Dear Readers, Where does time go? That’s what I feel nowadays. My 10 year-old daughter often recites lines from her favourite movie, Spy Kids: “No one notices time until it’s gone!”, and then goes on, “If kids are feeling this way, then adults must feel even more!”   Sometimes we don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone. As such, let’s embrace the moment and enjoy springtime!  Many lovely events in the community are happening this month! This April is packed with exciting events and news. First of all, Kerrisdale IS the hottest destination in Vancouver, it seems, according to the Courier’s Stars of Vancouver Readers’ Choice Awards. See all the winners!!   –  Kerrisdale Community Centre has been voted #1 Community Centre  – Kerrisdale Village Farmers Market has voted #1 Farmers Market   –  Kerrisdale Days has been voted #2 Street Festival in Vancouver – Kerrisdale Village has been voted #2 Neighbourhood in Vancouver – Moore’s Bakery & Delicatessen (only in Kerrisdale) has been voted #1 Bakery – Faubourg (in Kerrisdale and elsewhere) has been voted #1 Dessert – Ajisai Sushi Bar (only in Kerrisdale) has been voted #1 Sushi Restaurant – my favourite sushi place;) – Bean Brothers Cafe (only in Kerrisdale) has been voted #2 Sandwich Place – Yes we often cater yummy sandwiches from them!   – The Kerrisdale Lumber Co. Ltd (only in Kerrisdale) has been voted #1 Hardware Store – Legato Tea & Coffee (only in Kerrisdale) has been voted #1 Coffee Shop, followed by Starbucks and JJ bean! I would like to congratulate to all of our area’s hardworking and innovative local businesses and people behind the scenes! Thank you for making Kerrisdale so vibrant and livable each and every day!  Secondly, our 1st Cherry Blossom Festival in Kerrisdale is coming up on Sunday April 26th!! This is what Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival...

Building Intergenerational Connections Through Creativity and Culture...

By Melody Pan   On the grounds of the Vancouver City Hall stands a Friendship Tree: a small cherry tree with a tremendous story to tell.   “It was August of 2003, as the BC forests were raging,” recalled Joy Kogawa as the time she first discovered the childhood home she had to leave behind at Marpole, the Kogawa House, was for sale. It was then she discovered an ailing and battered cherry tree and fell in love with it.   One strong branch of the tree had been held up with a trestle. Other branches were bound and wrapped with twine and cloth. Joy felt greatly drawn to the tree for all that it symbolized in all of its brokenness. While she could not recall if this was the same tree that had been there in her childhood―there was one that bore dark red cherries―she remembered feeling a sense of awe at such an old tree standing right before her eyes. It was at that moment she felt a powerful connection with the tree. This tree represented her family and community. It became known as the Friendship Tree, and served as a source of inspiration for Joy, both in life and in her works. In particular, there is her children’s book, Naomi’s Tree, which tells a story of loss and return.   Joy recalled that the tree itself was a landmark on her spiritual journey. There was one particular occasion that she recalled having a profound impact on her. One day, as she was there writing poems for the tree, she happened to place her right arm on its trunk. Just as she did so, she felt a ‘heat’ running down her arm, from the hand all the way down. She described feeling...

By Lauren MacFarland   It’s a goal of any artist and Stuart Ward has managed to achieve it: to create something truly original. Based in Vancouver, Stuart is the head of Hfour, a design company which pushes the boundaries of art as an immersive medium, bringing his installations out of the confines of galleries and into public venues, making his work more accessible and interactive, introducing the public to art they might never have discovered. It’s a fine balance to strike, to create innovation while keeping it approachable, as he explains, “if it goes so far that you need to have a large explanation to understand it, then maybe the visual communication is missing something.” Public art which is funded by taxpayers should especially be something that can be appreciated by anyone of any age.  “I don’t think there’s going to be a great big cultural shift, but if one person who doesn’t want to go to the art gallery has an interesting art experience…they might wonder what there might be in the world.”  This year, Stuart’s work ranges from a light installation at the annual Cherry Blossom Festival to working with performance artists, merging the physical beauty of dance with projection mapping technology that turns the sky into a stage. But perhaps the most exciting project Stuart has in development is ‘Divine Lights’, a stunning mix of craftsmanship and video art that comes together to create art pieces that are both state-of-the-art and a callback to the stained glass masterpieces of centuries before. It starts with projection mapping technology, the projection of video onto a solid piece, but Stuart takes it one step further, displaying video on LCD screens behind an overlay. The video displayed corresponds to the lattice, and the result is...

 By Dave Wheaton Photos by Alison Verghese   A few weeks back I was given the chance to meet with the inspiring and ever-intriguing Bill McMichael. For the uninitiated, Bill played and continues to play prominent roles in several non-profit organizations across Vancouver. In addition to volunteering as the Board Vice President at the Pacific Community Resource Society, which offers social services and strives towards community development, Bill is the events coordinator for The Canada Japan Society of BC, the past President of the TESL CanadaFederation, the past President and Founding Director of the Vancouver Mokuyokai Society, and the project manager of Vancouver Yokohama Golden Jubilee. I could go on, but suffice it to say that Bill has had a tremendous impact on educational services and various communities here in Vancouver. Despite the impressive catalogue of achievements, Bill’s career came from simple beginnings. After travelling the globe in his late teens, Bill returned to Vancouver and began teaching basic literacy to refugees. Today, after having served a number of directorial and managerial roles, Bill has returned to the non-profit sector to continue doing what he loves; empowering marginalized groups to a communal level. “It’s kind of like going backwards”, he chuckles, thinking back on how it all started. “I was president of the national organization of teachers, a group that creates standards. I did that for many years and then I moved right back into the neighbourhood stuff” Bill considers his job to be the best in the world and I was eager to discover why. “There’s nothing like teaching”, he says, “My hobby is meeting other people and this is a great way to do it”                   Bill speaks with the honest energy of someone who loves what he does. He flies from...

By Lauren MacFarland     It’s not too common to meet a poet in today’s world, but Kevin Spenst is proving that this form of the written word won’t be dying off anytime soon. It started when he was five, pretending to write and putting the pen to page that started him down the path to authorship. “I grew up with a schizophrenic father, so there were a lot of question marks all over my life, and I think I was trying to find some sort of answer, decipher the uncertainties of my world.” These uncertainties led him to explore religion for some years, before he began meandering through the arts at the age of sixteen. Kevin developed skills in different mediums before settling on poetry around seven years ago. When Kevin moved to Vancouver, he was encouraged to audition and participate in theatre, getting roles in professional productions which let him fall into the world of film and television, collaborating with a group to create short films. While writing these scripts, Kevin found his niche. “I really liked the fact that I could just write a story every day, which is what I started.” It’s no small feat to commit to a daily output, but Kevin held himself to his work and found the traction he needed to develop his craft as a writer. “I’d wanted to write since I was a kid but I’d never found the right circumstances and the support of these people in Vancouver kind of gave me that encouragement to set up on my own and set up my own website.” His website is a collection of poems, drawings, prose, all lending to the growth of his own personal voice. “It was fun to write in this short,...

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