Dear Readers, The Kerrisdale Sakura Festival 2017 was a huge success with the sunny weather and the great turn-out. More importantly, we were so blessed to have such a wonderful community of volunteers that made this year’s Sakura event all possible, we can’t thank you enough!  This includes all of YOU, the enthusiastic participants, supporters, and collaborators who made the event so engaging and inclusive. We certainly made new community connections through sharing the moment.   Speaking of aha moment, we all learned during the Sakura Walking Tour with Robin Clark, that cherry trees release oxygen through stem pores called lenticels, whose function is equivalent to that of stomata, or breathing cells, found on leaves. Who knew! The DOUBLE thank-you to cherry trees for what they do! Next time when you go near cherry trees, look carefully for lenticels which can be easily seen on the trunks, and then BREATHE!  The community engagement committee is gearing up for the next big event, Vancouver Regional Heritage Fair, scheduled on Saturday, May 20th. Please stay tuned! Happy Spring! Keiko Honda, Editor-in-Chief, Chair of Community Engagement...

 By Jamie Zabel Photo courtesy of Jennifer Taylor Permission to reprint granted by the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society Cultural vibrancy. This is a term that we often hear associated with countries in Europe or South America, a term used to describe societies that are very much in touch with their traditions and where they come from. This term has become especially important since 2004, when the UN ratified an agreement making culture the fourth pillar of sustainable development, meaning that the vibrancy of culture is essential to creating sustainable communities. Vancouver just signed on to this agreement last year. While Canada is not as well known for this worldwide, there are quite a few things we can do to increase the importance and vitality of culture in even our local communities. When I met with Jennifer Taylor, the Community Engagement Coordinator at the Kitsilano Community Center, we discussed the role that culture could play in Kitsilano. Excellent arts programming is one essential part of how community centers uphold the place of culture. For Jennifer, an important way to keep these programs dynamic and relevant is to ensure that the programs at the Kitsilano Community Center reflect Kitsilano itself. Part of her job is to ensure that the center continues to represent the community by keeping the board accountable as well as encouraging community members to speak up for what they want or need.  She believes that “there isn’t a lack of willingness to change, there’s a lack of willingness to challenge those who could effect change.” It is heartbreaking for her to know that the people who don’t feel heard or accepted in their community are the least likely to speak out, leading to them giving up and moving rather than bringing their concerns...

By Tatiana Zamorano Photos by Syed Mustafa Permission to reprint granted by the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society Community is necessary and a crucial element that society requires in order to thrive as community has the power to create culture and sense of belonging, which produces unity amongst individuals and fosters compassion for one another, that then contributes to the wellbeing of individuals and the regeneration of sustainable communities. However, over the years the values and dynamics of communities have changed due to the framework that encompasses us, which has worked to generate a society founded on profit and individualism. This urbanized society has increased the levels of social isolation and self-interest within our societies, which has broken the necessary bonds needed to keep community and culture alive and thriving. So the question that remains is how can we combat social isolation and reignite sustainable communities? Well the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society (VACS) believes that art is a central tool in creating this vision of sustainable community as, art is rooted in culture which has the capacity to bind people together through profound relationships, that produce bounded solidarity amongst community members that then incites change and builds strongly connected communities.  Therefore, through VACS’s mission art has played a pivotal role in building community and in nurturing and cultivating culture, which VACS wanted to share with the public but not solely through their initiatives. Instead VACS wanted to take their idea centered on the vitality of art even further and focused on how they could relay this revelation of art to others in order to make others comprehend their vision in which art is an essential component in generating sustainable communities and culture. However, the hurdle that stood in their path was formulating a method that...

With the skillful and passionate teaching of Doug Masuhara, the Tetsu Taiko sensei (master), twenty-plus participants, an absolute beginner’s group, learned the drumming basics. They had become ONE after drumming away on garbage can drums for about one hour! It was so touching to watch and listen the transformation.   Here are what participants said about the workshop: He first showed how to play the drums and then he had ALL of us play it; An amazing workshop! We learned the Japanese polite way We learned the world and words of the Taiko Drumming together was really fun The introduction, explanation, and practice; Very well done! It was excellent; I want my son to learn more! The Kerrisdale Sakura Festival was planned and organized by the Community Engagement Committee of the Kerrisdale Community Centre Society. The Japanese drumming workshop was our first attempt to enthral you through the powerful sound of the Taiko (Japanese drums).  It seems that the participants were left with an unforgettable, artistic and cultural experience. Photo credit: Syed Mustafa  ...

By Lara-Sophie Boleslawsky Photo courtesy of Brian Feldbloom Permission to reprint granted by the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society If you’re an animal-lover, this one’s for you. Sitting down and talking to Brian about his recent venture into the pet food industry, I didn’t really know what to expect. Of course our conversation invariably strayed to our pets, nonetheless the real story lies in-between these small pockets of pet-talk. ‘Naturally Urban Pet Food Delivery’ provides free delivery of pet food all throughout Vancouver, the Lower Mainland and Burnaby. It’s simple: pet-owners order their food on the Naturally Urban website and its delivered right to your door. Did I mention it’s free? I was fascinated to know what prompted Brian to start this business: “The reason I started was, I had my doggy, and we switched her over to raw food. I was a flight executive at Flight Centre and I used to have to work late and then I would have to run home, get my car, and drive out to the pet store before it closed,” Brian told me, “And I thought, this is so annoying, its such a stress and I thought: ‘There has to be a better way!’” And so, Naturally Urban was born, with Brian looking to service a need, one undoubtedly shared by many pet owners throughout Metro Vancouver and beyond. “The two markets right now that we are doing well with are seniors and people with disabilities and physical challenges. We love helping them,” Brian shares with me, but emphasizes that the service is available for anybody to use. Convenience is one Naturally Urban’s main functions. Brian cites his colleague Kris McRonney as an “integral” part of his business. “I mean, my business associate Kris has been with me from...

Commencing on the sunny day (April 15th 2017), Kerrisdale Sakura Tree Walking Tour with Robin Clark, organized by the Community engagement Committee of the Kerrisdale Community Centre Society, was a big success with enthusiastic 23 local participants.  We were very honoured by the presence of the Vancouver Cherry Scout, Ms. Anne Mah, who turned the walk tour into a combination of interactive brain-engaging quizzes and animated story-telling.  We were able to learn and enjoy the last of Jugatsu, the peak of Tai-haku, the fullness of Akebono, the decline of Takasago and the coming of Kanzan, along with the contrast of cherry and plum in the Kerrisdale neighbourhood. For those who missed this incredibly interactive and fun tour, Ms. Mah provided the following information: The link for the VCBF’s cherry trees map http://www.vcbf.ca/neighbourhood-maps For a complete Kerrisdale listing, you need to go in and search for 1.  Kerrisdale and 2. all cultivars. This information is based on the footwork of the VCBF scouts and is thus more reliable than the City of Vancouver tree listings. If you get a chance to drop by the VanDusen Garden shop, they carry Ornamental Cherries in Vancouver by Douglas Justice; Kerrisdale’s Washi-no-o tree is pictured and described. Here is the scouting link for the Shogetsu and Shirofugen trees, where and what they look like. http://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/kerrisdale.36008/page-3#post-197346   Enjoy some photos from the tour. Photo Credit: Syes Mustafa...

By Liam McLean Photo Courtesy of Rudiger Krause Permission to reprint granted by the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society Earlier this month, I had the great opportunity to sit down and talk to Rudiger Krause, a man greatly interested and invested in the community, art, and human connections. Rudiger, or Rudi as his friends call him, was born in Germany and moved to Vancouver when he was a little boy, where he lived most of his life. As we sat down to talk one early March afternoon at the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society (VACS) headquarters, our conversation began with the topic of Rudi’s gardening initiatives before shifting into a deeper introspective about human relationships and connections. The importance of relationships to other people, nature, and art surfaced as the overarching theme of our conversation, emphasizing relationship’s important role in the human experience. As our conversation continued, it became increasingly clear that relationships and the connections they foster are an essential element in Rudi’s and all our lives. If we can recognize and overcome the barriers we face when making genuine connections, then we can live satisfying and rewarding lives in relationship and harmony with each other.         Our conversation started with Rudi’s lifelong passion for gardening. Rudi’s interest in gardening and the communal relationships it encouraged started at a young age and has been a constant passion in his life. “I grew up with parents, especially my father, who loved gardening. When I got married in 1970, my wife and I, wherever we lived, we had at least a small garden,” said Rudi about his early gardening, “When we moved to the Okanagan, we bought an orchard and developed a very large commercial garden. We grew garlic, berries, besides the fruit, and...

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