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September 5, 2017
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Ava, a 22-year-old UBC law student, motors along Highway 16 just west of Prince George in the pouring rain. As the car head- lights illuminate the outline of an Aboriginal girl hitchhiking by the side of the road, Ava wavers. Should she stop and pick her up? But the moment is gone, and she...
March 12, 2015
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Takao Tanabe may be one of Canada’s most renowned artists, his 60-year career chronicled in detail by art institutions, journals and the media alike. But there’s a lesser-known side to his success story, one that the Vancouver Island painter recalls with utmost clarity: the long struggle not just...
October 27, 2014
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Shane Koyczan is no stranger to deeply personal material. The poetry of this Vancouver-based spoken word artist is rich in social commentary, and often delves with an unflinching eye into intimate and sometimes disturbing subject matter. However, when Vancouver Opera came calling two years ago to...
November 22, 2013
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Since 1995, Word Vancouver has presented a wide range of author readings and events as part of the annual Vancouver Book and Magazine Fair . The intent is to advance education and literacy, and increase public appreciation of literature. This year, it was a new addition to the regular poetry...
October 29, 2013
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The fabulous -- but largely forgotten -- black history of Vancouver's Strathcona neighbourhood Some of the names almost everyone knows: Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole. Others might ring a few bells: Vie’s Chicken and Steakhouse, Marcella “Choo Choo” Williams, the Harlem Nocturne...
June 12, 2013
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David Lemon isn’t looking for a pat on the back. Through his work he has been providing elderly Canadians in care with meaningful moments of joy, but he is far from satisfied. What he desperately wants is to make a bigger difference – more often, and for more people. His charitable organization,...
June 12, 2013
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Living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), suffering from schizophrenia, battling emotional trauma and dealing with an all-consuming heroin addiction, Andrew Fiore has seen his share of despair, heartbreak and tragedy. Yet rather than turn his back on a troubled past following a long road to...
December 17, 2012
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Bill Nimi’s memory isn’t as good as it used to be. But even at 80 years old, he can still recall many details about his father’s drugstore . “The address was 331 Powell Street,” he says without hesitation. It was one of dozens of Japanese businesses that operated in the area of Vancouver once...
December 14, 2012
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As a toddler, Larry Wong would wake each morning to the staccato rhythms of his father’s Singer sewing machine. By the afternoon, he would be crawling on the floor, playing amongst clippings of silk fabric and discarded cotton thread. He remembers his father’s slippered feet that furiously pumped...
December 14, 2012
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Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds...and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence…. -- from High Flight...
December 17, 2011
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In this age of digital commerce, of high speed, hi-tech banking, not everyone relies on the internet and a smartphone for money transfers. Sometimes, some people like a simple, more direct method … like a bag of cash handed over personally ... That was the case recently at Vancouver Foundation’s...
December 14, 2011
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What do Google, a security guard, Vancouver Cantata Singers, the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, and Vancouver Foundation all have in common? An unlikely combination, they are changing the face – and sound – of choral music in Vancouver and contributing to spinal cord research at the same time. Many...
December 14, 2011
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You can learn a lot on a farm. At the Curly Willow Farm in Grindrod (just an organic carrot’s throw from Enderby) you learn that raspberries make good greeters; that beets have British accents; and, after a short but intense conversation with some asparagus, that they’re quite enlightened. Over the...
December 14, 2010
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In the early 1920s … A young woman named Lillian Alling arrives on the east coast of North America. Part of the post-war crush of immigrants from Europe, she joins the hordes of people seeking prosperity, a new world, or just a fresh start in America. Like millions of others, she is processed...
December 14, 2010
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“Our Kulture,” a duet by local rapper Discreet Da Chosen 1 and the Sto:lo band Ostwelve, blares in the background as 27-year-old Orene Askew gets everything in order behind the scenes, preparing to go live for her weekly show Sne’waylh on Vancouver’s Co-op Radio. Unlike the song, Askew doesn’t belt...
December 14, 2010
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Doubt clouded Ron Horsefall’s mind. “Can I really do this?” he asked himself, as he began to craft his first piece. He had the potential – he’d always had that. He had beads and materials, thanks to a $1,000 grant from the Downtown Eastside Small Arts Grant Program, a partnership between Vancouver...
December 14, 2010
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Sometimes we are so mired in the challenges of the Downtown Eastside, we don’t see the neighbourhood’s beauty. Artist Colleen Carroll, who lives just steps from the Carnegie Centre at Main and Hastings, wants to show people the other side of Canada’s poorest postal code. “People might not have much...
December 14, 2010
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Bill Reid Gallery The smooth voice of legendary Haida artist Bill Reid echoes under the high ceilings of the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art. His larger-than-life image moves ghost-like across a movie screen. His presence is infused in the walls, in the art (look closely at the totem pole...
June 14, 2010
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Arts Club Theatre Othello, Waiting for Godot, and Death of a Salesman are all classics of Western theatre. It’s easy to forget that before they were great, they were once nothing more than a spark of inspiration in a playwright’s imagination. It's only because someone took a chance -- and took...
December 14, 2008
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Circus West Circus West School of Circus Arts has been teaching trapeze, unicycle, juggling, wire walking and other circus skills since 1985. Jay Nunns was one of the first Cirkids more than 20 years ago. He’s now Artistic Director of the group. “Its our passion … we love circus, we love putting on...
December 14, 2008
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Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Ludwig van Beethoven left a remarkable legacy of music for future generations to hear and enjoy. Between March 29 and April 7, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Bramwell Tovey, will be performing all nine Beethoven symphonies, in chronological...
December 14, 2008
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Vancouver Opera 1791 in Vienna... Mozart pens his last and one of his most popular operas - The Magic Flute. At the same time, halfway round the world, Spanish Captain Jose Narvaez "discovers" the mouth of the Fraser River; and British Captain George Vancouver explores the west coast of BC. He...
December 14, 2008
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Vancouver Historical Society The earliest known surviving film footage of Vancouver, shot in 1907 by a hand-cranked camera mounted to a streetcar, mysteriously surfaces in Australia, and is given to the Vancouver Historical Society. Those were the days when horse and buggies dominated the street,...
December 14, 2008
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The Volcano Theatre Company crossed the ocean from Wales to bring its water-based installation to Britannia Secondary School. The theatrical event, called A Few Little Drops; the extraordinary life of water, transformed the school’s field into a watery playground. From a flooded-ravaged house to a...
December 14, 2008
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Urban Republic/Cineworks Urban Republic and Cineworks recreated the drive-in movie experience in the heart of Vancouver, with their own contemporary spin. The roof of a Gastown parkade was transformed into a drive-in theatre. “Vancouver Starts as Itself” was the theme of the series, which ran in...