Youth find their voice at the PuSh Festival

The Youth Assembly, a one-day performing arts conference run by and made for youth, is returning to this year’s PuSh Festival. The Assembly will also be one of the final meetings for this year’s PuSh Youth Academy, a smaller group that for the last two months has regularly met up to see shows, listen to…

Chinese Mid-Autumn Mooncake festival

The Mid Autumn Mooncake Festival and Chinese Dance Demonstration will be taking place on Oct. 4 at Mackin House in Coquitlam. Jessica Yue, Chinese food stylist, dancer and traditional Chinese dance choreographer will perform as well as teach the audience traditional dances. The two dances that will be performed at the Mid-Autumn festival are Luminous Peach…

Polish festival celebrates fifth year

Organizers hope people will learn more about Polish culture, history and modern day Poland at the Fifth Annual Polish Festival, taking place at Lynn Valley Village on Sept. 3. According to the 2011 Statistics Canada Census profile there are 17,460 people of Polish descent in British Columbia. “The [Polish] community has so much to offer.…

A gathering for good causes at Taiwan Fest

As the month of September approaches, Vancouver being the diversified city that it is, is offering wondrous cultural activities for Canadians to connect with their roots. For Taiwan Fest (Sept. 2–4) it is a special occasion to reconnect with the essence of Asian heritage. Eddy Kuo, executive assistant of Taiwan Fest, says the festival had,…

Thai Festival: Celebrating culture and diplomacy

The 4th Thai Festival will be held on July 22–23 at the North Plaza of the Vancouver Art Gallery. The festival is presented by the Royal Thai General-Consulate in Vancouver and features Thai live performances, culinary demonstrations and crafts workshops. Food and refreshments from local Thai restaurants will also be available. Admission to the festival…

A home abroad: Latin American presence in B.C.

Roots and Ties: 150 Years of Canadian and Latin History will be held on June 30. The event takes place at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island in conjunction with Carnaval del Sol’s Latin American Week which runs from June 30–July 9. Admission to Roots and Ties is free. “We are a very young group…

Japanese-Canadian shines spotlight on picture-bride

Situated on the edge of the Japanese-Canadian community, Kiyoko Tanaka-Goto was not only a picture-bride. She was a survivor, among other things, to Emiko Morita, co-curator of Kiyo, the Spatial Poetics presented July 8 – a prelude to the Powell Street Festival. “I value her spirit and determination to survive,” says Morita. She heard when…

Opportunities for artistic expression at SFU Summer Festival

SFU’s Anime Club presents its 4th annual SFU Summer Festival, meant to mimic Japanese summer festivals commonly seen in anime series. It will be held at Convocation Mall at the SFU Burnaby Campus again this year on July 15. The free one-day event, used as a way for the club to raise funds, includes an…

Celebrating Croatian culture in Vancouver

The Croatian Cultural Centre will be holding their 2nd Annual Croatia Days Festival this year. According to Ante Pocrnic, Vice President of the United Croats of Canada, last year over 3000 people attended the festival and he expects the turnout to be even greater this year. This year the two-day event is being held from…

Vesak: A festival of new beginnings

Buddhists all over the world are celebrating the Vesak festival this month, in which they commemorate the Buddha’s birth and passing into Nirvana. Vancouver’s Tisdall Park will be the stage of the third BC Vesak Festival on May 28, organized by a joint committee of representatives from 50 Buddhist temples across the world. Surrey-based Buddhist…

Celebrating Tagore’s confluence of cultures

The Vancouver Tagore Society is hosting its 3rd annual spring festival at Surrey City Hall on Saturday May 20 to pay tribute to Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. The festival includes dance, music and poetry and will feature many different multicultural performances. Some of the performaces include Carnatic vocal music by Lakshmi Menon with Sayenden,…