SFU’s Faculty of Environment is pleased to invite you to a talk and discussion about the sustainability of forests in BC featuring guest speaker Herb Hammond, a forest ecologist and forester with Silva ecosystems Consultants. Ken Lertzman a professor in SFU’s School of Resource and Environmental Management (REM) will respond to the presentation before moderator and professor Sean Markey (also in REM) opens the conversation to the audience. Title: Are We Managing BC Forests in Ecologically and Socially Responsible Ways? When: February 21, 2018 7-9pm Where: SFU Harbour Centre, Room 1400, 515 West Hastings Reservations: This talk is free and open to everyone. Reservations are recommended as seating is limited. ReserveMySeat...

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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...

Dear Readers, Summer is over and what’s in store for you in the new season? Kerrisdale Community Center Society’s Community Engagement Committee is gearing up to bring more contemporary and interdisciplinary arts programs to our centre in the coming year (the official kick off will be Spring 2018). As artistic practices shift, increasingly integrating technology and interdisciplinary approaches, it make sense that our community centre should reflect and adopt these exciting changes as well. As we continue to make new roads, we are aware that the public wants to be more than passive recipients of whatever the artist chooses to put in front of them: instead, through their interactivity, they want to become co–creators – that makes our life more meaningful.   To begin, we will be organizing Ars Longa Film Mini-series this Fall, which is a moderated discussion group in film aesthetics and media literacy. It will center around a series of highly engaging films with deep educational value. Please stay tuned! I wanted to remind everyone of the upcoming important and meaningful event: save the date: The 2017 Walk for Reconciliation on Sunday September 24.  We are in a more urgent need of profound trust among people and ourselves than ever before.  In this issue, we have an excellent article entitled “An Indigenous Perspective of Reconciliation and Art” featuring Dr. Mique’l Dangeli, an Indigenous visual and performing artist who holds a PhD in Northwest Coast First Nations art history -absolutely must-read. Happy Reading! Keiko Honda,  Editor-in-Chief and Chair of Community Engagement Committee...

  By Liam McLean Photo Courtesy of Lawrence Au *Permission to reprint granted by the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society Four and a half years ago, Lawrence Au returned home from a trip to Japan with a new vision. While visiting a mall attached to the Tokyo Skytree, he came across a floor devoted entirely to restaurants. An advertisement for a green tea café featuring a brilliant image of a bright green Matcha drink caught his eye. The advertisement stunned Lawrence and made him curious. As far as he knew from his experience living in Vancouver, Matcha was sort of a yellowish green or brown colour, not the vivid green he saw in the mall. He decided to go to the café and find out for himself. “I ordered an iced Matcha tea and sure enough it was that colour. And when I tasted it, it was very refreshing, very rich, completely unlike anything I’ve had in Vancouver before,” said Lawrence. “And that’s when I realized what true Japanese Matcha really is and I almost instantly fell in love with it.” The branding and tea culture also left an impression on Lawrence, and he visited Kyoto later on his trip where he was further exposed to the beauty and depths of Japanese green tea history. Returning home from Japan, Lawrence searched everywhere for a similar Matcha experience but was unsuccessful. He realized that the Matcha served here was actually green tea powder and had nothing in common with the authentic drinks he had in Japan. “And so, at that point, I decided to start my own business by recreating the experience that I first had in Japan,” said Lawrence. “That was basically my guiding light: what should I do in creating a brand that would...

By Tatiana Zamorano-Henriquez Photo Courtesy of Dr. Mique’l Dangeli *Permission to reprint granted by the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society Art plays an integral role in the process of reconciliation as it is a way in which people, nations, and cultures can “say what goes unsaid” (Dr. Dangeli). For this reason, art “has a really important place within the reconciliation dialogue and… more funding should go to supporting Indigenous people creating their art (culture and way of being) with and for their people rather than reconciliation being focused on Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborations because we have so much to reconcile within our own communities” (Dr. Dangeli) first and foremost. The process of reconciliation itself is a challenging one, and the difficulty of this process comes in understanding what reconciliation truly embodies. I had the privilege to sit down with Dr. Mique’l Dangeli, an Indigenous visual and performing artist who holds a PhD in Northwest Coast First Nations art history , while also working as a curator and a professor. As I sat in her and her husband’s art studio, I was so encompassed by culture, histories, and knowledge that it was as if the entire room was alive. It was breathtaking and moving all at the same time. It was here, as she painted one of her collaboration pieces that she had done with her husband, Mike Dangeli, that she relayed to me her powerful words and guidance for a legitimate form of reconciliation and the role of art in this process. Through her words, what profoundly resonated with me was the following statement: “Education is important, but if the focus is always outwards and not inwards, then we are not strengthening our practices we are just practicing for others” (Dr. Dangeli). These words were striking,...

By Jamie Zabel Photo Courtesy of Rebecca Salters Engagement with the arts and arts-based programs is a new primary focus of the Kerrisdale Community Centre in the coming year. As such, the Playbook is highlighting a few instructors already running arts-based programs to showcase their efforts and emphasize the wonderful effects of their programs. I had the honour of talking to one of these instructors, Rebecca Salters. Who is Rebecca Salters? Currently, Rebecca runs a program called Drama Bugs at the Kerrisdale Community Centre for children ages 1-15. I sat down with Rebecca to talk about how her early, persistent passion for drama and her belief in the power of the arts manifested itself into her children’s program. Rebecca grew up in Liverpool, England. What better place than the home of the Beatles to become passionate about the arts? She began going to drama schools at the age of three, and as she grew older, she became involved in more proper performances as well. One of her favourite experiences from this time was participating in pantomimes — i.e., theatre performances in the UK generally around large holidays like Halloween or Christmas — that would be on different themes like Cinderella or Peter Pan. The performance she loved the most was performing in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Following university, she went on cruise ships for five years, working as part of the entertainment team for Royal Caribbean. All of these different experiences solidified Rebecca’s love for drama and the arts more broadly. Her university experience added another dimension to this. Her degree from Manchester Metropolitan University was a double major in Drama and Community Arts. She explained that the Community Arts side entailed using different art forms and putting them...

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.   ...

Since the beginning of this year, a new community urban agriculture project, Come To My Yard (CTMY) led by Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society supported by the City of Vancouver, has been well underway.   As Vancouver becomes more urbanized, and gardening space is harder to come by, CTMY aims to fill the gap by teaming up with homeowners who have space for a garden and can share some of that space with other community members wanting to grow food, learn more about permaculture, and connect people.  CTMY is way to form stronger, healthier communities. If you are looking to connect with nature and like-minded people, there is one CTMY garden in the heart of Kerrisdale. There are 2 accessible raised beds (wood donated by Kerrisdale Lumber) that are allocated to any community members who would like to garden. Please go check it out and sign up. It’s FREE and OPEN to all abilities. For more information, check out their FB page or email to contact@myvacs.org  ...

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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  Dear Readers, We are back after skipping 2 months! Late spring is ALWAYS the busiest season for me (grant-writing!).    Last month, together with the Musqueam community, UBC Shine On, and Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society, we celebrated the Beyond Music One Year Anniversary. It is truly my honour to reflect today on the journey we embarked one year ago with a handful of our community collaborators. We strive to use our highest strengths and talents to belong to and serve something we believe is larger than the self, as part of our commitment to reconciliation.  But what is reconciliation? What does reconciliation mean to you?  As a Japanese person who has lived in the States and now in Canada, I am a newcomer to Canada. But my presence on this territory means I’m still part of the system that is colonizing Indigenous people. The Beyond Music Initiative has taught me that I need to continuously learn from the people rather than learn from books. As a community builder, I hold a responsibility of two ways — to educate myself and my community, and do the work of standing next to Musqueam people to make sure that reconciliation happens, according to their rights. It starts with respect. Respect their beliefs, their cultures, their way of life, and stand beside them as they recover that right. That to me is reconciliation. As I am planning for next season, I need to educate myself and be ready. I am very excited, indeed, to learn from and share with the Musqueam people more and more. This summer is going by so fast, I feel. My latest summer fun is to grow, harvest, and blend my own herb tea. Have you tried Moroccan mint and sage tea? Yum!  Happy reading! Keiko Honda Editor-in-Chief & Chair...

BY JAMIE ZABEL PHOTOS BY SYED MUSTAFA *Permission to reprint granted by the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society Most of us feel like we have a certain amount of stake in the future of the coming generations. We want to leave our world, the future world of our children, in good enough shape to allow them to live well and in comfort. This depends so much on the children that are right now entering elementary and middle school, the future world changers and earth shakers. This being so, we pay a great deal of attention to what the generations behind us are doing and how they are acting. Undoubtedly, it was like that for the generations that came before us as much as it is for us now. So, who are these children that are entering the school system, the ones that will one day become our doctors, lawyers, and Prime Ministers? I’ll confess, after my brother left middle school a few years ago, I’ve been quite disconnected from that age group since most of my cousins are already grown. This is where the Vancouver Regional Heritage Fair was so enlightening and, I may say, uplifting. Before I continue with this thought, however, I feel it might be useful to give a bit of context to the event in which I and the students participated. The Vancouver Regional Heritage Fair is part of an initiative run by the BC Heritage Fairs Society affiliated with Canada’s National History Society, Heritage BC, and under the patronage of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Their main goal is to create an environment in which students have the opportunity to learn and get excited about Canada’s history and the Canadians that made our country what it is today. The...