Heart of the City Festival 2022

Vancouver Moving Theatre, with the Carnegie Community Centre and the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians, along with a host of community partners, presents

mandate of the Festival is to promote, present, and facilitate the development of artists, art forms, cultural traditions, history, activism, people and great stories about

Program choices are developed via collaborative consensus with community partners and artists, many of whom partner with additional organizations for additional support. Some events are produced by the festival; some are presented in partnership with other organizations, artists and residents; and some are self-produced and presented under the festival umbrella. The festival also supports and partners with art-based community development projects that give birth to new art and voice local concerns.

you have a project or program idea for future festivals, please contact Terry Hunter at 604.628.5672.

Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival

and honours that we live and work on the unceded homelands of the xʷməθkʷəyəm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and selílwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh).

WELCOME

I am so pleased to welcome everyone taking part in the 19th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival. This Festival really highlights that the Downtown Eastside is the heart and soul of our city. If you want to know what people care about in our city, in our country, even to issues across borders – you will see it reflected in this year’s program.

The Downtown Eastside’s vision of community for all is powerful, and every member of our community has a story to share and wisdom to impart. The Festival is a time to honour and celebrate the beauty of our individuality and our shared humanity alike.

Thank you to everyone whose work with the Festival builds the connections that we need to transform our future in a good way.

Sincerely, Jenny Kwan | MP | Vancouver East

Congratulations to Vancouver Moving Theatre and Partners for nineteen years of creating an accessible, cou rageous, and community-driven arts festival! This festival is so important to the Downtown Eastside community because it provides a platform for local storytelling, cross-cultural community dialogues, and arts productions. You are a shining example of social justice and true grassroots representation in the arts. As the Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, and Sport, I want to commend your ‘Community is Your Mentor’ theme by showcasing the diverse cultures and heritage of the DTES in over 100 events that explore urban Indigenous and multicultural history, collaboration, resilience, and pride. T’ooyaksim’ N’iisim to the artists, performers, crew, and production staff for provid ing our community with education, entertainment, healing, and being a bright beacon of hope.

Hon. Melanie Mark | Hli Haykwhl Ẃii Xsgaak | 馬蘭妮 | MLA, Vancouver-Mount Pleasant

Welcome back to the annual Heart of the City Festival in the Downtown East side! For nineteen years, the festival has engaged audiences, artists and communi ties in the transformative power of story, song and ceremony through the arts. The theme of this year’s festival, Community Is Our Mentor, provides the perfect lens for us to listen, learn and engage with the wisdom and resilience of community.

Now more than ever, the power of the arts helps us to walk for ward with shared understanding, knowledge and respect. The BC Arts Council is proud to support the Heart of the City Festival and I would like to thank the organizers, artists, and community members for bringing this powerful festival to life again this year.

Dr Sae-Hoon Stan Chung, Chair, BC Arts Council

Welcome to the 19th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival! The arts bring Canadians together in a shared celebration of our history, traditions and diversity. Our government is committed to helping Canadians experience the arts within their communities.

We are proud to support this outstanding festival that highlights and celebrates the cultural heritage of Vancouver’s vibrant Downtown Eastside.

Guided by the theme Community Is Our Mentor, this year’s festival allows artists and artisans to share their talents and showcase their cultures. As Minister of Canadian Heritage, I would like to thank Vancouver Moving Theatre and all the organizers, artists and volunteers who helped bring this year’s event to life.

I hope everyone taking part in the festival enjoys this celebration of voices and stories from the neighbourhood and around the world!

The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez Minister of Canadian Heritage

WELCOME

Hello everyone! Welcome to the 19th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival.

This year’s festival is guided by the theme Community Is Our Mentor, with a focus on listening and learning from the lived wisdom and cultural practices of Downtown Eastside community organizations, artists and cultural circles. On this journey, we’re honouring the transformative power of story, lived experiences, history, song, music, film, theatre, dance, visual arts and ceremony to illuminate pathways of resistance, restoration and resilience.

The DTES community has been a mentor for the two of us since we arrived in this community in 1978. Together with our collaborators, colleagues and friends, we’ve learnt from historians and knowledge-keepers who’ve taught us about the community’s cultural wealth: its oral history, written history, cultural traditions, art forms, heritage and great stories. We’ve learnt from Elders of many ancestries who’ve shared their lived wisdom and knowledge about how to live in this community, on this land and with each other in good ways.

We’ve learned from the artists, cultural carriers and poets who’ve shared their personal lived experiences, their pain and happiness, creative visions, and hopes for a better future. We’ve learnt from the activists who advocate and fight on behalf of our community for better health care, housing, justice, care of the land and redress. We’ve learnt from our colleagues in partnering organizations who share their community know-how and guidance.

We’ve learned so much from our amazing festival staff, who bring their extensive knowledge of community and exceptional abilities to this work: with heart-felt special thanks to Teresa Vandertuin (Associate Artistic Producer), Lalia Fraser (Operations / Associate Producer), Jonathon Paterson (Production Manager), Kimit Sekhon (Digital Advisor and Engineer) and the great teams that support them. We could not do this without you! Thank you to our supportive Board of Directors and your guidance. Thank you Carnegie Community Centre, Association of United Ukrainian Canadians, and all our community partners, collaborating artists, co-producers, sponsors and donors.

Enjoy the festival everyone. May we continue to learn from each other. May we all work toward a better future for everyone in our community.

Terry Hunter (Nang Gulgaa)

Executive Director, Vancouver Moving Theatre

Artistic Producer, Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival

Savannah Walling (hl Gat’saa)

Artistic Director, Vancouver Moving Theatre Associate Artistic Director, Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival

On behalf of the Carnegie Community Centre Asso ciation, I welcome you to the 19th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival. This year’s theme Community Is Our Mentor motivates me to reflect on the numerous ways Downtown Eastside Vancouver has transformed my life in my ‘retirement’ years. My first involvement with Carnegie Community Centre and Thursdays Writing Collective, inspired and pushed me to find my voice as a poet and writer. Friends I met there and other Carnegie volunteers motivated me to connect with the Learning Centre, which returned me to volunteering and to working as an educator. This deeper involvement with the Carnegie Centre led to me becoming a member of the Carnegie Community Centre Association Board of Directors.

This community also connected me with UBC Humani ties 101, Writing 101, and Science 101: programs for community members who want to re-engage with uni versity education. Engagement with these programs continues to inspire as they expand our community.

I am also grateful to the Indigenous people in the community, on this unceded territory, for welcoming me and bringing me to an awareness of better ways of seeing and being in the world.

Carnegie, the Downtown Eastside, Community, this land, all of you, have led me to a more creative and engaged ‘retirement’ than I ever dreamed possible. You have created for me the life I always wanted, but took a long time to figure out. You truly are my mentor.

Welcome to our festival.

Gilles Cyrenne President

Carnegie Community Centre Association

SCHEDULE

AT A GLANCE

1pm-3pm

Festival Opening Ceremony

Carnegie Theatre

1pm-3pm

Collage for Self – Discovery and Expressive Art EWMA Studio

4pm-5pm

The Gathering Mural Launch Carnegie Theatre

5:15pm-6:15pm

Saint James Music Academy Open House

St James' Anglican Church

6pm

Inside/Out: A Prison Memoir

Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, SFU Wood wards

6pm-7:30pm

Generations of Women and Water Massy Arts Gallery

7pm-9pm

DTES Front & Centre: Live Music & Comedy Carnegie Theatre

11pm-1am

Late Night with Savages, Live from Co – op Radio Co – op Radio CFRO 100.5 FM

1pm-3pm

Be Like Sound, Paul Wong

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden

1pm-2:30pm

Light up the Night: Travis Lupick – Online

1pm-2:30pm

Meet the Artist, Victoria Marie

Carnegie 3rd Floor Gallery

1pm-2:30pm

Yinpin Native Chinese Orchestra Carnegie Theatre

1pm-3pm

Day of the Dead Decorations

Carnegie Community Centre

2pm-4pm

Dreamcatcher Designs

Evelyne Saller Centre

3pm-4pm

DTES Writers Collective

Carnegie 3rd Floor Gallery

4pm-5:30pm

Amazingly Alive: Bud Osborn Poetry Library

Carnegie 3rd Floor 4pm-5:30pm

Light up the Night: Travis Lupick – Carnegie Theatre 5pm-6pm

Kla How Ya Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5 FM 6pm-8pm

Once Upon a Time, Photos Ray-Cam Cooperative Centre 7pm-9pm Intangible Treasures Online & Carnegie 7pm-10pm

Famous Last Words

SFU World Art Centre 8pm-9:30pm

Virago Nation

The Ironworks

9pm-11pm Arts Rational Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5 FM

10am& 11:15am

Guitars! Guitars! Guitars!

Carnegie Theatre

10am-2pm

Reconciliation and Redress in the Arts Online

1pm-2:30pm

Spontaneous Poetry

Carnegie outdoor sidewalk 3:30pm

Guided Tour St James' Anglican Church 5pm-7pm Community in the Making Online 5pm-9pm Art Market Woodwards Atrium 6pm-7pm BOXSET

KW Atrium Studio 6pm

Joe Sacco: Paying the Land SFU World Art Centre 6pm-8pm

Once Upon a Time, Photos Ray-Cam 7pm-8:30pm

Don't Read Us the Book We Wrote: Research 101 312 Main

7:30pm-8:30pm

Striking and Singing!

Carnegie Theatre 7:30pm-8:30pm

BOXSET

KW Atrium Studio

10am-4pm

Keeping the Fires Burning

Oppenheimer Park

1pm-2:30pm

Spontaneous Poetry

Carnegie outdoor sidewalk

1pm-3pm

Learning from Community: Hous ing Justice with SRO Tenants

Carnegie Theatre

1pm-4pm

May the water in me sing for the water in you

Left of Main

5pm-9pm Art Market Woodwards Atrium 6pm-7pm

BOXSET

KW Atrium Studio 7:30pm-8:30pm

BOXSET KW Atrium Studio 7:30pm-9pm

Patsy Klein/Tony Wilson Band Carnegie Theatre 8pm-1am

Karaoke Festival

Special

The West Hotel

10am-11:30am

Two Amigos Walk ing Tour Register for location 12:30pm-1:30pm

Celebrating

Friends and Mentors: A Story telling Cabaret Carnegie Theatre

1pm-2:30pm Spontaneous Poetry Carnegie outdoor sidewalk

1pm-5pm Community is Collage Massy Arts Gallery 2pm-3:30pm

Poets, Writers, Mentors & Mentees: It's Complicated! Carnegie Theatre 3pm-4pm

True to Place: stímetstexw tel xéltel

Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art 4pm-4:15pm Don't Feed 'da Pigeons

Carnegie Theatre 5pm-9pm

Art Market Woodward's Atrium 6pm-7pm BOXSET

KW Atrium Studio 7pm-9pm Urban Bandscape Carnegie Theatre

7:30pm-8:30pm

BOXSET

KW Atrium Studio

Hallowe'en

10am-4pm

Hallowe'en Colouring Workshop Evelyne Saller Centre 11am-12pm

Day of the Dead Decorations Workshop

Watari Counselling & Support Services

12:30pm-2pm

Stories from the Heart Carnegie 3rd Floor Gallery

1pm-2:30pm When Spirit Whispers Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5 FM

3pm-4:30pm

Three Cases: A Little Act of Kindness Carnegie - 3rd Floor Gallery

4pm-5pm Evil Cult Singalong with the Legion of Flying Monkeys MacLean Park Fieldhouse 4pm-7pm Hallowe'en Party at the DTES Market 30 E. Hastings

All Souls DayAll Saints Day

11am-2pm

Acrylic Painting Workshop

Evelyne Saller Centre

12pm-2pm

Drums on the Patio Carnegie Centre Patio

1pm-2:30pm

Going Indigenous Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5 FM

1pm-4:30pm

Art Talk & Open House Downtown Com munity Health Centre 5pm-6:30pm

Talking Truths: DTES Grandmoth ers Collective Online

7pm-9pm

Hearts Beat 2022 Carnegie Theatre 7pm-9:30pm

Art is Vital, Illicit Projects InterUrban Gallery

1pm-3pm

Collage for SelfDiscovery and Expressive Art EWMA Studio

1:30pm & 3:30pm

Walks, Day of the Dead Community Altars

Watari Counselling & Support Services

2pm

Bells of St James' St James' Anglican Church

2:30pm-3:30pm No Apologies Necessary Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5 FM 4pm-6pm Day of the Dead Fiesta Carnegie Theatre 6pm-7:30pm Travelling Message Chests Talk Massy Arts Gallery

12pm-2pm

Music on the Street

E. Cordova & Gore

12pm & 1pm Hastings Street Band

Keefer & Abbott, NE corner

1pm-3pm

Poetry in Parks Workshop

Oppenheimer Park

1pm-3pm

DTES Wise: I-Wit ness Livestreams by Gunargie InterUrban Gallery

3pm, 4pm, 5pm & 6pm

LOBE STUDIO, James Ash Lobe Spatial Sound Studio

5pm-6pm

Kla How Ya Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5 FM 5pm-7pm

Growing with the Pender Womxn’s Night Community Pender Community Health Centre

6pm-7:30pm

Inherent Respon sibility, Cultural Protocol Massy Arts Gallery 6:30pm

Requiem For All Souls’

St James' Anglican Church

7pm-8:30pm

We Are Somebody: Celebrating the Creative Spirit in the DTES neca?mat ct Strathcona Branch 8:30pm IronFest III The Ironworks 9pm-11pm Arts Rational Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5 FM

12pm-2pm

Poetry on the Street

E. Cordova & Gore

12pm & 1pm

Hastings Street Band

12pm Pigeon Park 1pm Maple Tree Square 1pm

Folk Circle Carnegie 3rd Floor Classroom

1pm-3pm

Angels On Call Carnegie Theatre 2pm-5pm

Open House Drop-In Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art 3pm-3:45pm

Double Bill Carnegie Theatre 4pm-6pm Love in the Time of Fentanyl Carnegie Theatre 4pm-8pm Culture Sharing: Drums, Singing, Dancing InterUrban Gallery 6pm Book Launch: Muscle Memory Massy Arts Gallery 7pm-9pm Alice Street Carnegie Theatre 7pm-8:30pm

We Live Here Gallery Gachet 9:30pm IronFest III The Ironworks

11am-12pm

Art Hub: Downtown Eastside Artists Col lective

Online

11am-12:30pm

Raising of the Oppen heimer Welcome Posts

Oppenheimer Park

11am-5pm

Open House Vancouver Police Museum

12pm & 1pm

Hastings Street Band 12pm Carnegie 1pm 100 blk E. Pender

1:30pm-3pm

Muriel's Journey Poetry Prize Carnegie Theatre 2pm

The Prop Master's Dream Annex Theatre

4pm-5:30pm Sandy Cameron Memorial Writing Contest Awards Carnegie Theatre

7pm-9pm Honouring Writers of the DTES Carnegie Theatre

7pm

The Prop Master's Dream Annex Theatre

7pm-9pm Hung Up Skwachàys Lodge & Gallery

8pm

Concurrence Gathering #6 8EAST

8pm-9:30pm Catfish

KW Production Studio 9:30pm IronFest III The Ironworks

Daylight Savings Time ends

12pm & 1pm

Hastings Street Band 12pm W. Hastings & Abbott

1pm Steam Clock, Gastown

1pm-2pm

Karen Jamieson Dance & Carnegie Dance Troupe

SFU World Art Centre

1pm-5pm

Community is Collage Massy Arts Gallery

3pm

Together in Peace Ukrainian Hall

5pm-7pm

Book Launch, Roy Youssefzadeh Propaganda Coffee

6pm-10:30pm

Co-op Radio Live at the Wise Hall Wise Hall

8pm Concurrence Gathering #7 8EAST

Visual Arts

the

(•) Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5 FM, 604-684-7561 coopradio.org

(•) Online, Festival website www.heartofthecityfestival.com

(1) 312 Main 312 Main, entrance on E. Cordova, 312main.ca

(2) 8EAST 8 E. Pender, nowsociety.org

(3) Annex Theatre 823 Seymour, 604.665.3035

(4) Audain Gallery 149 W. Hastings, 778.782.9102, sfu.ca/galleries

(5) Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art 639 Hornby, 604.682.3455, billreidgallery.ca

(6) Canton.Sardine 268 Keefer, Unit.071, canton.sardine.com

(7) Carnegie Community Centre 401 Main, 604.665.2220

(6) Centre A #205 – 268 Keefer, 604.683.8326, centrea.org

(4) Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre SFU Woodwards 149 W. Hastings

(8) Downtown Community Health Centre 569 Powell, 604.255.3151

(9) Dr. Sun Yat.Sen Classical Chinese Garden 578 Carrall, 604.215.2030, vancouverchinesegarden.com

(10) DTES Market

30 E. Hastings

(11) E. Cordova & Gore, NW corner

(12) Evelyne Saller Centre 404 Alexander, 604.665.3075

(13) EWMA Studio

800 E. Hastings, 604.685.8043, atira.bc.ca

(14) Fazakas Gallery 659 E. Hastings, 604.876.2729, fazakasgallery.com

(15) Gallery Gachet

9 W. Hastings, 604.687.2468, gachet.org

(16) InterUrban Gallery 1 E. Hastings, entrance on Carrall, 604.629.8396

(17) Keefer & Abbott, NE corner

(18) KW Atrium Studio & KW Production Studio 111 W. Hastings, 604.662.7441, kwstudios.ca

(19) Left of Main* 211 Keefer, 2nd floor, leftofmain.com

(20) Lobe Spatial Sound Studio* 713 E. Hastings, lobestudio.ca

(21) MacLean Park Fieldhouse 710 Keefer

(22) Massy Arts Gallery 23 E. Pender, 604.376.4350, massyarts.com

(23) neca?mat ct Strathcona Branch 730 E. Hastings, 604.665.3967

(24) Oppenheimer Park 488 Powell

(25) Or Gallery 236 E. Pender, 604.683.7395, orgallery.org (26) Outsiders and Others 716 E. Hastings, outsidersandothers.com

(27) Pender Community Health Centre 59 W. Pender, 604.669.9181 (28) Pigeon Park E. Hastings & Carrall

(29) Propaganda Coffee 209 E. Pender, propagandacoffee.ca (30) Ray.Cam Cooperative Centre 920 E. Hastings, 604.257.6949, raycam.org

(31) Skwachàys Lodge & Gallery

31 W. Pender, 604.558.3589

(32) St. James’ Anglican Church* 303 E. Cordova, 604.685.2532, stjames.bc.ca

(6) SUM Gallery #425 . 268 Keefer, sumgallery.ca

(33) The Ironworks 235 Alexander, 604.681.5033, theironworks.ca

(34) The West Hotel 488 Carrall

(35) This Gallery #227 – 475 Main, thisgallery.org

(36) Ukrainian Hall* 805 E. Pender, 604.254.3436, auucvancouver.ca

(37) VALU Co.op 525 Carrall

(38) Vancouver Police Museum & Archives * 240 E. Cordova, 2nd floor, 604.665.3346 vancouverpolicemuseum.ca

(39) W. Hastings & Abbott, NW corner

(40) Watari Counselling & Support Services #200 – 678 E. Hastings, 604.254.6995, watari.ca

(41) Wise Hall

1882 Adanac, 604.254.5858

(18) Woodwards Atrium 111 W. Hastings

WHY REGISTER FOR A LIVE STREAM EVENT?

With Eventbrite you will be able to:

• Sign up for workshops

• Receive a pre-event reminder

• Obtain a Zoom link and access the Zoom platform

• Interact with event artists, guest speakers and other participants

• Obtain the Festival newsletter

• Link to your online calendar

ZOOM TIPS

Some Festival events will be held online through Zoom and here are some FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) to help enhance your festival experience

Q: What is Zoom?

Zoom is an online platform allowing users to connect virtually.

Q: How do I access Zoom?

To join in with video, you can access Zoom through your computer, tablet or phone.

• We recommend you download the Zoom app ahead of time, but you may also join through your browser if the app doesn’t work, or even call in from your phone! To join by phone, call the number in your event invitation.

Q: Do I need to create an account?

You do not need to create an account.

Here are some additional tips when using Zoom:

To boost connection: close excess tabs, connect via ethernet cable, ask others in your household not to stream at the same time.

There are various ways to interact on Zoom - such as turning your video and mic on/off, as well as typing in the chat box.

ONLINE TERMINOLOGY 101

Here are some terms to help navigate events online ONLINE: connected via the internet.

LIVE STREAM: a live stream is not pre-recorded but streamed online live, in real time.

LIVE Q&A: a live session where participants can interact by asking questions and receiving answers.

INTERACTIVE: an interactive event may include a Q&A, break-out rooms, or a workshop. ON DEMAND: On Demand events can be viewed online, at your own convenience. This content will be available on the Festival website throughout the Festival.

ZOOM MEETING: a Zoom Meeting allows participants to interact with each other by video, voice and chat.

ZOOM WEBINAR: a Zoom Webinar is view-only. Participants will not see each other, and the host will not see the audience. Participants will only be able to interact via chat or Q&A (typed messages).

ZOOM HOST: a host is the person who starts a Zoom event and welcomes attendees. The host is responsible for admitting and removing participants.

FESTIVAL HOST: the Festival host is a representative from the Festival who welcomes you and will introduce participating artists and guests.

CHAT MODERATOR: there will be one moderator in each Zoom event who will help guide the audience on using the platform. The moderator is responsible for monitoring messages and questions typed into the “chat box”.

VIDEO ON OR OFF (on Zoom): you have an option to turn your video on or off.

MIC ON OR OFF (on Zoom): you have an option to turn your mic on or off. We ask that you keep your mic on mute unless you are speaking.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED: some online events require registration to attend. Be sure to head to our Festival Website to pre-register!

REGISTRATION AVAILABLE: some online events DO NOT require registration, but you will have the option to register. There are many benefits to registering, including receiving reminders of the upcoming event.

CONGRATULATIONS!

WE’RE PROUD OF OUR DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE COMMUNITY!

Congratulations to individuals and organizations making a difference in our community.

MASSY BOOKS is the first bookstore in British Columbia to be designated as a Living Wage Employer by Living Wage for Families.

JAMES PAU received an honourary degree from SFU as Doctor of Laws in recognition of his 47 years providing compassionate health services, improving the quality of life for seniors and people with addictions in the Downtown Eastside, and for providing medical aid for low-income people as a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine.

TERESA NG was awarded the 2022 Catherine Ludgate Vendor of the Year Award for her dedication to selling Megaphone publications and her contributions as a fantastic community ambassador.

PRISCILLIA MAYS TAIT received 1st Place honours for her photo “Thunderchild” in Megaphone’s Hope in Shadows 2022 Calendar.

FRED TING SHEK MAH was appointed to the Order of BC for his decades-long fight for the rights and historical legacy of Chinatown and its residents.

HENRY DOYLE won the 2022 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (BC Book Prizes) for No Shelter, an unforgettable collection of down-to earth poems about his journey as a foster child runaway, incarcerated youth and homeless wage-earner, eventually finding a home in Vancouver’s DTES.

HARSHA WALIA won the Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes (BC Book Prizes) for her book Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism and the Rise of Racist Nationalism.

JIM BYRNES was appointed to the Order of Canada for contributions to art, culture and charity.

BARBARA BOURGET and JAY HIRABAYASHI, co-founders ot Kokoro Dance, have been inducted into the 2022 Dance Collection Danse Hall of Fame for their lifelong contributions to the development of dance in Vancouver, and their introduction and practice of butoh in Canada.

FIREHALL ARTS CENTRE was honoured with a Lieutenant Governor’s Arts & Music Award.

CARNEGIE VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR was awarded to Thelma Jack with special merit to Gilles Cyrenne, James Pau, Roy Youssefsazdeh and Kyoko Zushi.

MEGAPHONE VENDORS Mike McNeeley and Yvonne Mark on their Megaphone scholarship to attend Langara College Journalism this fall (following in the footsteps of last year’s pilot project with recipients Julie Chapman and Nicolas Crier).

CARMEN ROSEN, founder of Still Moon Arts and long time friend of Vancouver Moving Theatre received the 2022 BC Community Achievement Award for work with the Annual Renfrew Moon Festival and salmon restoration and clean-up of Still Creek.

RUSSELL WALLACE, Lil’wat composer and traditional singer, was awarded the Lieutenant Governor's Arts and Music Award in honour of his music and contributions to BC arts and culture.

2022 VANCOUVER MAYOR’S AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

Diversity and Inclusion Award Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden Society and its outreach programs; Mayor’s Achievement Award Peer Overdose Responders, front line leaders providing life-saving services when our communities are in crisis from contaminated drugs.

YWCA WOMEN OF DISTINCTION AWARDS

Community Champion Sarah Blyth, Executive Director of Vancouver Overdose Prevention Society and founder of Vancouver Skatepark Coalition; Non Profit Libby Davies, community advocate and former MP of Parliament.

2022 JESSIE RICHARDSON THEATRE AWARDS

Taran Kootenhayo received the John Moffat & Larry Lillo Award for Outstanding Original Script for White Noise; Chimerik 似不像 received the Significant Artistic Achievement in Outstanding Video Design for we the same.

COMMUNITY-ENGAGED ART PRACTICE

WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

Art creation involving professional artists collaborating with community members and arts and non-arts partners; Art that is made with, for and about the community it serves Art that celebrates, reclaims, commemorates, educates, heals, inspires, challenges

Art-making integrated with community values, interests, assets, and cultural traditions past and present

Art-making where process and product are intertwined, all part of the art

Art-making guided by principles of respect, reciprocity and generosity of spirit

Art-making inclusive of diverse social and cultural backgrounds and generations

Art-making that encourages everyone involved – from novice to master – to give of their best to create strong art and transformative experience

Big and small projects, indoors or outdoors, in all sizes and shapes, in all kinds and combinations of art forms, from performance to visual arts, from media arts to processions, festivals, community celebrations and ceremony

Art creation that leaves legacies for the future.

COMMUNITY IS OUR MENTOR

MENTORED BY MY COMMUNITY: A PERSONAL JOURNEY

by Savannah Walling (hl Gat’saa)

Forty-six years ago, I moved into the Downtown Eastside with my partner-in-life Terry Hunter when we were emerging artists looking for housing we could afford. From artists that happen to live in the Downtown Eastside, we’ve evolved into artists contributing to and being mentored by our community.

A few years later, in 1983, Terry and I co-founded Vancouver Moving Theatre in the Lim Assocation clan house in Chinatown. We dreamed of creating interdisciplinary arts projects, bridging barriers between cultures, and connecting artistic practice to community. But it took fifteen years of touring, from local to international, before we became parents and seriously began to nourish connections and plant deeper roots in the place where we lived.

For six years, we co-produced the small-scale Strathcona Artist at Home Festival (1998-2004), with the help of colleagues like Teresa Vandertuin. This experience revealed the Downtown Eastside’s rich vein of artists, art forms, histories, social and cultural diversity, traditional practices and great stories. Our eyes and ears opened to the community’s beauties, complexities, challenges and lived wisdom. The more we learned and participated, the more involved, inter-connected and committed to our community we became, the more we wanted to learn.

In 2003, the Carnegie Community Centre invited us to co-produce a big community play created for, with and about the Downtown Eastside. In the Heart of a City: The Downtown Eastside Community Play premiered at the Japanese Hall with the help of hundreds of volunteers, a cast of 80 community actors, sold-out houses and standing ovations. The play’s huge success and the community’s desire for more art-making led to co-founding of the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival in 2004, and a series of original productions, projects and public art centred on the neighbourhood’s cultural communities.

We co-created with the Carnegie Community Advisory the community play’s purposes and objectives; these guided the play’s creation and our evolving art practice ever since.

Purposes and objectives for the Heart of the CIty Festival were co-developed in 2007 with a festival advisory representative of the community; these have guided the festival’s programming and operations ever since. Each year’s festival programs are developed via collaborative consensus with community partners and artists.

I, like the other festival staff, learn each and every day from witnessing Downtown Eastside events and ceremonies, from what I see on the streets, hear from community members, read in their publications, and learn from knowledge-keepers, cultural sharing and teaching events such as the TRC hearings, the Talking Stick Festival Industry Series, and the Symposiums on Reconciliation & Redress in the Arts.

Some of what I’ve been learning from my community: Learning is life-long;

Building relationships takes time, especially across cultural and social differences;

Good relationships involve mutual recognition, mutual respect and shared responsibility.

It’s my responsibility to:

Learn culturally appropriate ways to share knowledge;

Educate myself about my family’s history, my community’s history and those of the Indigenous peoples of the land I’m living on;

Educate myself about appropriate ways of using and acknowledging cultural materials;

Learn about my cultural baggage and blind spots;

Ask for help with cultural protocol and how to respectfully enter someone else’s terrritory;

Respect community needs and protocols;

Uplift and support my collaborators; Support projects led by artists from Indigenous and other cultural communities;

Acknowledge my mistakes and cultural blunders - learn and try to repair the damage;

Do what I promise;

Do more listening and looking …and do it again and again and again.

Robyn Livingstone and Savannah Walling

FESTIVAL OPENING CEREMONY

Wednesday October 26, 1pm Carnegie Theare, 401 Main Free

We are so happy to gather again in person as community members, friends and neighbours and to welcome you to this year’s Opening Ceremony. Today’s special guests include Carnegie Elder-in-Residence Les Nelson and Matriarch-inResidence Marr Dorvault, cultural speaker and practitioner Bob Baker (S7aplek) of the Squamish Nation, speakers from the Carnegie Community Centre staff and Association, the Carnegie’s own lexwst’í:lem Drum Group, and spirit-lifting grass dancer Larissa Healey accompanied by Love Medicine drum group. We will also honour and remember Kat Norris (Zucomul'wat) who guided the Festival as Elder-in-Residence since 2017 and recently ‘crossed the river’. Also on display at the Ceremony is the ’The Gathering Mural’ (newly expanded from 3 panels to 10!) by award-winning DTES artist Richard Tetrault with Jerry Whitehead, Charlene Johnny and Marissa Nahanee. Please note: following this ceremony you can attend the official Gathering Mural Launch at 4pm (see description below). Refreshments. Everyone welcome.

LAUNCH

THE GATHERING MURAL

Wednesday October 26, 4pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

The Gathering Mural, a stunning tryptic mural created in 2016 by Richard Tetrault, is expanding with an additional seven new panels by Tetrault, Charlene Johnny, Marissa Nahanee and Jerry Whitehead. The Gathering Mural hangs in the Carnegie Theatre during the Festival and pays tribute to past and present DTES artists and activists, and to the diverse cultures and heritage of the Downtown Eastside. Today you can meet the artists and hear the inspiring stories behind the artists and activists represented in this extraordinary mural.

SHOWCASE

DTES FRONT & CENTRE: Live Music & Comedy

Wednesday October 26, 7pm - 9pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

For opening night of the Festival, we have a fabulous evening planned for you to kick off twelve wonderful days of the Heart of the City Festival. The Downtown Eastside is alive with talent and we bring together a few long-time Festival favourites.

We welcome songstress Heidi Morgan, accompanied by guitarist Brice Tabish, Peggy Wilson on bass, and drummer Gord Stewart. They’ll play some fun, high energy, mostly rock-ish covers that they know the community will love.

Mike Richter performs original work and delights with his guitar instrumentals, and longtime friend of the Festival, Brenda Prince, takes the mic with standup comedy. Recently back in town from the Arctic Comedy Festival, Brenda is a graduate of the Stand Up for Mental Health Program and Laughterzone 101, and a finalist in BC's Funniest New Female Comic 2021 and 2022.

And after many wishes and dreams, the Festival is thrilled to bring Sam Bob (Tulkweemult), Curtis Ahenakew and Greasy Bannock Theatre to the Carnegie stage. Greasy Bannock ensemble is a free acting class for the First Nations community that Sam and Curtis have been training for the last several years, now based at the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre. Tonight Sam and Curtis and a group of students will share comedy skits.

Our Emcee for the evening is Merlin Cosmos, a self-described ‘Old Vaudevillian and a ham’.

Marr Dorvault

L to R: Charlene Johnny, Richard Tetrault Jerry Whitehead

EXHIBIT LAUNCH

GENERATIONS OF WOMEN AND WATER Opening Reception

Honouring Our Grandmothers’ Healing Journey

Wednesday October 26, 6pm - 7:30pm

Massy Arts Gallery, 23 E. Pender

Exhibit Oct 27 to Nov 5

Free, registration is required, massyarts.com

Massy Arts hosts Generations of Women and Water, a new exhibit by Indigenous visionary visual artist Nadine Spence. Opening night includes an arriving ceremony for Nadine’s painted bentwood cedar chest. Nadine’s personal voyage with Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey is to honour her Nlaka’pamux and Secwépemc Grandmothers who lived and died in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and bring their spirits home with the cycle of wild salmon by waterways of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers and the Pacific Ocean. Presented by Massy Arts Society in collaboration with Sacred Rock, and in partnership with Vancouver Moving Theatre / Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival.

FILM & CONVERSATION

INSIDE/OUT: A PRISON MEMOIR

Wednesday October 26, 6pm Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema

SFU Woodwards, 149 W. Hastings Free events.sfu.ca/voce/all

Inside/Out is Patrick Keating’s real-life story of years spent in and out of Canada’s penitentiary system. This is a story about a man’s search for community: the community of the street, the community of prison and of the theatre. In a powerful intersection of art, lived experience and social justice, Keating’s Inside/Out joins a rich history of life-affirming works of resistance and humanity. Calls for Equity and Access have steadily risen during COVID, resulting in inspiring instances of ingenuity and adaptation that provide access for and to underserved populations of Canada’s penitentiary system. This filmed theatrical performance will be followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A with Inside/Out creator Patrick Keating, and other guests.

Co-presented by SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement & The Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival. With support from Reel Causes.

RADIO

LATE NIGHT WITH SAVAGES ON CO-OP RADIO

Wednesday October 26, 11pm - 1am Live Broadcast, Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5FM

Live Streamed, Heart of the City Festival Facebook page A special late night program for the Heart of the City Festival, live from the DTES station of Co-op Radio. Listen in to an evening of artists and musical guests, hosted by Gunargie O’Sullivan. Gunargie has invited an exciting line-up of guests, including traditional and contemporary artists. Cecilia Point opens the evening, followed by comedy with Nick Perry, guitar soloist Mark Mcleod, singer Makeda Martin, musician Paul Barnetson, and Downtown Eastside artists Smokey D, Ken Foster, Frank Hargreaves, and Faith Allan. Studio musician is Sliggidie on guitar.

MUSIC

SAINT JAMES MUSIC ACADEMY OPEN HOUSE

Wednesday October 26, 5:15pm - 6:15pm

St James' Anglican Church, 303 E. Cordova (entrance on Gore) Free

Join Saint James Music Academy (SJMA) for an open house; catch a mid-semester glimpse of their program with student performances featuring the Youth Orchestra and more! SJMA is a community-based, grassroots organization that provides free, high quality, classical music education to children living in and around Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Through choirs and orchestras, and so much more, students from grade 2 to 12 experience the joys and challenges of learning to make music together - and of playing an important part in something beautiful that is larger than themselves. For information, 778-709-7731 or www.sjma.ca.

WORKSHOP

COLLAGE FOR SELF-DISCOVERY AND EXPRESSIVE ART

Wednesday October 26, 1pm - 3pm

Also Wed Nov 2

EWMA Studio, 800 E. Hastings Free

Today the fine folks at EWMA, led by Rosina Santillana, present a collage workshop. Collage is a creative approach to making art. By deconstructing a subject, artists can put it back together in a new way to explore themes and images of self-discovery and personal expression. EWMA Studio's goal is to create a Safe Space for arts-based wellness activities for anyone who identifies and lives full-time as a woman, including trans, two spirit and intersex women, and/or those in the Downtown Eastside who identify with a femme-of-centre non-binary gender to express themselves. The Studio allows for individuals to make art, learn new skills, and create marketable products, all while having fun and networking.

HONOURING OUR GRANDMOTHERS HEALING JOURNEY

HONOURING OUR GRANDMOTHERS HEALING JOURNEY in residence

October 26 to November 6, 2022

Six activities at three locations Massy Arts Gallery, Oppenheimer Park, VALU Coop Chinatown Studio

All events are free or by donation

Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey is a multiyear, multi-community, multi-generational movement that brings together communities of the Interior Salish and Coast Salish peoples with neighbouring nations con nected to the Fraser and Thompson rivers, watersheds, mountains and salmon. Through arts and ceremony, Honouring Our Grandmothers brings together family members and residents who work to restore relationships between generations and communities.

“We’re acknowledging Grandmothers who traveled to the Downtown Eastside, Grandmas who passed on, and Grandmas who are with us now. We’re honouring their lived experiences, stories and legacies left for us to dis cover and share. Destroyed connections to grandmothers have torn apart families. Many don’t know the stories of entire generations before." – Nadine Spence

At the heart of the journey are histories told through visual artwork on travelling chests that visit different commu nities and collect messages: for the creator, ancestors, mother earth, Grandmothers and families. These offer ings help people to find peace or celebrate their life’s journey. At the end of the journey, messages will be released in the community.

The vision of the journey was launched at the 2021 Heart of the City Festival. We are honoured to welcome back this important initiative. This fall’s Honouring Our Grand mothers Healing Journey in residence is produced by Fur ther We Rise Indigenous Arts Collective/Sacred Rock in partnership with Vancouver Moving Theatre / Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, along with community partnerships with Massy Arts Society, VALU CO-OP Com munity Projects / Love Intersections, Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre, Vines Art Festival and Carn egie Community Centre / Oppenheimer Park.

HONOURING OUR GRANDMOTHERS HEALING JOURNEY MASSY ARTS GALLERY, 23 E. Pender

Exhibition, Generations of Women and Water

Thursday October 27 to Sunday November 6

Gallery Hours: Tues to Sun, 12pm - 5pm

By donation

Opening Reception, Generations of Women and Water

Wednesday October 26, 6pm - 7:30pm Free, registration is required, massyarts.com

Talk, Travelling Message Chests

Wednesday November 2, 6pm - 7:30pm Free, registration is required, massyarts.com

Cultural Protocol Talk, Inherent Responsibility

Thursday November 3, 6pm - 7:30pm Free, registration is required, massyarts.com

WINDOW DISPLAY, VALU CO-OP Chinatown Studio Elements Unite

October 26 to November 6

Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Benevolent Association 525 Carrall

KEEPING THE FIRES BURNING

Saturday October 29, 10am - 4pm

Oppenheimer Park, 400 block Powell Free

10am – 4pm

Nothing would warm our hearts more then meeting you in person as you place your offering in the Travelling Message Chests. We understand this will not be possible for everyone to do, especially in these times. You are welcome to mail your letter for the travelling message chest to: Sacred Rock, Box 116, Spences Bridge, BC, V0K 2L0

Artwork, Projects and Healing Journey Information

1pm - 3pm

Opening and Arriving of Community Elements Message Chest

For full descriptions go to Events or Visual Arts pages.

HEALING JOURNEY

HONOURING OUR GRANDMOTHERS HEALING JOURNEY 2021-2026

Further We Rise Arts Collective is an art, history and language collaboration between four Indig enous generations. Sacred Rock is a supporter of Further We Rise with their projects and pro grams. The vision of Sacred Rock is to connect Nlaka’pamux arts, cultural heritage, language, health, education, and the natural environment.

Nadine Spence (Nlaka’pamux/ Secwépemc) is the lead visionary artist, producer, curator and director, assisted by Further We Rise Indigenous Arts Collective, and supported by Sacred Rock. The Heart of the City Festival thanks Downtown Eastside resident and Community Engagement Mentor Stephen Lytton for bringing this journey to the Festival’s attention.

Further We Rise/Sacred Rock are inviting Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, grassroots organizations, businesses and communities to participate and support the future journey of the community travelling message chest over the upcoming years.

When the Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey completes, closing ceremonies will take place in the Downtown Eastside and then voyage up the river watersheds back to the mountains where the spirits and memories will be respectfully laid to rest. This will provide a chance for us to find some measure of closure where there has been none. And this will help communities, nations and Indigenous peoples to create new memories for the living families who participated, creating living memorials of truth, respect and unity.

“The Community Elements travelling message chest includes artwork reflective of the four elements of water, air, earth and fire that connect us all in four directions. The artwork is created by artists of different nationalities with historical relationships with Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island."

– Nadine Spence

Nadine Spence (Nlaka’pamux/ Secwépemc)

THURSDAY OCTOBER 27

INSTALLATION & ARTIST TALK

BE LIKE SOUND, PAUL WONG

Thursday October 27, 1pm - 3pm

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, 578 Carrall Registration required, visit the Festival website for additional details

Free. Admission to the Garden is not included

Be Like Sound is a six-channel immersive sound installation by renowned artist Paul Wong held in the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden’s Hall of One Hundred Rivers courtyard. The surround soundscape features a variety of curated sounds that evoke auditory familiarity for the soul and is designed to respond to acoustic aesthetics of the courtyard. Wong used the ancient Chinese Feng Shui system of the five elements – fire, earth, air, water and metal – as a conceptual source of inspiration for considering and gathering sounds. As a special Festival treat, Paul will lead two listening sessions, followed by a short talk and Q&A.

MUSIC

YINPIN NATIVE CHINESE ORCHESTRA

Thursday October 27, 1pm - 2:30pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

The Yinpin Native Chinese Orchestra is the new English name for the SRO Collaborative seniors orchestra. They have been making music together in their Single Room Occupancy (SRO) homes and the Festival is excited to present them in the Carnegie Theatre. With a membership of over a dozen musicians, they have a large repertoire of traditional and contemporary selections. Have a cup of tea and enjoy the music.

WORKSHOP

DAY OF THE DEAD DECORATIONS WORKSHOP

Thursday October 27, 1pm - 3pm

Carnegie Community Centre, 401 Main Free

The DTES community is coming together to make decorations to place on the altars for Day of the Dead. The celebration of the Day of the Dead is an Indigenous tradition common to many Latin American countries and cultures. It is a holiday to remember and honour loved ones lost, in a celebration on November 1st and 2nd. Traditions and customs vary but the most important tradition is the altar (the ofrenda). Join the workshop to make paper flowers and other decorations to add to a community altar. Everyone is welcome.

WORKSHOP

DREAMCATCHER DESIGNS WORKSHOP

Thursday October 27, 2pm - 4pm

Evelyne Saller Centre, 404 Alexander Free

RECEPTION

MEET THE ARTIST, REV. DR. VICTORIA MARIE

Thursday October 27, 1pm - 2:30pm

Carnegie 3rd Floor Gallery, 401 Main Exhibition Oct 4 - 29 Free

Meet Victoria Marie and get a chance to find out the method and inspiration behind her beautiful collection of artwork on display in the Creature Connection: We Are One Under the Sun visual art exhibition. “The intersection of engaging in environmental activism and my role as a spiritual leader have converged to instill in me a desire to learn more about the creatures that share our planet, especially those that are endangered.” – Reverend Dr. Victoria Marie

Learn how to create your own colourful dreamcatcher in one session. A dreamcatcher is a web said to filter dreams, allowing only good dreams to pass through while bad dreams are caught in the net. Evelyne Saller Centre serves clients of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, offering cafeteria services, laundry and free showers. The Recreation Department provides a variety of games and tournaments, health clinics and helpful resources. Drop in and see the brand new facility at 404 Alexander Street. Supplies provided. Everyone welcome.

DID YOU KNOW?

When the Vancouver Park Board creates signs to restore Indigenous place names, they consult with language and culture knowledge-keepers from the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations to ensure they’re using the correct name and the correct language.

Paul Wong

THURSDAY OCTOBER

READING

DTES WRITERS COLLECTIVE

Thursday October 27, 3pm - 4pm

Carnegie 3rd Floor Gallery, 401 Main Free

Every Thursday, the DTES Writers Collective gather to write together and, if they feel so inclined, to share their writing. For today’s session the writers’ group invites you to join them. For some of the time, they will read to you some of what they’ve written this fall, and will invite you to write with them and share if you want to. They will ask you to write about the theme of this year’s Festival, Community is our Mentor. How does the Downtown Eastside inspire you; how does it help you truly be who you are?

GATHERING

AMAZINGLY ALIVE: AN AFTERNOON WITH THE BUD OSBORN POETRY LIBRARY

Thursday October 27, 4pm - 5:30pm

Carnegie Classroom 2, 401 Main Free

Join in and share stories about poet Bud Osborn while getting to know more about the poetry books in his personal collection. We will give them a little dust off, we will read out loud from random books, and we will talk about how we might put Bud’s collection to use in the future in a caring and considerate way. For more information about the Bud Osborn Poetry Library ask staff at VPL Carnegie Branch for the full index of books, as well as read the article by previous Branch Head Natalie Porter: http://surl.li/daegb.

RADIO

KLA HOW YA ON CO-OP RADIO

Thursday October 27, 5pm - 6pm Live Broadcast, Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5FM

Host Gunargie O’Sullivan provides updates and interviews on news and current events on Kla How Ya. Listen to what people directly involved or affected have to say about current issues and possible solutions. Today, Gunargie interviews artists taking part in this year’s Heart of the City Festival. To reach Gunargie and be part of her show during the Festival, email gunargie.coopradio@gmail. com. Listen to Co-op Radio!

DID YOU KNOW?

First Nation canoe racing came to False Creek for two days this September during the Four Fires Festival at Concord Community Park. Hosted by Dickie Louis (Musqueam) and Mike Billy Sr. (Squamish), these were the first official Indigenous canoe races held in False Creek for over 100 years, with teams competing from up and down the West Coast.

CONVERSATION

LIGHT UP THE NIGHT: CONVERSATION WITH TRAVIS LUPICK

Thursday October 27, 1pm - 2:30pm

Online, Festival Website Free

Author and award-winning journalist Travis Lupick shares stories from his recent book, Light Up the Night: America’s Drug Overdose Crisis and the Drug Users Fighting for Survival (New Press, 2022). Told through embedded reporting focused on two heroic activists, Light Up the Night is the story of courageous people stepping in where government has failed. Lupick is also the author of Fighting for Space: Drug Users’ Response to the Overdose Crisis about Canada’s response to the opioid epidemic. Lupick will discuss how Canada and the US have responded to their shared emergency. Interviewing Travis is Amanda Siebert, an award-winning author with a new book released this fall, Psyched: Seven Cutting-Edge Psychedelics Changing the World (Greystone Books, 2022). Recorded on Oct 4, 2022.

VIEWING ROOM

LlIGHT UP THE NIGHT:

CONVERSATiON WITH TRAVIS LUPICK

Thursday October 27, 4pm - 5:30pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

Earlier today, a recorded conversation with author and award-winning journalist Travis Lupick was presented online on the Festival website. For those who don’t have access to the internet, or want to listen to this conversation again, here is an opportunity to watch the recording in the Carnegie Viewing Room.

Travis Lupick

OCTOBER 27

INTANGIBLE TREASURES OF THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE

Thursday October 27, 7pm - 9pm Online, Registration required at bit.ly/ITDTES2022

Free, donations appreciated

Will also be livestreamed in the Carnegie Viewing Room, 401 Main

Intangible Treasures of the Downtown Eastside (Zoom Shadow Two) is a collection of short shadow plays created on the Zoom platform by artists Dallas, Stephen Lytton, Rev. Dr. Victoria Marie, Gunargie O’Sullivan (ga’axstasalas), Priscillia Mays Tait, Savannah Walling and Elwin Xie. They share intangible personal treasures that give them strength: from their culture and lived experiences to family stories and Chinatown’s Union Laundry. Co-directors Sarah May Redmond and Cathy Stubington worked with collaborating storytellers, along with composer Joelysa Pakanea and Anthony McNab Favel, Nadine Spence, Mike Richter and Fanna Yee who added layers of musical magic, visual design or helped as puppeteers. Join the artists on Zoom for Q&A following the presentation. Co-produced by Runaway Moon Theatre (Enderby, BC/Secwépemc homelands) and Vancouver Moving Theatre. Runaway Moon Theatre were inspiring mentors of VMT in the development of the 2003 Downtown Eastside Community Play; and collaborators with VMT on The Minotaur Dreams and TRACKS Symposium

RADIO

ARTS RATIONAL – Thursday October 27, 9pm - 11pm

Live Broadcast Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5FM

comedic merit. With the assistance of the audience and her trusty unicorn sidekick, Hilary Angus, our MC will decide who performs best while dolphining a balloon on their nose, whose picture of a puppy most looks like a famous poet, and whose haiku is the funniest. Famous Last Words is proud to welcome back returning champion Dina Del Bucchia, RC Weslowski, Lucia Misch, Johnny Trinh and a player to be named later. This event is made possible with the support and assistance of Simon Fraser University's Vancity Office of Community Engagement, The League of Canadian Poets, Hummingbird Communications and Design, and Death Rides a Unicorn Events.

BURLESQUE

VIRAGO NATION | Thursday October 27, 8pm The Ironworks, 235 Alexander Tickets: $20. Tickets available at Festival Website or bit.ly/VGN2022

Virago Nation is a collective of Indigenous artists creating performance through burlesque, theatre, song and spoken word as well as workshops, and community networks rematriating Indigenous sexuality. Founded in May 2016, Virago Nation is on a mission to reclaim Indigenous sexuality from the toxic effects of colonization. Through humour, seduction, pop culture and politics they will show that Indigenous women will not be confined to the colonial virgin-whore dichotomy but will design a new dynamic and multi-faceted sexual identity rooted in their own desires. This is their reconciliation.

Gerry Kowalenko regularly hosts in-depth Interviews and commentary on the local arts scene. For this evening Jay Hamburger hosts a special Festival hour on Arts Rational. Jay talks with poet, writer and activist Gilles Cyrenne who has initiated a new poetry program, Spontaneous Poetry, taking place in front of the Carnegie Centre for three days during the Festival. Jay also talks with storyteller Jim Sands who will present Celebrating Friends and Mentors: a Storytelling Cabaret as well as a new program We Are Somebody, that celebrates the creative spirit of the Downtown Eastside community. Guest poet is Patrick Foley with poems of concern for the Downtown Eastside.

Anthony Favel, Dallas

Virago Nation

DIALOGUE

8TH SYMPOSIUM ON RECONCILIATION & REDRESS IN THE ARTS: STORIES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN OUR GOVERNANCE

Friday October 28, 10am - 2pm Online

Free for DTES Residents, Registration and info: https://bit.ly/redress2022

For the Festival's 8th Annual Symposium, we present Stories Have Always Been Our Governance, a national dialogue on culture in Indigenous cities that considers the needs of Indigenous cultural and urban practitioners. The Symposium's tradition continues with a deep-dive for settler cultural and land-based organizations to learn from successful strategies of showing up to do redress in policies and systems in building Indigenous cities. The day opens with an inspiring panel of Indigenous urban cultural leaders from across Turtle Island, followed by a music performance lunch break, and afternoon training in small group breakout sessions.

This is for people who understand that reconciliation is broken in Canada, and want to be inspired with knowledge and tools to get past reconciliation and act on redress. The Symposium is a safe place to discuss how to take the next steps into policy action to create conditions for urban governance and justice. Bring your questions, your inventories, your successes, and your challenges!

Presented by Voor Urban Labs and the National Urban Indigenous Coalitions Council, in partnership with Vancouver Moving Theatre and the DTES Heart of the City Festival.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 28

WORKSHOP

GUITARS! GUITARS! GUITARS!

Friday October 28, 10am - 11am & 11:15am - 12:15pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

Ever wanted to play guitar? Now is your chance because we have Guitars! Guitars! Guitars! This is a drop-in program and all skill abilities are welcome. If you have never touched a guitar before, or if you want to sing and strum some songs with friends, or if you want to shred a few tunes during a break - come on down! Everyone is welcome.

ART

ART IN THE STREETS

SPONTANEOUS POETRY

Friday October 28, 1pm - 2:30pm

Carnegie Centre outdoor sidewalk, 401 Main Free

Today: Kevin Spenst

Sat Oct 29: Fiona Tinwei Lam | Sun Oct 30: Gilles Cyrenne

Have you ever wondered what a poet or writer could do with one of your thoughts or ideas? Here’s your chance to find out. This year’s DTES Heart of the City Festival sponsors a Spontaneous Writing Booth for three days just outside of the Carnegie Community Centre. Bring an idea for a poem, and the poet will take your idea and write a poem or maybe a couple of paragraphs of prose poetry for you to take away. They will do the best they can, in the moment, to create something memorable that’s relevant to your idea. The poets look forward to seeing you.

TOUR

GUIDED TOUR OF ST JAMES’ ANGLICAN CHURCH

Friday October 28, 3:30pm

St James’ Anglican Church, 303 E. Cordova Free

An invitation to visit St. James’ Church, a heritage gem, with a commentary on its history and architecture. There will be an opportunity for those who wish to climb the bell tower.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 28

CONVERSATION

COMMUNITY IN THE MAKING

Friday October 28, 5pm - 7pm

Online, Register at https://bit.ly/CITM202 Free

Join Jing Li and guest speakers in an online panel discussion on Community In The Making, based on Jing Li’s doctoral research (2014-2017) exploring the role of the Heart of the City Festival in the Downtown Eastside community. Guided by this year’s theme, Community Is Our Mentor, Jing will revisit some past Festival events and the involvement of invited speakers Stephen Lytton, Grace Eiko Thomson, John Endo Greenaway, Ruth Howard, and Skundaal Bernie Williams (DTES Community Play 2003, Against the Current 2015, Terrain of Thought 2015, and Survivors Totem Pole 2015). They will share their journeys of knowing and learning about the community-that-is-in-the-making and is our mentor.

MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE

BOXSET

Friday October 28, 6pm & 7:30pm

KW Atrium Studio, 111 W. Hastings

Also Oct 29 & Oct 30

Registration details: www.heartofthecityfestival.com Free Do you believe in magic? Come and join Victoria Gibson and Miriam Esquitín in a space where the impossible is visualized with sound, light and motion. Slip into a dreamspace inside the BOXSET where a series of surreal experiences await. Every journey is different as we encounter new energy and emotion to claim the imagination of both the performers and the audience.

READING

JOE SACCO: PAYING THE LAND

Friday October 28, 6pm Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre

ART

ART IN THE STREETS

ART MARKET IN THE ATRIUM

Friday October 28, 5pm - 9pm

Woodwards Atrium, 111 W. Hastings

Also Oct 29 & Oct 30

Audiences going to see BOXSET at KW Atrium Studio on Oct. 28, 29 & 30 are in for a treat: you will be able to shop at an Art Market in the Atrium before and after the presentations. Original work for sale includes Native carving, beaded earrings, paintings, drawings, toques, DTES T-shirts, magnets, badges, cards and decorations. The local artists at the special three-day Festival Art Market are Alida, Diane, John, Jujube, Mike, Mildred, Montana, Norman, Teresa, Tina, Victoria and Wendy. Everyone is welcome.

SFU Woodwards, 149 W. Hastings

Free. Register at Eventbrite

Registration details available at Festival website

The subarctic Canadian Northwest Territories are home to valuable resources, including oil, gas, and diamonds. With mining came jobs and investment, but also road-building, pipelines, and toxic waste, which scarred the landscape and deformed the ways of life for Dene communities. Join cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco, to explore these issues through his book Paying the Land – which lends an ear to trappers and chiefs, activists and priests, to tell a sweeping story about money, dependency, loss, and culture. Discussion and Q&A, moderated by Glenn Coulthard. Co-presented by SFU’s Vancity Office Office of Community Engagement and the DTES Heart of the City Festival.

Grace Eiko

Thomson

Skundaal

Bernie Williams

Ruth Howard

John

Endo

Greenaway

Stephen Lytton

Illustration by Joe Sacco

PHOTO EXHIBIT

ONCE UPON A TIME

Friday October 28, 6pm - 8pm RayCam Cooperative Community Centre, 920 E. Hastings

Also Oct 27 Free

Douglas Kennedy and Clement Young-Mangin will exhibit a collection of photographic prints, along with multimedia pieces shared by the RayCam community. Douglas Kennedy is a wellknown creative photographer based in Vancouver. His experience includes a combination of studies, international freelancing in the fashion world, and extensive world travels. Doug started teaching photography at Raycam on his birthday in October of 1986 and continues to this day; he can usually be found in the RayCam darkroom on Thursday mornings. Photographer Clement Young-Mangin, age 15, has been shooting for around three years. He enjoys taking photos of nature and wildlife. He started out shooting digital but discovered his grandfather’s collection of analog cameras that led to trying out film. Since then, he has been learning from Doug Kennedy and Alex Mackenzie how to shoot, develop and print black & white film.

FRIDAY OCTOBER

FILM & DISCUSSION

DON’T READ US THE BOOK WE WROTE: RESEARCH 101

Friday October 28, 7pm - 8:30pm

312 Main Free

Visit the Festival website for additional details

Join members of the CREW team for a screening of Don’t Read Us the Book We Wrote (2022, 18 min), the mini-documentary about the development of DTES CREW (Community Research Ethics Workshop). The film shares the poignant story of community members coming together to create a new approach regarding research in the DTES. Director Janina Krabbe and videographer Duncan Ris follow the group, from publishing Research 101: A Manifesto for Ethical Research in the Downtown Eastside (2018), to travelling the world and university classrooms, and working with academic institutional research ethics boards and paradigmshifting policy advancements. CREW is an idea based in the true collaborative spirit of the DTES, and its potential for positive, progressive social change. The conversation continues to blossom to this day, in new petals of potential, respect, and reciprocity. Screening followed by speakers and community conversation.

THEATRE

STRIKING AND SINGING! AN EVENING OF SONGS FROM BATTLE OF BALLANTYNE PIER THE MUSICAL

Friday October 28, 7:30pm - 8:30pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

Battle of Ballantyne Pier is a locally-created new musical about the longshore workers’ strike of 1935 in Vancouver and the bloody confrontation known in Canadian labour history as the Battle of Ballantyne Pier. Book by Sherry MacDonald; songs by Thomas Jones, Sherry MacDonald and Russell Wallace. For this evening’s performance, songs are performed by Thomas Jones and Sarah May Redmond. All are friends of the Festival; Sherry is an award-winning playwright who presented an excerpt of Battle of Ballantyne Pier in 2018; Thomas is an actor and songwriter whose show Woody Sed about Woody Guthrie was also part of the Festival in 2018; Sarah May Redmond is a theatre artist and musician, who this year is co-director of Intangible Treasures of the Downtown Eastside with Runaway Moon Theatre; and Russell, a multi-award-winning composer, producer and traditional singer from the Lil’wat Nation, has performed many times at the festival with his family group Tzo’kam. facebook. com/ballantynemusical

Photograph by Douglas Kennedy

Illustration by David Lester

OCTOBER 29

CULTURAL SHARING

KEEPING THE FIRES BURNING

Honouring Our Grandmothers’ Healing Journey

Saturday October 29, 10am - 4pm Oppenheimer Park, 400 block Powell Free

A ceremonial fire is lit.

“Honouring our Grandmothers Healing Journey” originated from the Interior Salish Matriarchs and peoples of Nlaka’pamux and Secwépemc. We’re people who’ve lived with fire since time immemorial, with traditional firekeepers who maintained the lands with fire for protection, food and health with the natural cycle of all things. We were taught very young to respect fire through traditional teachings passed down from generations of Indigenous tribes and Grandmothers, whose spirits guide and protect us to this day.”– Nadine Spence

10am – 4pm Artwork, Projects and Healing Journey Information

Artwork by Irene Adams, Nadine Spence, and Roger Spence.

1pm – 3pm Opening and Arriving of Community Elements Message Chest

The opening arriving ceremony for the community Elements Chest is hosted by Community Engagement Mentor Stephen Lytton, and accompanied with a song by Dalannah Gail Bowen. The chest will arrive in Oppenheimer Park, carried by youth guardians. Elements Chest artists who finished the chest with visual art and poetry will be acknowledged.

Guests are invited to contribute messages (words, images, poems) to the Community Elements travelling chest. These messages are for their Grandmothers, families, lands and waters: to help celebrate, bring closure and guide spirits home. These messages will be properly respected, released and laid to rest in ceremony on completion of “Honouring our Grandmothers Healing Journey”.

FILM & DIALOGUE

LEARNING FROM COMMUNITY: HOUSING JUSTICE WITH SRO TENANTS

Saturday October 29, 1pm - 3pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main

Registration for non-DTES residents available online, www.heartofthecityfestival.com Free

You are invited to watch three short films, followed by a conversation circle with SRO tenants Nicole Baxter, Kevin Nanaquewitang, Josh Gillen, Richard Schwab and Tom deGrey. In a collaboration with The Right to Remain Research Collective and filmmaker Eliot Galán, this interactive dialogue and film screening showcases three vignettes of SRO (Single Room Occupancy) tenant researchers who are leaders in their community. Their stories of self-determination in housing struggles open up space for collective learning. They invite audiences to share in their vision of transitional strategies for affordable, safe and healthy SRO housing. The audience will be invited to offer questions. Come early to meet the crew, stay after 3pm to join in a community meal.

ART IN THE STREETS

SPONTANEOUS POETRY

Saturday October 29, 1pm - 2:30pm Carnegie Centre outdoor sidewalk, 401 Main Free

Today: Vancouver’s Poet Laureate, Fiona Tinwei Lam

Fri Oct 28: Kevin Spenst | Sun Oct 30: Gilles Cyrenne

Have you ever wondered what a poet or writer could do with one of your thoughts or ideas? Here’s your chance to find out! This year’s DTES Heart of the City Festival sponsors a Spontaneous Writing Booth for three days just outside the front door of the Carnegie Community Centre. Bring an idea for a poem, and the poet will transform your idea into a poem or maybe a couple of paragraphs of prose poetry for you to take home. They will do the best they can, in the moment, to create a memorable and relevant response to your idea. The poets look forward to meeting you.

ART

Honourary Secwépemc Grandmothers Margaret Rose (Archie/ Sampson) Spence with her Sister Minnie Georgina Archie.

SRO Collaborative

FAMILY WORKSHOP

MAY THE WATER IN ME SING FOR THE WATER IN YOU

Saturday October 29, 1pm - 4pm

Left of Main, 211 Keefer

To register, email: operations@mascalldance.ca, call 778822-7349 or register on the spot

Pay-what-you-can. Everybody welcome.

A family friendly hands-on event with painting, singing and dancing stories; a workshop for all ages with Alexandra Thomson. Rain or shine. Alexandra is a Métis artist, teacher, mother of two, Aunty to many. She has been teaching art, drama, and dance for over thirty years. She was a participant at the first Aboriginal Dance Project at the Banff Centre, and holds an MEd with a focus on Creativity. She sings with The Daughters of the Drum and continues to seek out ceremony as a way of being in good relationship to all of life. Presenting partners: Andrea Menard, Surrey Art Gallery, MascallDance, Canada Council for the Arts, Elder Aline La Flamme, Left of Main.

ART

ART IN THE STREETS

ART MARKET IN THE ATRIUM

Saturday October 29, 5pm - 9pm

Woodwards Atrium, 111 W. Hastings

Also on Fri Oct 28 & Sun Oct 30

Audiences attending the performance of BOXSET at KW Atrium Studio on Oct. 28, 29 & 30 will have a special treat: an opportunity to shop at a pop-up Art Market in the Atrium before and after the presentations. Original work for sale includes Native carving, beaded earrings, paintings, drawings, toques, DTES T-shirts, magnets, badges, cards and decorations. Local artists participating in this special 3-day Festival Art Market include Alida, Diane, John, Jujube, Mike, Mildred, Montana, Norman, Teresa, Tina, Victoria and Wendy. Everyone welcome.

MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE

BOXSET

Saturday October 29, 6pm & 7:30pm

Also Fri Oct 28 & Sun Oct 30 KW Atrium Studio, 111 W. Hastings

Registration details: www.heartofthecityfestival.com Free

Do you believe in magic? Come and join Victoria Gibson and Miriam Esquitín in a space where the impossible is visualized with sound, light and motion. Slip into a dreamspace inside the BOXSET where a series of surreal experiences await. Every journey is different as we encounter new energy and emotion to claim the imagination of both the performers and the audience.

SATURDAY OCTOBER

MUSIC

Patsy Klein/Tony Wilson Band

Saturday October 29, 7:30pm - 9pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

Patsy Klein and the Tony Wilson Band will perform for you compositions from two multi-media projects by guitarist Wilson: “Looking Back” (dealing with the issue of child abuse); and “The Homeless Project”. Vocalist Patsy Klein (Veda Hille, The Colourifics) and guitarist Tony Wilson (Peggy Lee Band, Pugs and Crows) began collaborating eight years ago. They initially performed as a duo and after a year were joined by bassist Russell Sholberg and drummer Kenton Loewen. Since that time the quartet has appeared at a variety of venues in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and at the Vancouver Jazz Festival. The band concentrates on original material and also performs covers by a variety of artists.

KARAOKE

Karaoke Festival

Special at The West

Saturday October 29, 8pm - 1am

The West Hotel, 488 Carrall Free

Longtime host Gordon Paul dominates the karaoke scene in the DTES. With brusque encouragement, Gordon will get you to step up to the mic and sing it out! This local watering hole is a community favourite where everyone knows your name. Go ahead, singing will make you happy!

Patsy Klein/Tony Wilson Band

Gordon Paul

SUNDAY OCTOBER 30

WALKING TOUR

TWO AMIGOS WALKING TOUR, WITH JOHN ATKIN AND BOB SUNG

Sunday October 30, 10am - 11:30am

Limited capacity, Registration required, bit.ly/WTDTES2022

$10 / low income pay what you can

The Festival is excited to present a walking exploration with the powerhouse duo of John Atkin and Bob Sung. The Two Amigos bring unique insights to the neighbourhood’s history, culture and architecture. Along the way you’ll discover what’s in the herbal stores, the fight for neighbourhood preservation, local architecture, and bbq’d meats! John is a civic historian and heritage consultant, and Bob hosts cultural and culinary tours of Chinatown.

ART IN THE STREETS

SPONTANEOUS POETRY

Sunday October 30, 1pm - 2:30pm

Carnegie Centre outdoor sidewalk, 401 Main Free

Today: Gilles Cyrenne

Fri Oct 28: Kevin Spenst | Sat Oct 29: Fiona Tinwei Lam

Have you ever wondered what a poet or writer could do with one of your thoughts or ideas. Here’s your chance to find out. This year’s DTES Heart of the City Festival sponsors a Spontaneous Writing Booth for three days just outside of the Carnegie Community Centre. Bring an idea for a poem, and the poet will take your idea and write a poem or maybe a couple of paragraphs of prose poetry for you to take home. They will do the best they can, in the moment, to create something memorable that’s relevant to your idea. The poets look forward to seeing you.

SHOWCASE

CELEBRATING FRIENDS AND MENTORS: A STORYTELLING CABARET

Sunday October 30, 12:30pm – 1:30pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

Friendship and mentorship are essential building blocks of community. This celebration features stories, music, and poetry by a line-up of seasoned DTES performers. They will be performing pieces honouring friends and mentors who inspire our lives and community. Who are the ones that have guided us? What can we learn from their example? What are the conditions that make friendship and mentorship thrive? Join this event and remember to stay around for the panel discussion on mentorship and writing that follows. Facilitated by Jim Sands, an East Vancouver-based storyteller, musician and performer.

PANEL

POETS, WRITERS, MENTORS & MENTEES, IT’S COMPLICATED!

Sunday October 30, 2pm – 3:30pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

It’s never been easy to be a poet or a writer and in these quickly changing times, writers need to create a hub of support with their peers. Today’s conversation questions: how to make connections, how to support Downtown Eastside writers more, how to get known outside of the DTES? In these times, how do you take care of yourself? How do you keep moving forward? How do you find support? Where are we now and where are we going? As the scene changes, established writers spend more time with emerging writers, and that needs a formal structureand then how does that affect the environment again? It’s complicated!

Guests: Fiona Tinwei Lam, author, poet, mentor, collaborator and Vancouver’s Poet Laureate - “the people’s poet” - for 2022-2024; Henry Doyle, DTES warrior-poet-janitor and winner of the 2022 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (BC Book Prizes) for his poetry collection No Shelter; and Elee Kraljii Gardiner, author, poet, editor and founding director of Thursdays Writing Collective.

Moderated by Betsy Warland, a leading writer, teacher, and manuscript mentor/editor. Throughout her career, Warland has been dedicated to emerging writers; from initiating the Toronto Women’s Writing Collective in 1975 to the design and direction of SFU’s The Writer’s Studio in 2001, leading to Thursdays Writing Collective in the Downtown Eastside.

ART

L to R: Fiona Tinwei Lam, Henry Doyle, Elee Kraljii Gardiner

WORKSHOPS (FOR YOUTH)

COMMUNITY IS COLLAGE: CUTTING OUT THE STORIES THAT SHAPED US

Sunday October 30, 1pm - 5pm

Also Nov 6

Massy Art Gallery, 23 E. Pender Free. Register at massyarts.com Massy Arts and Vancouver-based visual artists Rafael Zen and Khalil Alomar present a paper collage workshop for young artists (ages 14-18) that aims to teach the artistic techniques of paper collage while putting into dialogue three systemic and intersectional concepts that have built and shaped contemporary societies: race, class, and gender. This in-person workshop is planned for all artistic levels; no previous experience is needed.

EXHIBITION TOUR

TRUE TO PLACE: STÍMETSTEXW TEL XÉLTEL

Sunday October 30, 3pm

Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, 639 Hornby Free admission from 3pm - 4pm Walk through the True to Place: stímetstexw tel xéltel exhibition with guest curator Carrielynn Victor. Join the tour for an inside look at the work of the ten featured artists and hear the stories about their paintings. If you’re unable to attend in-person, the tour will be recorded and made available online. The Gallery thanks their Community Access Partner, Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA), for their continued support.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS

DONT FEED ‘DA PIGEONS

Sunday October 30, 4pm - 4:15pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

What is it about pigeons? When you shoo them, they always come back. They sit on the ledge outside and look in, observing everything. Lance Lim has a fascination with pigeons; sometimes they’re seen as a pest or as invisible, and sometimes we’re in awe of their resilience and determination. In this short work-inprogress, Lance creates movement to explore this contradiction. Lance is a contemporary performance artist, with a background in dance and theatre; born and raised in Strathcona, he was always a mover. He continues to see the world with a sense of curiosity.

SUNDAY OCTOBER

Lance Lim

Carrielynn Victor

SUNDAY OCTOBER 30

ART

ART IN THE STREETS

ART MARKET IN THE ATRIUM

Sunday October 30, 5pm - 9pm

Woodwards Atrium, 111 W. Hastings

Also Fri Oct 28 & Sat Oct 29

Audiences going to see BOXSET at KW Atrium Studio on Oct. 28, 29 & 30 will have a special treat and be able to shop at an Art Market in the Atrium before and after the presentations. Original work for sale includes Native carving, beaded earrings, paintings, drawings, toques, DTES Tshirts, magnets, badges, cards and decorations. The local artists at the special 3-day Festival Art Market are Alida, Diane, John, Jujube, Mike, Mildred, Montana, Norman, Teresa, Tina, Victoria and Wendy. Everyone welcome.

MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE

BOXSET

Sunday October 30, 6pm & 7:30pm

Also Oct 28 & Oct 29

KW Atrium Studio, 111 W. Hastings

Registration details: www.heartofthecityfestival.com Free

Do you believe in magic? Come and join Victoria Gibson and Miriam Esquitín in a space where the impossible is visualized with sound, light and motion. Slip into a dreamspace inside the BOXSET where a series of surreal experiences await. Every journey is different as we encounter new energy and emotion to claim the imagination of both the performers and the audience.

MUSIC

URBAN BANDSCAPE with Carnegie Jazz Band alumni

Sunday October 30, 7pm - 9pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

The Festival is thrilled to bring an evening of jazz, rock, funk and improvised music to Carnegie! This not-to-be-missed concert of exceptional musicianship and socially relevant content features the newly minted Urban Bandscape with guest appearances from alumni of the Carnegie Jazz Band. The concert, entitled Gritty City, is designed to blow the roof off Carnegie and features a selection of original songs by Brad Muirhead; popular standards heard in the clubs and streets of Vancouver’s historic East End; and songs from the Downtown Eastside songbook.

Urban Bandscape is a collaboration between trombonist/ composer/arranger Brad Muirhead, Stephen Robb (woodwinds, piano) and Tom Pickett (vocals). The group is rounded out with Adrian Smith (trumpet), Brent Gubbels (bass) and Elliot Polsky (drums). Joining this stellar lineup is Liam White (guitar) and alumni from the Carnegie Jazz Band: Mark Boreen (tenor sax), Lorae Farrell (trumpet), Terry Hunter (piano), Michel Vles (flute) and Gary Wildeman (drums). Terry Hunter will emcee, with narration written by Savannah Walling.

DID YOU KNOW?

Animation by Victoria Gibson

Urban Bandscape

INSTALLATION

THE ART IN THE PARK PROJECT

Along the walls of the Carnegie during the Festival, take a look at the braided puppets installed throughout the Centre. The installation is from this year’s Art In The Park Project, a summer-long creative residency in Andy Livingstone Park led by artists Sylvan Hamburger and Carnegie’s Indigenous Elder-in-Residence Les Nelson. Now in its second year, the project invited the park’s many users and communities to draw, bead, braid, and create prints together. And fill the park with art. This “harm reduction through arts” initiative aims to reduce stigma related to substance use, and to support connection and resilience in the communities that use Andy Livingstone Park.

Join Elder Les Nelson and artist Sylvan Hamburger for an interactive discussion and celebration Monday October 31, 3pm – 4:30pm, Carnegie 3rd Floor Gallery, 401 Main.

10TH ANNIVERSARY

SFU WOODWARDS CULTURAL PROGRAMS

SFU Woodward's Cultural and Community Programs (SFUW) was created to develop and support public and community arts programming. During the last ten years, they’ve presented live cutting-edge performances featuring local and internationally acclaimed artists like Robert Lepage, Crystal Pite, and Stan Douglas; hosted unique and diverse community and cultural partnerships; supported new commissioned work, co-presentations, public dialogues and guest artist residencies; and provided community tickets and employment opportunities. From 2010-2019, Vancouver Moving Theatre and SFUW Cultural Programs embarked on a ten year partnership to coproduce “Bah Humbug!”, an original adaptation of Dickens’ “Christmas Carol, tailored for, with and about the complex and culturally rich Downtown Eastside.

TH ANNIVERSARY

FIREHALL ARTS CENTRE

The Firehall Arts Centre has a long history of championing new and marginalized voices in the arts, presenting theatre and dance works that stir the soul, building partnerships and dialogues between communities, and putting onto their stage innovative multi-arts programming that reflects this neighbourhood - and this country’s - social and cultural di versity. They recently received a Lieutenant Governors Arts and Music Award.

learn more about the Festival. From there you can find links to our Facebook page, follow us using your favourite social media and sign up for our newsletter.

of the City

a friend

part of the

L to R: Leslie Nelson, Sylvan Hamburger

MONDAY OCTOBER 31

WORKSHOP

HALLOWE’EN COLOURING WORKSHOP

Monday October 31, 10am - 4pm Evelyne Saller Centre, 404 Alexander Free

Here’s your opportunity to get creative with Halloween puzzles, colouring pages, and painting of pumpkins. Evelyne Saller Centre serves clients of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, offering cafeteria services, laundry and free showers. The Recreation Department provides a variety of games and tournaments, health clinics and helpful resources. Drop in and see their brand new facility at 404 Alexander Street. Supplies provided. Everyone welcome.

WORKSHOP

DAY OF THE DEAD DECORATIONS WORKSHOP

Monday October 31, 11am - 12pm

Watari Counselling & Support Services, 678 E. Hastings Free

The DTES community is coming together to make decorations to place on the altars for Day of the Dead, as we remember and honour those we have lost. The celebration of the Day of the Dead is an Indigenous tradition common to many Latin American countries and cultures: a holiday that is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd. Traditions and customs vary but the most important tradition is the Altar (the ofrenda). Join the workshop to make paper flowers and other decorations to add to one of the community altars. Everyone welcome.

STORYSHARING

STORIES FROM THE HEART

Monday October 31, 12:30pm - 2pm

Carnegie 3rd Floor Gallery, 401 Main Free Stories from the heart shared by the Carnegie Centre’s Indigenous Advisory Committee will offer an uplifting afternoon of conversation with committee members. They will share their stories of community, connections and histories from the past to the present. Drop by to listen to these inspirational stories, and enjoy an opportunity to talk with the committee during question & answer sharing.

RADIO

WHEN SPIRIT WHISPERS ON CO-OP RADIO

Monday October 31, 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. To reach Gunargie and be part of her show during the Festival, email gunargie.coopradio@gmail.com. Listen to Co-op Radio!

OPENING RECEPTION

THREE CASES: A LITTLE ACT OF KINDNESS

Les Nelson, Sylvan Hamburger, Mildred Grace German

Monday October 31, 3pm - 4:30pm

Exhibition Oct 31 to Nov 29

Carnegie 3rd Floor Gallery, 401 Main Free

This exhibition celebrates art created in the community – the Art in the Park Project with Les Nelson and Sylvan Hamburger, and a variety of mixed media creations by Mildred Grace German and the Oppenheimer Ladies Tea Party. Now or in the past, little acts of kindness have helped us to mentor, and be mentored. When someone touches our hearts, the wonderful experience of kindness generates cascading ripples of good. This show is dedicated to you and all of us. We honour the many art and cultural events in our community: from community kitchen gatherings to the daring ladies tea parties and struggles for safe spaces, from elders sharing their wisdom and knowledge to frontline workers and advocates, from art-making and gatherings in the parks to groups and individuals who are dreaming and working for a better world and healing of all souls. Celebrate at the opening reception with Elder Les Nelson and artists Sylvan Hamburger and Mildred Grace German.

MUSIC

EVIL CULT SINGALONG WITH THE LEGION OF FLYING MONKEYS

Monday October 31, 4pm - 5pm

MacLean Park Fieldhouse, 710 Keefer Free

Come in costume to MacLean Park for the third annual Legion of Flying Monkeys Evil* Cult Singalong! Enjoy a rousing good time with music composed for wildly original instruments built out of Strathcona-grown wood; dance to protest-folk-rock and join in the pledge to become part of a larger, completely benevolent corporation. What could possibly go wrong? *Caution: children will be exposed to humanist and socialist lyrics.

The Legion of Flying Monkeys

COMMUNITY CELEBRATION

HALLOWE’EN PARTY AT THE DTES MARKET

Monday October 31, 4pm - 7pm

DTES Market, 26 E. Hastings Free

Also live broadcast on Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5FM, and live streamed on Heart of the City Festival Facebook page.

Celebrate with the Downtown Eastside for everyone’s favourite party – Hallowe’en!

The afternoon kicks off with live DJ Angle and a birthday celebration for Trey Helten. Wear your best costume and at 4:30pm enter the Costume Contest Parade; there will be prizes for best and most creative. At 5pm Miss G will host standup comedian Nick Perry, guitarist Mark McLeod, poet Lisa Wilson, and singer Makeda Martin. And at 6pm, a top secret spooktacular band takes the stage; it’s not a trick, it’s a treat! An important resource and exciting place in the neighbourhood loved by many, the DTES Market supports hundreds of community members by providing a safe space to vend and supplement their incomes.

MONDAY OCTOBER

DID YOU KNOW?

Vancouver has a long history of tent encampments: from the 1890s when unemployed people took refuge on Burrard Inlet and False Creek shores; during the 1930s and the Great Depression to the 1980s shutdown of mental institutions releasing thousands of patients without adequate support; from the 1990s when the federal government canceled new social housing; to today where there have been large tent encampments somewhere in the city since 2010. Jean Swanson says, “It’s time that Vancouver creates a legal and safe place for people who are homeless to live, until we build the permanent, well built and affordable housing that we need to eventually end homelessness.”

20TH ANNIVERSARY

HOPE IN SHADOWS CALENDAR

Twenty years ago, Pivot Legal Society started a photo contest handing out single-use disposable cameras to capture images of the community and invited participants to show others what they saw. Through the intervening years, over 260 photos have been selected by community juries and Megaphone magazine vendors. Now published by Megaphone Magazine, the calendars provide a platform for visual storytellers to shine a light on parts of their community that are often unseen and unrecognized: moments of joy and triumph, grief and heartache, collective action and celebration, and the persistence of the human spirit in spite of struggles. Over 150 low-income vendors in Vancouver and Victoria keep the profits from the sales of the magazines and calendars.

THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE DISTRICT

Vancouver’s Oldest Neighbourhood

the Historic Heart of the City

The Downtown Eastside is founded on ancestral, unceded homelands of the Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəyəm), Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw), and TsleilWaututh (səlilwətaʔɬ), and later became home to a series of residential immigrant communities. Today’s Downtown Eastside district is made up of several historic neighbourhoods: Victory Square, Gastown, Hastings and Main Street corridors, Chinatown, Strathcona, Thornton Park, Oppenheimer/ Powell Street area (aka Paueru Gai or Nhon-machi), North Hastings Industrial area and the Port of Vancouver.

Our community is made up of people who live, work, volunteer, socialize or who have families or cultural/ ancestral roots in the Downtown Eastside. Our community includes anchor communities displaced across Metro Vancouver who maintain strong connections to local cultural centres, places of significance, and the local host First Nations.

Nick Perry

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 1

WORKSHOP

ACRYLIC PAINTING WORKSHOP

Tuesday November 1, 11am - 2pm

Evelyne Saller Centre, 404 Alexander Free

Unleash your creative talents at a do-it-yourself acrylic painting party. Evelyne Saller Centre serves clients of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, offering cafeteria services, laundry and free showers. The Recreation Department provides a variety of games and tournaments, health clinics and helpful resources. Drop in and see their brand new facility at 404 Alexander Street. Supplies provided. Everyone welcome.

ART

ART IN THE STREETS DRUMS ON THE PATIO

Tuesday November 1, 12pm - 2pm

Carnegie Patio, 401 Main Free

The Festival presents Art in the Streets with music, visual arts and poetry. A number of community performers and artists are taking part, including today’s lunchtime presentation. John Sam and Love Medicine bring the big drum and will sing on Carnegie’s outdoor patio. Thanks to the Carnegie Indigenous Programs for their support.

ART TALK

OPEN HOUSE AT THE CLINIC

Tuesday November 1, 1pm - 4:30pm

Downtown Community Health Centre, 569 Powell Free, Everyone welcome

Come join community artists for a creative afternoon at the Downtown Community Health Centre. Artists will exhibit some of their work and you'll have a chance to talk with them about themes and techniques. Watch a couple of films, including a short video by Arlene Bowman and a longer film and documentary on John Walkus Green. There will also be art for sale. The Health Centre runs an all inclusive art program supporting people in the Downtown Eastside.

RADIO

GOING INDIGENOUS ON CO-OP RADIO

Tuesday November 1, 1pm - 2:30pm

Live Broadcast, Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5FM Hosted by Gunargie O’Sullivan, the program Going Indigenous with Miss GVS explores 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 radio station to talk with people and artists who live and work on the neighbourhood’s streets. To reach Gunargie and be part of her show during the Festival, email gunargie.coopradio@gmail.com. Listen to Co-op Radio!

50TH ANNIVERSARY

STRATHCONA COMMUNITY CENTRE

In the 1960s, the East End and Strathcona neighbourhoods stood together to fight urban renewal when the City began demolishing blocks of housing and re-locating hundreds of residents. The City wanted to replace the local housing with high-rise towers for low-income residents, and wanted to replace large areas of Strathcona, Chinatown and Gastown with an eight-lane freeway and a third crossing over Burrard Inlet. Residents from the Strathcona Property Owners and Tenant Association (SPOTA) were joined by groups across the City to fight the plans. In 1972, officials finally abandoned urban renewal. SPOTA signed an agreement with all three levels of government for funds for community-led rehabilitation of existing housing, upgrading of streets, new sidewalks and parks, and the construction of Strathcona Community Centre.

CIRCLE CONVERSATION

TALKING TRUTHS:

DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE GRANDMOTHERS COLLECTIVE

Tuesday November 1, 5pm - 6:30pm PST Online, Registration required by Oct 25 at bit.ly/CCTT22 Free, donations appreciated You are invited to gather with the DTES Grandmothers Collective for a gentle sharing circle and artist-talk around the theme of hope and how we gather our stories and share our passions. Join Sharon Jinkerson-Brass, Dalannah Gail Bowen, Rosemary Georgeson and Savannah Walling, with host Olivia C. Davies (O.Dela Arts) to share the experience of creative collaboration and neo-Indigenous ways of (re)creating ceremony. Witnesses are invited to sit in this virtual circle with the artists as they speak to each other with open hearts and open minds. The circle conversation is on Zoom, followed by an interactive Q&A. To register, go to the Festival website. Limited to 50 people.

Medicine

acrylic painting by John Walkus Green

TUESDAY

SHADOW JAM

ART IS VITAL

Tuesday November 1, 7pm - 9:30pm

InterUrban Gallery, 1 E. Hastings, enter on Carrall Free, Register at bit.ly/ILLICIT2022

Illicit Projects theatre coalition presents Art is Vital with guests Mind of a Snail puppet CO. You are invited to join these artists for an interactive experience using the visual storytelling medium of shadow puppetry, live theatre and music. You, the audience, will be encouraged to participate in a “shadow jam”, working with overhead projectors, digital media, a variety of musical instruments, and materials used in shadow puppetry and cinema. Founding members of both companies will lead the collaborative workshop, as well as discuss the impacts their productions have had on themselves and audiences that have witnessed their performances. Snacks and drinks will be provided. Just bring an imagination!

Mind of a Snail puppet CO

CULTURAL SHARING

HEARTS BEAT 2022

Tuesday November 1, 7pm – 9pm Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Also Livestream on the Festival website Free Come listen to the stories of Hearts Beat, a musical exploration of the shared traditions of drums, dance and song between Indigenous and Irish cultures. Join us in person or virtually to watch the world premiere of Hearts Beat, the Film (2022, 17 min) along with live performances with lexwst’í:lem drum group, Ceól Abú Irish musicians, the De Danaan Irish dancers, and much more! Hearts Beat is honoured by the participation of Mary Point, Chief Bill Williams, Consul General Cathy Geagon and Vice Consul General Adam Duffy, Consulate General of Ireland Vancouver. This evening of entertainment promises to foster intercultural learning, spark new connections, and inspire our hearts and minds. Hearts Beat is proud to be part of the 19th Annual Heart of the City Festival and is a collaboration between the Carnegie Community Centre Indigenous Programs, the UBC Learning Exchange, the Irish Consulate, and Carnegie Community Centre Association. For inquiries please contact Nicole Bird, nicole.bird@vancouver.ca. Livestream viewing available on the Heart of the City Festival website.

lexwst’i:lem Drum Group

Illicit Projects

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 2

WORKSHOP

COLLAGE FOR SELF-DISCOVERY AND EXPRESSIVE ART

Wednesday November 2, 1pm - 3pm

Also Wed Oct 26, 1pm - 3pm

EWMA Studio, 800 E. Hastings Free

The fine folks at EWMA present a collage workshop, led by Rosina Santillana. Collage is a creative approach to making art; by deconstructing a subject, artists can put it back together in a new way to explore themes and images of self-discovery and personal expression. EWMA Studio's goal is to create Safe Space for arts-based wellness activities for anyone who identifies and lives full-time as a woman, including trans, two spirit and intersex women, and/or those in the Downtown Eastside who identify with a femme-of-centre non-binary gender to express themselves. The Studio allows for individuals to make art, learn new skills, and create marketable products, all while having fun and networking.

MUSIC

BELLS OF ST JAMES’

Wednesday November 2, 2pm

St James’ Angllican Church, 303 E. Cordova Free

At 2pm, come to the corner of Gore and E. Cordova, or stop outdoors in the surrounding streets and listen for the ringing of the bells from St. James' Anglican Church for All Souls’ Day and Day of the Dead. "The bells at St. James”, with a full octave range, were cast in 1937 in Loughborough, England, and continue sounding to this day. The tenor bell, weighing two tons, is the bell that’s heard tolling, and for special occasions, all eight bells play together.

RADIO

NO APOLOGIES NECESSARY

Wednesday November 2, 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Live Broadcast Co-op Radio

CFRO 100.5FM

Join hosts Kenan Sungar and Charlie Dangerface for live interviews with up-and-coming Canadian musicians and talent.

Special festival guests include rock ‘n roll veteran Joe Chow, Highs & Lows Mental Health Choir, and poet RC Weslowski. Listen to Co-op Radio!

CULTURAL SHARING

TRAVELLING MESSAGE CHESTS TALK

Honouring Our Grandmothers’ Healing Journey

Wednesday November 2, 6pm - 7:30pm Massy Arts Gallery, 23 E. Pender

Free, registration required, massyarts.com

As part of the Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey, chest artists and youth guardian chest carriers will share lived histories as Indigenous peoples, the vision of their chest artwork, and what the healing journey means to them personally and as a collective. We are honoured to be joined by bentwood chest maker Peter Wayne Gong (Stó:lō and Squamish). The multigenerational Indigenous speakers include chest artists Ed Archie Noisecat, Mike Alexander, Mike Dangeli, Nadine Spence, and youth guardian carrier William Nelson. The talk will be followed by Q&A. Presented by Massy Arts Society in collaboration with Sacred Rock, and in partnership with Vancouver Moving Theatre / Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival.

80TH ANNIVERSARY

JAPANESE CANADIAN INTERNMENTS/REDRESS

This year, 2022, the BC government committed to paying $100 million to Japanese Canadians in recognition of internment history and to address historical wrongs it caused when the Province helped to intern thousands of Japanese Canadians in camps in the BC Interior during WW II. The funds will go towards health programs for internment survivors, the creation and restoration of historical sites and to updating the provincial school curriculum to include, in Premier John Horgan’s words, a “Terrible Chapter” in BC’s history.

L to R: Peter Wayne Gong, Mike Dangeli, Nadince Spence, Mike Alexander

Joe

COMMUNITY CELEBRATION

DAY OF THE DEAD

Wednesday November 2

“Day of the dead, a celebration of memory and a ritual that privileges remembrance over oblivion.”

The celebration of the Day of the Dead is an indigenous tradition common to many Latin American countries and cultures. Dia de Muertos came from a mixture of the Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess, Mictecacihuatl, with the Catholic influence. Mictecacihuatl is the “lady of the dead” and it is said that she watches over the bones of the dead and swallows the stars during the day. Mexicans have since transformed it into a truly unique holiday that they honour every year on November 1st and 2nd. The most important tradition is the Altar (the ofrenda).

Day of the Dead Community Altars

Wed Nov 2, walks leave 1:30pm & 3:30pm

Meet at Watari, 678 E. Hastings Free

The Watari community will lead two walks to visit five community altars, beginning at 678 E. Hastings, stopping along the way at Watari, Oppenheimer Park, Vandu, Listening Post, and Carnegie Community Centre. “A Day of the Dead altar is the portal from which the deceased crosses back to the world of the living”, said Aldo Cruz, an altarista (altar designer). Each altar is decorated and provides an opportunity to leave a gift to celebrate the dead. Various elements include salt, water, candles, sugar skulls, incense, flowers, bread, paper, food and photos of loved ones.

Day of the Dead Fiesta

Wed Nov 2, 4pm - 6pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

The Watari community will celebrate and honour the Day of the Dead with a small fiesta to eat traditional food, listen to traditional music, and enjoy a hot chocolate with people who want to remember and honour our dead. Presented by Watari Counselling & Support Services, with the Community Death Care Project.

DID YOU KNOW?

The City of Vancouver has approved its first street in Vancouver named after a woman of African ancestryNora Hendrix Way. The street will be next to the future St. Paul’s Hospital campus on the False Creek Flats. Nora Hendrix co-founded the African Methodist Episcopal Fountain Chapel at Prior and Jackson, worked as a cook at the legendary Vie’s Chicken and Steakhouse on Union near Main, and was the grandmother of legendary guitarist Jimmy Hendrix.

10TH ANNIVERSARY

BUTTERFLIES IN SPIRIT

Butterflies in Spirit, a dance group started by Lorelie Wil liams, is made up of family members of murdered and miss ing Indigenous women and girls. They’ve been building a community of families to honour these women, and raise awareness of violence against Indigenous women and girls. Butterflies in Spirit has performed their contemporary and traditional dance at gatherings and events throughout Can ada and in USA, Mexico and Columbia.

Oppenheimer Park Altar 2021

Watari Marimba

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 3

ART IN THE STREETS

MUSIC ON THE STREET

Thursday November 3, 12pm - 2pm

E. Cordova & Gore, NW corner Free

The Festival is pleased to present Art in the Streets, and today we welcome musicians of the Downtown Eastside. Come for an afternoon with singer/songwriter Michael Edward Nardochioni performing original and cover tunes; Anthony Favel and the uplifting sounds of his flute; rock ‘n roll veteran Joe Chow channeling the likes of Elvis Presley and James Brown; and Tumblin’ Dice featuring Marilyn and George, singers and guitarists who love classic blues & rock ‘n roll.

MUSIC

MUSIC IN THE STREETS

HASTINGS STREET BAND

Thursday November 3

12pm & 1pm starts at Keefer & Abbott Free

It’s music in the streets! Join the Hastings Street Band and their upbeat New Orleans style jazz and blues. Led by multi-instrumentalist and composer Brad Muirhead, the band is composed of enthusiastic Downtown Eastside-involved musicians Dennis Esson, Adrian Smith, Mark Boreen, Al Zisman, and Gary Wildeman. Nothing beats the rhythms of the Hastings Street Band!

SOUND MEDIA

LOBE STUDIO Artist in Residence, James Ash

Thursday November 3

Listening sessions at 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm

Lobe Spatial Sound Studio 713 E. Hastings Free Drop in. First come, first serve. Some spaces reserved. This year’s Festival theme, Community is Our Mentor, resonates strongly with the LOBE Studio team who’ve partnered with RayCam Community Centre, Crackdown Podcast and the Festival. Lobe, a 4DSound spatial sound studio that, with support from the City of Vancouver, provided a residency to musician/composer James Ash and RayCam to work on community audio projects. Mentored by Ian Wyatt and Alex Penney, James created two sound mixes: one to a 2008 recording of poet Bud Osborn reading his poem No Matter How Vicious the System Is; and the second, to an excerpt from the Crackdown Podcast, Episode 31: Love, Death and Benzodope (April 22, 2022). Crackdown is a Vancouver-based podcast about drug user resistance, led by long time drug user-activist, Garth Mullins. In the excerpt, Garth talks to Trey Helten, a leader in the City's harm reduction response to the deadly new drug combo known as benzodope.

ART IN THE STREETS

POETRY IN PARKS WORKSHOP:

OPPENHEIMER PARK EDITION!

Thursday November 3, 1pm - 3pm

Oppenheimer Park, 400 block Powell Free

Join the poets on the first Thursday of every month in Oppenheimer Park to write and share poetry from 1pm to 3pm. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend!

No previous experience necessary. All materials and supplies provided. Please note: This workshop runs rain or shine! If it rains, they will be inside the Fieldhouse at Oppenheimer Park. If the weather is nice, they will set up outside.

Lobe Studio is dedicated to exploring immersive sound environments with sounds around, above and beneath the listener. It’s the only studio in North America with this technology and they’re making it accessible to the community. Note: the venue has accessibility limitations; there are 2 steps up to the studio, and 2 steps down to the bathroom. There is no accessible sized washroom.

Hastings Street Band

“Signs of the Times” by Richard Tetrault

VIDEO & COMMENTARY

DTES WISE: I-WITNESS LIVESTREAMS BY GUNARGIE

Thursday November 3, 1pm - 3pm

InterUrban Gallery, 1 E. Hastings, entrance on Carrall Free Come to the InterUrban Gallery, right across from Pigeon Park, and see recorded livestream videos captured by Gunargie O’Sullivan aka ga'axstasalas (Kwakuilth Nation) of what she sees on the streets of the Downtown Eastside. Gunargie is a multitalented media artist, activist, performer, host extraordinaire, and livestream queen who doesn’t shy away from what is happening in our community. She speaks out and stands up against systemic injustices, recording videos as an eye witness. She captures with her camera police conduct, or misconduct; see for yourself, you decide. Recordings of livestreams presented by Gunargie with live commentary and Q&A.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER

RADIO

KLA HOW YA ON CO-OP RADIO

Thursday November 3, 5pm - 6pm

Live Broadcast, Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5FM

Kla How Ya host Gunargie O’Sullivan provides updates and interviews on news and current events. This is a chance to hear what people directly involved or affected have to say about current issues and possible solutions. Today, Gunargie interviews artists taking part in this year’s Heart of the City Festival. To reach Gunargie and be part of her show during the Festival, email gunargie.coopradio@gmail.com. Listen to Co-op Radio!

OPEN HOUSE

GROWING WITH THE PENDER WOMXN’S NIGHT COMMUNITY

Thursday November 3, 5pm - 7pm

Pender Community Health Centre, 59 W. Pender Free, open to female identifying and non-binary folks Come to the weekly Womxn's Night at the Pender Community Health Centre where female identifying and non-binary folks enjoy a safe space for cultural exchange, music and craftmaking. Learn about the community map they are creating and other arts activities.

TALK

INHERENT RESPONSIBILITY, CULTURAL PROTOCOL Honouring Our Grandmothers’ Healing Journey

Thursday November 3, 6pm - 7:30pm

Massy Arts Gallery, 23 E. Pender Free, registration is required, massyarts.com

MUSIC

REQUIEM FOR ALL SOULS’

Thursday November 3, 6:30pm

St James’ Anglican Church, 303 E. Cordova Free

At this service we remember all who have died, among them Queen Elizabeth, all who have died of opioid overdose and COVID, all who died at Residential Schools, and our own loved ones. The music will be the North American première of Ian Venables’ Requiem Op. 48. This brilliant new work carries strong echoes of Duruflé in both its recasting of plainsong and its rich modal harmonies, and it offers a thoughtful and deeply-felt response to the ritual of the Requiem Mass as a source of solace and contemplation. Everyone is welcome!

As part of the Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey, this conversation centres on developing respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples, the meanings of artwork and poetry placed on a community Elements Chest, and what the experience means to the artists personally. Facilitated by Dr. Mique’l Dangeli (Tsimshian Nation of Metlatkatla Alaska), with Elder Bob Baker (Squamish) and the diverse artists who contributed to the community Elements chest: Odera Igbokwe and Lydia Brown, Stephen Lytton, Savannah Walling, Rita Wong and supporters David Ng and Jen Sungshine. Followed by Q&A. Presented by Massy Arts Society in collaboration with Sacred Rock, and in partnership with Vancouver Moving Theatre / Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival.

Michael Edward Nardachioni

Gunargie O’Sullivan

aka ga'axstasalas

NOVEMBER

MUSIC

IRONFEST III, NIGHT ONE

Thursday November 3, 8:30pm

The Ironworks, 235 Alexander Also Nov 4 & Nov 5

Tickets $25 each, including service fees

For more info, visit www.coastaljazz.ca/events

Coastal Jazz, in association with the DTES Heart of the City Festival and Music on Main, presents IronFest III, a diverse threenight series of fresh, expressive music at The Ironworks, a cozy and acoustically delightful jewel in the Downtown Eastside. Each night promises unrepeatable and unmissable performances with international innovators, Canadian all-stars, and local lights driving Vancouver’s renowned jazz, new music, and avant-garde scenes. The mini-fest kicks off with two groups, Josh Zubot & Strings and SICK BOSS who enmesh cerebral composition with next-level adventurous improvisation.

RADIO ARTS RATIONAL

Thursday November 3, 9pm - 11pm Live Broadcast Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5FM

As the DTES Heart of the City Festival heads into its final weekend, many exciting programs are still to come. Hosted by Gerry Kowalenko and guests, Arts Rational features Interviews and commentary on the local arts scene. For this special Festival evening, host Jay Hamburger profiles Isabella Mori, mother, grandmother, writer, counselor and organizer of the annual Muriel's Journey Poetry Prize. Jay’s second guest is Steve Gidora, whose band The Wheat in the Barley will perform at Together in Peace, the Festival’s closing afternoon concert at the Ukrainian Hall. Patrick Foley returns with poems of concern for the Downtown Eastside. Listen to Co-op Radio!

SHOWCASE

WE ARE SOMEBODY: CELEBRATING THE CREATIVE SPIRIT IN THE DTES

Thursday November 3, 7pm – 8:30pm

nəcaʔmat ct Strathcona Branch (Wo Soon (Mary) Lee Chan Room), 730 E. Hastings Free, reserve your spot at heartofthecityfestival.com

It's the biggest story never told! Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is home to an amazing array of creative artists: poets, storytellers, songwriters, and visual artists who make their homes, lives, and art within the neighbourhood. Their collective output counters the stereotypes and sensationalism found in many media stories about the DTES and the people who live here.

If you are interested in the future of the Downtown Eastside, you are invited to attend this celebration of the community’s creative spirit. We will showcase stories, poems, and songs created within the neighborhood by an array of artists, including Bud Osborn, Sandy Cameron, and many others. We will also present long-time Downtown Eastside creative artist, Patrick Foley; a poet, lyricist, and playwright who has witnessed and recorded many key moments in the neighbourhood's recent history. Facilitated by Jim Sands, an East Vancouver-based storyteller, actor, songwriter, musician and occasional clown.

Steve Gidora

Patrick Foley

FRIDAY NOVEMBER

ART IN THE STREETS

Poetry on the Street

Friday November 4, 12pm - 2pm

E. Cordova & Gore, NW corner Free

The Festival is pleased to present Art in the Streets. Today we welcome poets of the Downtown Eastside. This afternoon of original poetry and songs features Brian Nelson, Joanne Arnott, Mark McLeod, Maxine Gadd, Shauna Paull and Yvonne Mark. Hosted by Diane Wood, artist, poet, DTES resident and community activist.

MUSIC

MUSIC IN THE STREETS

HASTINGS STREET BAND

Friday November 4

12pm starts at Pigeon Park

E. Hastings & Carrall

1pm starts at Maple Tree Square Water & Carrall Free

It’s music in the streets! Join the Hastings Street Band and their upbeat New Orleans style jazz and blues. Led by multiinstrumentalist and composer Brad Muirhead, the band is composed of enthusiastic Downtown Eastside-involved musicians Dennis Esson, Adrian Smith, Mark Boreen, Al Zisman, and Gary Wildeman. Nothing beats the rhythms of the Hastings Street Band!

MUSIC

CARNEGIE FOLK CIRCLE

Friday November 4, 1pm

Carnegie 3rd Floor Classroom, 401 Main Free Folk music has heart. Listening, singing, picking - folk music can be fun, bring joy, warm the heart, and waken the mind. So, join the Carnegie Folk Circle to listen, to play or to sing along, facilitated by Chris Kelly. We welcome all levels of talent!

OPEN HOUSE

GALLERY DROP-IN

Friday November 4, 2pm - 5pm

Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, 639 Hornby Free Admission

Drop by the Bill Reid Gallery to visit their current exhibitions, True to Place: stímetstexw tel xéltel, and Keeping the Song Alive. Enjoy some crafts, songs and storytelling with members of the Carnegie Indigenous Program and the lexwst'i:lem Drum Group. This is an opportunity to meet and connect with Elders. The Gallery thanks their Community Access Partner, Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA), for their continued support.

CULTURAL SHARING

DRUMS, SINGING, DANCING

Friday November 4, 4pm - 8pm Culture Saves Lives / InterUrban Gallery

1 E. Hastings, enter on Carrall Free

The Downtown Eastside is home for many Indigenous peoples from Nations across Turtle Island. Culturally specific events bring a sense of belonging and camaraderie to our community, knowing that culture saves lives. The Festival is honoured to present three groups who are active in cultural work and in creating a safe space to breathe and grow in the heart of the Downtown Eastside. We invite you to join us, everyone is welcome. In particular, dancers are welcome; come and dance to the singing and drumming. Snacks and beverages.

4pm Cultural sharing with Ian Bee and the pow wow drum group Starchild. They will share different styles of music and dance.

5:30pm Medicine Creek is a young drum group led by Benjamin & Isaiah Durocher with support from their grandmother Mary Durocher. Patrick Smith, longtime leader of culture work in the DTES, recently gifted Medicine Creek his big drum.

7pm Dancing Spirits is a new group formed by dancers Larissa Healey, Peter Stillwater, Maddy and Rebecca, with drummer Pavel who have come together to share grass dances. The group is presented today with the music of big drum singers Love Medicine and John Sam. For Larissa, grass dancing is healing medicine that connects to their culture and their two-spirit identity: “You have to dance for your community, not yourself.”

Larissa Healey

NOVEMBER 4

POETRY BOOK LAUNCH: MUSCLE MEMORY

Friday November 4, 6pm Massy Art Gallery, 23 E. Pender Free. Register at massyarts.com Join Massy Arts, Massy Books, and Kaya Press for the launch of Jenny Liou’s debut poetry book Muscle Memory, a collection of texts that conjoin the world of cage fighting and the traumas of immigration. At this in-person event, Liou will be joined by guest poets Hari Alluri and Rita Wong for an evening of poetry reading and conversations around overlapping themes in their work: grief and diaspora, reconciling with difficult lineages, and Indigenous ecologies. This event is free and open to all of our community.

MULTIMEDIA

WE LIVE HERE

Friday November 4, 7pm - 8:30pm Gallery Gachet, 9 W. Hastings Free Gallery Gachet presents a screening of content from Radix Theatre's acclaimed video installation We Live Here, a largescale exhibition originally presented outdoors during the Heart of the City Festival in 2021. Produced in partnership with the Portland Hotel Society and Heart of the City Festival, this film showcases the art processes of twenty-eight DTES artists responding to the phrase "we live here." The work was originally projected next to the Jack Chow Building; plans are in the works for another presentation in 2023. The screening will be followed by a short Q&A with Radix Artistic Producer Andrew Laurenson, Project Co-curator Wendy Peeters, and one of the participating artists. In addition, shots from We Live Here will be displayed on the Gallery Gachet window during the Heart Of The City Festival.

MUSIC

IRONFEST III, NIGHT TWO

Friday November 4, 9:30pm

Also Nov 3 & Nov 5

The Ironworks, 235 Alexander Tickets $25 each, including service fees

For more info, visit www.coastaljazz.ca/events

Coastal Jazz, in association with the DTES Heart of the City Festival and Music on Main, presents IronFest III, a diverse three-night series of fresh, expressive music at The Ironworks, a cozy and acoustically delightful jewel in the Downtown Eastside. Each night promises unrepeatable and unmissable performances with international innovators, Canadian all-stars, and local lights driving Vancouver’s renowned jazz, new music, and avant-garde scenes.

Fevan Kidane (trumpet) and Tony Wilson (guitar); Eylem Basaldi/ US (violin), Gordon Grdina (guitar) and Torsten Müller (bass); François Houle (clarinet), Alex Hawkins/UK (piano) and Kate Gentile/US (drums).

50TH ANNIVERSARY

MILITANT MOM’S ACTION

The railroad tracks by Raymur Housing were the site of a victory by local moms. Children who went to Seymour School had to cross the tracks, dodging trains and risking injury. When two dozen Raymur moms tried to get the schedule changed to protect their children, they were ignored by the railroad. They took their fight to City Hall, to the courts and blockaded the railway tracks. This action led to the building of a pedestrian overpass, now called the Militant Mothers of Raymur Overpass. The moms went on to create a food co-op which grew into the Ray-cam Cooperative Service, a community run service centre. Their story was retold in a musical by Downtown Eastside resident, journalist Bob Sarti, and produced by Theatre in the Raw during the 2014 Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival: “The Raymur Mothers: they wouldn’t take no for an answer”.

artist BOY

The Ironworks

FILM & CONVERSATION

ANGELS ON CALL (2022, 40 min)

Friday November 4, 1pm - 3pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free Street nurses Evanna Brennan (age 75) and Susan Giles (age 68) have foregone retirement to provide full-time care to homeless, sick, substance-addicted and mentally ill residents living in decrepit hotels and makeshift tents in Vancouver’s poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside. Funded by TELUS STORYHIVE and Creative BC. Produced by aRTy Media. Directed by Roberta Staley. Co-directed by Tallulah. Screening followed by Q&A with Evanna, Susan and Roberta.

SHORT FILMS

DOUBLE BILL

Friday November 4, 3pm - 3:45pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free Jean Swanson: We Need a New Map (2021, 8 min): A profile of veteran activist and first-term Vancouver City Councillor Jean Swanson, as she works alongside the next generation of anti-poverty activists fighting systemic inequality. Director Teresa Alfeld is an award-winning writer and director from Vancouver, whose directing credits include the documentaries Doug and the Slugs and Me, The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical, and the short drama David Foster’s EGGGPAA (NFB 2022).

Militant Mother (2021, 8 min): In 1971, after months of petitioning for a safe crossing, a group of mothers from the Raymur Place housing project forced government and corporate officials to build a railway overpass for their children to get to school. Director Carmen Pollard is an award-winning filmmaker and editor from Vancouver; directing credits include the feature “For Dear Life”, the series “Dancehalls, Deejays & Distortion'', and a collection of experimental shorts including “Surfacing” and “Stellar, Stella Star”.

Following the screenings, there will be time for a short Q&A with guests.

FILM & CONVERSATION

LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL (2022, 80 min)

Friday November 4, 4pm - 6pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free Love in the Time of Fentanyl is a feature-length documentary centred on the day-to-day activities of the pioneering Overdose Prevention Society and their fight to save lives and keep hope alive in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Director Colin Askey is a former harm reduction worker in the DTES. The film was honoured with the Best Canadian Director award at Vancouver’s DOXA Documentary Film Festival this past May. Since then the film has been screening across Canada. The Heart of the City Festival is thrilled to present the film in our Downtown Eastside community. Screening followed by Q&A with guests.

FILM & CONVERSATION

ALICE STREET

Friday November 4, 7pm - 9pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free The Festival is honoured to present this not to be missed film showing of Alice Street, a moving, inspiring and awardwinning documentary by film documentarion Spencer Wilkinson (USA). In the rapidly gentrifying city of Oakland, California, construction of a luxury condominium threatens a local mural forcing the artists and a whole neighbourhood to rally to protect its history, voice, and land. This story resonates powerfully with our community, as we grapple with continued gentrification and struggle to protect our community. Q&A follows, with special guests Spencer Wilkinson (Director) and the renowned Desi Mundo (Alice Street muralist) from the USA; along with Jean Swanson (City Councilor), Kevin Nanaquewitang (SRO Collective) and muralist Brandon Gabriel (Kwantlen First Nation). Hosted by Terry Hunter. Presented in collaboration with 1982 Media and Endangered Ideas Film.

Photos,

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 5

LIVE STREAM

ART HUB: DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE ARTISTS COLLECTIVE

Saturday November 5, 11am - 12pm

Live Streamed, Heart of the City Festival Facebook page

Watch the live stream of the DTES livestream queen Gunargie Ga’axstasalas O’Sullivan while she captures the Art Sale and chats with the artists from the Downtown Eastside Artists Collective. Join the livestream, then head over to 2111 Main Street, Mount Pleasant’s iconic City Centre Motor Hotel reimagined as a temporary community space for art and social connection. You too can purchase the amazing art available. Lots of art and Overdose Prevention Society merchandise.

FILM & CONVERSATION

RAISING OF THE OPPENHEIMER WELCOME POSTS

Saturday November 5, 11am - 12:30pm

Oppenheimer Park, 488 Powell Free

We invite you to Oppenheimer Park to watch rare, archival footage that captures the witnessing, cedar brushing and words of ceremony at the raising of the two Welcome Posts on the NE corner of the Park ten years ago. Invited guests will speak about the cultural work and the project (led by Constant Arts Society) to provide some context to the footage.

On a rainy, windy morning in February 2012, filmmaker Jackie Humber was invited by the carvers to film the ceremony. The film includes the words of the two gifted carvers, Hereditary Chief Ga Ba Gaawk (Henry Robertson) from Kemano/Kitlope, and Chiaxen (Wes Nahanee) from Squamish Nation, and those spoken by witnesses and by S7aplek (Bob Baker) of the Squamish Nation who conducted the ceremony. This documentary serves as a record of the knowledge shared during this traditional ceremony. Carver Chiaxen announced, "These posts are welcoming you to a new day." Closing music composed and sung by Lora Bird. The filmmaker acknowledges this documentary was filmed on the traditional and unceded lands of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

MUSIC IN THE STREETS

HASTINGS STREET BAND

Saturday November 5 12pm starts at Carnegie

E. Hastings & Main 1pm starts at New Town Bakery 148 E. Pender Free

It’s music in the streets! Join the Hastings Street Band and their upbeat New Orleans style jazz and blues. Led by multiinstrumentalist and composer Brad Muirhead, the band is composed of enthusiastic Downtown Eastside-involved musicians Dennis Esson, Adrian Smith, Mark Boreen, Al Zisman, and Gary Wildeman. Nothing beats the rhythms of the Hastings Street Band!

OPEN HOUSE

VANCOUVER POLICE MUSEUM & ARCHIVES

Saturday November 5, 11am - 5pm

Free tours at 12pm, 2pm, 4pm

Vancouver Police Museum, 2nd floor, 240 E. Cordova

Free admission today

Vancouver Police Museum is located in one of the city’s most intriguing, historic buildings. Originally built to help solve crimes, the building was home to the Coroners Court, City Analyst’s Lab and the city’s former morgue and autopsy room. Walk through the museum's authentic historic spaces and learn about some of the City's most exciting criminal cases and unsolved murder mysteries, or find out about the fascinating history of forensic science and policing in Vancouver. The exhibits are educational, captivating, and include authentic photos, archival material and artifacts straight from the source. They also have activities for the ‘little detective’ to take part in! Join museum staff for free one hour tours at 12pm, 2pm and 4pm.

OPERA PREMIERE

THE PROP MASTER’S DREAM

5,

Prop Master’s Dream

a new fusion opera inspired by the

true-life story of Wah-Kwan Gwan (1929-2000), a legendary props master born in BC to a Chinese father and an Indigenous mother. Following Gwan’s journey from Vancouver to China and back again, a tale unfolds of lost identity, migration, and race relations. The cast includes Rosa Cheng, Jacky Lam

Haisla Collins. Weaving together Cantonese Opera singing,

Indigenous drumming, the opera

presented in

produced by Vancouver

POETRY

MURIEL'S JOURNEY POETRY PRIZE

Saturday November 5, 1:30pm - 3pm

Carnegie Theatre Free

Outspoken, risk taking, looking at topics in unexpected ways; some winners and honourable mentions of Muriel’s Journey Poetry Prize will perform their poems. Named in honour of Muriel Marjorie Williams who went to the spirit world November 3, 2018 from Red Deer, Alberta. After many years in the DTES, Muriel relocated to Edmonton in September 2017 to be closer to family, and was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2018. An active writer, reader and performer in the Heart of the City Festival and local theatre, Muriel’s poetry has been published in “Gatherings” (“Seasons”), “No Supper Tonight”, and “Thursdays #1” & “#2”. Muriel Marjorie was not only a poet, but a fabulous performer who delighted in tackling things from an unusual, makes-you-wake-up-and-listen point of view.

SPOKEN WORD

SANDY CAMERON MEMORIAL WRITING CONTEST AWARD CEREMONY

Saturday November 5, 4pm - 5:30pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

An always exciting and inspiring event, this annual award ceremony will be live this year in the Carnegie Theatre! A number of the award-winning writers will read work they submitted to the contest, and for a special treat, Solidarity Notes Labour Choir will sing a song arranged by Earle Peach to Sandy's poem Telling Our Stories. Now in its seventh year, the writing contest was established to honour Sandy Cameron, one of the best-loved writers to publish work in 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 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. Everyone

SPOKEN WORD

HONOURING WRITERS OF THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE

Saturday November 5, 7pm - 9pm

Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free

At the end of this wonderful day honouring and celebrating writers, poets and spoken word artists at Carnegie, we present an evening of writing and poetry from the past. Words that were written down by members of our community who have passed before us; poets, activists, historians, and great writers. We’ve invited friends and neighbours to bring these words to life, and to share something of their own work.

We are honoured to welcome to the Carnegie stage: Diane Wood to read Sandy Cameron and Robyn Livingstone; Ghia Aweida to read Joan Morelli; Kedrick James to read Bud Osborn; Gilles Cyrenne to read dn simmers; Elwin Xie to read Jim Wong Chu; Isabella Mori to read Muriel Marjorie; Todd Wong to read Wayson Choy; Shauntelle Charleson reading Zaccheus Jackson; and Stephen Lytton to share words of Kat Zucomulwat Norris, the Festival Elder-inResidence 2017 to 2021. Our Emcee for the evening is RC Weslowski, writer and award-winning spoken word artist.

It’s the people who make our community beautiful, and they do this by reaching out to each other and helping each other. Even as the giant fir is nurtured by its roots, so our community of the Downtown Eastside is nurtured by its members.

– Sandy Cameron

Muriel Marjorie

NOVEMBER

PLAYREADING

HUNG UP, by Tyson Night

Saturday November 5, 7pm - 9pm

Skwachàys Lodge, 29 W. Pender

Free, Registration available at bit.ly/HUNGUP2022

From the prairies of Saulteaux First Nations, Saskatchewan, Tyson Night is an emerging theatre professional and an artist in residence at Skwachàys Lodge. This evening Tyson presents a workshop reading of his first scripted play Hung Up. The full-length 'dramady' captures the life of a twospirited young man who moves back to the rez’ following many of his shortcomings and unreconciled differences with his recovering alcoholic mother, his friendship with his cousin Taylin, and falling in love with the new local band member whom he works with. Tyson’s own experience growing up through many struggles has been a huge source of inspiration for his writing, and his desire to write stems deeply from wanting to give back to the next generation and to create awareness of raw truths behind closed doors.

PLAYREADING

CATFISH - A Reading Presentation of an ASL/English Play

KW Production Studio, 111 W. Hastings

Saturday November 5, 8pm - 9:30pm

Free. Donations appreciated ASL Interpretation

Take the plunge and join us for a reading presentation by Simran Gill and Jess Amy Shead into the life of a Deaf Punjabi woman and witness the layers of lies, misrepresentation, search for love, and acceptance inward in this vibrant, complex, and delightfully earnest exploration of identity and self directed by Chris Dodd and Gavan Cheema. Produced by Alley Theatre.

SHOWCASE

CONCURRENCE GATHERING #6

Saturday November 5, 8pm

8EAST, 8 E. Pender Free. Donations accepted Concurrence Gatherings are concerts, talks and storysharing events, led by Sophie Dow with mentor Olivia C. Davies. The gatherings pair emerging DTES Small Arts Grants recipients and Indigenous Artists with NOW Society Musicians at 8EAST. The artists of this series will be announced soon! Presented by the Now Society in partnership with the Skwachays Lodge Aboriginal Hotel and Gallery, the Carnegie Community Centre and O.Dela Arts. Concurrence Gathering #8 is on December 4. For more information: www.nowsociety.org

MUSIC

IRONFEST III, NIGHT THREE

Saturday November 5, 9:30pm

Also Nov 3 & Nov 4

The Ironworks, 235 Alexander Tickets $25 each, including service fees

For more info, visit www.coastaljazz.ca/events

Coastal Jazz, in association with the DTES Heart of the City Festival and Music on Main, presents IronFest III, a diverse three-night series of fresh, expressive music at The Ironworks, a cozy and acoustically delightful jewel in the Downtown Eastside. Each night promises unrepeatable and unmissable performances with international innovators, Canadian all-stars, and local lights driving Vancouver’s renowned jazz, new music, and avant-garde scenes. Jay Clayton/US (voice), Róisín Adams (piano) and Jen Yakamovich (drums); John Paton/ (sax), Stéphane Diamantakiou (bass) and Ivan Bamford (drums); Ayelet Rose Gottlieb (voice), Elisa Thorn (harp), Aram Bajakian (oud), Peggy Lee (cello), and Hamin Honari (percussion).

R: Simran Gill, Jess Amy Stead

DTES SMALL ARTS GRANTS

13 TH ANNUAL DTES SMALL ARTS GRANTS PROGRAM

GET FUNDING FOR YOUR CREATIVE PROJECT!

Awards of $500-$1000 are available for Downtown Eastside community members to create a new original art project. Applications open at the end of October and continue until the grant money runs out!

WHAT IS THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE (DTES) SMALL ARTS GRANT PROGRAM?

The program is for DTES community members who dem onstrate a history of original art practice, and show a vital engagement with the community. With small grants, the pro gram is an opportunity for local artists to take their art to the next level. Art can range from painting, music, theatre, writing, photography, pottery, textiles, jewelry making, carving, anima tion, dance, mixed-media, performance, video and more!

WHO IS INVOLVED IN THE DTES SMALL ARTS GRANTS PROGRAM?

Since 2009 Carnegie Community Centre and Vancouver Foun dation have partnered to support the DTES Small Arts Grant Program. A Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC), made up of local DTES artists with diverse interests and experience, is the decision making body in reviewing grant applications.

PROGRAM CONTACT:

can also pick up a paper copy from the info desk at Carn egie Community Centre.

sUPPOrt tHE DtES Heart OF tHE City festival

Downtown Eastsiders love the arts!

Financial donations from our friends like you help fuel this passion. Join us! Donate via Canada Helps: www.heartofthecityfestival.com And sign up for our informative newsletter at the same time!

Or by cheque to:

Vancouver Moving Theatre

Chinatown Postal Outlet Box 88270 Coast Salish Territory

Vancouver BC, CANADA V6A 4A5

Charitable Tax receipts provided.

DID YOU KNOW?

This past June, Eastside Arts Society published Seizing the Moment, a report calling for the establishment of an Eastside Arts District as a “thriving, sustainable, cultural ecology where the practice of arts and culture drives creativity, identity, celebration and community”. Since 2012, the East Side has lost 400,000 feet of studio space, equivalent to 4½ football fields. The project now proceeds to Phase II, with expanded community engagement and consensus building, including Indigenous consultation and research. www.eastsideartsdistrict.ca

DID YOU KNOW?

The Chinese Storytelling Centre at 168 East Pender opened last November - the first space in Canada with programming, exhibitions and interactive kiosks dedicated to sharing stories about the past, present, future, and living heritage of Chinatown.

A new Chinese Canadian Museum – the first of its kind in Canada – is set to open in 2023 in the Wing Sang building at 51 East Pender. Built in 1889 by businessman Yip Sang, a labour contractor and importer/exporter, it’s the oldest building in Chinatown. The museum will be owned and operated by the Chinese Canadian Museum Society of BC.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 6

MUSIC

MUSIC IN THE STREETS

HASTINGS STREET BAND

Sunday November 6

12pm starts at W. Hastings & Abbott

1pm starts at Steam Clock, Water & Cambie Free

It’s music in the streets! Join the Hastings Street Band and their upbeat New Orleans style jazz and blues. Led by multiinstrumentalist and composer Brad Muirhead, the band is composed of enthusiastic Downtown Eastside-involved musicians Dennis Esson, Adrian Smith, Mark Boreen, Al Zisman, and Gary Wildeman. Nothing beats the rhythms of the Hastings Street Band!

DANCE

KAREN JAMIESON DANCE & CARNEGIE DANCE TROUPE

Sunday November 6, 1pm - 2pm

Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, SFU Woodwards, 149 W. Hastings Free

It’s been so long since we’ve seen the Carnegie Dance Troupe, and they’re back, live and in-person, with a new in-process studio showing led by Rianne Svelnis and Karen Jamieson. Since 2006, the principle supporting the Carnegie Dance Troupe is absolute inclusivity. Performances are created through processes of collaboration, seeking to connect us to our body, to our breath, to the energy of the earth, to each other and to our diverse communities. The Carnegie Dance Troupe is part of Karen Jamieson Dance, and partners with the Carnegie Community Centre and SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement.

WORKSHOP (FOR YOUTH)

COMMUNITY IS COLLAGE: CUTTING OUT THE STORIES THAT SHAPED US

Sunday, November 6, 1pm - 5pm

Also Oct 30

Massy Art Gallery, 23 E. Pender Free. Register at massyarts.com Massy Arts and Vancouver-based visual artists Rafael Zen and Khalil Alomar present a paper collage and video collage workshop for young artists (ages 14-18) that aims to teach artistic techniques of paper and video collage while putting into dialogue three systemic and intersectional concepts that built and shaped contemporary societies: race, class, and gender. This in-person workshop is planned for all artistic levels; no previous experience is needed.

CULTURAL SHARING

TOGETHER IN PEACE

Sunday November 6, 3pm

Ukranian Hall, 805 E. Pender

Tickets: $25 (6-12 years olds $10). For info and tickets, visit www.auucvancouver.ca

We are delighted at the return of one of our favourite festival events: the annual in-person concert at the Ukrainian Hall. Guided by the theme - nurturing peace through culture and community - today’s concert is presented with the Association of United Ukrainian-Canadians. For over 100 years, the Association has been advocating for social justice and nourishing Ukrainian Canadian culture in our community. Today’s concert features the Hall’s own Barvinok Choir, Vancouver Folk Orchestra and Dovush Dancers: and supports Ukraine’s beautiful culture with haunting harmonies and lively orchestral music, exciting dance and exquisite costumes, and drummer Nick Apivor and rapper Nik Dobrinsky performing a peace rap with the choir. Special guests include the Left Coast Labour Chorus, an activist community choir who bring the inspiration of music to social justice; and the Canadian roots ensemble The Wheat in the Barley, founded by Steve Gidora who has deep roots in the peace movement. Ukraine has a unique history and culture distinct from every other cultures, and they will persevere and survive. The concert closes with Cherovna Kalyna - the national symbol and de facto anthem of Ukraine. Enjoy the Sunday concert with friends and neighbours at the east-end’s historic Ukrainian Hall, followed by a Hall social.

Nicole Bizovie

BOOK LAUNCH

AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ROY YOUSSEFZADEH

Sunday November 6, 5pm - 7pm

Propaganda Coffee, 209 E. Pender Free Roy Youssefzadeh was born in Iran in the village Chakansar Gilman. He spent his childhood in the village, moved to the USA, and then to Canada. He found his way to the Carnegie Community Centre in 2021 and started volunteering in the kitchen. He joined the Fire Writers, a writing group based in the Carnegie Learning Centre, and has been working for two years on his autobiography, with support from friends at Carnegie. Roy’s story tells of Iran, a country with many resources but people are very poor, no public health, no retirement benefits, and no freedom. The Festival congratulates Roy on the launch of his Autobiography.

SHOWCASE

CONCURRENCE GATHERING #7

Sunday November 6, 8pm

8EAST, 8 E. Pender

Free. Donations accepted

Concurrence Gatherings are concerts, talks and story-sharing events, led by Sophie Dow with mentor Olivia C. Davies, that pair emerging DTES Small Arts Grants recipients and Indigenous Artists with NOW Society Musicians at 8EAST. The artists of this series will be announced soon! Presented by the Now Society in partnership with the Skwachays Lodge Aboriginal Hotel and Gallery, the Carnegie Community Centre and O.Dela Arts. Concurrence Gathering #8 is on December 4. For more information: www.nowsociety.org

CO-OP RADIO

As its 50th anniversary approaches, Vancouver Co-op Radio will reflect on its past, present and future with a series of audio documentaries and interviews. Rooted in social justice, the station has been giving a voice to underrepresented communities and have been at the forefront of many cultural initiatives, since its inception. To learn more about the program go to: legacy.coopradio.org

CELEBRATION

CO-OP RADIO LIVE AT THE WISE HALL

Sunday November 6, 6pm - 10:30pm

Wise Hall, 1882 Adanac

Free, Registration available at bit.ly/CRLWH2022

Party? Oh heck yeah! Everyone invited! What’s a Festival without a Finale? What’s a Membership drive without a Party? We have both - a Party and a Finale!

Join the good folks of Co-op Radio, live at the Wise Hall, for a musical evening of great music, great friends and great food, with host extraordinaire Jacques Lalonde, who is “one crazy frenchman”! It’s the kick off for Co-op Radio’s membership drive, with special complimentary savouries prepared by the Carnegie kitchen. Cash bar. 6pm Step up to the Community Open Mic. Email to sign up in advance: community@coopradio.org

8pm The bands begin! Including Dusty Pines, playing alternative roots and rock ‘n roll with Dusty Chipura, vocalist/guitar; Jess Goldie, guitar; bassist Lina S Punk; and Kelsey Baldwin on drums.

Add the fantastic MNGWA, Vancouver’s best prog cumbia band! For almost ten years, these pioneers of prog cumbia have been crafting a sound all their own, mixing Latin American and African rhythms with psych rock, funk, reggae, hip hop and more. With the creators’ Mexican, Russian and Canadian backgrounds, every new composition is a synthesis of different musical approaches and traditions. You’ve got to hear this party band with their “musical medicine for troubled times”!

And more!

The Heart of the City Festival thanks Co-op Radio for presenting a wonderful Festival finale.

Roy Youssefzadeh

MNGWA

VISUAL ARTS

GROUP EXHIBITION

FAZAKAS GALLERY GRAND OPENING RECEPTION

Thursday October 20, 6pm - 8pm

Fazakas Gallery, 659 E. Hastings Free

Please join the Fazakas Gallery for a group exhibition to celebrate the grand opening of their new location at 659 East Hastings Street. The show features a selection of works by Gallery artists including Beau Dick, Rande Cook, Cole Speck, Corey Bulpitt, Marcy Friesen and Trace Yeomans. Gallery Hours: Tues to Sat, 11am - 5pm.

VISUAL ARTS

CREATURE CONNECTION: WE ARE ONE UNDER THE SUN

Until October 29

Meet the Artist Thurs Oct 27, 1pm - 2:30pm

Carnegie 3rd Floor Gallery, 401 Main Free

A collection of watercolours by Rev. Dr. Victoria Marie. In her own words - “The intersection of engaging in environmental activism and my role as a spiritual leader have converged to instill in me a desire to learn more about the creatures that share our planet, especially those that are endangered.” Gallery Hours: Mon to Sun, 9am - 9pm.

EXHIBITION

THE DEVIL INSIDE

Until October 29

Outsiders and Others, 716 E. Hastings

Artists have been creating depictions of the Devil or Satan or Lucifer since the beginning of time. Not really, but our fascination with good and evil is ancient. Outsiders and Others dive into the subject this month with three artists sharing their perspectives on the subject. Featuring Mary Patterson from Canada, and Andy Dykeman and Steve Moseley from the United States. Gallery Hours: Wed to Sat, 11am - 4pm.

WINDOW DISPLAY

ELEMENTS UNITE

Honouring Our Grandmothers’ Healing Journey

Wednesday October 26 to Sunday November 6 VALU CO-OP Studio, 525 Carrall Free

This collaboratively designed window display, inspired by Secwépemc artist Richard Pop’s message chest, features artwork by visual artists Odera Igbokwe with Lyrdia Brown, and poetry by Stephen Lytton, Savannah Walling and Rita Wong: artists of different nationalities who have historic relationships with Indigenous People of Turtle Island. They are supported by David Ng, Jen Sungshine and Margaret Joba-Woodruff. Produced by VALU CO-OP Community Projects / Love Intersections in partnership with Further We Rise Indigenous Arts Collective / Sacred Rock and the Heart of the City Festival.

“There are many generations of healing back and forward for all who carry pain due to genocide, our race, gender identity and spirituality. We all need fire, water, air, and earth to live: these common elements unite us always.” – Nadine Spence

EXHIBITION

GENERATIONS OF WOMEN AND WATER Honouring Our Grandmothers’ Healing Journey

Thursday October 27 to Sunday November 6

Opening Reception: Wednesday October 26, 6pm - 7:30pm

Massy Arts Gallery, 23 E. Pender By donation

Nadine Spence’s painted chest embodies Nlaka’pamux/ Secwépemc warrior women in all their history, beauty, pain and generational bonds: from Indigenous female baby to elder matriarch. The Generations of Women and Water exhibit shares their respectful connections to the natural world, family, traditions and spirituality; the historic impacts of genocide on their lives and the raising of life-givers – Nlaka’pamux Warrior Women – to stop the mistreatment and destruction. This is the first of thirteen bentwood cedar chests that will be created over the next year by artists from different Indigenous nations for the “Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey”. Gallery Hours: Tues to Sun, 12pm - 5pm.

Andy Dykeman

VISUAL ARTS

WINDOW DISPLAY

BORROWED SCENERIES

Until November 7

Or Gallery, 236 E. Pender Free

Or Gallery is pleased to present Gloria Wong’s ‘borrowed sceneries’ as a public art installation in the storefront window at 236 E. Pender. Comprised of the artist’s hands recreating gestures found in family and archival photographs, the set of images aim to make visible histories of Chinese migration and labour within the area colonially known as “British Columbia.” While referencing traditional Chinese gardens through form to create a site for reprieve, the works stitch together migrant lineages of Chinese labourers in relation to diasporic futures unfolding beyond the garden walls.

EXHIBITION

THE ROAD HOME THROUGH THE WOODLANDS IN SEARCH OF A LOST NAME

Until November 10

Massy Arts Gallery, 23 E. Pender Free

In this collection of paintings on canvas and on drums, artist James Groening (Blue Sky) both processes aspects of his Kahkewistahaw identity that are “lost in time” and the reclaimation of it in reconnecting with his Indigeneity. He is currently mentoring with Anishinaabe artist Saul Williams. Groening’s pieces use expressive colours to explore the emotions, recollections and disconnect that are all part of his experience as a 60s scoop survivor. Gallery Hours: Tues to Sun, 12pm - 5pm.

WINDOW DISPLAY

DUPPY CONQUERORS: BLACK HISTORIES + FUTURES IN CANADA

Until November 10

Massy Arts Gallery, 23 E. Pender Free

In a new window exhibition organized by lead artist and educator Ruby Smith Diaz, Duppy Conquerors presents light boxes made by grade eight co-op placement students at Guilford Park Secondary. All the pieces in this installation were created by students mentored by Diaz as part of the “Still Here: Black Histories & Futures in Canada" workshop series. During an eight session arts-based workshop, students explored the histories, erasures, and resistance of Black Communities in Canada who have overcome systemic obstacles with courage, sacrifice, determination and ingenuity. In Jamaican Patois, the word “duppy” refers to a frightening ghost or spirit. “Duppy conqueror” refers to someone fiercely courageous who has overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

James Groening (Blue Sky)

Borrowed Sceneries, Gloria Wong

VISUAL ARTS

EXHIBITION

ED PIEN: TRACING WATER

Until November 12 Centre A, #205 - 268 Keefer Free. Donations appreciated. Tracing Water presents an extensive assembly of work by Toronto-based artist Ed Pien. Ranging from drawing to lithography, to prints and video, the works span over twenty years and explore and incorporate water in these artistic creations. Often collaborating with nature, Pien’s work addresses and expands on the human condition; in this exhibition, the works delve deeply into exploring the sentience of water: that water has co-agency, liveliness, and creativity. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Pien is a Canadian artist based in Toronto. He has been making art for nearly 40 years. The exhibition is curated by Henry Heng Lu. Gallery Hours: Wed to Sat, 12pm - 6pm.

EXHIBITION

IN CONTEMPT Aiyana (Joe Wood)

Until November 25

Gachet, 9 W. Hastings Free

kohpâteyitâkosiwin – Translated from Cree as "the act of being thought of as contemptible,” this multimedia installation amplifies Aiyana (Joe Wood)’s experience of transitions, in and through child welfare documents and mental health assessments. In Contempt sheds light on the artist's experiences in the mental health and foster care systems and celebrates the artist's prerogative to take control of her narrative and rewrite her story. Gallery hours: Tues to Sat, 12pm - 6pm.

EXHIBITION

GHOSTS FROM UNDERGROUND LOVE

Until November 26

Canton-Sardine, Unit 071, 268 Keefer Free

Lam Wong’s new solo exhibition (since spring 2020) features a series of all young female portrait paintings that Wong started in the summer of 2019. The exhibit is inspired by and based on Laura Nys’ research on Emotion Refuge and love letters of juvenile delinquents during the early 20th century in Europe. Wong’s new works depict powerful emotions of bravery, passion, love, desire, fear and hope experienced by young women and then concealed in the underground network of secret love letters during their prison times under authoritarian surveillance, Institutional oppression and unjustified punishments. Gallery Hours: Wed to Sat, 12pm - 6pm.

EXHIBITION

WHAT COLOUR IS THE RABBIT-HOLE?

Until November 26

This Gallery, #227 - 475 Main, buzz for entry Free Colour, texture, repetition, rhythm, and balance have always been tools of self-regulation for Katherine Duclos, a way of slowing down or quieting her constantly running inner machine. This show is an ode to following curiosity, materials, and ideas wherever they go, without expectations. Each grouping satisfies a different part of Katherine Duclos’ inattentive, impulsive, neuro-divergent, yet hyper-focused brain, as she responds to different material tangents and “what if” questions. To only pose one question at a time, to answer only one, with one material or process seems impossible in the face of infinite colour interactions. Gallery hours: Thurs to Sat, 10am - 5pm.

Ed Pien

VISUAL ARTS

EXHIBITION

THREE CASES: A LITTLE ACT OF KINDNESS

October 31 to November 29

Opening Reception: Monday October 31, 3pm - 4:30pm

Carnegie 3rd Floor Gallery, 401 Main Free

This exhibition celebrates art in the community – the Art in the Park Project with Les Nelson and Sylvan Hamburger, and a variety of mixed media creations by Mildred Grace German and the Oppenheimer Ladies Tea Party. Now or in the past, little acts of kindness help us to mentor, and be mentored. When someone has touched our hearts, the wonderful experience of kindness ripples to many more good things. This show is dedicated to you and all of us; from the many community art and cultural events, to community kitchen gatherings, the daring ladies tea parties and struggles for safe spaces, the elders dedicating their wisdom and knowledge, the administrators creating paths for community members, the frontline workers and advocates, those with charitable givings, the art-making and gatherings in the parks, and to the artists, writers, groups, and individuals dreaming and working for a better world and healing of all souls. Gallery Hours: Mon to Sun, 9am - 9pm.

EXHIBITION

BEYOND EXCLUSION

Until December 4

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, 578 Carrall Included with Garden Admission

Beyond Exclusion is Don Kwan’s first solo exhibition in Vancouver. Based in Ottawa, Kwan is a queer third-generation Chinese Canadian artist whose work is influenced by his upbringing in a family-owned restaurant in Ottawa’s Chinatown. He uses mixed media, found objects, and sourced personal text and photographs to explore questions of identity, belonging, and place, reflecting on his family history while weaving intriguing stories about the Chinese Canadian diaspora. Don Kwan: Beyond Exclusion is presented by the Pride in Art Society (SUM Gallery) in collaboration with On Main Gallery and Dr. Sun YatSen Classical Chinese Garden as part of the Pride in Chinatown festival. Garden hours Wed to Sat, 9:30am - 4:30pm.

EXHIBITION

STICKY EXTENSIONS: ROMI KIM IN COLLABORATION WITH QUEER BASED MEDIA

Until December 8

SUM gallery, #425 - 268 Keefer Free

SUM gallery presents sticky extensions, artist Romi Kim’s SUM gallery debut exploring relationships through drag performance and play within created space. sticky extensions hosts collaborations with fellow artists Romeo Villanueva III and Queer Based Media (Chris Reed and Kendell Yan) through a series of videos, installations, performance and workshops. The exhibit navigates the legacy, memories and precarious existence of Warehouse, an Eastside DIY event space. sticky extensions explores the transformative impact the space has for the Queer and Trans bodies that occupy it, and 情 정: an untranslatable word that expresses attachment, feelings of connection and warmness that provoke social reciprocity. Visit sumgallery.ca/ sticky-extensions for information on workshop dates taking place during the exhibition run. Gallery hours: Tues to Sat, 12pm - 6pm.

EXHIBITION

IT’S ABOUT TIME: DANCING BLACK IN CANADA 1900-1970 AND NOW Until December 9

Audain Gallery and Teck Gallery, 149 W. Hastings Free Guest-curated by Seika Boye, PhD, this archival exhibition exposes the representation of Blackness on Canadian stages, as well as audience and media reception of Black performance in Canada during this era. It’s About Time also explores legislation of leisure culture, dance lessons and the role of social dances at mid-century. Featured are individual dance artists such as Leonard Gibson (who attended Strathcona School), Ola Skanks, Ethel Bruneau, Joey Hollingsworth and Kathryn Brown. This is the fifth presentation of the archival materials in It’s About Time, and includes new commissions from dance artist Justine Chambers, visual artist Ceilidh Munroe, poet and scholar Otoniya J. Okot Bitek, with a graphic response by Adriana Contreras. Gallery hours: Tues to Sat, 12pm - 5pm.

ON-DEMAND PROGRAMMING

VIDEO ALWAYS IN OUR HEARTS Online, Festival Website

Always In Our Hearts is inspired by the song "A Lullaby for Miss ing and Murdered Women" composed and performed by Dalan nah Gail Bowen, with choreography by Indigenous dance artists Sophie Dow and Olivia C. Davies, videography by Vitantonio Spi nelli, and produced by O.Dela Arts. Two dancers take medicine bundles to the water and offer their heart light in honour of women whose lives have been lost to violence. Following the dance film, a short interview recorded between Olivia and Dalannah is included in the program. For more information about Dalannah Gail Bowen, visit www.dalannah.com/dalannah/bio.

VIDEO

BILLIE & ME Online, Festival website

Billie & Me features local Blues Queen and Blues Hall of Fame singer Dalannah Gail Bowen interviewed by Donna Spencer (Director, Firehall Arts Centre), interwoven with songs relating to Billie Holiday. Performed by Ms. Bowen and keyboarder/arranger Michael Creber, a Juno Award-winning artist. Billie & Me centres songs with the deepest parallels to Dalannah’s life journey and her connection with Billie Holiday’s music and lived experiences. Recorded at the Firehall Arts Centre by Chris Randle, co-produced by the Firehall Arts Centre and Vancouver Moving Theatre.

VIDEO

IN THE BEGINNING –A CULTURAL SHARING: FROM THE WATERS Online, Festival website

Ronnie Dean Harris (Stō:lo/St'át'imc/Lil'wat/N'laka'pamux), Woodrow (Woody) Morrison (Cherokee/Haida) and Kat Norris (Lyackson), hosted by Kim Haxton (Wasauksing), share their sto ries of ancient history, lived experiences, cultural teachings, rela tionships to land and waters, and what we need for survival. Good medicine for today. All of us thank you for your stories. This record ing is one of a series of five evenings, presented and recorded by the Firehall Arts Centre and Vancouver Moving Theatre during the 2020 Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival. This series centred Indigenous elders, knowledge-keepers and artists from many nations sharing stories of the land.

VIDEO

MY ART IS ACTIVISM IV

Online, Festival website

Presented in honour and on behalf of longtime Downtown Eastside documentarian and organiser Sid Chow Tan (20 May 1949 - 26 Sept. 2022), My Art is Activism IV features a selection from Sid’s extraordinary archival video collection of volunteer-produced video journalism. In this recorded talk, Sid provides an overview of his prolific activism and community-centric approach to organising and effecting change.

Presented too with deep condolences to Sid’s family, friends and countless close communities, and with grati tude and solidarity with the community television vol unteers and staff who made possible the production, broadcast and archive of these videos. Recorded (7 Aug. 2022) at Island Mountain Arts during Sid’s research trip to Barkerville, BC (Secwépemc/Dakelh homelands), with support from collaborators Byron Peters and Mary Chan, and hosted by Elyssia Sasaki, Executive Director, Island Mountain Arts.

VIDEO WOODWARDS SQUAT

Online, Festival Website

Twenty years ago, on September 12, 2002, housing activ ists and squatters opened the vacant Woodward's building for free housing. Having sat empty since 1993, the build ing was a symbol of homelessness and the lack of afford able housing in the Downtown Eastside. The courts issued an injunction, followed the next day with an enforcement order; arrests followed and the protest continued outside. At the height of the protest, nearly 300 people were on the street, and by the middle of December, some 50 homeless protestors were moved into a hotel nearby. This amazing video record was shot and edited by Sid Chow Tan of ICTV Independent Community Television Cooperative, and is one of many videos from Sid’s archive that will keep the stories of the Downtown Eastside alive.

Sid Chow Tan and Sean Gunn

ON-DEMAND PROGRAMMING

VIDEO GRASS DANCES: Healing Through Practicing Culture Online, Festival Website

The Festival is honoured to present this video of two grass dances presented by dancers Larissa Healey (Pequis) and Peter Stillwater, along with the music of big drum singers Love Medicine. The video was recorded in 2021 by Chris Randle at the Firehall Arts Centre.

For Larissa, grass dancing is healing medicine that connects to their culture and their two-spirit identity: “I make my own art music and regalia now. I learned to powwow and dance in powwow cir cles now. I am also connecting to myself and two-spirit identity. I am holding myself up through sweats, beading, regalia, dancing and my relationship with the creator. You have to dance for your community, not yourself.”

VIDEO THE GATHERING, an interview with Richard Tetrault Online, Festival Website

This fifteen minute recording features artist Richard Tetrault and Festival producer Terry Hunter talking about The Gathering, an 11’h x 18’w hanging mural commission that Richard painted in 2016 for the Heart of the City Festival. The powerful and dynamic banner mural hangs each year in the Carnegie Theatre during the Festival, and features painted images of inspiring people, cultures and art forms from the Downtown Eastside. The video gives back ground to the 2022 launch of seven new panels at this year’s Fes tival.

VIDEO

HUNDRED BLOCK ROCK, BUD OSBORN BAND Online, Festival Website

Hundred Block Rock (3:35) was shot in 1999. Nigel Hunt was the director and videog rapher, and Don Flatt was the editor. The audio is from the Hundred Block Rock CD, with words by poet Bud Osborn, music by guitarist David Lester and bassist Wendy Atkinson. In the words of Bud Osborn, "I've always liked rock and roll, and it's been very important to me. I wanted to have music that would drive the poem per haps in another way or amplify the meanings. Originally, I worked with a couple of jazz musicians, but then I heard David Lester (guitarist for Mecca Normal) play his electric guitar. It clicked right away."

VIDEO HOT POT TALKS! Chinatown Futures Online, Festival Website

As a theme and as a space, Chinatowns have become a nexus of social tension, and simultaneously an intersection of community organizing around intergenerational issues of social justice. On Feb 16, 2022 HOT POT TALKS! live-streamed a conversation fea turing LAIWAN and Kimberley Wong, exploring what “Chinatown” might hold in our imagining of futures. The “Hot Pot Talks” virtual series is hosted by David Ng and Jen Sungshine, founding mem bers of the Vancouver Artist Labour Union Co-Operative (VALU CO-OP). This episode was presented with Vancouver Moving The atre / Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival. LAIWAN is a cultural activist, artist, writer and educator with a practice based in poetics and philosophy. Kimberley Wong | 黄壯慈 (she/they) is a queer Cantonese femme whose work mirrors the intersections of her identity. Go to the YouTube channel for more info about HOT POT TALKS!

VIDEO

ZOETIC: a Performance by Theatre Terrific Online, Festival Website

ZOETIC - a lost word, seldom heard! Meaning "to live" or "life." This July, the Theatre Terrific community of artists came together in person for the first time post-pandemic. Arriving disconnected, lost and often alone, they decided that their theatre creation was to honour the journey to reconnect: “...to ourselves, to each other and to all living beings of Mother Earth”. ZOETIC is the result of this journey. Presented and filmed at the Vancouver Fringe Festival this Sep tember 2022. The Heart of the City Festival is honoured to show the film in the On Demand series on the Festival website. Enjoy the film and celebrate reconnection with Theatre Terrific!

Bud Osborn

L to R: David Ng, Jen Sungshine

VANCOUVER MOVING THEATRE NEWS

UPCOMING EVENTS

OLD STOCK: A REFUGEE LOVE STORY

December 1-4, 2022

Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre

SFUW Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

Tickets: https://events.sfu.ca/wcp/event/29513-old-stock-a-refugee-love-story

This Klezmer-folk-music-theatre featuring Ben Caplan is inspired by true stories of Jewish Romanian refugees coming to Canada in 1908, experiences that mirror those of immigrants arriving in the historic East End and Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. Old Stock is about refugees who get out before it’s too late, those who get out after it’s too late, and how to love after being broken by the horrors of war. Written by playwright Hannah Moscovitch with songs by Ben Caplan and Christian Barru, this 2b theatre presentation is produced by SFU’s Cultural Programs in partnership with Chutzpah! Festival & PuSh Festival in association with Vancouver Moving Theatre.

BAH HUMBUG! An Eastside

Christmas Carol – The Film

December 17, 2022. 2pm

Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema

SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

A Benefit for the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, produced and presented by SFUW Cultural Programs and Vancouver Moving Theatre.

Tickets: $20 / $10 bahhumbug.eventbrite.ca

This popular Eastside Scrooge returns just before Christmas with a film screening of the 2019 final performance, plus special appearances and live music by Jim Byrnes and other cast members.

Our specially adapted retelling of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol is set in the Downtown Eastside. Scrooge is a ruthless pawnshop operator and hotel landlord who displaces people through renovictions, until one Christmas Eve he is challenged by three spirits of the past, present and future. Emerging from Coast Salish land buried under sidewalks of today, they bring Scrooge face to face with memories he’s tried to forget and relationships that may never heal.

Bah Humbug! features Juno-award winner and recent Order of Canada recipient Jim Byrnes, Tom Pickett, Sam Bob, Kevin McNulty, VMT’s Savannah Walling and Talking Stick Festival’s Margo Kane, joined by Vinnie Keats, Jerry LeFaery, Olivia Lucas and Stephen Lytton. Richard Tetrault provides iconic and stunning visual backdrops of the Downtown Eastside, while musical director Bill Costin combines seasonal songs with blues, gospel and industrial rock.

IN DEVELOPMENT

Through Survivors Eyes (working title), this new film by Susanne Tabata is centred on the journey of Downtown Eastside resident and carver Bernie Skundaal Williams and her journey from Haida Gwaii to the Downtown Eastside. The film explores the themes of ‘home’, ‘displacement’, ‘belonging’, ‘alienation’ and survival. Produced by Tabata Productions in partnership with Vancouver Moving Theatre.

Fishes of Salt Water City (working title), a new mural-indevelopment for a Chinatown laneway. Led by Bagua Artists Association and co-produced with Chinatown Generations (formerly known as Youth Collaborative for Chinatown).

Inheritance: A Pick-the-Path-Experience an award-winning original interactive theatre production, now produced as a film, that digs into land-clams and entitlements. The outcome of the play is determined by the audience. Produced by Alley Theatre and Mosaic Entertainment in association with Vancouver Moving Theatre.

Legacy: VMT’s co-founders Terry Hunter and Savannah Walling have initiated a multi-year process with SFU Archives & Records and SFU Library Special Collections to house VMT, Heart of the City Festival and personal archival records to benefit future generations. Their first donation consists of reviews, programs and choreographic notation from their early years (1970s) when they participated in the non-credit programs for dance and theatre at Simon Fraser University.

Ben Caplan

Jim Byrnes, Savannah Walling

IN MEMORIUM

Kat Zu’comulwat Norris (Lyackson First Nation)

Sunrise, 9 June 1955 / Sunset, 7 July 2022

Sadly, Kat Norris, our dear friend, advisor and beloved colleague and Heart of the City Elder-in-Residence from 2017 to 2021

Salish Mom, Grandmother, Urban Aunty, Pow Wow Organizer, Community Activist, Residential School Survivor, Founder of Indigenous Action Movement, Co-founder of Vancouver’s 1st Aboriginal Day events, Community-builder, Cultural Speaker, Workshop Facilitator, Actor, Singer, Dancer, Poet, Writer, Creative Collaborator and Warrior Woman.

Kat’s long relationship with Vancouver Moving Theatre and the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival dates back to In the Heart of a City: The Downtown Eastside Community Play (2003). Over the years, Kat participated in community-engaged projects that many readers may remember including Storyweaving, Realms of Refuge, Unsettled, In the Beginning: A Cultural Sharing (From the Waters) and most recently her one-woman performance of Tell Us When They Came.

As Elder-in-Residence for the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, Kat advised on cultural and community protocol; shared knowledge at the festival’s Opening and Closing Ceremonies; participated in conversations with Elders-in-Residence at the Carnegie Community Centre, and hosted two events at Crab Park: a Canoe Landing and the Honouring Downtown Eastside Warriors Ceremony.

Kat dedicated her life to raising voice for Indigenous peoples, to nourishing resilience, fighting injustice and ensuring that the Downtown Eastside community is seen, recognized and honoured.

Kat said that taking care to share knowledge with the next generation was a form of activism. She encouraged all of us to support each other, to work towards solutions, and to be examples to the next generation. Her legacies live on through her examples and mentoring; her poems, scripts and interviews; in videos about the festival; through recordings of her lived experiences and cultural teachings; and in the memories of all who knew her.

THELMA GIBSON TOWNS (1928-2021)

In 2018 at the age of 90, Thelma Gibson delivered a charismatic, unforgettable performance in “East End Blues & All That Jazz”, a musical tribute to Vancouver’s historic residential Black community. She and brothers Leonard and Chic attended Strathcona School and performed show routines at local nightclubs, theatres, and their parents’ Country Club Inn on Powell Street. All three created and performed in CBC’s Bamboula - the first live TV show produced in Vancouver, and the first with a multicultural cast. Thelma was a choreographer, a gifted teacher of dance, and toured Canada, Europe and West Indies. She was inducted as Star Meritus in the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Performing Arts from BC’s Black Historical and Cultural Society. Thelma made everyone welcome in her home at gatherings filled with love, laughter and song. Terry and I are in gratitude for the years of friendship and collaboration with Thelma and her family. Her motto was “There is no such word as can’t”.

– Savannah Walling

IN MEMORIUM

SID CHOW TAN

From Iconoclast to Icon_Mao / God Father of Chinese Canadian Headtax Redress

Where the Pivotal Moment was Sid “Gwan Gung Slagging” Ottawa on National TV Sidoober Productions Cable Host of the “We Are Not Shaw” Show on Shaw Joint Chairperson and Pres. of the Sierra Club, Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop, and Headtax Families of Canada Sid’s True Heart “Cardiac-ed” the Heart of the City Festival

The China born Paper Son of a Low Wah Kiu Headtax Payer Sid got his street creds being Busted Protesting at the Riot at the Hyatt

A Bona Fide Hero / Champion Fighting Social Injustice Sid even took on Giant Shell Oil and Connected Battleford Sask to Vancouver_Chinatown to the D.T.E.S. Theory to Practice_Art to Activism_ and always Power to People

In his own immortal lyrics, “I’m a Chinatown Cowboy, ain’t nothin’ better than that!” and Sid made it so!

Goodbye “Tannibis”!_Farewell B.F.F.!

Cut to Chinatown Cowboy, Riding Off into the Big Videoscape! Large and In Charge, You Stood Up, were counted, and made a Big Ass Difference, Recording and Making History, Sidney Lancelot Chow Ming Fai Tan (1949 – 2022) the G.O.A.T. sporting the Trademark Goatee! Rest in Power, Brother!

– Sean Gunn

JOAN MORELLI

I knew Joan through theatre and storytelling. And she was much more. A mother. A woman. A fighter. An activist. A writer and a poet. A Militant Mom. A longtime volunteer and resident of the DTES - her home community. At Carnegie, the Women’s Centre, Megaphone Magazine, the Writers’ Collective. Joan performed in I Love the Downtown Eastside, The Downtown Eastside Community Play, We’re All in This Together, and Condemned – the Opera. She participated as often as she could. At the Carnegie Theatre Workshop, we loved her voice and rolling articulation. On the street with her shopping cart. Joan was front and centre, a proud and strong member of the community. Memorable forever. I miss her.

– Teresa Vandertuin

ROSE-ELLEN NICOLS

When Rose-Ellen Nichols died of cancer on January 30 at age 41, we were not surprised. She had fought for years, with courage and fury. Two weeks before, a small group of us met with her to plan a memorial award. She was very clear about what she wanted: an annual award for a promising Canadian artist, age 18-40, pursuing a career in opera performance or costume design with special consideration for those addressing Indigenous cultures and issues. What did surprise us was this: how widely she was admired. Rose was Coast Salish, but refused to trade on the fact. She wanted to be hired for her voice. When she created the title role in Pauline (2014, Margaret Atwood’s first opera), she wanted no favours. When she created Native Mother in Missing (2017), the same. She was deeply proud of her family and even more of her art. When Rose passed, the Globe & Mail published a full-page obituary, citing her immense talent and the esteem in which she was held across Canada. No one was surprised.

– Charles Barber

Sid Tan

IN MEMORIUM

ROBYN LIVINGSTONE

Rockin’ Robyn: a bright light of our community; a singularly unique voice; a wild genius of a wordsmith who rattled logic with his extraordinary vocabulary and rich stream of consciousness poetry that rivaled James Joyce; a walking one-manabout-town-arts-promotional-bill-board; an enormously creative powerhouse with a starburst of a signature. His performances Downtown Eastside Community

We're All In This Together were unforgettable. A huge supporter of the arts and Vancouver Moving Theatre's creative journey; he was a kind and gentle soul and a good friend. My partner Savannah loved singing with Robyn and performing alongside him; his knowledge of song literature astonished her. In the words of our son Montana, who talked with him many times around the neighbourhood, Robyn "was always a kind and positive influence".

KEN LYOTIER

Ken Lyotier was a longtime Downtown Eastside resident who, on a daily basis, contributed immensely to the neighbourhood in immeasurable ways. His innovative approaches to community economic development through his founding of United We Can and the Binner's Project were celebrated locally, nationally and internationally. Ken was a one of a kind troublemaker and peacemaker who displayed gentleness and openness, past his sometimes gruff exterior. He had a moral courage that drew people to his vision of a kinder, gentler society that could work through its differences and divides. His solidarity to the people in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood never wavered. We miss you Kenrest in peace!

– Am Johal

EUGENE CRAIN

Dear friend. Cherished colleague. All around the sweetest guy you would ever want to meet.

Eugene was a big hearted Cree man that gave so much to his community. I loved him. His friends and community loved him. Selfless. Kind. Considerate. Compassionate, Caring. We shared family roots on the prairies, and we loved to swap stories about our childhood there. Eugene served on the Board of Vancouver Moving Theatre Society for the last four years and brought to the work his extensive knowledge and love of communication, social media, networking and local indigenous artists, elders and knowledge keepers. Suddenly passed. Far too soon. Your memory and good spirit live on in my heart dear brother. May you walk in beauty with your ancestors.

– Terry Hunter

LEE MARACLE

Lee Maracle remains an inspiring force for reckoning with Canada’s genocidal past. Born to a Metis mother and Tsleil-Waututh father (Chief Dan George’s son Bobby), Lee was active with the Red Power movement fifty years ago and is the second Indigenous woman ever published in Canada. She supported thousands of university students and many emerging writers, sharing insights with laughter, criticality, and beauty. Widely published, Lee interwove Coast Salish epistemology revealing complex stories and reminded us to “go back before the Indian Act” to see what was possible. She once told me that if I wasn’t making mistakes, I probably wasn’t doing work. As a settler growing up here, I am indebted to Lee for deepening my understandings to act. To Lee’s daughters, active in our DTES community, thank you for sharing your mom with the world.

– Irwin Oostindie

CREDITS + THANKS

DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE HEART OF THE CITY FESTIVAL

Executive Artistic Producer Terry Hunter

Associate Artistic Producer Teresa Vandertuin

Associate Artistic Director Savannah Walling Operations / Associate Producer Lalia Fraser Production Manager Jonathon Paterson Digital Advisor & Engineer Kimit Sekhon Designer John 遠藤 Endo Greenaway (Big Wave Design)

Publicist & Marketing Jodi Smith (JLS Entertainment)

Social Media and Eventbrite Manager Louise Ma Program Guide Liaison Tracy Moromisato

Associate Programmers Gunargie O’Sullivan, Jim Sands

Production Staff Kaeden Atkinson-Hill, Hector Paniagua Baltazar, Yaron Bareli, Bill Beauregarde, Anna Brew, Mark Carter, Christian Ching, Liam Fazackerley, Andy McAvoy, Duffy McWhirter, Andy Smith, Elwin T Xie, Julie Weibe

Operations Staff Gerardo Avila, Merlin Cosmos, Gilles Cyrenne, Marvin Delorme, Colleen Gorrie, Ali McDougall, Mike McNeeley, Teresa Ng, Cat Rey, Aly Rigby, Priscillia Tait, Karen Thorpe, Jeff Wilson

Social Media Jeff Wilson

Studio Photographer David Cooper

On Site Photographers Terry Hunter, Tom Quirk, Chris Randle, Jeff Wilson Program Guide Contributors Charles Barber, Gilles Cyrenne, Lalia Fraser, John Endo Greenaway, Sean Gunn, Terry Hunter, Am Johal, Irwin Oostindie, Jim Sands, Nadine Spence, Teresa Vandertuin, Savannah Walling

CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE

Director Jamie McGregor

Acting Manager of Community Centre Operations Rika Uto Community Programmer, Arts & Education Beverly Walker Community Programmer, Cultural & Seniors Doris Chow Community Programmer, Volunteers & Recreation Luke Vasak Community Programmer, Oppenheimer Park Jennifer Taylor Indigenous Programs Coordinator Nicole Bird Security Coordinator Skip Everall Food Services Coordinator Jenny Patsula Carnegie Learning Centre Namorsh W Reddy & Emily C Hunter VPL Carnegie, Branch Head Danielle LaFrance

CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE ASSOCIATION

Board of Directors: President Gilles Cyrenne, Vice President Paul Taylor, Treasurer Thelma Jack, Secretary Lorraine Jack; Board Members Tina Eastman, Carol Martin, Yvonne Mark, Les Nelson, Emma Price, Mike Tapp, Ethel Whitty (ex-officio), James Pau (Member at Large)

THANKS for the guiding strategies developed by the Heart of the City Festival Strategic and Sustainability Plan Advisory (2007): Allan Cappo, Joe Dzatko, Sophia Freigang, Leslie Kemp, Rick Lam, Renae Morriseau, Robert Olsen, Ruth Sam, Barbara Small, Sid Tan and Kira Gerwing; the DTES Heart of the City Festival Succession and Sustainability Strategic Plan (2012) developed by Dawn Brennan and Linda Gorrie; the VMT Sustainability and Succession Implementation Plan (2014) created with Lori Baxter; and Vancouver Moving Theatre’s Board of Directors who have provided guidance and support with good will ever since the company’s founding over thirty years ago.

VANCOUVER MOVING THEATRE

Co-founder / Artistic Director Savannah Walling (hl Gat’saa)

Co-founder / Executive Director Terry Hunter (Nang Gulgaa)

General Manager Lalia Fraser

Accountant Lucy Lai

Bookkeeper Maura Doherty

Financial Review Grant Thornton LLP

Designer in Residence John 遠藤 Endo Greenaway

(Big Wave Design)

Strategic Planning Consultant Lori Baxter

Filemaker Tech Support Oak Bay Softrends

Computer Technician David Skulski

Board of Directors: President, Ann McDonell; Secretary, John Atkin; Treasurer/Human Resources Liaison, Louise Leclair; Members at Large, Ada Con, Fanna Yee

THANK YOU to the Carnegie Community Centre and the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians for their continuing support.

HATS OFF TO OUR SPONSORS & DONORS

The Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival gratefully acknowledges the generous contributions of our many sponsors, community partners and individual donors. This festival could not happen without their enthusiastic and generous support. Thank you!

CREDITS + THANKS

PHOTOSHOOT PARTICIPANTS

Mike Alexander, Gordon Bird, Ivy Chan, Rosa Cheng, Haisla Collins, Hayetsk Dangeli, Mique’l Dangeli, Mike Dangeli, Marr Dorvault, Eliot Galan, Victoria Gibson, Joshua Giller, Peter Wayne Gong, John Endo Greenaway, Sylvan Hamburger, Wendy Havens, Larissa Healey, Terry Hunter, Charlene Johnny, Jacky Lam, Becky Lee, Lance Lim, Stephen Lytton, Pat Mah, Sam McKay, Melissa Nahanee, Leslie Nelson, David Ng, Stanley Paul, Cat Rey, Jim Sands, Raphael Sanluis, Stella Sham, Nadine Spence, Louisa Starr, Jen Sungshine, David Tam, Sid Chow Tan, Richard Tetrault, Karen Thorpe, Savannah Walling, Jerry Whitehead, Angus Yam

PROGRAM GUIDE IMAGE/PHOTO CREDITS

Agustina Aquim, Colin Askey, Cakewalk Media, David Cooper, Victoria Gibson, Doug Kennedy, David Lester, Ninedoors Photography, Gunargie O’Sullivan, Tom Quirk, Stephen Robb, Joe Sacco, Roger Spence, Tallulah, Richard Tetrault, Jeff Wilson, Paul Wong, Marjo Wright, and many more unknown artists and photographers.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Alley Theatre, Audain Gallery, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Canton Sardine, Carnegie Indigenous Programs, Carnegie Newsletter, Centre A, Coastal Jazz & Blues Society, Co-op Radio CFRO 100.5FM, Creative Cultural Collaborations Society (C3), Death Rides a Unicorn, Downtown Community Health Centre, Dr. Sun YatSen Classical Chinese Garden, DTES CREW (Community Research Ethics Workshop), DTES Market, DTES Writers Collective, EWMA (Enterprising Women Making Art), Evelyne Saller Centre, Fazakas Gallery, Firehall Arts Centre, Further We Rise Collective/Sacred Rock, Gallery Gachet, Illicit Projects, International Web Express, InterUrban Gallery/Culture Saves Lives, Karen Jamieson Dance, Kokoro Dance/KW Studios, Listening Post, Lobe Sound Media Gallery, Love Intersections, MascallDance, Massy Books & Massy Arts Society, nə́c̓aʔmat ct Strathcona Branch, NOW Society/8EAST, O. Dela Arts, Oppenheimer Park, Or Gallery, Outsiders and Others, Pender Community Health Centre, PHS (Portland Hotel Society), Radix Theatre, Ray-Cam Cooperative Centre, Right to Remain Research Collective, Runaway Moon Theatre, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement, SFUW Cultural Programs, Skwachàys Gallery, SRO Collaborative, Saint James Music Academy, St. James’ Anglican Church, SUM Gallery, The Ironworks, The West Hotel, Theatre Terrific, This Gallery, VALU Co-op Community Projects, Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre, Vancouver Cantonese Opera, Vancouver Police Museum & Archives, Vines Art Festival, Virago Nation, VIXmedia, VPL Carnegie Branch, Voor Urban Labs and National Urban Indigenous Coalitions Council, Watari Youth & Family Services, Westbank

SPECIAL THANKS BEHIND THE SCENES

Staff and patrons of the Carnegie Community Centre, Paul Taylor and the Carnegie Newsletter, staff of Oppenheimer Park; Hannah Acton, Daniela Aiello, Eduardo Alvarado, Matthew Ariaratnam, Daniel Arnold, James Ash, Romila Barryman, Janice Beck, Nicole Bird, Sarah Blyth, Beth Carter, Rosa Cheng, Doris Chow, David Cooper, Nicolas Crier, Byron Cruz, Gilles Cyrenne, Lisa David, Olivia C. Davies, Kate De Lorme, Beverly Dobrinsky, Sam Fenn, Danny Fung, Laurence Gatinel, Moroti George, Mildred Grace German, Victoria Gibson, Steve Gidora, Sarah Godoy, Penny Goldsmith, David Gowman, John Endo Greenaway, Ronnie Grigg, Jay Hamburger, Mark Haracka, Nina Horvath, Jackie Humber, Father Kevin Hunt, Hania Ilahi, Melissa James, Margaret Joba-Woodruff, Am Johal, Diane Kadota, Debbie Karras, Doug Kennedy, Dianna Kleparchuk, Karla Kloepper, Tabatha Laanui, Christopher Lacroix, Fiona Tinwei Lam, Andrew Laurenson, Norm Leech, Mialynn LeeDaigle, David Lester, Jing Li, April Liu, Demi London, Lorraine Lowe, Henry Heng Lu, Travis Lupick, Sherry MacDonald, Charlotte Marr, Jennifer Mascall, Russell Maynard, Sean McGarragle, Tim McMillan, David Mendes, Ingrid Mendez, Lisa Cay Miller, Isabella Mori, Brad Muirhead, Garth Mullins, David Ng, Gunargie O’Sullivan, Irwin Oostindie, Beatriz Orbegoso, Wendy Pedersen, Wendy Peeters, Byron Peters, Caroline Phelps, Tom Quirk, Esther Rausenberg, Cat Rey, Pamela Roberts, Jim Sands, Rosina Santillana, Cole Schmidt, Julia Siedlanowska, Nadine Spence, Donna Spencer, Cathy Stubington, Kenan Sungar, Jen Sungshine, Sonam Swarup, Pamela Tagle, Jennifer Taylor, Richard Tetrault, Karen Thorpe, Susanna Uchatius, Mina Uweh, Beverly Walker, Brendan Weekes, Spencer Wilkinson, Jeff Wilson, Paul Wong, Diane Wood, Elwin Xie, Fanna Yee, Roy Youssefzadeh, Nicolas Yung, Rafael Zen … and thanks to those we may have unwittingly forgotten, and to those who helped after this program guide went to print; we can’t do it without you!

WHAT MATTERS MOST

by Patrick Foley

What matters most is to love someone and have someone love you

What matters most is not how much money you have but how you spend it

What matters most is to see your cup as half full rather than half empty

What matters is to say your prayers everyday

What matters most is know where you come from and where you’re going

What matters most is to lend a hand to those in need

What matters most is to take the time to eat and enjoy your food

What matters most is to see each day as a number of possibilities

What matters most is to cherish the people you love

What matters most is to count your blessings

What matters most is to give thanks to the Creator for what you do have

What matters most is to step in and help those who need it

What matters most is to remember those you care about

What matters most is to know what’s true

What matters most is to do a good turn every day

What matters most is to remember those who helped you when you needed care

What matters most is to pay attention to what is going on in the world and lend a hand if you can help

What matters most is what you do, rather than what you say you will do, or think about doing

What matters most is to have a deep restful sleep

What matters most is the things you love doing

HERE I AM HOME

by Gilles Cyrenne

Here I am home Community is home

Ici, c'est chez nous

Those of who who have scraped bottom in that dark night of mind heart soul who have groveled in that muck offered up in life's not so great moments depressions addiction brain gone wonky mind askew mental health issues with heart off kelter We need one another As we recover hopefully some semblance of sanity

In supporting one another we become community creators

We build life that's healthier

Ici, c'est chez nous

Here I am home