Dear Readers, Time for Spring cleaning and skill sharing!   I have been fortunate to work with a talented, highly collaborative, and passionate team in my non-profit and community partners to start a pilot skillshare program in the community…..yes, it’s passion that’s the strongest force on Earth! At the heart of community engagement is the process of building a grassroots movement involving communities and the practice of moving communities towards change. And skill-sharing, part of the asset-based community development (ABCD), is one of the effective tools to harness and leverage the individual and collective knowledge, resources and experience found within the community for sustainable development. I am looking forward to seeing multi-generational community of learning and new friendships emerging from skill-sharing. The first kick-off event will starting in May 2016 at the Kitsilano Community Centre, and I will surely keep you all posted.  For any inquiries, contact me: hondakeiko@gmail.com. Speaking of cherry blossoms, please come out to our Sakura Festival, enjoy yourself, and sense the preciousness of our connection with nature! Happy Spring! Keiko Honda Editor-in-Chief Chair, Community Engagement Committee    ...

By Lara-Sophie Boleslawsky (Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society) Photos by Noriko Nasu-Tidball Walking in, one is greeted by a jovial atmosphere; the afternoon sunlight filters into the room, illuminating the dark wood of the piano at the front of the room. There is a small buzz, with the audience waiting in anticipation for the concert to begin. We begin with the classics: Jane Perrett’s soprano voice is soars as she sings ‘Quando Me’n Vo’, teasing her lover as Musetta in Puccini’s La bohème. It is then Gerard Satamian’s turn to take the stage, and the tone immediately shifts as he laments love in Poulenc’s heartbreaking ‘Les chemins de l’amour’. Each performer embodies not only their respective characters, but also the songs themselves. It is a truly magnificent spectacle, and the brief intermission is needed, if only to refresh after the emotional outpour of each performance.      Indeed, we are treated not only to Jane Perrett and Gerard Satamian’s brilliant voices, but also to breathtaking piano instrumentals by Jane’s son, David. Performing classics such as Chopin’s ‘Prelude in B Minor’ and Beethoven’s first movement of ‘Leichte Sonate in G Major’ he brings a voice to these songs, flitting about the room as if truly alive.      Following the intermission is a brief performance by mezzo soprano Ayako Komaki. She beams brightly before beginning her performance, only to transform before our very eyes, becoming the tragic Queen Dido, mourning her own lamentable future whilst singing ‘When I am Laid in Earth’. The intensity present in the room soon reconstructs, with Jane Perrett’s rendition of the classic Disney tune, ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’, whereupon everyone is urged to join in. Continuing along this nostalgic frame, Gerard Satamian ends the concert with ‘If I Were A Rich Man’...

By Katherine Dornian (Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society) Photo Courtesy of Salome Nieto In a quiet, bare studio at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, I watch Salome Nieto being born. Her movements are slow and deliberate, full of pause. She falls into herself and then unfolds, slowly, evoking something fragile and primeval, facing the world for the first time. Behind her, poet Shauna Paull approaches with deliberate steps. In a shy, vaguely singsong voice, she speaks of water, light, and my mind leaps to the quiet of a first creation. In the background, original music plays, vaguely evoking Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Shauna watches Salome’s transformation, watches as she looks around in wonder and fear. Soon Salome embraces her, childlike and seeking comfort, and a deeply intimate connection is established before she is sent back out on her own to discover. All this time, producer Eduardo Menesses has been scribbling away at his notes, muttering quietly with the lighting and sound directors. When the song ends, he calls Salome over to work out some transitions, then asks her genuinely, what she felt while performing the scene. So has this process gone for over a year and a half – this constant cycle of meditation, observation and dialogue that’s gone into the production of Umbral. “It grows organically out of what we have to say,” says Salome. “It’s not about a product; we’re working together to create an experience.” The production, co-created by Salome and Eduardo with the help of their close-knit community of artists, is a reflection on human nature, as well as a commentary on the reality of war. It integrates an interdisciplinary mix of poetry, video, music and visual arts to support the core element of the show and Salome’s strongest talent, butoh...

By Keiko Honda Community Engagement Chair, Kerrisdale Community Centre Society Why Needs A Collaborative Garden in Kerrisdale? Who Needs? How do we build a community through a garden? Why Permaculture?  These are the kinds of questions I have been often asked by our staff and kCC board members, while the Community Engagement Committee has been spearheading the Kerrisdale Permaculture Garden project with the core team of visionary community collaborators and volunteers since last summer.  It is always good to remind ourselves that community is built best through using our bodies and hearts together – sowing, planting, digging, sweating, singing songs, harvesting, eating together, sharing poems, and handing things to each other. That is how the community is build. As we create together, it reflects us all. As such, the Kerrisdale Permaculture Garden is the act of creating a shared vision based on a community’s needs and assets, culture and history, and local sustainability. Every community, every school, and every household needs a garden. Simply put, the benefit of the garden is creating a social capital and a source for healthy foods.  Permaculture is about becoming conscious. Permaculture guides us to mimic the patterns and relationships we can find in nature. At the heart of permaculture is creativity and the ability for people to adapt and evolve in light of the conditions of modern life. We can say that a garden is a reflection of permaculture – its the integration of everything. A garden will be memorable, beautiful, functional and resilient over time because it integrates all these different considerations.  Kerrisdale Community at large desperately needs opportunities to renew our connection to nature and its aesthetics, create resilient communities, and empower children to both survive and thrive. As there is no space and culture at the centre that explicitly fosters the constantly growing and evolving global movement based on an ethical...

THANK YOU! Our heartfelt thanks to Canada Y.C. Music Orchestra and all of our friends of Kerrisdale Community for an amazing time at Chinese Lunar New Year Concert on February 27th, 2016! The musicianship in Canada Y.C. Music Orchestra was at a very high caliber! Please come back next year!   Photos by Noriko...

The Opera Zone When: Sunday, April 3rd, 2pm Where: KCC Seniors Multi-Purpose Room Open to the Public, FREE, ALL are...

2nd Annual Kerrisdale Sakura Festival All are Welcome!    ...