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Animation has the ability to provide an experience that is simply impossible in reality. The expansion of Japanese culture around the world, and into Vancouver, was mainstreamed through anime and is described by SFU Anime Club executives, Stephanie Wu and Chris Baek, as “very open and versatile to anyone.” The three main aspects of Japanese…
For Alexandra Lainfiesta, a recent grad of Studio 58, the decision to move to Canada from Guatemala to pursue the performing arts was a ‘click away.’ The actress, who plays Anita in Theatre Under the Stars’ (TUTS) upcoming production of West Side Story, chose Vancouver as a place to study acting and pursue a career…
“I think I was really in awe of the fact that people could be so strong yet so vulnerable at the same time,” says two-time Vancouver Slam Champion Tasha Receno as she recalls the night she was inspired to explore spoken word poetry. Receno’s adventure into slam poetry began when she attended an event at…
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,”…
When filmmaker Mina Shum found out she won the director-writer-producer with Finalé Artistic Achievement Award, she was elated. Women in Film and Television Vancouver notified her of the Spotlight award in March through an email. Last February, Teri Snelgrove at the National Film Board nominated Shum for the award. She attributes the success of her recent…
On July 7, the Tom Lee Music Hall will be the host of the International Trova Festival: a night of music from Cuba and Spain, full of variety and fun. One of the artists performing at the festival is Beatriz Garmendia, who will be singing the slow and romantic boleros, one of most popular and…
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…
In 2015 the director of the Contemporary Art Gallery (CAG) went to a grad show at Simon Fraser University (SFU)’s School for the Contemporary Arts, where he picked an artist to be the recipient of a new annual award. The emerging artist chosen was Anchi Lin, and her first solo exhibition, To the Shore, is…
With the upcoming National Aboriginal Day on June 21, Quelemia Sparrow’s solo performance, O’Wet/Lost Lagoon, sheds light on issues that Aboriginals still face through a theatrical interpretation of her personal experiences. O’Wet (pronounced as oh-wee) denotes propelling a canoe. The word is also connected to a shaman’s canoe ride to the land of the dead…
Bringing together blues, reggae, country, and rock influences, J.P. Falcon Grady and his band will be performing at Peace Arch Park on June 20 for the 2016 International Arts and Music Festival. Born in Montana, the self-taught singer and guitarist has been on the move his whole life, having either lived, travelled, or performed from…
North of Punjab India lies the Jalandhar District, one of the oldest cities in India. East of the district is a dusty village named Dosanjh Kalan. This land is where Ujjal Dosanjh’s ancestors settled 500 years ago, and where he called home for 18 years. Dosanjh relives his life in his memoir Journey After Midnight:…
Across the street from Kingsgate Mall on East Broadway St. in Vancouver, passersby may have noticed a black flag erected on an empty lot, with various foods in quarter bushel baskets, such as potatoes and squashes, surrounding it. It iss Vancouver-based artist Holly Ward’s way of raising attention to the issues of land use and…
“I was a picture bride when I came to Victoria in 1907,” Koto Kawamoto tells us in her 1958 memoir The Way of Endurance. “As I left behind all that I knew in Japan, I had many thoughts of what life had in store for me in a new land.” Kawamoto’s story is one of…
