The Festival plans pop-up, outdoor Art in the Streets activity of music, poetry, writing, reading, and opera. We’ve invited a number of performers and groups to take part, including: David Gowman and The Legion of Flying Monkeys; DTES Writers Collective; DTES Poets Corner; Carnegie Learning Centre mobile writing workshop; City Opera Vancouver; theatrical clowning with Gerardo Avila; musician Michael Edward Nardachioni; and Brad Muirhead and the Hastings Street Band. COVID protocols are in place.
Possible hosts include Woodwards Atrium; 312 Main, Evelyne Saller Centre and the Downtown Community Health Clinic, as well as random locations in the neighbourhood. Hopefully we’ll find you where you are. Go to Facebook for “day-of” schedules for outdoor Art in the Streets
www.facebook.com/HeartoftheCityFestival
POP-UP ART IN THE STREETS
Thursday October 29, 1pm – 3pm
Friday October 30, 1pm – 3pm
Saturday October 31, 1pm – 3pm
Monday November 2, 1pm – 3pm
Tuesday November 3, 1pm – 3pm
Wednesday November 4, 1pm – 3pm
Thursday November 5, 1pm – 3pm
Friday November 6, 1pm – 3pm
WORKSHOP
Bodhran, with Blake Williams
Tuesday October 27, 6pm – 7pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Learn how to drum Irish style with musician Blake Williams. This online Zoom workshop will explore the roots and sounds of the bodhran – the traditional Irish hand drum. Have your own hand drum? Bring it to the workshop and join in the rhythm. Gain insight into the unique drumming style of the bodhran and explore the shared tradition of drums with the Carnegie Cultural Sharing Group. This workshop anticipates the community celebration Hearts Beat 2020 to be held on Tuesday November 3. Go to Festival website to pre-register via Eventbrite or for viewing details.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
FESTIVAL OPENING CEREMONY
Wednesday October 28, 5:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Join Terry Hunter, Festival Artistic Producer, and invited guests for a re-imagined Opening Ceremony, live streamed on the Festival website. We’re excited to open the Festival, in spite of the challenges this year, and we focus on the Festival theme “This Gives Us Strength”. In this time of multiple crises, we honour those who step up to help the community. Leslie Nelson, Carnegie’s Elder in Residence, and Kat Norris, Festival Elder in Residence, will lead the ceremony’s cultural work.
We pre-recorded two special treats for the Festival opening: lexwst’í:lem Drum Group singing a welcome song; and a conversation between artist Richard Tetrault and Terry about The
Gathering, a powerful and dynamic banner mural painted by Richard in 2015 for the Heart of the City Festival. The conversation will be available on demand on the Festival website after this live stream. Go to Festival website to pre-register via Eventbrite or for viewing details.
Register (to receive email reminders)
SPOKEN WORD
Sandy Cameron Memorial Writing Contest Award Ceremony
Wednesday October 28, 6:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Now in its fifth year, the writing contest was established to honour Sandy Cameron, one of the best-loved writers to publish work in the Carnegie
Newsletter. Sandy consistently contributed essays and poetry, sharing stories of the low income neighbourhood's one hundred year struggle for human rights. The contest also supports local writers and encourages never-before-published writers to submit their work for publication. The free twice-monthly Carnegie Newsletter is available online at www.carnegienewsletter.org.
An exciting and inspiring event, the award ceremony will be live streamed this year, with a few of the award-winning writers reading work they submitted to the contest.
Register (to receive email reminders)
COMMUNITY CELEBRATION
Tribute to Carnegie’s 40th Anniversary with special guest Libby Davies
Wednesday October 28, 7:30pm - 9:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Join us in paying tribute to the most extraordinary community centre in Canada! The opening of the Carnegie in 1980 was a transformative event in the history of the Downtown Eastside. Libby Davies, along with Bruce Eriksen and DERA (Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association), was front and centre in the community-led initiative to establish the Carnegie Community Centre.
The evening’s special guests will gather live on Zoom, along with performances recorded live for the Festival including: the Highs & Lows Choir sings Sandstone Lady, a love song to Carnegie written by Patrick Foley and Earle Peach; Richard Tylman reads his epic poem To the People of the Carnegie Kitchen; the Carnegie Theatre Workshop reads the closing scene of Bob Sarti’s Bruce the Musical; and Libby Davies reads selections from her book Outside In, A Political Memoir and, in conversation with Am Johal, recounts stories of why and how the Centre was established. As Libby says: “Opening day of Carnegie was quite the drama.” Tell us more!
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
WORKSHOP
Libby’s Workshop: Using The Political Structure To Make Change
Thursday October 29, 11am - 12pm
Online, Registration Required
Free, donations appreciated
The Festival is thrilled to present this exceptional opportunity to learn from Libby Davies – writer, activist, community builder, organizer, and longtime Member of Parliament for Vancouver East. Libby says, “Supporting and learning from each other to bring about transformative change means getting beyond the cynical views we are often influenced by, about the world of politics. We know what we want, but how do we navigate the political institutions to get it?" In this interactive Zoom workshop, you will explore the question “what can I do?” and come up with one idea for action. Limited to 15 participants.
Register (required)
OPEN HOUSE
Vancouver Police Museum & Archives
Thursday October 29, 10am - 3pm
Vancouver Police Museum, 2nd Floor, 240 E. Cordova
Free – Also November 5
Check out the Vancouver Police Museum's Healing Waters: Healing Through Culture exhibit, a collection of shared stories from the Pulling Together canoe journeys, in partnership with the Pulling Together Canoe Society and the Heart of the City Festival. One of Vancouver’s most interesting attractions, the Vancouver Police Museum & Archives is located in the former Coroner’s Courtroom and City Analyst Laboratory. Built in 1932, the building is a municipally designated heritage structure and houses an extensive collection relating to the history of the Vancouver Police Department and Vancouver Coroner's Services. For more information: 604-665-3346 or www.vancouverpolicemuseum.ca or check out facebook and twitter! Everyone welcome.
ART IN THE STREETS
Thursday October 29, 1pm - 3pm
Go to Facebook for “day-of” schedules for outdoor Art in the Streets
Free
OPERA
The Art of Water Sleeves 邏鳳鳴粵劇團 / 鳳校雲
Thursday October 29, 2pm – 3:30pm
10墩29휑, 苟敎2時逞3:30時
Live stream online and audience interactive
Free, donations appreciated
Vancouver Cantonese Opera presents The Art of Water Sleeves, a virtual opera party on Zoom with live performance and an interactive water sleeve lesson led by performer Rosa Cheng. As a dynamic stage technique, water sleeves are used to convey emotions using hundreds of moves such as quivering, throwing, wigwagging, and whisking. Bilingual – in English and Cantonese. Go to Festival website to pre-register via Eventbrite or for viewing details.
邏鳳鳴粵劇團藝術總監應國鳳將會刻範櫓國戲혓샘굶묘돨寧種 －彊級세핀넋駕。谿時劒將會롸權흔부瞳소縫製練묘彊級。這個출費돨일驅露돨북소歡頻돛；句寡콘夠瓊멕觀眾隙賞粵劇돨認識뵨興혹。늪亶語뵨粵語網쨌앱會將瞳Zoom舉契,품鞏Heart of the City Festival 網籃繫過 Eventbrite 進契註冊샀꿴였詳細斤口。
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
LIVE REMOTE
Literally Virtually Live, Red Jam Slam
Thursday October 29, 4pm - 6pm
Simulcast CiTR 101.9FM, Co-op Radio 100.5FM Free
It’s a new world and Red Jam Slam is leading us there. Join curator and host Gunargie O’Sullivan for a literally going virtual Red Jam Slam. This is a live radio simulcast with CiTR and with long-time Festival partner Co-op Radio. We’re pleased to announce the line-up: the Indigenous women’s group M'Girl, with hand drum songs and harmonies; Michelle Heyoka, emerging singer/songwriter; special guest Ms Sheltz; Vancouver singer/songwriter Norine Braun; and The Beazers, Bob and Fanny, bring the blues to the Virtual Red Jam Slam.
The Red Jam Slam Society encourages strategies that honour Aboriginal voices and encourages all to participate with continued growth, presence and expression. For full schedule and lineup: facebook.com/redjamslam. Listen on the air – CiTR 101.9FM (www.citr.ca) or Co-op Radio 100.5FM (www.coopradio.org) and be part of the literally virtually live audience.
OPENING RECEPTION
Time-Lapse: Posthumous Conversations
Geoff McMurchy Retrospective
Thursday October 29, 5pm - 8pm
SUM Gallery, #425 – 268 Keefer Free
Exhibition October 29 - December 1
A memorial retrospective of visual art by Geoff McMurchy, a storm force fag who blew open disability art in Canada and whose legacy includes a generation of disabled artists who thrived under his mentorship. Curated by Yuri Arajs, SD Holman and Persimmon Blackbridge in partnership with Kickstart and All Souls at Mountainview Cemetery.
Gallery hours: Tues - Fri: 12pm - 6pm. By appointment only.
MUSIC
An Evening with Dalannah Gail Bowen
Thursday October 29, 7pm - 9pm
Free, donations appreciated
Join us online for this intimate and powerful evening of recorded performances and live conversation with Dalannah Gail Bowen, longtime Downtown Eastside resident, blues matriarch, and Blues Hall of Fame Inductee.
The first set, Looking Back, features Dalannah and her exceptional band – Chris Nordquist (drums), Miles Hill (acoustic stand up bass), Olaf De Shild (electric guitar), David Say (tenor sax), and Michael Creber (keyboard) – performing songs from her recent CD Looking Back. Recorded live at KW Studios.
The second set, Songs & Poems from The Returning Journey, features Dalannah and Michael Creber performing songs and poetry that recount Dalannah’s journey of overcoming abuse, addiction and homelessness to arrive at a place of becoming whole. Recorded live at the Firehall Arts Centre.
The DTES community is very proud of Dalannah, both for her exceptional artistic practice, and for her commitment to activism, social justice and community building. We look forward to sharing a wonderful evening together.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
ART IN THE STREETS
Friday October 30, 1pm - 3pm
Go to Facebook for “day-of” schedules for outdoor Art in the Streets
Free
CONVERSATION
Jenifer Reads Kick-Off Event
October 30, 1:30pm - 2:30pm
Online, Registration Required
Free
Jenifer Reads launches with a conversation facilitated by Jenifer Brousseau about the importance of Anne Frank’s legacy in these times, and what it means to read Anne Frank through an Indigenous lens. Jenifer will lay out the Jenifer Reads virtual residency plans and highlight ways to participate. Join the discussion! For full details on the Jenifer Reads project go to: www.jeniferreads.com. Register
WORKSHOP
Zoom Mechanics For Community Artists with Shifra Cooper
Friday October 30, 2pm - 4pm
Online, Registration Required
Free, donations appreciated
Discover some of the challenges and successes of interactive art and music-making over Zoom. Learn how to navigate controls and settings to support your own online arts activities and facilitation. For information, groundsforgoodness202@gmail.com or www.groundsforgoodness.com. Limited to 20 participants.
A Grounds for Goodness event
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
CULTURAL SHARING
Instruments of Survival, Red Jam Slam
Friday October 30, 4pm - 6pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
On September 10, 2020, Gunargie O’Sullivan and her Red Jam Slam Society presented Instruments of Survival on World Suicide Prevention Day. We shared a wonderful sunny afternoon with talented performers to raise awareness of suicides in the Indigenous community, and to offer uplifting words and spirit in support of troubled youth. Performers included Fraser Valley Drummers, singer and guitarist Nayden Palosaari, flautist Anthony K. McNab, the father and son musical duo Trevor Angus & Blair Angus; with live painting by Smokey D.
This event was video recorded for the Festival by Elwin Xie, and we are proud to now share this video recording with you online.
This event was hosted by NOW Society in partnership with the Heart of the City Festival and was presented live outdoors at 8EAST at Pender and Carrall. The Red Jam Slam Society encourages strategies that honour Aboriginal voices and encourages all to participate with continued growth, presence and expression.
Register (to receive email reminders)
FILM
Survivors Totem Pole (2018, 25 min)
Friday October 30, 7pm - 8:30pm
Free, donations appreciated
Here’s a wonderful opportunity to view the film Survivors Totem Pole and join a live Zoom conversation with carver Skundaal Bernie Williams and filmmaker Susanne Tabata. In 2016, the Survivors Totem Pole was carved by Downtown Eastside resident and activist Skundaal Bernie Williams, then raised at Pigeon Park in a powerful pole raising and potlatch witnessing ceremony attended by Elders, VIPs and over 1,000 residents. This moving film by local filmmaker Susanne Tabata follows the extraordinary community-led journey to create and raise a monument to survivors: a tribute to the enduring inclusivity, strength, resistance and persistence of the Downtown Eastside community.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
MUSIC
Spotlight On The East End
Friday October 30, 8:30pm - 10:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free
Spotlight on the East End is curated by Khari Wendell McClelland, Festival Artist-in-Residence, and features five culturally diverse and exceptionally talented artists and groups connected to the Downtown Eastside: interdisciplinary musician Rup Sidhu; art-folk musician Hannah Walker with friends; musical wizard Son of James Band (Shon Wong); klezmer-punk accordionist Geoff Berner; and soul and gospel musician Khari Wendell McClelland and his band. The Festival is pleased to profile the compelling creativity and strength of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside-involved artists and residents who illuminate the vitality, relevance and resilience of our neighbourhood and its rich traditions, cultural roots and music. Created for the Festival and recorded live and video recorded by Aya Garcia at the Afterlife Studio, formerly the legendary Mushroom Studios.
Register (to receive email reminders)
WORKSHOP
Painting With Water – Marbling With Household Materials
Saturday October 31, 10am - 12pm
Online, Registration Required
Free, donations appreciated
Join WePress Community Art Space on Zoom to learn from artist Dora Prieto the magic of this mesmerizing art technique. Dora will draw upon techniques developed over hundreds of years in many nations, but with a simplified process that requires only household materials. The painting will mimic the flow of water as the artist creates endless colours and intricate forms. Every new piece is both a surprise and an accomplishment, a response that is shared by participants from five year-old kids to professional artists to elders. You will be amazed at the intricacy and natural beauty of your painting. For more information, contact info@wepress.ca. Limited to 10 participants.
Register (required)
CULTURAL SHARING
Manitoba, The Great Spirit Speaks: The Name Already Written In All Hearts
Saturday October 31, 1pm - 2:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
On April 19, 1870, Louis Riel wrote to Father Noël-Joseph Ritchot, his delegate at the transference of the Red River settlement to the Government of Canada: "The name of the country is already written in all hearts, that of Red River ...Choose one of the two names ‘Manitoba’ or ‘North-West.’"
The Heart of the City Festival is honoured to offer an online visit commemorating the founding of Manitoba with: Mitchif (Métis) historian and elder, Jules Chartrand; Terry Hunter, who is connected by family to Thomas Spence, member of Riel's Provisional Government; Mitchif (Métis) choreographer and director of V'ni Dansi, Yvonne Chartrand, and Dr. S.M. Steele, award-winning poet, installation artist, scholar, librettist, storyteller, and author of Li Keur, Riel's Heart of the North (with composers Neil Weisensel and Alex Kustoruk). Also featuring the Louis Riel Métis Dancers with Manitoba fiddler JJ Lavallee and Fagen Furlong on guitar (pre-recorded at the Firehall Arts Centre). Grab a cup of strong tea and get ready to get your Manitoba on!!
Register (to receive email reminders)
ART IN THE STREETS
Saturday October 31, 1pm - 3pm
Go to Facebook for “day-of” schedules for outdoor Art in the Streets
Free
ART TALK
Chinatown, City Opera
Saturday October 31, 4pm - 5:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Come to the virtual backstage as City Opera Vancouver creates its latest opera, CHINATOWN. A story of racism and resistance, family and neighbourhood, set in Vancouver’s Chinatown in 1961 – it is a powerful, daring, and beautiful story. Join librettist Madeleine Thien (Do Not Say We Have Nothing) and composer Alice Ping Yee Ho (The Monkiest King) as they discuss their new work. They are joined by stage director Debi Wong, coach-pianist Roger Parton, and City Opera president Ethel Whitty, who says “We would have held this at Carnegie, but COVID has made that impossible. I hope you will join us online as we discuss the work, take your questions, and hear your ideas.” www.cityoperavancouver.com.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
Showcase
DTES Front & Centre Showcase: All Together Now!
Saturday October 31, 7pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
It’s All Hallows’ Eve! And it’s also time for a big virtual celebration of the talented community performers of the Downtown Eastside in our annual DTES Front & Centre Showcase. It’s a tradition! In this time of uncertainty and self-isolation, the Festival invited a wide variety of local performers to come together to record their stories and songs, and share with the community and the wider world. We’re all together now; this gives us strength!
Enjoy performances from some of our favourite Downtown-Eastside-involved musicians, storytellers, dancers, poets, writers, singers, actors, and spoken word artists, including: Heidi Morgan, Kat Norris, Mike Richter and Michel Vles, Ofelia Figueroa Bejarano, Alfredo Flores and Antu, Pavel Ryslovsky, Dallas with Alwin Benson, Anthony K. McNab, and Larissa Kuypers, Eva Cho, Larissa Healey with John Wolf and Pavlo, Deborah Charlie and Cindy Fedora, Merlin Cosmos, Gilles Cyrenne, Jan Tse, Eva Waterton, Robert Bonner, Henry Doyle, Tarene Thomas, Gunargie O'Sullivan, Stephen Lytton, Priscillia Tait, Highs & Lows Choir, Afro Van Connect, and the Carnegie Jazz Band Alumni Quintet led by Brad Muirhead.
Pre-recorded at the Firehall Arts Centre.
Register (to receive email reminders)
CULTURAL SHARING
Pulling Together Canoe Society Roundtable
Sunday November 1, 11am - 12:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free
Join members of the Pulling Together Canoe Society for a roundtable conversation on Zoom, and a showing of Where the Canoe Takes Us: The Story of Pulling Together, directed by Kryshan Randel. The short film spotlights the 2013 journey, for which over four hundred participants faced one of their most challenging and rewarding voyages yet.
For almost twenty years, police and government public agencies have partnered with First Nations communities with a focus on youth. Together they embark on annual ten-day canoe journeys travelling traditional waterways. The journeys enhance understanding between public service agencies, Indigenous peoples, elders and youth. Presented to honour the inaugural canoe journey of 2001, leading to the twentieth anniversary journey planned for 2021.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
PERFORMANCE
WELCOME TO GROUNDS FOR GOODNESS
Sunday November 1, 1pm - 2:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Join us on Zoom for a sampling of work from two years of Jumblies’ Grounds for Goodness project, to inspire and kick off the Vancouver Downtown Eastside residency. We are delighted to present the world premiere of ‘BESA’, inspired by the history and verbatim text about the rescue of Albanian Jews during WW2 by Albanian Muslim people. Composed for Zoom by Martin van de Ven, with singers Lisette Cogdell, Shifra Cooper, Natalie Fasheh, Hussein Janmohamed, Risa de Rege, Sam Rowlandson-O’Hara, choreographer Michelle Silagy and other artists and performers.
The event will also include a work-in-progress by composer Arie Veheul van de Ven, with The Gather Round Singers community choir conducted by Shifra Cooper, with choreographer Kevin Ormsby and ASL Poet Tamyka Bullen; and glimpses of other aspects of Grounds for Goodness in other locations. Olivia C. Davies will be the host, and there will be a traditional welcome and opening story by S7aplek (Bob Baker) of the Squamish Nation.
For information contact groundsforgoodness202@gmail.com or www.groundsforgoodness.com.
A Grounds for Goodness event
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
CELEBRATION
Day of the Dead Altar
Sunday November 1, 2pm - 5pm
Listening Post, 382 Main
Free
Join “Lady Di” outside the Listening Post on Sunday afternoon where we will create a sidewalk community altar. People passing by are invited to light a candle to honour their dead loved ones. COVID protocols in place; we encourage contributors to care for each other by wearing face masks.
The tradition of the Day of the Dead can be traced back to the pre-Conquest Aztecs and is a holiday celebrated annually by many in Latin America. The belief is that at this time of year the souls of our loved ones who have passed return to visit us. Families honour their ancestors by creating altars and make offerings of their favourite food, alcohol, tobacco and sugar skulls. Decorations of yellow marigolds and harvest vegetables can symbolize death, and candles are lit to welcome the souls of the dead. Hasta la vista.
CULTURAL SHARING
AFTERNOON WITH ELDERS IN RESIDENCE
Sunday November 1, 3pm - 4:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Join Nicole Bird, Carnegie’s Indigenous Program Coordinator, for a special live streaming version of Carnegie’s Elder Chat with Leslie Nelson, Carnegie Community Centre Elder in Residence.The Heart of the City Festival Elder in Residence, Kat Norris, joins Les and Nicole to explore an answer to the question “what is an Elder?” Kat and Les will share what that means with songs and stories of their experiences about the crucial role that Elders traditionally hold in supporting formal and informal education in urban settings and First Nations communities. This is certain to be an informative and engaging afternoon.
Register (to receive email reminders)
MUSIC
Show on Earth: Wallace Line with Gamelan Turtle Bliss
Sunday November 1, 7pm - 8pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Watch Vancouver’s Gamelan Turtle Bliss with a performance live streamed from KW Studio.
At the heart of Show on Earth: Wallace Line is the Balinese gamelan gender wayang – a metallophone quartet which accompanies the shadowplay or ‘wayang’. Vancouver’s Gamelan Turtle Bliss will accompany the shadow journey backwards into ‘deep time’ to offer a new perspective on the challenging ‘present’. Music composed by member Michael O’Neill. Gamelan Turtle Bliss is Michael, Ann Hepper, I Putu Gede Sukaryana, Wendy Chen, Laura Crow, Mark Parlett, and David Prentice. With special guests Meredith Bates, violin and viola, and Finn Manniche, cello.
British naturalist and explorer Alfred Russel Wallace is known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection. Wallace had his ‘eureka’ moment while in a malaria-induced delirium on Ternate, an Indonesian island near the ‘Wallace Line’ (a place where two of Earth’s tectonic plates meet). In our narrative, Wallace’s delirious state will open the door to raucous and rambling imagery and events of evolution (in reverse timeline) co-mingling with his own consciousness and memory.
Register (to receive email reminders)
WORKSHOP READING
BEYOND
Monday November 2, 11am – 1pm PT
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Imagin’Nation Collective returns to the festival with new work in development. In response to the continuing Indigenous teen suicide crisis, writer Jenifer Brousseau is developing the screenplay Beyond, the story of a bullied and suicidal teenager who is thrown on an unexpected vision quest when she is catapulted into a world beyond her imagination. Join Jenifer on Zoom for a conversation about the project and a viewing of the screenplay-in-development, filmed by director Sarah Kelley and videographer Patrick Wakefield, read by a cast including Jules Koostachin, Solla Hill, Olivia Lucas, Mitchell Saddleback, and Morgan Whitehead.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
ART IN THE STREETS
Monday November 2, 1pm - 3pm
Go to Facebook for “day-of” schedules
for outdoor Art in the Streets
www.facebook.com/HeartoftheCityFestival
Free
RADIO
WHEN SPIRIT WHISPERS on CO-OP RADIO
Monday November 2, 1pm - 2:30pm
Live Broadcast Co-Op Radio CFRO 100.5FM
In the landscape of reconciliation, host Gunargie O’Sullivan focuses on the current relationship between Canada and First Nations in urban Vancouver. Gunargie has been dedicated to community and campus radio since 1989. She loves to chat up a storm, and produce, produce, produce. For today’s program Gunargie will talk with guests about the 60s scoop, the practice of “scooping” Indigenous children from their homes and families, for placement in foster homes or adoption.
MUSIC
BELL RINGING
Monday November 2, 2pm
St. James' Anglican Church, 303 E. Cordova Free
At 2pm come to the corner of Gore and E. Cordova, or stop outdoors in the surrounding neighbourhood and listen for the ringing of the bells from St. James’ Anglican Church. This is a special presentation by St. James’ for the Festival and for the beginning of the Oppenheimer Park Day of the Dead Celebration. “The bells at St. James”, with a full octave range, were cast in 1937 in Loughborough, England. Of the eight bells, the tenor bell, which weighs two tons, bears the inscription, “Sound, sound the glorious Gospel, to the praise of God, and to the honour of all whose words and deeds have proclaimed it in these parts, 1881-1936’’, and so continues sounding to this day. This is the bell that’s heard tolling, while all the bells together play for special occasions.
CELEBRATION
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS OFRENDA / DAY OF THE DEAD ALTAR
Monday November 2, 2pm - 4pm
Oppenheimer Park, 488 Powell
Free
Help us create a community ofrenda at Oppenheimer Park to remember our friends and loved ones who have departed.
Submit a photo or an art piece to be displayed on the altar:
• Email a photo of your art piece to lily.cheung@vancouver.ca by 4pm, October 24
• Or, bring in your art piece to Carnegie Centre coffee table between October 21 and 24, 2pm-4pm. Originals can be photocopied.
Day of the Dead is a holiday celebrated every year in many Latin American countries, honouring and remembering loved ones who have passed. To celebrate, families build altars called ofrendas, with collections of food, decorations and offerings placed on display during the celebration. In partnership with WATARI and Oppenheimer Park Staff. Join us on November 2 to check out the installation.
THEATRE
SCRIPTING ALOUD
Monday November 2, 6pm - 8pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Have a script you want to hear read aloud? Want to work your performance skills through reading scripts cold? Interested in experiencing a creative vibe that’s welcoming and cross-cultural? Scripting Aloud is for you. We’re a not-for-profit public cold-read script development platform and live staged reading event that helps develop original short- and long-form scripts for multiple channels and platforms — focusing on cross-cultural content, writers, and performers. Produced by Pan Asian Staged Reading Society and its script development platform Scripting Aloud. Scriptingaloud.ca.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
THEATRE
we the same
Monday November 2, 8pm
Free, donations appreciated
The Festival invites you to watch a recorded reading of scenes and music from we the same, a new play by Sangeeta Wylie, with guest speakers between scenes. Produced by Ruby Slippers Theatre, we the same is inspired by the true story of a mother with six young children separated from their father. Fleeing Vietnam in 1979, the mother and her children endured pirate attacks, typhoons, shipwreck, starvation and more. After over forty years of secrets, is reconciliation possible between a mother and her daughter? Directed by Diane Brown, with actors Evelyn Chew, Chris Lam, Brandy Le, Grace Le, Khaira Ledeyo, Elizabeth Tai, Vietnamese danh tranh music by Vi An Diep and speakers Stella Nhung Davis (Lac Viet Radio Program) and Mohammed Alsaleh (refugee advocate). For ages 18 and up. Pre-recorded at the Firehall Arts Centre. Following the reading, there will be a live Q&A on Zoom.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
CULTURAL SHARING
Hearts Beat 2020
Tuesday November 3, 11am – 2pm (7pm – 10pm GST)
Carnegie Community Centre, 401 Main Street
In person & Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Listen to and feel the Hearts Beat, a musical exploration of the shared traditions of drums, dance and song between Indigenous and Irish cultures.
Join us in person for a free meal and watch the event on the big screen at the Carnegie Community Centre outdoor patio, or join us virtually to watch live stream or pre-recorded performances with: lexwst’í:lem drum group; Ceol Abu Irish musicians; Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, a multi award-winning traditional singer and musician; traditional dancing and drums with Larissa Healey and John Sam; and the De Dannan Irish dancers. Listen to storytellers Joseph Dandurand, from Vancouver, and Billy Mag Fhloinn, from Ireland, who will join us live online.
The afternoon of entertainment promises to foster intercultural learning, spark new connections, and inspire our hearts and minds. Coming together to share the drumming and songs, dancing and stories gives us strength, whether in person or online. Hearts
Beat is proud to be part of the 17th Annual Heart of the City Festival and is a collaboration between the Carnegie Community Centre Cultural Sharing Program, the UBC Learning Exchange, the Irish Consulate, and Carnegie Community Centre Association.
For information on the day, please call the UBC Learning Exchange front desk at 604-827-2777. In the meantime if you have any questions contact Suzie at suzie.oshea@ubc.ca.
Register (to receive email reminders)
ART TALK
MY ART IS ACTIVISM, PART II
Tuesday November 3, 3pm - 4:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Long time DTES documentarian/organizer Sid Chow Tan shares from his archive of volunteer-produced video journalism. Sid’s choices of videos will highlight Chinese Canadian social movements and direct action in Chinatown, particularly redress for the Chinese head tax and exclusion. Full videos and excerpts include: Jim Wong-Chu interview (1987) and poetry reading (2014); Redress at Chinese Cultural Centre (1988); Fight for the Soul of Chinatown (1991); Gim Wong the Song (2005), and more. Thanks to community television volunteers and staff who made possible the production, broadcast and archive of these videos. Sid also thanks the Downtown Eastside Small Arts Grant and Heart of the City Festival for their support. Webinar followed by Q&A with Sid.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
ART IN THE STREETS
Tuesday November 3, 1pm - 3pm
Go to Facebook for “day-of” schedules for outdoor Art in the Streets
Free
RADIO
GOING INDIGENOUS WITH MISS GVS on CO-OP RADIO
Tuesday November 3, 1pm - 2:30pm
Live Broadcast Co-Op Radio CFRO 100.5FM
Hosted by Gunargie O’Sullivan, this new program Going Indigenous with Miss GVS is an exploration of Indigenous art and language in the Downtown Eastside. For the fourth of her radio programs for this year’s Heart of the City Festival, Gunargie will go live from the DTES and talk to people and artists who live and work on the streets in the neighbourhood about what gives them strength.
PANEL
JENIFER READS: ANNE FRANK’S STORY, TODAY
November 3, 1:30pm - 2:30pm
Online, Registration Required Free
A special panel discussion hosted by Dutch Vancouver theatre artist Thule van den Dam, with Jenifer Brousseau, and a representative from Amsterdam’s Anne Frank Huis, who are engaged with bringing Anne Frank’s story, and that of the Holocaust more broadly, to diverse people across the world. Co-presented by the SFU Institute for the Humanities.
For full details on the Jenifer Reads project go to: www.jeniferreads.com. Register
MUSIC
East End Blues with Roundtable
Tuesday November 3, 7pm - 9:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
East End Blues & All That Jazz is a soul-stirring evening of gospel and blues, jazz and memories: a celebration of the life and contributions of Vancouver’s East End historic Black residential community and the legendary Gibson family. This video presentation, filmed at the Firehall Arts Centre in 2018, is followed by a thirty minute conversation on Zoom moderated by Khari Wendell McClelland. Singers from the cast will chat about East End Blues, its importance for them, and its importance in today’s world.
East End Blues is inspired by memories shared by the Gibson family, former residents and colleagues; by songs that were sung in this neighbourhood’s Fountain Chapel, in homes and at night clubs like the Harlem Nocturne and Mandarin Gardens; by oral histories gathered by Denis Simpson and Savannah Walling; and by those collected in the extraordinary cultural treasure Opening Doors: Vancouver’s East End, compiled and edited by residents Daphne Marlatt and Carole Itter.
Written by the late Denis Simpson and Savannah Walling, East End Blues features a stellar team of artists: Candus Churchill and Tom Pickett, two of Vancouver’s finest gospel and blues singers; talented singer Khari Wendell McClelland (emcee); musical director Bill Costin (piano) and Tim Stacey (bass). Special guests are DTES resident Dalannah Gail Bowen (Blues Hall of Fame), and East-end born local legend Thelma Gibson.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
VIDEO & DISCUSSION
6th Symposium On Reconciliation And Redress In The Arts: Part 1
Wednesday November 4, 11am - 1pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Part 1 – Coast Salish Cultural Sovereignty
We kick off this year's symposium by watching and discussing one of the highlight panels from last year's symposium, with Ronnie Dean Harris, Cease Wyss, Brandon Gabriel, and Tasha Faye Evans, facilitated by Irwin Oostindie. This Part 1 event features an 80 minute video and 40 min discussion on Zoom, to set the stage for Part 2 Presence on the Land on Friday November 6. The symposium series provides a unique professional development approach to our roles as cultural workers on these unceded lands and the implications for settlers and migrants, our organizations, and our city. Co-presented by the SFU Institute for the Humanities and Voor Urban Labs.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
ART IN THE STREETS
Wednesday November 4, 1pm - 3pm
Go to Facebook for “day-of” schedules for outdoor Art in the Streets
Free
WORKSHOP
WePress: Introduction To Beading
Wednesday November 4, 2pm - 3:30pm
Online, Registration Required
Free, donations appreciated
Join beader and artist Haisla Collins in a Zoom workshop, hosted by WePress Community Art Space. Haisla will guide workshop participants in making star and flower shaped beaded earrings. If you sign up by Wed Oct 21, WePress will mail you a beading kit (including different beads, needles, thread, ear wires, instructions, and larger sized beads for those who need them). We hope you can join. For more information, contact WePress at info@wepress.ca. Limited to 10 participants.
Register (required)
WORKSHOP
IN GOOD HANDS with Ruth Howard, Martin van de Ven, Olivia C. Davies
Wednesday November 4, 4pm - 6pm
Online, Registration Required
Free, donations appreciated
Looking for a fun engaging workshop in which to take part? Join this virtual workshop on Zoom, facilitated by Ruth Howard and musician Martin van de Ven of Toronto-based Jumblies, and Vancouver’s Olivia C. Davies. Listen to and tell stories about times that people or groups of people have acted to help, shelter, protect or rescue others. Enjoy a gentle rapid creation process, combining words, objects, gestures and music. Contribute to the national Grounds for Goodness project unfolding in different locations across the country, including the Downtown Eastside. For information, groundsforgoodness202@gmail.com or www.groundsforgoodness.com. Limited to 20 participants.
A Grounds for Goodness event
Register (required)
STORYTELLING
Life Lessons From A Cycle Across A Continent
Wednesday November 4, 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Join Suzie O’Shea on Zoom for a visual storytelling about the ups and downs, twists and turns of a 7,500 km road trip home in When the Body Says Go: Life Lessons from a Cycle across a Continent. In the summer of 2018 Suzie cycled across Canada. Passionate about mental health, she raised funds for the Canadian Mental Health Association Vancouver/Fraser branch and has been sharing openly about her experiences of this journey of endurance that would ultimately give her strength. Suzie works in the community at the UBC Learning Exchange. This session will be live streamed to the Carnegie Community Centre.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
MULTIMEDIA
Climate Shadow Series: Midnight Mirror & Mo’s Closet
Wednesday November 4, 7:30pm - 8:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
The Festival is excited to feature two programming streams of audiovisual storytelling with Art Action Earwig’s Po-tent City. One is the Climate Shadow Series and the other is the Home Squat Home Mobile App (available On Demand on the Festival website).
The Climate Shadow Series is two 15 minute sister-shows, Midnight Mirror and Mo’s Closet, live streaming from KW Studios. The shows explore the urgency of climate crises deeply entangled with everyday human activities in the globally industrialized world: buying clothing, consuming food, and dreaming the future. The artists approach their work with poetics and humour, and bring past, present, and future together onto a shadow screen for an audience to ponder a bigger picture of ecological time. The sister tales weave through shifting landscapes with parodies of folktales, science, and popular cultures like karaoke. Followed by Q&A with the performers.
Register (to receive email reminders)
CULTURAL SHARING
In The Beginning: Over the Mountains
Wednesday November 4, 7:30pm
Firehall Arts Centre, 280 E. Cordova
$20 (incl. s/c & GST)
Also November 5, 6 & 7
Tickets at door or advance sales: 604-689-9926
boxoffice@firehallartscentre.ca or www.firehallartcentre.ca
Doors open ½ hour prior to start of performance
OPEN HOUSE
Vancouver Police Museum & Archives
Thursday November 5, 10am - 3pm
Vancouver Police Museum, 2nd Floor, 240 E. Cordova
Free Also October 29
Check out the Vancouver Police Museum's Healing Waters: Healing Through Culture exhibit, a collection of shared stories from the Pulling Together canoe journeys, in partnership with the Pulling Together Canoe Society and the Heart of the City Festival. One of Vancouver’s most interesting attractions, the Vancouver Police Museum & Archives is located in the former Coroner’s Courtroom and City Analyst Laboratory. Built in 1932, the building is a municipally designated heritage structure and houses an extensive collection relating to the history of the Vancouver Police Department and Vancouver Coroner's Services. For more information: 604-665-3346 or www.vancouverpolicemuseum.ca or check out facebook and twitter! Everyone welcome.
CIRCLE CONVERSATION
Talking Truths: Matriarchs Uprising
Thursday November 5, 10am - 11:30am
Online, Registration Required
Free, donations appreciated
As creators, we are constantly in dynamic exchange with the forces of social structures that can help or hinder our creative expression. Join O.Dela Arts, Artistic Director Olivia C. Davies in circle conversation with four other tour-de-force female artists including Dalannah Gail Bowen along with Diane Roberts, Rosemary A. Georgeson, and Savannah Walling as they discuss ways they have confronted and overcome adversity in the arts, and changed the way we look at the world around us by incorporating matriarchal values and right relations agreements into the work. The circle conversation is on Zoom, followed by an interactive Q&A. For further information contact info@oliviacdavies.ca before Nov. 4. Limited to 100 people.
A Grounds for Goodness event
Register (required)
ART IN THE STREETS
Thursday November 5, 1pm - 3pm
Go to Facebook for “day-of” schedules for outdoor Art in the Streets
Free
THEATRE
Digital Fracture: Voices
Thursday November 5, 1pm - 2:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in.
– Leonard Cohen
The Heart of the City Festival is pleased to present Theatre Terrific’s new play Digital Fracture: Voices, recorded live at this year’s Fringe Festival. Following the viewing, director Susanna Uchatius will join us for a Q&A on Zoom. What is our universal language at this time of COVID? How are we a part of mother earth and what is our responsibility to mother earth and to each other? Through gesture, recorded audio, and visual media, Digital Fracture: Voices asks us to transition into a deeper self-awareness and connection. The all-inclusive cast of 14 actors safely connect with courage, strength and power, and challenge the audience to safely connect through the universal language of music.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
WORKSHOP
Survival Tactics for Artists in the Age Of Covid
Thursday November 5, 3pm - 4:30pm
Online, Registration Required
Free, donations appreciated
Join Festival Artist in Residence Khari Wendell McClelland (Sojourners/Freedom Singer) in this Zoom interactive workshop that will use experiential and arts-based learning to explore ways for artists to survive, and thrive, during this time of COVID restrictions. Khari is a highly accomplished and nationally recognized musician, singer, composer, writer and workshop facilitator. Limited to 25 people.
Register (required)
RADIO
Kla How Ya on CO-OP Radio
Thursday November 5, 5pm - 6pm
Live Broadcast Co-Op Radio CFRO 100.5FM
Kla How Ya host Gunargie O’Sullivan invites CCAP coordinator Fiona York to moderate a panel discussion on Housing, Homelessness and SROs. Panelists include guests from TORO (Tenant Overdose Response Organizers Project), from SRO Collaborative, and guests who are homeless or who have settled into an SRO. Homelessness is one of the main concerns and challenges in our community; this is a chance to hear what people directly involved or affected have to say about possible solutions.
FILM
Magic On The Water (2007, 48 minutes)
Thursday November 5, 5:30pm - 6:30pm
View film in the Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free
Magic on the Water is a one-hour feature documentary, directed by Tracey Kim Bonneau and produced by Straight Arrow Productions. Renae Morriseau will introduce today’s screening. The film follows the journey of a one hundred year old canoe that culminates in the return of salmon to Okanagan shores, nestled in the interior of British Columbia, and captures the vibrant art, history and oral traditions of the Okanagan first peoples. Up until a century ago, the Syilx Nation exclusively inhabited the beaches and lands of the Okanagan valley. Magic on the Water is a cinematic experience that captures the sounds and colours of the vivid landscapes. COVID protocols in place, audience limited to 8.
FILM
Yellow Peril: Queer Destiny (2019, 20 minutes)
Thursday November 5, 7pm - 8pm
Online, Registration Available
Free / donations appreciated
View the film, Yellow Peril: Queer Destiny, followed by live Q&A on Zoom with co-directors David Ng, Jen Sungshine, and Kendell Yan (Maiden China). Produced by Love Intersections, Yellow Peril: Queer Destiny is an experimental short documentary that follows drag artist Maiden China as she explores nuances of queer, Chinese, diasporic culture and identity. The film continues to be relevant to the world’s current situation – to quote David Ng – "What COVID-19 has revealed is that in times of desperation and scarcity, the nation-state requires scapegoats. We’re seeing this unfold in xenophobic violence, and I’m interested in how we can use arts to transform our (queer, Asian) futures. I don’t want to “return to normal,” because normal wasn’t working."
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
CULTURAL SHARING
In The Beginning: From the Waters
Thursday November 5, 7:30pm
Firehall Arts Centre, 280 E. Cordova
$20 (incl. s/c & GST)
also on November 4, 6 & 7
Tickets at door or advance sales: 604-689-9926
boxoffice@firehallartscentre.ca or www.firehallartcentre.ca
Doors open ½ hour prior to start of performance
PANEL
6th Annual Symposium On Reconciliation And Redress In The Arts: Part 2
Friday November 6, 11am - 1pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Part 2 Presence on the Land
Cease Wyss and Irwin Oostindie host this online panel with Kamala Todd (SFU Urban Studies) and small group discussions exploring decolonizing settler cultural policy in Vancouver (this event continues the discussions from Part 1, Wednesday November 4). While addressing the role of place-based redress, we will examine case studies to place the face of local Indigenous Peoples on the land through decolonizing arts policy. The symposium series provides a unique professional development approach to our roles as cultural workers on these unceded lands and the implications for settlers and migrants, our organizations, and our city. Co-presented by the SFU Institute for the Humanities and Voor Urban Labs.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
ART IN THE STREETS
Friday November 6, 1pm - 3pm
Go to Facebook for “day-of” schedules for outdoor Art in the Streets
Free
PANEL
Jenifer Reads: Re-Thinking Narratives Of War & Memory
Friday November 6, 1:30pm - 2:30pm
Online, Registration Required Free
Jenifer Brousseau, Irwin Oostindie, and Thule van den Dam are joined by Samir Gandesha (Director, SFU Institute for the Humanities) for an online discussion to consider the way stories have been told and re-told about World War II. Who gets to tell these stories? Who is included? Who is erased? Can we forget by remembering? For full details on the Jenifer Reads project go to: www.jeniferreads.com. Register.
OPEN HOUSE
Performance And Conversation
Friday November 6, 2pm - 5pm
Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, 639 Hornby Free
Visit the Bill Reid Gallery to explore a special exhibition celebrating Bill Reid’s 100th birthday, and inspirational work by other Northwest Coast artists:
2:30pm Enjoy a performance of songs and stories by the Carnegie Centre Cultural Sharing Group and lexwst’í:lem Drum Group.
3:30pm Engage in a discussion of the themes in our new exhibition, Resurgence: Indigiqueer Identity with curator Jordana Luggi.
Limited to 10 participants. The talk will also be live streamed at www.billreidgallery.ca. The Gallery thanks their Community Access Partner YVR for their continued support.
CEREMONY
Honouring DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE Warriors
Friday November 6, 3pm - 5:30pm
CRAB Park, North end of Main Street
Free
There are those who do their jobs, and there are those who go above and beyond. This ceremony is to honour those Downtown Eastside Warriors who have worked tirelessly in the Downtown Eastside and CRAB Park. It's time to celebrate those who lift up the community by using their strong spirits to do what needs to be done for those who need it the most. Today’s ceremony acknowledges those who are taking time out of their lives in order to dedicate their energies unconditionally, for the betterment of the community. As part of the ceremony, each will be asked to bring a next generation warrior with whom they work, to symbolically hand down the knowledge and dedication they carry. Presented in partnership with Vines Art Festival, organized with Heart of the City Festival Elder in Residence - Kat Norris. COVID protocols will be in place.
BOOK LAUNCH
Continuum with DTES Writers Collective
Friday November 6, 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Lost & Found Cafe, 33 W. Hastings
In person, Registration Required
Free, donations appreciated
The Downtown Eastside Writers Collective invites you to attend the live launch of a new book, Continuum, their first anthology, hot off the press just in time for this year’s Heart of the City Festival. The Group of Downtown Eastside writers, a continuation of Thursdays Writing Collective, have been meeting for the last year and a half, during which time they created the new collection. They write from the heart for our community. Hope to see you at the launch! Limited audience capacity, registration required. The event will also be live streamed.
Register (required)
PERFORMANCE
Illicit in Space
Friday, November 6, 8pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
The Downtown Eastside shadow theatre ensemble Illicit presents a pre-recorded presentation of an original, satirical workshop performance, Illicit in Space! Members of the DTES navigate their way into space from our scorched, withered and post COVID-19 future planet to the soon-to-be-colonized planet Mars. The rebel crew face issues such as colonialism, racism, political and social in-fighting, drug policy, gender identity, capitalism, sex work and a safe supply in the new world.
Illicit in Space is written and produced by David Mendes and Oona Krieg. Co-written by Nicolas Crier, Jenny Hawkinson, Mariah Main, Jim Mcleod and Matt Kennedy. Directed by David Mendes. Illicit is a community-engaged arts-based research project dedicated to the rights of people who use illicit drugs.
Register (to receive email reminders)
CULTURAL SHARING
In The Beginning: Musqueam
Friday November 6, 8pm
Firehall Arts Centre, 280 E. Cordova
$20 (incl. s/c & GST)
Also on November 4, 5 & 7
Tickets at door or advance sales: 604-689-9926
boxoffice@firehallartscentre.ca or www.firehallartcentre.ca
Doors open ½ hour prior to start of performance
VIRTUAL WALK
Chinatown Walkabout With The Three Amigos
Saturday November 7, 10am - 11:30am
Online, Registration Required
Free, donations appreciated
The Festival is excited to present a virtual Chinatown walkabout on Zoom with the powerhouse trio of John Atkin, Bob Sung and Hayne Wai. John is a civic historian and heritage consultant, Bob hosts cultural and culinary tours of Chinatown, and Hayne is a long time Chinatown researcher and advocate. They are all past presidents of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC and collectively have over one hundred years of involvement in Chinatown. Although each have presented live walking tours, this will be their first shared virtual tour: framed around the Vancouver Heritage Foundation Chinatown Guide. Advance reading of the guide is recommended. www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/VHF-Chinatown-Map-Guide-FINAL-web-res.pdf. Register early, limited to 30 participants.
Register (required)
CONVERSATION
This Gives Us Strength: From The Land To Online
Saturday November 7, 12:30pm - 2pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Local skill holders working with EartHand Gleaners Society discuss how they have adapted their lifestyles and teaching methods from being on the land to being online. What have been the challenges, the surprises? Join on Zoom to view a pre-recorded conversation between Janey Chang, Sara Ross, Lori Snyder, CZarina den oden Lobo and Amy Walker, moderated by Sharon Kallis. These artists and teachers talk about changes in their practice of sharing learnings from the land while tending to hand work. Grab your knitting or something to mend and join in. Followed by a live Q&A with Sharon Kallis.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
PERFORMANCE
OPEN MIC STRATHCONA CAMP
Saturday November 7, 12:30pm - 3:30pm
Strathcona Park, 857 Malkin
Free
The Strathcona Camp Tent Village invites us to share an afternoon of musical performance with the “resi-tents of the resis-tents” in Strathcona Park. The camp is an arts-filled community and includes an eclectic group of creative artists and performers who have lots to say and lots to share. The open mic organizers say that during isolation, music and art give us strength and help build community. Everyone in the camp is excited to share their creative work with the Festival audience and to be part of the artistic community of the DTES.
CULTURAL SHARING
In the Beginning: Tsleil-Waututh
Saturday November 7, 3pm
Firehall Arts Centre, 280 E. Cordova
$20 (incl. s/c & GST)
Also on November 4, 5 & 6
Tickets at door or advance sales: 604-689-9926
boxoffice@firehallartscentre.ca or www.firehallartcentre.ca
Doors open ½ hour prior to start of performance
INTERDISCIPLINARY
Nihon Machi Kotoba Forest Lounge
Saturday November 7, 7pm - 8pm
Vancouver Japanese Language School & Japanese Hall, 487 Alexander
In person, Registration Required
Free, donations appreciated
Experience a shower of Nihon Machi Kotoba (words), which explore Nikkei history, culture, and identity. A short poetic film was created to mark the 20th Anniversary of Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, which incorporates poems submitted by the general public. The film will be presented in a relaxed live DJ atmosphere. The space is designed to allow you to walk through a maze of lights from entrance to exit, with spaces to sit to enjoy the show. Enjoy the shower of kotoba (words) while you sit, or walk, or lie on the floor! You’re welcome to bring a yoga mat or cushion. COVID protocols will be in place: chairs spaced at least two metres apart, and maintain two metre distance with those not in your bubble. Masks are recommended and fun original paper masks will be available. Original film and Kotoba Forest Lounge commissioned by the Nikkei Centre; presented by the Tasai Artist Collective, in partnership with VJLS & JH and the Heart of the City Festival.
Register (required)
CULTURAL SHARING
In the Beginning: Squamish
Saturday, November 7, 8pm
Firehall Arts Centre, 280 E. Cordova
$20 (incl. s/c & GST)
Also on November 4, 5 & 6
Tickets at door or advance sales: 604-689-9926
boxoffice@firehallartscentre.ca or www.firehallartcentre.ca
Doors open ½ hour prior to start of performance
CULTURAL SHARING
UKRAINIAN DAY
Sunday November 8, 10am – 5:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
A day of cultural sharing featuring Ukrainian arts, cuisine, personal stories and more.
Traditionally, the Heart of the City’s final day of celebration is a concert and delicious Ukrainian dinner at the Ukrainian Hall. This year, however, the celebration will take a whole new format as the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians Vancouver (AUUC) would still like to share their beautiful Ukrainian Culture on the festival’s special Ukrainian Day.
The AUUC invites us to join them online as they share their recipes and history through thought-provoking reflections and discussion, and timeless traditional crafts handed down through generations. The day’s events will culminate at the Festival Closing Ceremony, which will include a mini-concert of recordings that showcase the AUUC performing arts groups demonstrating the rich and diverse culture of the beautiful Ukrainian heritage.
Ukrainian Kitchen - Borshch Making 101 10am – 11am
You don’t have to be Ukrainian to like Ukrainian borshch. People of all nationalities enjoy a good bowl of Ukrainian beet soup. There are as many different recipes for borshch as there are cooks who make it – everyone has their own personal touch. Today, we will share the AUUC Vancouver Hall’s Borshch recipe and the method we use to prepare the fifty gallons of borshch needed to serve one of our Perogy Lunches. No, you don’t have to make fifty gallons! We will give you a recipe for a family sized pot, based on our recipe, for you to make at home. Following the demonstration, our culinary experts will be on hand to take your questions live on Zoom.
If you want to purchase some of the borshch we will be demonstrating, come to the Ukrainian Hall, 805 E. Pender, between 12pm and 3pm on Sunday November 8 (masks mandatory) to purchase a takeout portion. And as a special bonus, you will also be able to purchase our home made pyrohy (perogies). Online pre-orders can be made by visiting: auuc-vancouver.square.site/online-sales
Register (to receive email reminders)
An Immigration Journey: From the Carpathian Mountains to Canada 11am – 12pm
The Association of United Ukrainian Canadians’ Hall has been at 805 East Pender Street for 92 years. To mark this long standing presence in Strathcona, Libby Griffin will present a lecture, previously recorded, that outlines the historical, political and economic conditions both in Ukraine and Canada that precipitated the immigration of Ukrainians to Canada. She weaves her own personal experiences as a first generation Ukrainian Canadian growing up on the prairies into her presentation. Although her story is personal, it is not unique. Thousands of Ukrainians settled on the prairies and endured the experiences and hardships that Libby’s family did. Join us for this presentation and Q&A session on Zoom.
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
Crafting a Tribute 3pm – 4pm
To commemorate the many years of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians’ contributions as a vital part of the Vancouver community, the crafters of the AUUC worked together to create a memorial quilt celebrating Ukrainian culture and the Association’s history. Join members online for a recorded presentation on how the project came about, what it represents and the traditional arts used to create the quilt, as well as an insight into the Ukrainian ritual cloth, the Rushnyk. Following the presentation, members will be on Zoom for a live Q&A.
Register (to receive email reminders)
Festival Closing Ceremony 4pm – 5:30pm
We invite everyone to the Closing Ceremony, live streamed on the Festival website. Join the dynamic hosting duo of Terry Hunter, Festival Artistic Producer, and Dianna Kleparchuk, AUUC Vancouver Board President, who will introduce the Ukrainian showcase. The AUUC has put together recorded excerpts from their spectacular Celebration 100 concert, which in 2018 celebrated both the National organization’s 100th Anniversary and the 90th Anniversary of the Ukrainian Hall in the heart of the Downtown Eastside. Enjoy performances by the Vancouver Folk Ensemble, Barvinok Choir, Dovbush School of Dance and the Dovbush Dancers. Get ready to share good cheer, live music and many thanks; online so you can take part wherever you are, keep safe, physically distant and know that the Heart of the City Festival beats stronger than ever, because of our Downtown Eastside community!
Register (to receive email reminders)
INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL GALLERY
Discovering Grounds for Goodness in the Downtown Eastside
Sunday November 8, 1pm - 3pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Drop by on Zoom to enjoy short performances, interactive activities, and art contributed and created by Downtown Eastside community members. This collaborative event is the finale of our Grounds for Goodness Downtown Eastside virtual residency, co-produced by Toronto-based Jumblies, Vancouver Moving Theatre and the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival. Created and hosted by Ruth Howard, Shifra Cooper, Adrienne Marcus Raja, Martin van de Ven, Arie Verheul van de Ven, Animikiikwe Couchie, Ahmed Hegazy, Karis Jones Pard and others (from Toronto), and (from Vancouver) Olivia C. Davies, Beverley Dobrinsky, Khari Wendell McClelland, Renae Morriseau, Rianne Svelnis, and Savannah Walling and Downtown Eastside-involved participants Gilles Cyrenne, Rosanne Gervais, Angela Kruger, Stephen Lytton, Rev. Dr. Victoria Marie, Tarene Thomas, Helen Volkow, Phoenix Winter and Henry Wong.
For information contact groundsforgoodness202@gmail.com or www.groundsforgoodness.com
A Grounds for Goodness event
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
WATCH PARTY
Jenifer Reads: 75 Years Later - The Sounds Of Freedom
November 8, 3:30pm - 5:30pm
Online, Registration Required
Free, donations appreciated
Join Irwin Oostindie and Thule van den Dam for a watch party for a special televised event on Global BC with a performance from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra commemorating the 75th anniversary of Canada liberating the Netherlands. We also present highlights of the Van
Kijkduinstraat Project (by Irwin Oostindie and Inessa Baustad Oostindie): a Downtown Eastside youth retraces her grandfather’s footsteps as he leaves Amsterdam 75 years ago to survive underground. Special guests and discussion. For full details on the Jenifer Reads project go to: www.jeniferreads.com. Register
ART TALK
COMMUNITY ARTS IN THE TIME OF COVID
Thursday November 12, 6pm - 7:30pm
Online, Registration Available
Free, donations appreciated
Join Ruth Howard, Artistic Director of Jumblies, will reflect on the challenges – what initially felt like the impossibility – of making art with people in these isolating times, and how values and practices of community arts can be upheld in new and surprising ways. Examples will be given from the virtual residency just undertaken at the DTES Heart of the City Festival. Some guests who took part in the residency will offer their perspectives, including artist and Downtown Eastside resident Stephen Lytton. An art talk on Zoom; there will be time for questions and responses. For information contact groundsforgoodness202@gmail.com or www.groundsforgoodness.com
Register (to participate in this Zoom event and to receive email reminders)
Affirmations for Wildflowers: An Ethnobotany Of Desire – Tania Willard Until November 13 Audain Gallery Hastings Street Window, 149 W. Hastings Free Tania Willard’s artistic practice engages cultural knowledges to cultivate works that range from land-based Indigenous contemporary art to survival strategies for contemporary socio-political upheavals. Affirmations for Wildflowers: An ethnobotany of Desire is a street-facing window exhibition that uses light projection, reflection, representations of flora, and personal and political affirmations to evoke relations of sustenance in uncertain but flourishing times.
The Artist Beheads Her Muse – Jocelyne Junker Until November 23 Massy Books, 229 E. Georgia Free Massy Arts Society is pleased to be presenting a solo exhibition featuring paintings and photographic works by Vancouver based artist Jocelyne Junker upstairs in the gallery at Massy Books. Jocelyne Junker is a Metis artist born in Saskatchewan. Her practice explores how photography can become entangled in performative gestures that affect the formulation and construction of self identity. Through photography Jocelyne engages in the questioning of representation and identity in the public sphere. Gallery hours: Mon - Sun, 10am - 6pm.
Resurgence: Indigiqueer Identities October 21 - January 24 • Open House, Friday November 6, 2pm - 5pm Free Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, 639 Hornby Adults $13, seniors $10, students $8, youth $6, children under 12 free, families $30 This new exhibition celebrates the deeply personal and profound work of four emerging artists - and their unique identities and stories as queer Indigenous people. The featured works by artists Levi Nelson (Lil’wat First Nation), Jaz Whitford (Secwepemc), Morgan Whitehead (Plains Cree) and Raven John (Coast Salish/Sto:lo) explore the roles the artists see themselves playing in their communities today, influenced by their own rich experiences that reflect the diversity of Indigiqueer love and life. Resurgence: Indigiqueer Identities showcases various mediums from large-scale portrait and abstract paintings, traditionally-inspired jewelry, clothing and accessories with a twist, and colourful and creative sculptural art. Curated by Jordana Luggi. Gallery winter hours: Wed - Sun, 11am - 5pm
Time-Lapse: Posthumous Conversations Geoff McMurchy Retrospective October 29 - December 1 Opening Reception Thursday October 29, 5pm - 8pm SUM Gallery, #425 – 268 Keefer Free A memorial retrospective of visual art by Geoff McMurchy, a storm force fag who blew open disability art in Canada and whose legacy includes a generation of disabled artists who thrived under his mentorship. Curated by Yuri Arajs, SD Holman and Persimmon Blackbridge in partnership with Kickstart and All Souls at Mountainview Cemetery. Gallery hours: Tues - Fri: 12pm - 6pm. By appointment only.
Grounds for Goodness Story Card Window Displays October 23 to November 8 InterUrban Art Gallery / Culture Saves Lives, 1 E. Hastings Skwachàys Lodge Hotel & Gallery - 31 W. Pender Free A real-life exhibition of cards created by residents of the Downtown Eastside, Vancouver and from across the land. The cards share stories and images of people helping, protecting and rescuing others, drawn from history, memory, family, tale, legend, memory and imagination – to be shared, collected, traded and enjoyed. Over the last month story cards have been contributed by community members at neighbourhood gathering places including the Carnegie Community Centre, InterUrban Gallery, Aboriginal Front Door, Carnegie Community Action Project, Community Thrift and Vintage, Benny’s Market, All Bodies Dance at BC ArtsScape Sun Wah, and the Art Tent and Peer Outreach at Strathcona Tent City. For further information, contact groundsforgoodness202@gmail.com or www.groundsforgoodness.com
The Gas Imaginary – Rachel O’Reilly Until December 19 Or Gallery, 263 E. Pender Free A multi-disciplinary project using poetry, collaborative drawings, installation, moving images, and lectures to unpack the broader significance of ‘settler conceptualism', the racial logic of the property form and fossil fuel-based labour politics as capital reaches the limits of land use. In ongoing dialogue with elders of Gooreng Gooreng country and settler women activists, where fracking was approved for mass installation in 'Australia', new elements of this work address the threatened destruction to 50% of the Northern Territory. Visit website orgallery.org for links to talks and events online. Gallery Hours: Tues - Sat, 12pm - 5pm.
Experimental Relationship (For Your Eyes Only, Or Maybe Mine, Too) Until December 31 Online, centrea.org/pixy-liao-online Free Centre A presents an online exhibit of Brooklyn-based artist Pixy Liao’s ongoing project, Experimental Relationship. Staged photographs dwell on socio-cultural tendencies, power play, and emotional sustenance by examining the dynamics of Pixy’s personal, romantic relationship, performed with photography and printed matter. Since 2007, the Chinese-born artist has staged photographs and live performances with her Japanese boyfriend, Moro, in keen attempts to balance, reverse, or subvert cultural traditions and gendered behaviours in a seemingly tongue-in-cheek, yet graceful manner. Accompanying the photographic works in the exhibition is Pimo Dictionary, a collection of hybrids of Chinese, Japanese, English words and phrases as well as slangs, which was inspired by Pixy and Moro’s communication barriers.
13th Annual Oppenheimer Park Community Art Show Fall Launch - TBA Online, gachetfromaway.org Free The Oppenheimer Park Community Art Show goes on, this year in the form of a community artist book. With a focus on displacement and place-making, the publication features the artwork and perspectives of over forty artists connected to, or displaced from, the communities of Oppenheimer Park. Fall launch date to be announced soon. Visit Gallery Gachet's online exhibition space for news on our current and upcoming projects: gachetfromaway.org. Co-presented by Gallery Gachet, Oppenheimer Park and Vines Art Festival. For more information contact programming@gachet.org or 604-687-2468.
OPS Mural 312 Main Current In your daily travels, walk by the historic 312 Main building’s west-facing wall to see a new mural project created by the DTES Artists Collective with the Overdose Prevention Society, Aboriginal Front Door and Raise the Rates. Led by artists BOY, Jenny Hawkinson and SPIRIT, they will reimagine “Lady Justice” in the context of our neighbourhood, with scales of injustice and an outstretched hand to help the community. Street mural art is vital in the DTES; it has been a form of art therapy throughout COVID, as well as a way to communicate directly to the members of our community who live and work on the streets 24 hours a day because these folks don’t have internet access. Smokey D. painted a mural with a message of thanks to health workers and volunteers, and the Festival printed a photo of this mural on the program guide inside-back cover to echo the message of thanks. These engaging works of street art by local artists are possible because of the support from WePress and the Heart of the City Festival, along with many organizations, volunteers, and individuals in the Downtown Eastside.
INTERACTIVE MEDIA Black Strathcona Self-Guided Tour Online, Festival website Free Use your smartphone or iPad to lead you on an interactive walking tour. As you walk the neighbourhood, follow the map on the website with story locations. Use the QR codes on the street signage to download videos to your mobile device and see the past and present of Vancouver’s vibrant black community. To pay tribute to the black community of Vancouver’s historic east-end, Strathcona’s Creative Cultural Collaborations Society, in partnership with Vancouver Moving Theatre, produced the Black Strathcona Interactive Media Project, the centre piece of which is ten short videos that celebrate some of the extraordinary people and places that made the community vibrant and unique. Performers present the stories, combining oral history with rarely seen archival photographs and film. Although viewers from anywhere in the world can take a virtual web tour at www.blackstrathcona.com, we invite you to experience history come to life by actually visiting locations where the videos were recorded.
PODCAST Harvest Lens Series + Roots And Seeds October 28 to November 8 Online, Festival Website Free PTC’s Davey Calderon collaborates with theatre artists on Harvest Lens, a series of short videos featuring DTES Neighbourhood House’s Urban Farm. Theatre makers find the poetry in ideas of food security, community, advocacy, growth, and the celebration of bounty that brings us together from all over the world. These ideas are ripe and ready for harvest. Also, PTC relaunches the podcast Roots and Seeds inspired by last year’s Heart of the City Festival event led by Veronique West and Kathy Feng with the Chinese Senior Gardeners. After following a group of Chinese seniors through a season of planting, tending, and harvesting their community garden, PTC created an audio podcast from the interviews and found sounds. The podcast is available in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese. Harvest Lens Series and Roots and Seeds are available at www.playwrightstheatre.com during the Heart of the City Festival.
MEDIA HOME SQUAT HOME MOBILE APP October 28 to November 8 Get the link, or Woodward’s Atrium, 111 W. Hastings Free The Festival is excited to feature two streams of audiovisual storytelling with Art Action Earwig’s Po-tent City. One is the Home Squat Home Mobile App and the other is the Climate Shadow Series (see November 4 for information). You can download the app at www.earwig.space/home-squat-home-mobile-app, or by scanning with your device the QR code on the surface of the tent installation in Woodward’s Atrium. The app offers visitors a portal into an intimate audiovisual performance using shadow puppets on the surface of a tent. Home Squat Home encourages you to imagine a sustainable home for marginalized bodies and displaced creatures while most of us are reconfiguring our relationships to “home”. The tent is a shelter and rally spot, exploring meanings, feelings, and realities that (de)materialize “home”. The piece honours grassroots movements in the Downtown Eastside including the Woodsquat housing action and the Women’s Memorial March.
VIDEO WE LIVE HERE, Radix Theatre Online, Festival Website Free We Live Here is a dramatic, large-scale video project in development that will be created by Downtown Eastside artists and produced by Radix Theatre. This year Radix begins work with a small number of artists to test and develop the idea, and will share a demo of the project viewable on this year’s Heart of the City Festival website. Working with a Downtown Eastside curatorial team, including Jerry Whitehead, Wendy Peeters and Jared Sharpe, Radix will videotape 10 artists as they take inspiration from the phrase "we live here" and paint their artwork onto a canvas. Then those videos will be sped up to hyper-speed to be projected outdoors at next year’s festival. We Live Here is sponsored by the Portland Hotel Society.
SELF-GUIDED WALK Vancouver Mural Tour Online, Festival Website Free The Vancouver Mural Tour was a project under the Great Beginnings Program by the City of Vancouver. The purpose of the program was to celebrate the history, heritage, and culture of Vancouver’s first urban areas, including the neighbourhoods of Gastown, Chinatown Powell Street, and Strathcona, and to restore the founding neighbourhoods’ original public appeal by creating attractive and welcoming physical environments. The website exists now as an historical site; many of the murals no longer exist, but the Festival shares the website as an archive of thirty-seven murals, all found in the Eastside. The Vancouver Mural Tour was an initiative of the Creative Cultural Collaborations Society. There are four tours listed on the website and if you are walking, each tour takes approximately 30 to 60 minutes. Visit vancouvermurals.ca for downloadable maps.
VIDEO SHARINGS FROM THE HAIKU CIRCLE: Voices from the SRO community sending messages to the world Online, Festival Website Free Poets from the SRO Collaborative share collaboratively created haiku poems, created in a process guided by Tom deGrey and Audrey Kobayashi, and read by Tom deGrey, Erica Grant, Marina Chavez and Richard. These poems are inspired by the land-based tradition of collaboratively created haiku poems: a form of expression used by Japanese Canadians before, during and after their WW II uprooting from the Downtown Eastside. The 17-syllable poems arranged in three lines of 5-7-5, bring SRO stories to life as they express lived experiences, frustrations, wisdom and hopes, in this way bridging SRO histories and present day stories of dispossession and resistance. A Right to Remain Project in partnership with the SRO Collaborative Society.
Soundscape Heart Of The City Festival Soundscape – sylvi macCormac Online, Festival Website Free In 2015, the Festival commissioned award-winning soundscape artist sylvi macCormac to create a Heart of the City Festival Soundscape. She produced a wonderful composition that weaves together sounds of our neighbourhood with diverse interviews and voices from our community and voices and sounds from the Elaho Valley. In the words of sylvi, “To work with so many wonderful voices is an honour and treasure. They give me great joy. They are also part of my commitment to a larger community. This composition is given to the care of, and for the benefit of, the Heart of the City Festival. These compositions were never mine to keep or call my own since ‘the sum of all these parts are we’ (Martyn Joseph).”
ON DEMAND The Gathering an interview with Richard Tetrault Online after October 28, Festival website Free This 15 minute recording features artist Richard Tetrualt and Festival producer Terry Hunter talking about The Gathering, an 11’h x 18’w hanging mural commission that Richard painted for the Heart of the City Festival in 2015. This powerful and dynamic banner mural, hangs each year in the Carnegie Theatre during the Heart of the City Festival, and features painted images of inspiring people, cultures and art forms from the Downtown Eastside, including Diane Wood, Sawagi Taiko, Ricky Lavallie, Isabel Ramirez, Git Hayetsk Dancers, Bud Osborn, Sandy Cameron, Thelma Gibson, Takeo Yamishiro, Dalannah Gail Bowen, Sam Snobelen, Carnegie Jazz Band (Randy Morrison), Dovbush Dancers (Montana Hunter), and Mona Woodward. The Festival will live stream this recording on Wednesday October 28 as part of the Opening Ceremony. Following the opening, the video will be available on demand www.heartofthecityfestival.com
