Exploring art in times of crisis: a mirror to the past

Jairo Salazar, art historian and instructor for Coquitlam College and Mobil Art School, will be delivering a digital seminar on Art in Times of Crisis in partnership with the Richmond Art Gallery on Aug. 25. The webinar will explore viruses, plagues, illnesses, and pandemics in art, and is the second in a series of talks…

Women of Vancouver – Yayoi Hirano and the Yayoi Theatre Movement Society

Yayoi Hirano was honoured at Vancouver Asian Heritage Month’s (VAHM) Virtual Recognition Awards Ceremony 2020. VAHM’s vision is to recognize and promote the inclusion and social integration of Pan-Asian Canadian communities in Canada. Born and raised in Japan, Hirano moved to Vancouver in 2002 after spending a number of years setting up her theatre company,…

BACI strives to sustain beacons of inclusion beyond the pandemic

Created in 1956, the Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion (BACI) offers a range of community services to support the inclusion and belonging of people with disabilities. Co-executive director Richard Faucher, a long-time advocate for human rights and social justice, has been with the non-profit for 30 years. “People with disabilities are still perceived as a…

Nicole Guzzo and her initiative across the globe

“When you educate a woman, you educate a whole generation of people,” is the message that motivated Nicole Guzzo as she volunteered and created an NGO across the globe. A fashion designer from Vancouver, Guzzo began Prakasa Co. (pronounced prakasha), a non-registered charitable organization in 2017, that plays different roles in the three different countries…

Exploring narratives that shape belonging

The Here and There: In-Between Worlds online lecture is part of SFU’s 2020 Conversation Series on Identity and Citizenship and will take place Saturday, June 20 from 1–2 p.m. SFU Scholar-in-Residence and Limited-Term Lecturer Amyn Sajoo started the conversation series in 2018 as a partnership between SFU and the Ismaili Centres Canada. “My onstage guests,…

Stained glass: more than just a window

“[British Columbia’s early European settlers] didn’t have brick and stone, so they built with wood. When they built churches they wanted to give them a sense of permanence and a sense of beauty [found in] their former homeland, so memorial windows and windows that told stories of the Bible were a comfort to people,” explains…

Design and technology unite for a good cause

A charity for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and a 3D Printing company seem like an unexpected partnership, but during this pandemic they have come together to tackle community-based issues. Tinkerine Studios, a technology and design company, is working on a surprising new project with The Wavefront Centre for Communication Accessibility, a charitable organization…

Women of Vancouver: Melody Lim

Melody Lim, this year’s winner of Coast Capital Savings Venture Prize, was inspired by a local candle maker in Milos, Greece, in 2016. At a small local store, she “fell in love with the process of candle-making.” “It was in Milos where I conceptualized Mala,” she recalls. The experience led her to found Mala the…

Connecting people through languages

The online Language Sciences flash talks at the University of British Columbia features the diverse research done on language sciences by several leading members of the UBC faculty. Everyone is welcome to attend the May 19, 1 p.m. presentations. “The event features three Language Sciences members, from different research themes, who will each give a…

Psychologists study impacts of COVID-19

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been a watershed event for the world. It has brought drastic changes to all aspects of people’s lives, some temporary, some permanent. A new study, launched by UBC health psychologists Anita DeLongis and Nancy Sin, aims to provide some insights on the impacts of COVID-19 on people’s mental and physical…

Facing a pandemic in a community that hasn’t always been home

As nearly everybody in the country adjusts to social distancing, and isolation continues to interfere with careers, relationships and spiritual communities, newer Canadians and non-citizens face an extra layer of challenges. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, those arriving in Canada are under mandatory 14-day quarantine, private gatherings are under heavy restrictions, and borders have…

Towards a rights-based model of conservation

In light of the recent pipeline conflict and the fraught deadlock Canada has found itself in, Madison Stevens talks about the intersection of stewardship rights and conservation, where people may find ways to reduce community friction and promote greater understanding. From a BA in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from Franklin University in Switzerland, to…

Human and non-human connections

Anthropologist Sarah Ives will be at Green College at the University of British Columbia (UBC) on Mar. 16 to present her paper Blurry Lines: Race, Botany and the Anthropocene. This event will be held at The Coach House at 6:30 pm and is open to the public at no charge. Ives, a professor at City…