On April 8th, 2018, the Kerrisdale Community Centre held their 4th annual Sakura Walk,  a local tree history and identification series lead by professional forester Robin Clark. The participants left the community centre at 10 A.M. to follow a trail of trees that outline the parameter of the block inhabited by the Kerrisdale Community Centre. Robin classified various tree and shrub species found in our local Kerrisdale community, from oaks, to maples, and even some trees that were initially unidentifiable, which left us with the interesting project of distinguishing these trees after the walk. After our walk, we met back at the community centre for tea and snacks to discuss our findings and further questions we had about the trees. We learned a number of ways of identifying local trees, such as leaf and stem placement, leaf shape, and any identifiable berries or flowers budding on the branches. Participants were particularly interested in grafting, which Robin pointed to on a few trees we encountered on our walk. Other areas of interest for participants were how to identify the male and female parts of trees, and the mystery trees we found along the walk. Robin’s help with identifying and mapping these trees along our route showed participants how connected our lives are with the lives of local trees. Trees are an integral and beautiful part of our Vancouver landscape, and we are thankful to have someone like Robin to show us the unique and distinguished nature of local trees! (text: Grace McRae, Vancouver Arts Colloquium...

As the year comes to a close and we prepare for the holidays, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the people and experiences that made the Opera Zone a part of our own history. It began, sometime during 2015, with a casual conversation between Gerard and I, where passions bubbled and the idea of a community singing space was born. Soon, Jane and many other artists were eager to bring their talents to the table to get the Opera Zone off the ground. And the rest is history. This is an initiative that is entirely artist-run, volunteer-based, cross-cultural, cross-generational, cross-fertilizing for artists and participating audiences, and OPEN to EVERYONE. Truly, a remarkable and extraordinary thing! What more could anyone ask for to create a radically inclusive and vibrantly playful community?  KCCS’s Community Engagement Committee offers pathways of engagement for any individual and organization eager to deepen a commitment to creativity and social change! Join us! I would like to thank you all for your continued support and look forward to growing as one in 2018 and beyond. Keiko Honda, Chair, Community Engagement, Kerrisdale Community Centre Society     The Opera Zone End-of-Year Celebration, Sunday December 3, 2017 Thank you EVERYONE for coming! We had a great turn-out (140 people!)! See you all in the New Year! Photography: Syed...

The 3-day workshop entitled “Japanese Art of Origami & Game”, organized by a Grade 6 student in Kerrisdale Elementary, Maya Honda-Granirer, together with her friends and family was a big success with over 60 participants of all ages. The event was possible thanks to the Vancouver Foundation’s Neighbourhood Small Grants’ funding and Kerrisdale Community Centre Society for free space.  Thank you to everyone who was involved and made the event so successful! A special thanks to Ms. Hatsuko Yamada who came all the way from Hokkaido, Japan, to share the inventiveness, imagination, playfulness and joy of the Japanese art of paper folding, origami. Throughout her passionate teaching and interaction with the participants, Ms. Yamada underscored the relationship between art and science and inspired our youth with the stories of how origami inspired medical devices and NASA’s new shape-shifting radiator.  Our senior participants were also enthusiastic about the workshop and surprised Ms. Yamada how much they know about Japanese culture. Here are some photos of the workshop.   ...

Vancouver Regional Heritage Fair 2017, held on Saturday May 20, 2017 at Kerrisdale Community Centre, was something that Vancouver, and Canada, should be proud of.  Under the visionary leadership of Janet Moley at Vancouver Regional Heritage Fair, families, educators, and communities worked together in partnership to support children’s learning and to nurture their fundamental sense of self. We witnessed firsthand how art connects us together and affects culture and community. “Meet” the future world changers in this short highlight video prepared by Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society. Film credit: Syed Mustafa (UBC, Film Studies)...

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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  ...

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...

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...

Copies of “The Limited Edition” are now available for $10 each.  You can now reserve your copy by calling 604-257-8100 or email to hondakeiko@gmail.com, and pick up at the Kerrisdale Community Centre reception desk during 2016. First-Come, First-Served!   Acknowledgements    “Three years on a stone (will make a stone warm)” is the Japanese proverb meaning that perseverance will win out in the end. THE KERRISDALE PLAYBOOK RE-COLLECTION is the celebration of cultural transformation with our last full four years of continuous convivial “conversation” with the community. In this limited edition, we have selected 16 articles out of over 150, which represent a unique expression of the life force coursing throughout our community. Acknowledgments almost always begin by saying there are countless people to thank. This is particularly true this time. I want to thank all of the people, the interviewees, and readers over the past four years who have contributed to the Kerrisdale Playbook for great conversations. They have all inspired me. In particular though, I want to thank my team comprised of the 30 devoted young and the young-at-heart over the last four years. They all have brought their wholehearted work and created a new culture – the equivalent of what Barbara Ehrenreich would call – “Dancing in the Streets.” The new culture is symbolically a collection of community stories that evoke joy and exuberance in taking time to appreciate what’s around us, finding connections with people and nature, and expressing creativity in everyday life. Each and every article has offered a genuine, life-affirming and community-engaging conversation that allows us to find joy in the other fellow. Bravo to the team and what a pleasure to work with all of you! Of course I want to thank the Kerrisdale Community Centre Society...

  What were the most memorable events of 2015?     Watch our 6 minute highlight reel of the Year in Review!       Best wishes for 2016 Kerrisdale Community Centre  ...

  By Sean Yoon   Having been invited by artist Colleen McLaughlin Barlow to attend the opening of her latest exhibition, “Whale Dreams” on September 30th, 2015, I arrived at the UBC Beaty Biodiversity Museum mindful of images I had seen of her work through her website. So in a sense, before I walked into the exhibition, I carried preconceived ideas of what I was to see and experience. The exhibition turned out to be highly different from what I expected, in a visually heightened, enlightening way to be able to experience her artwork in person. In particular, I recall being fascinated to observe the guests engaging with her art by taking pictures, conversing about her artwork in groups, as well as participating in some of the activities set up in the exhibition such as a drawing station where guests are instructed to draw blind contours of whale bone structures set up in front of them. Just as the Beaty Biodiversity Museum emphasizes how important the interconnectedness, or connection between human beings and nature is, Colleen’s art revealed a similar vein of thinking as we the spectators are made to contemplate the whale bones not just as one animal’s remains, but as a spectral symbol of our own mortality, our own bones residing within us. The exhibition provides an excellent opportunity to experience this in person, as well as check out the huge 26-metre long blue whale skeleton suspended in the museum’s atrium. If you have the chance, I would definitely recommend taking the time to visit the exhibition at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum in UBC before it ends on February 14th, 2016.   October 1, 2015 – February 14, 2016 Beaty Biodiversity Museum 2212 Main Mall Website beatymuseum.ubc.ca  ...

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Choreography and performance: Salome Nieto Artistic Direction: Eduardo Meneses-Olivar Exploring the scope and depth of her Mexican culture and bringing her curiosity over its marvelous reality and surrealism as the starting point for this work, Vancouver’s Salomé Nieto uses religious iconography, beliefs and traditions as inspiration for this work, an investigation into the themes of devotion, ritual and myth. Camino al Tepeyac is a metaphor for the convergence of two cultural and religious beliefs in one female deity that is the origin and end of all things. The Mexicas called her Tonantcin (Our Mother Coatlicue) and after the conquest her name became Virgin of Guadalupe and the Mother of the Mexican people in the Catholic faith. pataSola Dance wishes to acknowledge the support of the 2014 International Butoh Festival in Argentina, the project “Puedes Volar Mariposa” directed by Master Gustavo Collini-Sartor, the auspice of the Mexican Embassy in Argentina and the Canadian Embassy in Argentina during our stay in Buenos Aires, and the support of Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council, the Province of British Columbia and Shadbolt Centre for the Arts for the full production of Camino al Tepeyac. Camino Al Tepeyac runs from Wednesday November 19 2014 to Saturday November 22 2014 in the Studio Theatre Reserved 6450 Deer Lake Avenue Burnaby BC V5G 2J38 pm Approximate running time: 120 minutes Ticket through box office 604-205-3000 Tickets are now available to purchase at tickets.shadboltcentre.com Here is the sneak preview of Camino Al Tepeyac    ...

Text and Photos By Valerie MacGregor-Rempel www.valeriedrempelphotography.net http://valeriedrempelphotography.blogspot.com/  My journey to British Columbia started off with a friendly request from a college and friend Timothy, artist/owner of Timothy J Sullivan Studio on Bowen Island. BC.  As am Humanitarian/Social Photojournalist and Women’s Advocate/Life Coach, I know my journeys are always filled with so many amazing stories and experiences.   British Columbia is a beautiful provinces and the scenery is eye candy to a photographer. This experience honestly touched my heart in so many ways. I new the BC’s landscape would be spectacular but the people I met along the way was simply marvelous.  I am honored and humbled that so many could feel my gentle/energetic spirit and felt they can open-up their hearts to a complete stranger. To some my camera intimates them but to other my camera is a tool to share their personal stories and set them free from what ever they are experiencing at the time.   A met Timothy O’ Sullivan on a group Facebook page for Artist over two years ago. We have established a working friendship and thought it was time to collaborate together in a joint exhibit at his studio on Bowen Island, BC. It was an awesome experience to work with Mr. O’Sullivan and to meet fabulous people from the Artisan Square.   It my quest to set up for the exhibit, I felt a wee bit out of my element. Not having all the items that I usually decorate my exhibits with I was truly fortunate to have met Sharon Dunbar owner of Bell’ Occhio. Mrs. Dunmar was so gracious and let me borrow several items from her store to contribute to make the exhibit sparkle. It is important to me that I include local shops...

“It’s wonderful to see what happens when people bring great ideas to life. It truly is inspiring.” ~ Editor-in-Chief It’s only been a little over a month since the garden was born and the work parties are already well underway. Kitsilano Community Centre, along with its community partners, Urban Systems Foundation, Can You Dig It and Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC) and many community volunteers, has been using a collaborative approach to transform its literally vacant exterior spaces into an amazing organic vegetable garden that adds beauty, value, and a distinctive identity to its neighbourhood. Under the leadership of Robert Haines, the board president, Gabriel Pliska, the Garden Committee Chair and board member, Oren Burnspark, Garden Coordinator, Ben Mulhall from Urban Systems Foundation, and Cinthia Page, Can You Dig It Project Coordinator among others, the garden is a unique collaboration of artists, local adults and youth and kids, and garden lovers. It is such a valuable asset for neighborhood development by developing and nurturing public space which promotes sustainability, food security, community education and public health, and coming together. I have “attended” the last 2 work parties and here are some photos we took. People’s smiles are so glamorous and the garden is so lush and green, which is the best kind of advertising!!! Congratulations to Kitsilano Community Centre Collaborative Garden! For those who are interested in volunteering and/or learning more about the collaborative garden, please contact Kitsilano Community Centre and follow us on FB.            ...

  Artist Sudè Khanian          Sudè Khanian is an Iranian born artist specializing in Qi (energy healing) and philosophical art (Vaguest art) that is sometimes associated with Surrealism movement. Sudè is a Persian born Muslim who practices a form of Qi meditation referred to as ‘pure Qi’. The influence of her monotheistic religion as well as Universalist philosophy of Qi is evident in her paintings, both in choice of colors and lines to accentuate a single yellow or white focal point as well as within her detailed use of optical illusion to interrelate and derivate.  In contrast, the influence of her Persian culture and her experience of war is less pronounced in the paintings and is limited to random poetic expressions within colors, shapes, and figures; something that is repeatedly observed in works of contemporary Iranian painters as well as the traditional Iranian Miniature.    Apart from the Qi healing aspect of her work –which can be very subjective and not acknowledged or accepted by all belief sets  –Sudè states that her use of optical illusion and the discovery journey that the paintings take a viewer through, according to latest science researches on optical illusion, stimulates many areas of the brain. This stimulation helps the viewer fee alert, yet relaxed....

The inaugural 15 EMERGING YOUNG ARTISTS. THE CHOICE IS YOURS, a new contemporary art exhibit, opens its doors on Saturday, May 17th, 10 am – 4pm, in Senior Centre Lobby at Kerrisdale Community Centre @ 5851 W. Blvd.  The 15 selected original artworks created by newcomer youth from VSB Settlement Workers in School (SWIS) Program and the Canada Youth Arts Development Foundation will be on display. Come mingle with these young artists and add a fresh piece of art to your collection! Open to All Ages. No RSVP Required. It’s FREE!                                    15 EMERGING YOUNG ARTISTS. THE CHOICE IS YOURS is part of the  “Art Shines for Love: A Newcomer-Powered Fundraiser for the Kits House Redevelopment” event. The youth art and silent auction is from 6:00 to 6:45pm and the multicultural variety show featuring newcomer’s talents from schools across the VSB district is on Friday, May 23rd , 2014 from 7:00 to 9:00pm in the Auditorium of Lord Byng Secondary School at 3939 West 16th Ave. Information at 778 772 2084 . Invite your friends, family and co-workers to attend our Arts Shine for Love Fundraiser on Friday May 23rd from 6pm – 9pm at the Lord Byng Auditorium (3699 West 16th Avenue).   Get your tickets at artshinesforlove.eventbrite.ca   $5 General Seating and $15 VIP...

Welcome Speech by KCC Board President, Robert Lockhart  “Vancouver School Board representatives, performers, support workers, and guests: Welcome to the 2014 presentation of the Vancouver School Board SWIS Lunar New Year Festival in the year of the Horse.  Since 2010, Kerrisdale Community Centre Society along with Point Grey and David Thompson Secondary Schools has sponsored this VSB SWIS program. The show has grown from its first presentation in a small space in the Kerrisdale Seniors’ Centre, to fill our auditorium. Our society is proud to offer this venue that features the talents of so many young people from our community. If past performances are any indication, you will experience an afternoon of action, dance, singing, games and other multi-cultural festivities. This year for the first time, and in the true multicultural spirit of this community the descendants of the first inhabitants of this region will deliver an Aboriginal blessing on this festival. In the Chinese Zodiac, this is the year of the Horse. Those fortunate to be born in this year of the cycle make unremitting efforts to improve themselves. They are energetic, bright, warm-hearted, and able.  I believe you will also find that these characteristics also describe the performers you are about to see. Welcome, and thank you for participating in this annual event. Enjoy the show.” ~Robert Lockhart       Photos by Erik Price...

In my twenty-some-year career as a portrait photographer, I have photographed many faces of all ages — from new born babies to 95 year-old musician Dal Richards and every age group between.  I love photographing small children with their innocent expressions, and young people full of enthusiasm, and of course beautiful women with their perfect complexions. But my favorite subject remains mature people with their life history written on their faces.Someone said that we have faces we deserve. At some point, we can no longer hide who we are — it’s written all over our face. I have been lucky to be able to photograph these people — some of the most fabulous faces in our community. December 2013 Yukiko Onley ~~~~ Photographs courtesy of Yukiko Onley ~~~~ Nick Bantock, Painter, Author. Fred Harzog, Photographer. Rosemary Cunningham, writer. Takao Tanabe, painter. Marc Destrube, violinist. Martha Sturdy, designer.Kaneko Joko, painter.       Dal Richards, musician.   Arthur Erickson, architect.   Wayne Ngan, potter....

  By Melissa Maan   “Mellie’s Munchies” is a small entrepreneurial company, based in Burnaby that offers artfully baked delights and delectable munchies for individuals, parties and events.Growing up in a household where creativity was strongly encouraged, I was always thrilled by the freedom and limitlessness of art as I molded and manipulated different materials, watching my ideas blossom before my eyes. Not completely satisfied with just arts & crafts, I wanted to learn more, and I quickly became fascinated watching my mother and grandmother cooking and baking. Seeing my interest, they taught me their recipes. I spent many hours learning, and testing those recipes, wanting to achieve perfection. To me, this was another form of creativity with endless possibilities, and I was ready to keep discovering more! This love for food continued into my adult life, with cooking and baking like old friends I could count on to get me through tough times. When I was invited to parties, I would get a rush of excitement trying to decide what I could make to impress everyone with my culinary delights. In recent years, I began attending dinner parties with a wonderful circle of friends (and true foodies), and for each party a theme ingredient was chosen. Our challenge was to invent a dish using that ingredient and present it to the group. I decided to take the challenge one step further, and with each successive party, combine the ingredients together into a new dish (my own personal version of “Chopped”) This was how my famous “Bacon Brownies” were born! At these parties, no idea was too far-fetched, in fact we each encouraged each other to play with our food, and be inventive! Last year, after numerous successful dinner parties, including one that was entirely...