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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…
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…
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,…
The Vancouver South African Film Festival (VSAFF), which runs from March 31 to April 2, first began as a movie night amongst friends at the cinema in South Africa. It was after watching Skin (2008) – a film that tells the story of a girl labeled as ‘coloured’ despite being born to Afrikaner parents during…
Three graduates of Langara College will participate at a Vancouver film festival alongside award-winning international documentaries. Jeff Berg, Amy Psyden, and Mariah Kennedy each directed student films that will be screened at the Just Film Festival taking place at VanCity Theatre between March 30 and April 1. The Just Film Festival is jointly organized by…
What does it mean to be JewAsian? In challenging dominant narratives of intermarriage, sociologists and married Jewish-Asian couple Helen Kiyoung Kim and Noah Samuel Leavitt explore the ways in which they, their children and many Jewish-Asian Americans navigate this crossroads of race, religion and ethnicity. “Our work helps readers to understand how what might at…
Vancouver’s Asian Canadian community will be hosting their annual literary event, literASIAN, from Sept. 21–25. The theme, History and Memory, will be presented through a series of panels, workshops and book launches from 18 knowledgeable and respected authors, including Jean Barman, Paul Yee and Joy Kogawa. Paul Yee, author of many works inspired by growing…
An opportunity has risen in Vancouver to learn and experience the food and culture of the Hakka people of Taiwan. This year’s TAIWANfest (Sept. 3–5), alongside the Vancouver Taiwan Hakka Association, sheds light on a people’s history with their Experience Hakka program. Since 1990, TAIWANfest has been raising awareness to Taiwanese history and building communities…
Carnival is deeply rooted in Latin American culture. Originally, it was meant as a chance to indulge before a prolonged period of fasting in the springtime. Even today there is still a widely felt sense of free-spirited stress release in the air wherever carnival is celebrated. “Carnaval del Sol, it’s where we all shine together,”…
Musician, writer and performer Vivek Shraya will be at this year’s Indian Summer Festival as part of the ‘5 by 15’ panel on July 16, in which five people will speak on various subjects for 15 minutes. Shraya will focus on a photo series recreated from some of her mother’s old photos – nine vintage…
The Sikh faith will be on display in the streets of South Vancouver for the annual Vaisakhi festival on April 16.This tradition is honoured world-wide on different dates to mark the open of the harvest season and the birth of Khalsa. Khalsa is the living text of the Sikh religion. The scripture is recognized as…
Every year, the flowering cherry blossoms signify the arrival of spring, their beauty captivating many. Now in its 10th year, the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival has helped spread interest in cherry blossoms and facilitated community education on the trees. Before the festival officially begins, David Tracey, a community ecologist, leads a group through Oppenheimer Park.…
Vancouver’s Tibetans will celebrate Losar, their culture’s New Year, Feb. 8. This year, the Kagyu Kunkhyab Chuling Centre will celebrate Losar with a series of different traditions, including meditation sessions and special Protector Mahakala ceremonies to ring in the Tibetan New Year. Lobsang Tenzin calls himself a dharma believer and teacher who’s immersed in Vancouver’s…
