8:30 am - 5 pm
Tues/Wed: 8:30 am - 9 pm
Sat: 9:30 am - 5 pm
Sun: 1 - 5pm
The Co(Lab) showing: An Indigenous Crossroads laboratory
The Arrivals Co(Lab) Exchange (Nov 16-22) is a multidisciplinary performance project exploring root cultural practices, ancestral embodiment and intercultural exchanges. Using Commercial Drive-based urban ink’s Personal Legacy Creation process, led by Diane Roberts, Heather Hermant, Danielle Smith and Rose Georgeson- 18 artists of Aboriginal & diverse backgrounds from across the country will plant the first seeds for an exciting new cross-disciplinary performance work. The Co(Lab) will culminate in an invitational showing on November 22nd at 7pm. The Co(Lab) performance outcome will explode with contemporary and historic collisions of language, ancestry, and ceremony. – Join in the post-showing talk back session to piece out the Co(Lab) creation-compounds. Live On The Drive talked to Roberts and co-creators Mayahuel Tecozautla, a transplanted actor, dancer and choreographer from Mexico, now living in Toronto; Gwen Armstrong, a visual artist and nurse from Winnipeg, Chimwemwe Miller, a storyteller, musician, actor and parent, to discuss what the process was like for each of them.
The event takes place November 22, 2009 at 7pm- 112 W. Hastings (W2 Bldg.) Vancouver BC
Art Against Stigma - Art & Artists that Fight Stigma Against Mental Illness - is presented by The Kettle, mental health services & housing. It is an official part of the 13th Annual Eastside Culture Crawl Visual Arts Festival.
There will be 300 exciting pieces of art to view & purchase and a fantastic art raffle supporting the purchase of art supplies for artists living with mental illness.
Showings are Friday, November 20, 5-10pm; Saturday, November 21, 11am-6pm; and Sunday, November 22, 11am-6pm.
The Kettle is at 1725 Venables Street (at Commercial Drive)
"Supporting people living with mental illness to lead healthier lives"
Special Event: Make It! Craft Fair @ Croatian Cultural Centre
WHAT: make it! craft fair
WHEN: Nov 20-22 (Click the banner for times)
WHERE: Croatian Cultural Centre 3250 Commercial Drive, Vancouver BC
HOW MUCH: $5 (Click the banner to get a $2 off coupon)
With 90 vendors participating, this may be a good time to head on down to the Croation Cultural Centre this weekend for some early Christmas shopping! Support the handmade community by visiting some talented Canadian artists. Get there early... the first 30 people get in free each day!
Live On The Drive caught up with Doug Thoms, the director of Pink Floyd's The Wall, and Mark Downey, who plays "Pink" in this live musical playing until the 14th at the Rio.
It’s tough enough to be a teenager, let alone a girl, let alone a teenaged girl in the only Black family in post-war Winnipeg and Nova Scotia! No doubt one would have enough stories to fill a book. Indeed, local writer Addena Sumter-Freitag had enough poems and stories to fill two! Back in the Days – her second collection - recently published through Commercial Drive-based Wattle & Daub Press, brings to life the girls, boys, men and women of the Black communities in Winnipeg and Nova Scotia of the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s adding to the tapestry of memories Sumter-Freitag brought to us with her first book, Stay Black And Die. A 7th generation African Canadian, Sumter-Freitag was born in St. Boniface, grew up in Winnipeg's North End, and has lived all across Canada, before settling here. She was a black child in a white prairie city and a young woman in the ungentle hands of racism and love. As personal as she makes every encounter, the collection helps flesh out the Black experience in Canada for many of us who can barely fathom it. And yet, as I read these stories, I can't help but see myself somewhere in these stories. Probably because Sumter-Frietag's writing reminds me a little of my own prairie childhood and I like that. Deep down – I don't need to be black or female to find something familiar to hang on to. Addena says she challenges ‘form’ in order to bring her stories, characters, and worlds alive, inviting you love them, hate them, identify with them, or wonder at them. “I love to make my audience laugh, and encourage them to cry, whatever the musical and composition of the language compels them to feel,” she claims. RC Weslowski, Poet of Honour at the 2008 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, has this to say about her work: (She) bounces between voices and characters with ease like a honey bee going from flower to flower pollinating our minds with the multiple perspectives of her subjects. Each person feels authentic as she takes on the weight and history of her family and provides them with release through these stories and poems. It’s a trip into the past well worth taking. Wise, wild, woeful and knowing, the writer’s words lift off the page and sweep you with them into worlds hidden, forgotten, repressed and denied. She is a sage tale-spinner who will challenge and confront you, caress and console you. Oh yes, and she’ll make you laugh, too! Her last book, Stay Black & Die, published by Commodore Books, has been included in the English curriculum reading lists at UBC, Emily Carr, Vanier College: Montreal, and Women’s studies, UBC. When she's out making a living, she dreams of the blue oceans, white sands, and reggae music of Jamaica, “a land where she discovered a kaleidoscope of coloured faces who could be kin.” Besides her big and extended family, the stage is Addena’s true love and you can tell by the brightness in her voice and smile that she's a strong character actor. She co-directed Black Theatre West’s production of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” at City Stage here in Vancouver. She has also toured her award-winning play “Stay Black & Die” across Canada as well as at Australia’s Adelaide Fringe Festival, where she performed at each engagement to ‘sold out’ houses. As a storyteller and performance poet, she is a familiar face and voice in Vancouver’s poetry and storytelling community, performing at the Vancouver Storytelling Festival, Vancouver Spoken Word Festival, The World Poetry Reading Series, Vancouver’s Women’s Film Festival. “I live in East Vancouver,” she says, “because I love the swirls of color in the paint of its people, and the music of languages that play in the air. The neighborhood's vibrancy and diversity remind me of Winnipeg's North End, so it feels like home.” She shares a household with her husband Irvin and daughter April. "No dogs, no cats, no fish, and only plants that understand water is a rare treat." We caught up with Addena in her East Van kitchen for this neat little interview and impromptu reading. For more info about the book and this talented writer, check out her website: http://www.addenasumterfreitag.com
I spent some time yesterday perched on a stool at Blendz, attempting a little work and wanting a slight change of scenery from Waves - my usual Commercial Drive branch office. Blendz itself makes decent coffee and the service is always very pleasant, but man, especially on a dull, day like yesterday was, that is a bleak place to people watch. That particular corner is a true hotbed of crime. It is littered with school-aged kids, many with babies, who should be in school. There was even a dealer who had set up shop in the cafe, dealing right in the store! One would think that, after the repeat stabbing incident a couple of weeks back, there would be a stronger police presence looming about, but that didn't seem to be the case. What's with this corner? Perhaps it needs a smudging. Those who remember that corner when there was a billard hall will recall that even then it felt like a troubled place. Although I liked it when that pool hall started selling used books, too. Might have even bought a hot dog there.
Theatre: Pink Floyd The Wall Live Stage Show @ the Rio
Opens Thursday November 5th at The Rio Theatre!
Live Band! Live Singers! Live ACTION!!
Reprising their critically acclaimed production from Boston in 1996, LiveStage has assembled a killer cast of incredible singers and musicians from the Vancouver music scene to create a theatrical masterpiece of rock and roll that's guaranteed to breathe new life into the realm of the theatre, and give audiences a thrilling, one-of-a-kind, multimedia rock show experience!
Shows Times: November 5, 6, 7 and 8 and November 11, 12, 13 and 14 doors @ 7:30 show starts @ 8pm
