Georgia Straight 2844

VANCOUVER’S

KOKORO DANCE

Wabi-Sabi

March 2-4 @ 8pm

Free/By Donation

Vancouver Playhouse

TORONTO’S

CHRISTOPHER HOUSE

New Tricks

March 2-4 @ 8pm

$20-35

Annex Theatre

Info

LA OTRA ORILLA

DEBORDEMENTS

March 8-11 @ 8pm

$15-20 KW Production Studio

ITALY’S

ALESSANDRO SCIARRONI

Save the last dance for me

March 10-15

$15-20/Free Performances and Workshops Various Venues

JAPAN’S

TAKETERU KUDO

The Foot on the Edge of Knife

March 15-18 @ 8pm

$20-35

Annex Theatre

UK/INDIA’S

AAKASH ODEDRA COMPANY

Samsara

March 22 - 25 @ 8pm

$40-70

Vancouver Playhouse

GABRIOLA ISLAND’S

DAINA ASHBEE

J’ai pleuré avec les chiens

March 22-25 @ 8pm

$20-35

Scotiabank Dance Centre

JAPAN/NELSON’S

ICHIGO-ICHIEH

Birthday Present for Myself

March 17-18 @ 8 pm

$30-35

Shadbolt Centre for the Arts

VANCOUVER’S

VISION IMPURE being April 20-21 @ 7pm & April 22 @ 4pm

$15-20

Aakash

Odedra

photo by Nirvair Singh Rai

Dan Mangan

12

SPRING ARTS PREVIEW

We highlight what’s coming up in theatre, dance, music, comedy, and visual arts.

By Staff

>> Cover Artist Profile

the story behind the cover Mark Pilon @atomos

Back in the ‘90s I started an artist collective with I, Braineater called the Future Forward Flyers. We were fuelled on saucer stories, X-Files, and Art Bell conspiracies. One of the exhibitions was at the Space Centre where we threw a alien-themed Halloween bash with 100 artists and postered the whole city with the same UFO that’s on this cover. We unexpectedly had about 1,000 people show up including an alien conspiracy cult who arrived in bio suits. This cover is a nod to Rand Holmes and the FFF. We just wanted to believe.

By V.S.

Vancouver considers itself a world leader in climate change policy, but a new city staff report shows it’s nowhere close to meeting its target of halving carbon emissions by 2030.

Staff’s recent presentation to council on February 15 about the Climate Emergency Action Plan (CEAP) outlines the grim news. The CEAP presents six “big moves” to lower local emissions, mainly focused around buildings and transit; only one, low carbon emissions and construction practices, is currently on track to meet the city’s own goals.

Since declaring a climate emergency in 2019, the city’s emissions have barely budged—and the 11-year climate goal is now only seven years away.

“There [are] so many climate leaders on a municipal level, so that was a bit surprising to hear,” Adriana Laurent, a member of the city’s climate equity working group, told the Straight in an interview.

Even if all CEAP policies were approved, it would not be enough alone to hit those targets. More work is needed beyond the existing plan—but the money isn’t there.

The CEAP has a huge budget shortfall: it’s getting $270 million over the next five years, rather than the $500 million that staff said would be necessary. Matt Horne, manager of climate mitigation, accountability and outreach at the city, said the targets were ambitious but “a fair share for a city of our size” to be working towards.

“When we put this plan forward, I think we were pretty clear that it was not going to

to

be easy to hit the targets. They were challenging targets, which I think is the reality of climate change if we’re going to respond in the way we’ve said we want to,” Horne said.

He added that there had been about a 10 per cent increase in funding for climate projects proposed in this year’s draft capital and operating budget—slightly more than the rate of inflation. But there’s still almost half of CEAP’s budget missing.

“We had a gap when the CEAP was approved, and we still have a gap,” Horne said. “Some of those actions really do depend on city investment. We’re continuing to try and close the gap, but we will have a shortfall.”

So how are we going to hit targets without putting money behind it?

CEAP’s targets are unlikely at current budget and technology levels. But nobody

wants to rock the boat by either walking back climate policy, or committing more money to it. Freshman ABC Coun. Mike Klassen told the Straight that his party believed the CEAP was “a very robust work” and it is committed to hitting the targets, but other priorities like police, infrastructure, housing, and childcare were all also eating into the budget.

“All of these pressures are coming to bear on our local governments,” he said. “But we are unreservedly going to make sure that we are focused on taking climate action and addressing the impacts of climate change.”

ABC campaigned on a platform of sustainability, affordability, and safety, but it has yet to really enact the climate policies in its election platform (which disappeared from the party website shortly after the election). The party promised to plant 100,000 trees, beef up electric vehicle use, create “15-minute neighbourhoods” and reduce emissions from new construction—but didn’t pledge any additional

money for the CEAP

The Park Board election pledges also did not include promises to remove the Stanley Park bike lane, though that decision was taken earlier this year. It runs counter to the party’s support for the CEAP, which has “active transportation and transit” as one of its six key policy areas.

“If we were trying to prioritize active transportation and transit, then decisions [from other governments] that are moving in a different direction are not going to help us achieve our targets,” Horne said.

(Budget decisions are ongoing at the time of writing. OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle told the Straight she “continue[s] to be worried about cuts coming from ABC at the last minute.”)

The current 2023 draft operating budget, which proposes a 9.7 per cent property tax increase, budgets five per cent for increases to city services funding,

The city’s bold plan to halve carbon emission by 2030 needs more funding and attention.

ABC promised

prioritize climate. Are they doing enough?

Wells

Adriana Laurent of the city’s climate equity working group. Photo by Jon Healy

Vancouver simply cannot afford the skyrocketing costs of climate channge

– Fiona Koza

2.7 per cent for the Vancouver Police Department, one per cent for infrastructure, and one per cent for reserve replenishment.

And the draft operating budget doesn’t include another of the previous council’s votes: $1 per person ($700,000) to go towards funding a lawsuit against Big Oil for a portion of the money it costs to implement climate policies. In July, the motion passed council 6-5.

Fiona Koza, climate accountability strategist at West Coast Environmental Law, told the Straight that the decision to withhold funding for the suit was disappointing, as there had not been another council vote to scrap the decision.

“Vancouver simply cannot afford the skyrocketing costs of climate change, and a lawsuit targeting Big Oil would help the city pay for expensive climate damage while holding the world’s largest polluters accountable,” she said. A 2022 Stratcom poll found 68.6 per cent of British Columbians supported the idea of suing global oil companies to help fund climate change costs.

Then there’s the matter of making sure climate justice work is being done equitably.

Coun. Boyle, who tabled the CEAP in 2019, said that a core part of the plan is recognizing how climate change affects marginalized communities more acutely, and ensuring that all policy is applied with an equity lens.

“It’s important that we hear from a diversity of voices, and particularly from equity-denied groups whose voices are not heard often enough at City Hall,” she said.

The climate equity working group that Laurent was part of spent several years creating a 42-page document, the Climate Justice Charter (CJC), which explicitly laid out ways to ensure city climate policy aligned with climate justice. Staff recommended that the CJC be used as a guideline for all future policy, which would provide a level of accountability: policy would have to reference it, to prove the equity lens was more than just words.

But Klassen tabled a successful amendment to instead move it to be a “resource,” defanging its use. Boyle described the decision as “last-minute,” and she was unclear what “the point or purpose of it” was; Klassen said he worried making the CJC a guideline was “too prescriptive” for staff. “We already have a number of tools in our toolkit … I think it’s important that we let staff work through all of them.”

Laurent, who also contributed to the CJC as a consultant, said that the decision not to codify it as a guideline was disappointing.

“My immediate sense was that they were trying to take away the accountability elements of the Climate Justice Charter,” she said. Moreover, it made her question ABC’s larger commitment to climate work.

“I think it shows that the current council … are not where they need to be. I think people and city staff are ready for this, and ready for this work,” she said. “It’s like, okay, so you’re unhappy that we’re not

meeting targets, but you’re also not funding them or financing them. So how are we supposed to meet targets if this climate work is severely under-resourced?”

But while the council votes on policy, it’s city staff who do the work. Laurent was hopeful that staff she spoke to seemed really committed to the ideas within the CJC. And Cathy Pasion, climate adaptation and equity manager within the city’s sustainability office, confirmed that climate justice was a core part of the city strategy.

“Climate change is a global crisis. It doesn’t impact everyone evenly or equitably… We also know that what actions we take and the investments we make as a city, those have consequences to them, so really understanding how that impacts folks and making sure that any benefits are distributed equitably,” is crucial, she said.

But time is running out on hitting those big targets. Canada’s National Adaptation Strategy found that every $1 invested in climate preparation saved $13-15 in the future; the longer investment is delayed, the more it will cost future councils (and residents).

Another recent council decision direct-

ed staff to quantify the costs of climate policy as well as inaction, to present costs of “proposed adaptation or resilience measures… and the extent to which those measures are likely to reduce… costs.”

“The money spent now is going to be peanuts compared to if we do not take these actions,” Koza, the climate accountability strategist, said. “It’s incredibly important we know how much climate change is costing us—and those costs are going to rise—but we can project how much we’re going to likely have to pay. That’s important so we can budget for it now and plan for it now.”

There are some cheaper parts of the CEAP. Climate mitigation manager Horne and Coun. Boyle both emphasized the importance of changing building code regulations to get more homes off of gas heating, as 55 per cent of the city’s carbon pollution comes from burning gas in buildings. It’s rare for a city to be able to have that level of control over construction, and be able to do what Boyle calls “important regulatory policies … that aren’t high cost.”

“We have our own Vancouver Building Code, and a lot of local governments don’t have access to that tool,” Horne said.

Klassen, too, said the city needs “to start thinking outside the box” on solutions. “We don’t have a current policy around carbon offsets, but there is one in the works. Carbon offsets are not a perfect solution, but they do help us get closer to that net-zero target,” he said. (Experts remain skeptical on how beneficial carbon offsets are, as they don’t actually lower emissions.) “Looking to the future, there’s even more research and solutions that are likely to come forwards to help us meet those targets.”

So advocates are waiting to see how ABC votes—while understanding that time is of the essence.

“A lot of people in Vancouver, regardless of how they voted in the municipal election, do genuinely care about climate change,” Laurent said.

But, she warns, taking a wait-and-see approach is costly. The financial, and human, impacts of climate change rack up every year. There will always be more floods, more storms, more heat domes, more once-in-a-lifetime fires that happen once a decade. The emergency is here.

“One of the main issues with climate organizing and climate work is that we, as a society, as a way of thinking, are always thinking short-term instead of thinking long-term,” Laurent said. “That kind of thinking is exactly what got us into this mess.” GS

Fiona Koza of West Coast Environmental Law. Photo by Jon Healy

[Short-term] thinking is exactly what got us into this mess.

– Adriana Laurent

2.7 per cent for the Vancouver Police Department, one per cent for infrastructure, and one per cent for reserve replenishment.

And the draft operating budget doesn’t include another of the previous council’s votes: $1 per person ($700,000) to go towards funding a lawsuit against Big Oil for a portion of the money it costs to implement climate policies. In July, the motion passed council 6-5.

Fiona Koza, climate accountability strategist at West Coast Environmental Law, told the Straight that the decision to withhold funding for the suit was disappointing, as there had not been another council vote to scrap the decision.

“Vancouver simply cannot afford the skyrocketing costs of climate change, and a lawsuit targeting Big Oil would help the city pay for expensive climate damage while holding the world’s largest polluters accountable,” she said. A 2022 Stratcom poll found 68.6 per cent of British Columbians supported the idea of suing global oil companies to help fund climate change costs.

Then there’s the matter of making sure climate justice work is being done equitably.

Coun. Boyle, who tabled the CEAP in 2019, said that a core part of the plan is recognizing how climate change affects marginalized communities more acutely, and ensuring that all policy is applied with an equity lens.

“It’s important that we hear from a diversity of voices, and particularly from equity-denied groups whose voices are not heard often enough at City Hall,” she said.

The climate equity working group that Laurent was part of spent several years creating a 42-page document, the Climate Justice Charter (CJC), which explicitly laid out ways to ensure city climate policy aligned with climate justice. Staff recommended that the CJC be used as a guideline for all future policy, which would provide a level of accountability: policy would have to reference it, to prove the equity lens was more than just words.

But Klassen tabled a successful amendment to instead move it to be a “resource,” defanging its use. Boyle described the decision as “last-minute,” and she was unclear what “the point or purpose of it” was; Klassen said he worried making the CJC a guideline was “too prescriptive” for staff. “We already have a number of tools in our toolkit … I think it’s important that we let staff work through all of them.”

Laurent, who also contributed to the CJC as a consultant, said that the decision not to codify it as a guideline was disappointing.

“My immediate sense was that they were trying to take away the accountability elements of the Climate Justice Charter,” she said. Moreover, it made her question ABC’s larger commitment to climate work.

“I think it shows that the current council … are not where they need to be. I think people and city staff are ready for this, and ready for this work,” she said. “It’s like, okay, so you’re unhappy that we’re not

meeting targets, but you’re also not funding them or financing them. So how are we supposed to meet targets if this climate work is severely under-resourced?”

But while the council votes on policy, it’s city staff who do the work. Laurent was hopeful that staff she spoke to seemed really committed to the ideas within the CJC. And Cathy Pasion, climate adaptation and equity manager within the city’s sustainability office, confirmed that climate justice was a core part of the city strategy.

“Climate change is a global crisis. It doesn’t impact everyone evenly or equitably… We also know that what actions we take and the investments we make as a city, those have consequences to them, so really understanding how that impacts folks and making sure that any benefits are distributed equitably,” is crucial, she said.

But time is running out on hitting those big targets. Canada’s National Adaptation Strategy found that every $1 invested in climate preparation saved $13-15 in the future; the longer investment is delayed, the more it will cost future councils (and residents).

Another recent council decision direct-

ed staff to quantify the costs of climate policy as well as inaction, to present costs of “proposed adaptation or resilience measures… and the extent to which those measures are likely to reduce… costs.”

“The money spent now is going to be peanuts compared to if we do not take these actions,” Koza, the climate accountability strategist, said. “It’s incredibly important we know how much climate change is costing us—and those costs are going to rise—but we can project how much we’re going to likely have to pay. That’s important so we can budget for it now and plan for it now.”

There are some cheaper parts of the CEAP. Climate mitigation manager Horne and Coun. Boyle both emphasized the importance of changing building code regulations to get more homes off of gas heating, as 55 per cent of the city’s carbon pollution comes from burning gas in buildings. It’s rare for a city to be able to have that level of control over construction, and be able to do what Boyle calls “important regulatory policies … that aren’t high cost.”

“We have our own Vancouver Building Code, and a lot of local governments don’t have access to that tool,” Horne said.

Klassen, too, said the city needs “to start thinking outside the box” on solutions. “We don’t have a current policy around carbon offsets, but there is one in the works. Carbon offsets are not a perfect solution, but they do help us get closer to that net-zero target,” he said. (Experts remain skeptical on how beneficial carbon offsets are, as they don’t actually lower emissions.) “Looking to the future, there’s even more research and solutions that are likely to come forwards to help us meet those targets.”

So advocates are waiting to see how ABC votes—while understanding that time is of the essence.

“A lot of people in Vancouver, regardless of how they voted in the municipal election, do genuinely care about climate change,” Laurent said.

But, she warns, taking a wait-and-see approach is costly. The financial, and human, impacts of climate change rack up every year. There will always be more floods, more storms, more heat domes, more once-in-a-lifetime fires that happen once a decade. The emergency is here.

“One of the main issues with climate organizing and climate work is that we, as a society, as a way of thinking, are always thinking short-term instead of thinking long-term,” Laurent said. “That kind of thinking is exactly what got us into this mess.” GS

Fiona Koza of West Coast Environmental Law. Photo by Jon Healy

[Short-term] thinking is exactly what got us into this mess.

– Adriana Laurent

BC Budget touts big investments, few measurable targets

by V.S. Wells

Finance minister Katrina Conroy laid out the provincial government’s fiscal budget today.

“Some believe we should respond to uncertainty by pulling back, by making cuts that reduce services, or by making people pay out of pocket for tolls and private health care.That’s not what British Columbians want, and that’s not our government’s approach,” she said in a speech to the legislature.

BC came into this year with a considerable budget surplus of $3.59 billion. The budget forecasts running a deficit for the next few years: $4.2 billion this year, $3.75 billion in 2024-5, and $3 billion in 2025-6—

a sign of big investments into key services across the province.

“We can’t go back to short-sighted thinking. The kind of thinking that cuts services today, while leaving actual costs for tomorrow. It didn’t work before, and it certainly won’t work now,” she said.

Here’s a look at some of the key measures in health, housing affordability, and climate. It’s far from everything, but it gives a sense of what some of the big-ticket priorities are.

While there are positive investments and plenty of small tax credits or benefit bumps, there’s not a lot to really tackle systemic issues of affordability, equality,

or out-of-control housing costs in the Lower Mainland.

HEALTH

The government has promised an additional $6.4 billion over the next three years to the healthcare system, which includes $270 million for cancer care, $1 billion for more retention and recruitment, $1.1 billion to attract and keep primary care physicians, and $875 million for ongoing COVID-19 response measures.

$867 million has been budgeted for “mental health, addictions and treatment services … for people struggling with

substance use disorder.” Most of this, $586 million, will go towards more treatment and recovery beds, wraparound services for youth, and Indigenous treatment centres. $184 million more over three years has been budgeted to support “safer substance use,” including the continuation of providing prescription diacetylmorphine. But user fees will remain for treatment beds: only new facilities will have free treatment.

However, the budget does not discuss expanding safer supply to actually undercut the current unregulated market of toxic drugs—something advocates say is necessary to stop six people per day

>>>

dying from poisoned substances. There is also no dedicated line item about increases the number of overdose prevention sites or supervised consumption sites, despite their relative scarcity outside of Vancouver and Victoria.

“Standards need to be in place to ensure an evidence-based approach to treatment,” said a statement from the BC Health Coalition. “These standards should recognize the need to provide multiple medical treatment options, such as safe supply, as well as ensure treatment is consensual. [We are] strongly against a treatment approach that sees public money for treatment land in for-profit hands where standards around staffing or treatment approaches may not be regulated or evidence-based.”

Contraception will also now be free in BC: $119 million over three years will fully cover prescription contraceptives including pills, injections, intrauterine devices, implants, and the morning after pill. Dr Ruth Habte, an organizer with AccessBC, said in a press release that the budget announcement “is a victory for gender equality and reproductive justice in BC, especially for patients struggling to access the contraceptive of their choice.”

$11.2 billion over three years is also earmarked for capital spending on new healthcare infrastructure.

That includes St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, the new hospital and cancer centre in Surrey, and expansions and redevelopments of other hospitals across the province. The province claims this is the largest-ever capital investment in health infrastructure.

HOUSING AND AFFORDABILITY

Income and disability assistance shelter rates will be increased by 33 per cent. That’s an increase of $125 to $500 per month for a single person. But the increase is to shelter rates specifically, meaning more money will be paid to landlords of people living in social housing. The end result is still pretty meagre, leaving people on income assistance or disability pay well below the poverty line and unable to afford market rate rentals.

The BC Family Benefit is also set to see a 10 per cent increase in monthly payments starting in July 2023, with an increase of $250 per year for a family with two children. Single parents will see an additional $500 per year. And $2 billion over three years is going into expanding

thinkng.

– Katrina Conroy

the Climate Action Tax Credit from July 2023 onwards, increasing from $193.50 to $447 per year for an adult, from $193.50 to $223.50 for a spouse, and from $56.50 to $111.50 per child.

The long-promised $400 renters’ rebate, first promised in 2017, was also fleshed out. It will be a $400 tax credit for renter households who earn less than $60,000 per year. Households earning up to $80,000 will be eligible for a portion.

The promised amount has not increased with inflation; the 18.84 per cent inflation over six years means a $400 rebate in 2017 would be equivalent to $475 today. It also does not take into account that rents have increased by hundreds of dollars per month in the intervening six years.

And while 80 per cent of renters will be eligible for the tax credit, 92 per cent of homeowners are eligible for the home owner grant that costs the province nearly $1 billion per year.

Housing is seeing $4.2 billion in operating and capital funding over the next three years, aimed at homes for renters, Indigenous people and middle-income families. There’s $640 million over that time frame for supportive housing for unhoused people; $575 million specifically for new student housing; $394 million for transit-oriented development; $266 million for complex care housing for people with overlapping mental health and substance use issues; and $230 million over 10 years to help BC Housing protect its rental stock. There’s also an incentive for developers to build purpose-built rentals and a separate pilot project for homeowners to develop secondary long-term rental suites, with more information set to come out about all housing initiatives in a housing strategy that will be out later this spring.

Vacancy control, which housing advocates have touted as an important way to prevent rents increasing as units change between tenants, was not announced as a line item policy in the budget.

CLIMATE

There’s $1.1 billion over three years dedicated to fighting climate change, including $300 million to refurbish or replace infrastructure damaged by climate emergencies on top of $750 million previously announced as going to affected communities.

(A report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives last year found that climate disasters in 2021 alone cost at least $10.6 billion.)

The budget also includes some more funding for clean energy, fueling hopes for a just green transition. There’s $480 million over three years to the Future Ready Plan to ensure people can access skills and training to be ready for “the jobs of tomorrow,” including more training and workforce participation initiatives.

$100 million is going into transportation networks to promote walking, cycling and transit, while $40 million will go towards subsidizing non-profits and

businesses switching to electric vehicles. Additionally, carbon tax increase rates are coming—and will help fund increased tax credits for lower and middle-income people and families.

There’s $21 million over three years going towards creating eight more Forest Landscape Planning tables (up from the existing four), to defer logging old growth forests. And there’s $100 million for the Watershed Security Fund for biodiversity and clear water programs, but without clear targets attached.

There’s no other funding listed to help the province meet the goals in its Old-Growth Strategic Review or the commitment to protect 30 per cent of the province’s land and water by 2030. Some advocates say the budget doesn’t do enough to actually make sure these targets are met.

“If Premier David Eby and the BC NDP are serious about keeping their promises to safeguard at-risk old-growth forests and double the amount of protected areas in the province in the next seven years, they need to spend money to make it happen,” Torrance Coste, national campaign director of Wilderness Committee, said in a statement. GS

We can’t go back to short-sighted

Our homeless are more than JUST numbers

By David Wells and Lorraine Copas

The Homelessness Services Association of BC (HSABC) is gearing up, training and preparing teams of volunteers to conduct the 2023 Point-inTime (PiT) Homeless Count in Greater Vancouver. Its teams will be out on the streets of 11 communities across Metro Vancouver on the evening of March 7 and during the day on March 8.

HSABC is conducting the PiT Count on behalf of both the Indigenous Homelessness Steering Committee and the community advisory board for Metro Vancouver Reaching Home; and as a contractor to the Lu’ma Native Housing Society, the community entity for Reaching Home. Reaching Home is the Canadian government’s homelessness strategy, a community-based program aimed at preventing and reducing homelessness across the country. This program provides funding to urban, Indigenous, rural, and remote communities to help them address their local homelessness needs.

This year’s count marks the first time that demographic information will be collected about who is experiencing homelessness in the region since March 2020—the last time a count happened, less than a week before the COVID-19 pandemic began. At that time, there were 3,634 people experiencing homelessness identified throughout Greater Vancouver.

Based on what our partners have observed in their communities over the past three years, the sense is that more people than ever before are struggling to find safe, appropriate, and affordable housing, as the decline in housing affordability accelerates. Vancouver continues to have the country’s highest average rents.

However, the Point-in-Time Homeless Count is about so much more than numbers. It’s about real people who don’t have access to safe and affordable housing. It’s about gaining an accurate understanding of who is living without housing—and the reasons behind that. Children, youth, women, people of all marginalized gender identities, and those sleeping in RVs, vehicles and encampments, and who do not

have access to permanent housing need urgent action and community support. The count will help us to collect this critical information.

In order to incorporate that deeper intersectional perspective, we’ve revised the count survey in a number of ways over the last several years to learn more about racial and gender identities and sexual orientation. We share the data we collect with agencies and all levels

of government to inform decision-making and advocate for solutions that are trauma-informed, culturally safe, incorporate harm reduction, are oriented towards social justice and equity, and contribute to decolonization and anti-discrimination.

This fall, we’ll be sharing a report on the count that addresses how long-term trends in the number and demographics of people who are experiencing homelessness have changed since the last count took place, and how these trends have changed over the last 20 years.

What we do know is that the pathways to find stable, secure, and affordable housing in Greater Vancouver are complex and limited at present—and that’s compounded by equity imbalances within our communities. The more intersectional an individual’s identity, the more systemic barriers, struggles, and discrimination they’re likely to experience, putting them at greater risk of experiencing racism, misogyny, and/or other forms of oppression.

Homelessness isn’t about personal failure. It’s rooted in structural and systemic issues that make people of all ages vulnerable to losing their homes. We know that homelessness is a very real part of every community in B.C., even if it’s not visible. We also know it’s a social stigma that pushes many people to hide it. In fact, findings of past counts indicate that a majority of respondents reported living in the community where we connected with them—where they were experiencing their current episode of homelessness— for at least five years before becoming homeless. Homeless people aren’t strangers; they’re longtime community members. They’re our neighbours.

As part of this year’s effort to reflect all those who are experiencing homelessness as much as we can, we will be working with peers on outreach, and holding magnet events where folks can come to complete the survey.

To help us connect with as many people as possible, we’re also encouraging anyone experiencing homelessness—particularly those who are more likely to be underrepresented in counts, including people who are couch surfing, staying with family or friends, or live in their vehicles—to call 211 on March 8, so they can complete our survey over the phone. The survey is anonymous; no names or personal identifying information are collected.

Consider this: there is likely homelessness hidden within your community. We invite you to hold space for compassion, respect, and support for people experiencing homelessness in your community. Supportive communities are key in the work that volunteers, peers, organizations, Indigenous groups, health authorities, and governments are doing to eradicate homelessness. GS

David Wells is the vice president of academic and applied research for Vancouver Community College. Lorraine Copas is the executive director for SPARC BC and chairs the Metro Vancouver community advisory board for Reaching Home. To learn more about how you can get involved in supporting people experiencing homelessness in your community, visit hsa-bc.ca.

Three volunteers help conduct the 2020 Point in Time count, the last time it was held.

Photo by BC Non Profit Housing Association

More people than ever before are struggling to find safe...affordable housing.

Cosplay culture in the 21C

It strikes me that cosplay has been undoing consensual reality for well over a century.

I’m feeling a bit surreal myself, as I wander around the harbourfront at Vancouver’s FanEXPO, a massive convention of some 25,000 science fiction and fantasy freaks, dodging nefarious elves, dayglo ninjas, and giant winged-beasts with sparkly scepters.

The scene is a vibrant crush of creatives. Panelists present on everything from crafting to comix, and rows of talented artists hawk their wares, from psychedelic fan-art to hand-knitted baby Yodas. Dance competitions, foam-sword battles, and Jedi hunts grace the day, while the Cantina crowd takes over local bars by night. At my first convention since the pandemic, I am immersed once again in the world of cosplay—or costume play for the uninitiated—clad as a space pirate.

All the big players are out in force, from the Storm Troopers of the 501st Legion, who have achieved near-legendary status for appearing in The Mandalorian, to the charity-fundraising Ghostbusters of British Columbia, to the tight-frocked Star Trek squads beaming-in for Romulan ale. The overall effect is an unending stream of strange worlds colliding, much like Douglas Adams’s Restaurant at the End of the Universe—a kind of everything-everywhere-all-at-once vibe that culminates in a culture of the surreal where you can let your imagination run wild.

This is how I ran into the RevoSquad, a

group of vibrant, brightly-dressed cosplayers from the Dream SMP Minecraft server, a unique storytelling corner of the sci-fi world where users have modded the platform to create new role-playing characters, quite unlike the recognisable figures from the giant franchises. They caught my attention as they carried around miniature nukes and TNT, apparently “for family protection,” and also because of their electric and infectious energy.

Gravitating around the force-of-nature known as Jabs, the RevoSquad ranges in age from 12 to 24. Surrounded by the Squad, I opened up the mic to let them speak to what cosplay means to them. Holding aloft a sparkling blue sword, Jabs jumps in as “Tommy”: “Cosplay opens up this hub of creativity and friendship that you would never be able to get anywhere else. It’s like a different world. I love it.”

This different world is a real world, too: many post-school cosplayers I spoke to worked in the film, design, and animation

industries, and Jabs, a graduate of Vancouver Film School, credits cosplay for her interest in professional make-up and design.

But it’s more than just film types who are into cosplay. Cosplay can also be an empathic and supportive space in which to become oneself, a bit of a beautiful haven in an anxiety-laden, often fear-driven society coming to grips with everything from drag queens to transgender identities. As RevoSquad member Grey puts it, cosplaying “Phil,” “It’s really freeing to be able to be myself, also having people being able to back me up no matter what. It’s awesome. I’m trans, so for me it’s not gender-bending, it’s the way I am.”

Another RevoSquad member pipes in, a strange figure with fangs, two small horns adorned with a crown, and a face half-painted black and white. Two big, gremlin-like ears stick out from the sides; it’s a character known as Ramboo, and it is a startling reminder of how banal us humans usually look—and as many cosplayers pointed out to me, they love cosplay because it is so surreal. And this surreal transformation of reality is liberating for many a cosplayer and their sense of self-identity, when allowed to flex and become fluid.

As Ramboo puts it (cosplayed by Jay), “I was always very insecure and really, re-

ally shy sometimes about what I was, and who I was with other people, so I used to hide myself a lot. I was in fear that my friends wouldn’t respect me for that. I met the RevoSquad at a convention, and back then I was just a fan, and now I consider them my siblings.”

Ever since science fiction erupted into the dull realism of romantic literature, its fans began playing out the future they could only dream of by dressing in costume and acting-out the characters. In the late 19th century, Jules Verne invited hundreds of party guests to dress as characters from his novels, and in 1908, Mr. and Mrs. William Fell were the first to cosplay a sci-fi comic strip character, Mr. Skygack. The very first World Science Fiction Convention, held in 1939, featured the inventive cosplays of Forrest J. Ackerman and Myrtle R. Douglas, who dressed in “futuristicostumes” based on the 1936 film, Things to Come.

A century later, and cosplay has exploded into a kind of pop culture performance art, with participants numbering in the millions at sci-fi and fantasy conventions across the globe. Growing at an exponential rate since Star Trek’s earliest fan conventions in the 1970s, to its more widespread popularization at sci-fi

Words and Photos By tobias c. van Veen

It’s really freeing to be able to be myself.

– Grey

A devotee makes the pilgrimage to Vancouver’s FanEXPO to explore what it all means

Scene cosplayers at Vancouver’s 2023 FanEXPO, including RevoSquad Jay (top right) and the 501st Star Wars (bottom).

cons in the 2000s, cosplay today is everywhere on social media. So many factors meet to make cosplay, from its doit-yourself crafting and costume ethos, to its devout fandoms, to the massive force of Japanese anime, all colliding in today’s internet where influencers, creators, and photographers meet in a circle of imagination, experimentation, and play.

But this is what it’s like from the bird’s eye view: when you get down onto the floor at the con, it’s all about finding one’s fam. Or rather, finding one’s kin, whoever, or whatever they may be. While cosplay is about expressing one’s imaginative alter-egos through the love of a character, it’s also about shaping a social scene beyond the default meeting sites of work and school. Cosplay has also, and perhaps always been, a space for coming-out and ex-

eats it up, cheering at every turn, eyes wide. You can see the amplifying effect. “In some ways, a lot of people come up to me, and say, ‘you’ve given me the confidence to do this!’” says Bear.

He goes on: “I think what’s happening in society is that we’re starting to lose gender norms, as realistically they’re kind of outdated. Because why can’t I wear make-up? Why can’t I wear these amazing earrings that were custom done for me? Why—like why? When you start cross-playing you’re just like, ‘You know what? Like whatever, it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day’.”

What matters most to all cosplayers is that they are free to play with yet another aspect of what it means to be a beautiful being, alive and unshackled.

What doesn’t matter are the rigid categories we are bound by, nor the

opinions of the haters.

As Bear says, “I’ve had some pretty terrible things said to me. But water off a duck’s back, right? It also speaks to the younger generation—they are so dialed in, and it’s really important to remind them, [that the haters] are just people on the internet. They are non-playable characters: whatever they say, it has no basis on who you are as a person.”

And that’s the point: out here in the real world, people have been digging the surreal since the start, always pushing the boundaries of what inventive minds and bodies can be. GS

Interested in cosplay? Check out the Vancouver Cosplay Group on Facebook, as well as events and meet-ups organized through FanEXPO at meetups: fanexpohq.com

perimenting with gender and sexuality. Though a part of the scene since the start, crossplay—cosplaying a character of a different gender—has exploded into the culture. In fact one could also see it the other way around: after decades of sci-fi conventions, cosplay culture has sublimely infiltrated the mainstream to question and undo the masks and roles we wear everyday.

When I ask the RevoSquad what it’s like to cosplay, they tell me it’s “like wearing a mask.” But this of course reveals the flipside: that in order to don a new mask, you have to remove the one you are already wearing. Cosplay calls into question those stubborn masks we aren’t even aware of.

I’m reminded of this as I talk to Bear Sailor Moon. For anyone who knows the anime character, it is a delightful surprise to see the warm and fuzzy, moustached Bear prancing across the performance stage in Sailor Moon’s trademark sailor suit. Bear has been hosting Drag Show and Cosplay Red Carpet events at Toronto conventions for the past nine years.

“I guess I am doing crossplay, but I present very masculine,” Bear says. “I have full make-up on, so it’s a really weird dichotomy, because you have someone who is incredibly masculine, dressing in one of the most female-presenting cosplays you can have. Gender-bending and cross-playing has become more relevant over the years, as people get a little more comfortable with it.”

The effect is transfixing, and the audience

Bear Sailor Moon holds court with a captive audience.

Even Peter Criss never looked this good.

Surviving as an artist in vancouver

By Jay Hirabayashi with Barbara Bourget

Barbara and I were destined to be artists. Artists are people that engage in deliberate subversion of quotidian complacency. We live and work in Vancouver, a capitalist city in a capitalist province in a capitalist country. Capitalism is an economic system that relies on the exploitation of one’s fellow citizens for personal gain of wealth, fame, and power. Capitalism divides the populations of capitalist countries into the rich and the poor. Dance artists are usually relegated to the class of the poor, although there are some who have navigated the capitalist system to emerge in the class of the rich.

These dance artists create a product that only the wealthy can enjoy. We are not part of that class of artists. Capitalist systems rely on bureaucracies that have complex rules and regulations that confine and restrict access to wealth, to the wealthy. To survive as an artist in Vancouver, you need to understand how to navigate and circumvent those rules and regulations.

“But to live outside the law, you must be honest.” Bob Dylan said that. I spend most of my time filling out applications, final reports, and posting financial statistics. I work seven days a week and am lucky if that includes eight hours of dancing.

In 1986, we decided to leave EDAM to form our own dance company. Our son, Joseph (Jo), was about to be born, to join Bodhi, Daniel, and Kai as their baby brother. Barbara and I had met each other in Paula Ross’s studio in 1979. Paula is one of Canada’s best choreographers and was a mentor to us.

We told Paula that we wanted to call our company “Kokoro Dance” and that we were going to pursue butoh as our dance aesthetic. She told us that if we took that name, we would never get Canada

Council for the Arts (CCFA) funding because that funding agency was racist. She advised us to call our new company “The Barbara Bourget Dance Company.”

In 1986, there was not a single dance company that did not have a French or English name, and only white dance companies received funding.

On July 7, 1986, Jo was born, and on July 31 we incorporated Kokoro Dance Theatre Society as a non-profit society in B.C. We phoned the CCFA to see if our new company could get funding and were told that we would first have to have an administration, hire dancers, and produce a show, have that assessed, and to wait a year, and then we could apply—all of this without any funding support.

We began to think that maybe Paula was right. We successfully applied for an Explorations Grant, and we created a musical, Episode in Blue – A Cantata from Hell, where Barbara and I sang and danced, actor Ian McDonald and composer Jeff Corness also sang and danced, and 16mm film projection by the late Scott Haynes added a visual component to the work.

The piece was one of the best works we have ever done, but it was a disaster at the box office. We lost about $5,000 producing it. Still,

it met the CCFA’s initial barrier to funding access, and so we applied for a company grant. We weren’t successful in that application, nor were we successful in applying for company funding for the next four years.

We then wrote to the CCFA and informed them that we would no longer apply to the CCFA. By that time, Kokoro Dance had performed more than 260 times across Canada, in Europe, and in the U.S.A., many of them with Jo in tow. He would fall asleep when the taiko drumming started in our school show, Rage Maybe those pounding rhythms had some subconscious influence in his eventual choice to become a musician.

When we informed the CCFA of our decision to no longer apply, we were told that our last production, Sunyata, had received an excellent assessment. We asked if that meant we could receive a company grant. The answer was “no”—we needed to receive three excellent assessments. However, we were also told that if we applied again, we could give the CCFA the names of people that we did not want

as assessors and suggest individuals who we would be happy to view our work.

We decided to apply one more time and told the CCFA that none of the artistic directors of CCFA-funded dance companies were allowed to assess us. Instead, we would be happy to be assessed by anyone from the theatre, music, opera, interdisciplinary, or visual arts disciplines.

The CCFA sent two theatre directors to see our work. They gave us excellent assessments, and in 1992 we received our first company grant. It was $20,000 instead of the normal $50,000, because prime minister Brian Mulroney had cut funding to the CCFA that year.

For the next 18 years, we continued to live below the poverty line. There was one year when we had to go on welfare; others where we would work for six months and go on Employment Insurance for six months.

Here’s the great

word “artist”

it to mean. Whether you’re talking Yoko Ono or Douglas Coupland, Nick Cave or Shane Koyczan, they all belong at the same lunch table. This year’s 2023’s spring arts preview starts off with two generations of Vancouver artists—Kokoro Dance’s iconic Jay Hirabayashi and Barbara Bourget, and their multi-talented son Joseph Hirabayashi—offering perspectives on the challenges, and rewards, of making art in a city that sometimes seems solely focused on real estate and Michelin-starred restaurants. From there we look at an emerging young playwright, a dance renegade who’s officially arrived, and arts organizations embracing some big changes, as well as offering picks for spring shows you shouldn’t miss. Remember, as Joseph Hirabayashi notes, anyone can be an artist. All you have to do is lean into the word and make something your own.

In 2000, without any funding, we started the Vancouver International Dance Festival. We have never received a salary for producing it in the past 22 years. Believing that dance should not just be accessible to those who have the means to buy tickets, we have made it a policy to never let lack of funds bar anyone from attending VIDF events.

Kokoro Dance’s performances and classes at the 2023 festival are free to anyone who wants to attend. GS

Jay Hirabayashi and Barbara Bourget are co-founders of Kokoro Dance. They are the creators of the Vancouver International Dance Festival, which runs this year until March 25.

Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi with Kokoro Dance. Photo by Chris Randle

thing about the

: it can mean whatever you want

Sorry elites, but the word “artist” is propaganda

By Joseph Hirabayashi

What can I say about being an artist and the “hustle” of being in a jock-y town that doesn’t really care that much about music or arts during this literal dumpster fire called neo-liberal late capitalism? Of coming to terms with living on stolen land?

Well, I had some good success when I started leaving Vancouver for a bit, that’s for sure. But I love the community here, and I love the music scene in Vancouver. It’s a little isolated, tucked-away place where, for better or worse, folks can get really stuck in their bubble. This has a double effect of making folks pretty chill but also maybe paranoid—and also less pretentious than our Toronto and Montreal counterparts. Whoa, shots fired.

I don’t know, I don’t have to psychoanalyze the community, but I do love it here and I do think it’s cool and folks are chill. Time takes privilege, for sure,

– Joseph Hirabayashi

and I am incredibly privileged to be in a place where I can support myself from playing guitar, even when I’m doing the admin work around playing guitar. It’s a gift, and I am so grateful to anyone that has come to any show I’ve played, or to anyone who has ever expressed to me that what I do matters. It’s honestly the only reason I create is to feel like I can contribute, and it’s so nice to hear if it’s contributing to anyone.

As far as being a “starving” artist, real artists don’t starve—the show doesn’t have to go on. People > profits > Artists. Artists are the highest funded poverty group in Canada. ANYONE CAN BE AN ARTIST. Play guitar, dance, sew, talk to ChatGPT—20 minutes a day for three months, try it! Easy!

There is no such thing as a distinctive class of person called “artist.” Sorry, elites. It’s propaganda, a fiction. It’s perpetuated by weird old myths, corporate marketing, and old-style government propagandist programs, monarchs etc...

While we do have a hustle and grind that’s increased drastically since previous gener-

ations, we also have smartphones. So come on, artists—is it really that bad to book-keep, especially since we don’t have to do it with typewriters and calculators anymore? Robots do it for us. Key commands people!

While I will say I am a little tired of the starving sad artist meme, I don’t feel obliged to do a self-victim story to get someone to my shows or buy (cassette tapes???), especially when I feel the conversation needs to turn into general living wages, social housing, healthcare, mental healthcare, green new deal overhauls, and so on.

We “artists” still live in the world, even if most don’t seem like it. Why do I deserve more or less than any other person in this city? But what do I know, I just play guitar. Oh, and come to my show at the Cobalt please on March 20th! GS

Joseph Kiyoshi Hirabayashi FKA jo passed (he/him/ they) is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and musician, born and raised on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh (Squamish), and Seḻíḻwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations—otherwise known as Vancouver. As a fourth generation (Yonsei) Japanese Canadian/American, his familial background includes a combination of Quaker German, War Bride British, Quebecois, and Indigenous ancestry.

Joseph Hirabayashi argues that, if you can hustle, you can make impactful art.

Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi with their children Bodhi, Daniel, Kai, and Joseph.

firehall ready for some big changes

By Mike Usinger

While great news for the Firehall Arts Centre, chances are one longtime Vancouverite will be less than excited about changes planned for the muchloved venue: the theatre’s resident ghost.

While no one knows the exact identity of the spectre believed to haunt 280 East Cordova Street in the Downtown Eastside, Firehall artistic producer Donna Spencer has a theory.

“We think it’s a little girl,” she offers.

It’s a cold February day that feels more like the dead of winter than the cusp of spring. Spencer is treating the Straight to a behind-the-scenes tour of the first firehall built in Vancouver (completion took place in 1906). That starts in her office, where firefighters once dried out wet hoses, and winds down to a basement studded with

rocks originally used for ballast in ships arriving from Scotland around the turn of the 19th century.

Continuing her ghost story, Spencer says: “People have seen her, and seen her aura I guess. We don’t know why she’s here—we think she might have come here to get help from the fire people.”

How this relates to today is that the ghost that haunts the Firehall Arts Centre tends to get agitated whenever changes are made. To visit the former fire station (decommissioned in the mid-’70s) is to love its vintage sash-and-cord windows, still-intact brass firefighter poles, beautiful brick walls, Instagrammable courtyard, and century-old tiled bathroom floors. More than a theatre, the Firehall is a reminder that not every character building in this city has been bulldozed in the name of development.

Spencer first walked into the space in the ’80s when it was a fledgling hub for

the city’s theatre groups, and has been here ever since. Today, as she celebrates the Firehall’s 40th season, she’s excited about planned upcoming changes.

“We have finally managed to convince the city, and enthusiastically I think they’ve been convinced, that the building needs an upgrade,” she says. “It needs to be made accessible, and we’ve just wrapped up a study on how that can work. Where we can put in an elevator, how we can redo the lobby, upgrade the dressing rooms—all of those kinds of things, and perhaps end up with another small studio. It does mean going into the courtyard, but there’s no other way to do that. And, obviously, we’ll retain as much of the courtyard as we can. Hopefully we’ll be starting on the architectural drawings by June.”

As for the timeline after that?

“When this will happen will be totally dependent on more money,” Spencer says. “But the city has recognized the value of having the theatre here, and they want to retain it and make it an even better space for people to come to. And also for us to work in.”

Spend an hour with Spencer, and her love for the Firehall immediately shines through. She’s understandably proud about the dance, theatre, music, and multi-media productions the space has hosted over decades—the walls of her office covered with old flyers and photographs. But she’s perhaps even prouder of the pioneering culture-shifting work that’s been done at the Firehall, dating right back to its earliest days.

Spencer arrived at the space on a parttime contract in December of 1981, right after it had dodged being knocked down and turned into a parking lot.

“I was amazed at how many doors there were, and how difficult it was going to [be to] get a theatre open,” she says with a laugh. “That’s where it started, and I was not planning to stay.”

Except she did, founding a society to run the Firehall with the mandate to produce, present, and publicise the performing arts in a way reflective of BC, Canada, and, importantly, the Downtown Eastside. By 1985 the Firehall Theatre Society was on its way

to reshaping long-entrenched ideas about theatre in Vancouver, providing an early springboard for young, culturally diverse playwrights like Russell Wallace, Jay Ono, and Columpa Bobb.

“At that point, it was obvious that Canadian stages were not reflecting what Canada was,” Spencer says. “Canadian stages were not culturally diverse at all then. I think by being in this neighbourhood, which has always been a place where newcomers to the country come, and also where there’s also been a huge Indigenous population, it was my dream to actually have what I call a truly Canadian theatre company. That’s kind of where the Firehall started—with a training program with lots of culturally diverse artists who’d gone to university or training schools, but weren’t getting any work. We became the next step.”

And the Firehall has remained that supportive platform over the decades, providing a stage for productions (Opening Doors, Yellow Fever, AlterNatives, White Noise, Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout, and too many others to list here) that have given Vancouverites something to think about long after they’ve left the theatre.

While it might not make the Firehall’s resident ghost happy, moving forward the venue will likely look different than in the past. While at the same time becoming even more welcoming.

“The building is almost 120 years old, and it really has served us well,” Spencer says. “But we have a lobby that has no heat in it. We have no elevator to get people to the second floor, so when people come to the theatre and have any mobility issues, they have to come in through a back door, and the door is not that wide.

“The Firehall has big accessibility challenges in terms of physical accessibility. So the people who come here with mobility issues are determined to come because of the productions. What we’re going to do is retain as much of the character and the brick and all of that as we move forward, because that’s one of the reasons that people come as well. They don’t want a glassy, shiny theatre. They want the Firehall.” GS

Family at the heart of The wrong bashir

By Mike Usinger

If Zahida Rahemtulla seems extra-excited about the world premiere of The Wrong Bashir, it’s because at one point during the play’s journey she seriously questioned whether she was meant to be a writer.

The Burnaby-raised Ismaili playwright began working on the comedy in late 2017, eventually attracting the attention of the Arts Club’s LEAP program, which provides feedback and workshopping for artists from age 17-25. Readings would follow at high-profile events like the Monsoon Festival, with Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre subsequently committing to bring the work to the stage in 2021. Then the pandemic hit, with The Wrong Bashir becoming one of the countless casualties.

After being told the project wouldn’t be going ahead, Rahemtulla found herself having something of an existential crisis as an artist.

“It was sad—I remember telling my mom ‘I think it’s time to give up on this project, and on being a playwright,’” the 29-yearold admits, speaking with the Straight on a break from The Wrong Bashir rehearsals. “It was like, ‘I’ve spent too many years on this, and it’s time to move on—to accept that it’s not going to happen.’ When the project was shelved, I lost faith.”

Eventually though, good things started to happen. Backing up to the beginning, Rahemtulla found inspiration for The Wrong Bashir by mining her upbringing for the comedy that can come from intergenerational conflict. Her father—one of nine siblings—immigrated to Canada from Uganda, her mother from Tanzania. Eventually her family—immediate and extended—ended up in Burnaby.

“They often say that the first play a playwright writes is an identity play, and we kind of make fun of that,” she says with

a laugh. “That’s exactly what I did. It’s very much based on the Ismaili community that I was raised in and growing up seeing those intergenerational differences.”

At the centre of The Wrong Bashir is philosophy major and “burgeoning nihilist” Bashir Ladha, who, in a case of mistaken identity, has been picked for a prestigious religious position by leaders from the Ismaili community. His parents are thrilled and immediately accept on his behalf. Bashir is more interested in working on a podcast about rejecting the religious and moral principles of the world, his target audience found in the cafés and microbreweries of East Van.

When Ismaili religious council representatives show up to meet the nominee, that provides a launching pad for the family to question everything from the traditions they’ve grown up with to beliefs they’ve held on to after moving to Canada.

Rahemtulla describes her upbringing as loving and positive, having much to do with things being family-centred. Growing up a second-generation immigrant in Canada meant balancing different worlds. Sticking with her into adulthood was the way that Vancouver’s Ismaili population pulled together.

“This sounds cheesy, but I think as a kid, I saw how much they were involved, and how much they did it from their hearts, and how much it meant to them,” she says of her parents and grandparents. “To this day, my grandma has so many Ismaili friends all well into their 80s—who I also see when I visit her, and I think being part of an intergenerational family and intergenerational community like that really shaped me.

“At my parents’ kitchen table too, growing up,” Rahemtulla continues, “I would overhear conversations between my parents and their friends about grow-

ing up in East Africa, about connections that spanned such long distances, and many generations. And I think I remember listening as a child, and it leaving an impression on me that these relationships within the community were part of this larger web that is significant to them and has survived migration. I think I’ve been clocking this since I was young, and a lot of it accidentally influenced and probably motivated The Wrong Bashir, because it’s all been in my head for so long.”

While making the transition to Canada had its challenges, there was also laughter.

“There’s so much humour in the Ismaili community, especially when you put it in an intergenerational context,” Rahemtulla notes. “Even you know, when my siblings and I visit my grandparents’ house, our conversations with her are kind of funny by accident, for everyone, because of those contrasts. And when all three generations are present, it’s even funnier. It just lends itself to humour because there are three completely different epistemologies, completely different life histories and world-views, and yet, all these people are related and love each other.”

Because The Wrong Bashir is so focused on family, Rahemtulla observes, the humour in the play is universal.

“The interesting thing is that, even though the jokes have been very specific to the Ismaili community, in the readings we’ve had people from outside the community laughing and getting the jokes,”

she says. “Even though it also looks at some complex things, it’s definitely meant to be a heartwarming family comedy.”

Even as The Wrong Bashir stalled at various points, Rahemtulla found success with her second play, The Frontliners. That work looked at the 2016 Syrian refugee crisis from the perspective of workers dealing with the challenges that go with getting new immigrants to Canada settled. Once again, Rahemtulla drew on personal experience, as she did volunteer work to help out during the crisis. Spotlighted in the 2021 rEvolver Festival, The Frontliners won the Vancouver Fringe Festival’s New Play in Development Prize last year, and was given a workshop presentation at the Waterfront Theatre last fall.

Today, even though she’s in school working on an adult education degree with the goal of teaching, Rahemtulla is no longer questioning whether or not she’s also meant to be a writer. A big factor in that has been seeing The Wrong Bashir come to life after some serious doubts about it ever getting made.

“The cast is so funny and supportive of the play, and I cannot wait for the audience to meet them too,” Rahemtulla says. “And right now, I’m just really excited to be sitting in the audience on opening night after so many years of having this dream. I’m just so excited to watch it come to life.” GS

Zahida Rahemtulla mined her upbringing for many of the jokes in The Wrong Bashir.

Touchstone Theatre’s The Wrong Bashir plays the Firehall Arts Centre March 2 to 12.

By Chandler Walter

Spring hasn’t sprung quite yet, according to the all-knowing groundhog, but it sure is springing, and a perfect reason for emerging out of our hibernation caves is to check out a spring production on one of Vancouver’s heralded stages.

PROPHECY FOG

AT THE GATEWAY THEATRE FROM MARCH 9

TO 18

> Indigenous artist Jani Lauzon’s Prophecy Fog uses a round stage to invite audiences into an exploration of our relationship with the land. The Draw: An intimate theatre experience featuring incredibly evocative environmental design.

MY LITTLE TOMATO

AT THE CULTCH FROM MARCH 9 TO 19

critics’ picks Spring Arts Preview THEATRE

> A Chinese-Canadian kindergarten teacher finds a new love after inheriting his deceased parents’ farm in a rom-com that addresses the relationship complexities of two Asian men falling in love. The Draw: Gay love. Two Asian-Canadian leads

OPENING NIGHT

AT THE PAL STUDIO THEATRE, MARCH 17-19

> Every production is opening night for Opening Night, which looks at the chaos that can be created in community theatre. The Draw: A chance to see a community theatre production fall apart, without feeling bad about laughing.

OUR GHOSTS

AT THE FIREHALL ARTS CENTRE FROM MARCH 19 TO APRIL 2

> Our Ghosts explores the mysterious disappearance of a Canadian Forces fighter jet and its pilot, and the effect it has on family. The Draw: Inspired by the disappearance of playwright Sally Stubbs’s father, the mystery feels hauntingly real.

DRIVING ME CRAZY

AT THE JAMES COWAN THEATRE ON MARCH 21 AND 22

> This is a two-hour road trip you don’t want to miss. Driving Me Crazy sticks you in a car with three generations of family members with very different views on vehicles—and life. The Draw: Catharsis in a compact sedan

PRETTY WOMAN THE MUSICAL

AT THE QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE FROM MARCH 29 TO APRIL 2

> A musical production of the 1990s classic Pretty Woman explores self-identity, moral compasses, true love—and has some rockin’ songs to boot. The Draw: Pretty Woman. On stage. With music. Need we really say more?

RUBABOO

AT THE GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE FROM MARCH 30 TO APRIL 30

> A Michif word meaning “big pot” or “leftover stew,” Rubaboo dives into Métis culture through the lyrical voice of Andrea Menard. The Draw: Menard blends artistic genres to showcase the variety of Métis culture.

THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE

AT THE STANLEY INDUSTRIAL ALLIANCE STAGE

FROM APRIL 20 TO MAY 21

> An Elvis impersonator is thrust into the role of a drag queen in this tale of epic performances, stunning outfits, and a Florida dive bar. The Draw: A drag show within a theatre production is basically two shows for the price of one.

CRAZY FOR YOU

AT THE MASSEY THEATRE FROM APRIL 27 TO MAY 14

> A theatre is in need of saving, and a group of rundown cowboys and New York City Follies Girls are the ones to do it. The Draw: Professional tap dancing?

REVOLVER FESTIVAL

AT THE CULTCH AND VARIOUS VENUES FROM MAY 24 TO JUNE 4

> From digital and audio experiences to site-specific works to Q&As with artists, rEvolver Festival gives emerging theatre artists the chance to shine. The Draw: You might just accidentally find your next favourite theatre experience. GS

spring arts preview > Dance

Kuebler creates windows in first/last

By Yasmine Shemesh

Shay Kuebler has always been fascinated with tension. Specifically, the meeting point of tradition and modernity. In Karoshi, for example, the first full-length work the Vancouver-based dance artist, director, and choreographer created in 2011, he zeroed in on corporate life and how it ties into the idea of personal success.

Now, for his newest piece, FIRST/LAST, Kuebler explores the tension between the individual and the group, and humanity’s necessity for the push and pull of both.

Working with large ensembles—in this case, 20 dancers—always prompts Kuebler to consider how their energies influence each other, he tells the Straight. “I’ve done a lot of reading around morality, and where we come up with this set of values or virtues, and where does it baseline from? One of the theories is that it came from us having to coexist in groups, for us to create these shared narratives and stories. And, in these stories, we build these moral truths.”

This is his first commission with Ballet BC, produced for HORIZON/S, the company’s second program of its 2022-23 season. Kuebler has been in conversation with Ballet BC about working together for some time. The ball finally started rolling a couple of years ago, when artistic director Medhi Walerski watched a solo performance Kuebler did called #DanceForth Feasting on Famine. A digital initiative between Kuebler’s Radical System Art and the National Arts Centre, the work examined hyper-masculinity, bodybuilding, and addiction, combining dance with physical theatre.

Kuebler is renowned for using different elements of movement to create a physical expression that’s lyrical and visceral.

When choreographing FIRST/LAST, he sought to harness individual strengths in a way that would build a group language and resonate with the overall theme of the piece. He took inspiration from the dancers’ classical ballet training—their extensions, long lines, capacities for opening up their bodies—as well as their different technical backgrounds and personal interests, ranging from hip-hop to Shaolin kung fu. Those passions are

spotlighted in small solos that each dancer helped develop themselves, as well as in the group choreography, where Kuebler provided direction to create movement that is uniform but not in unison.

“I think we are a collection of our experiences,” he says. “That really is what makes us individuals.”

He adds: “When I’m in the room with them [the dancers], I’m almost always trying to dig towards a physical theatre expression, where the theme that we’re working with, the idea, the character choices, that’s the driver. And then whatever movement choices come out of that— that, to me, is valuable. So, I kind of try to approach it from the inside out.”

FIRST/LAST is scored to G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!, the latest effort from Montreal industrial postrockers Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The music—soundscapes marked by sawing strings, ghostly waves of distortion, and orchestral swells of noise—was another crucial element of the piece for Kuebler. He had a previous connection with the band from performing in the Holy Body Tattoo’s monumental back in 2016 (Kuebler as a dancer in the show, Godspeed! playing live onstage) and was thrilled when the group agreed to lend its music for FIRST/LAST

The score injects an epic and postmodern energy into the piece. It also feeds into the concept of Rob Sondergaard’s stage design, with a moving wall of light that references surveillance in modern society.

Kuebler hopes the combination of conceptual elements incites conversation in the audience—and perhaps even acts as

a mirror to them.

“The stage design has some really interesting visual concepts about technology and this idea of being watched and

observed and collected,” he says. “I try to plant these windows into the piece, where somebody sees it and they’re like, ‘Oh, I totally see this person as this person in my life.’ I just want to drop in little access points, where it’s either something that’s a moment they’ll remember and talk about after the show, or it’s a moment that brings them further into the show.

“I think that’s the theatre approach that I want to bring to the audience,” Kuebler continues. “You know, that this work has some connection to us, just as people: the way that they’re dressed, the way that they’re moving around onstage at certain moments. You can feel like these are people that are making their way through rush hour traffic, or it’s through the grind of 9 to 5. I think those are the things I hope have creative impacts.” GS

Ballet BC’s HORIZON/S is at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from March 16-18.

Shay Kuebler (front) explores themes that include morality and technology in his new FIRST/LAST. Photo by Michael Slobodian.

Spring Arts Preview dANCE

critics’ picks

By Yasmine Shemesh

As we move through life, dance is simply a translator of the human experience.

From the ongoing Vancouver International Dance Festival (which includes pieces like Wabi-Sabi and Ichigo-Ichieh) to Piña, just look at the many expressions of it on this page.

KOKORO DANCE: WABI-SABI

AT THE VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE FROM MARCH 2 TO 4

> Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi are two of the most iconic figures in Vancouver’s dance community. Along with establishing the Vancouver International Dance Festival in 2000, the pair continues to create thought-provoking work with their butoh-inspired company, Kokoro Dance. In Wabi-Sabi, Bourget and Hirabayashi perform a duet (to a score by their son, composer Joseph Hirabayashi) that considers transience and imperfection. The Draw: The choreography is improvised, so no performance will be the same.

HIROMOTO IDA: ICHIGO-ICHIEH: BIRTHDAY PRESENT FOR MYSELF

AT THE SHADBOLT CENTRE’S STUDIO THEATRE FROM MARCH 17 TO 18

> Taking inspiration from Japanese Noh theatre and Western contemporary dance, Hiromoto Ida tells the story of an old man who reflects on his life on what will be his last birthday. The Draw: A poignant look at love, transformation, and regeneration.

VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL BURLESQUE FESTIVAL

AT VARIOUS LOCATIONS, MARCH 29-APRIL 1

> Launched in 2006, Canada’s longest-running burlesque festival is back with showcases, talks, workshops, and much more. You won’t want to miss Moscato Sky, a Latinx, trans-femme, and non-binary classically trained dancer and

choreographer. The Draw: An inclusive lineup of new faces, big stars, and industry legends.

DANCERS OF DAMELAHAMID: SPIRIT AND TRADITION

AT SCOTIABANK DANCE CENTRE ON MARCH 30

> Spirit and Tradition was originally commissioned in 2010 by North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre and is one of the renowned Indigenous dance company’s most popular productions. The work combines masked dances, drumming, and projected visuals to share cultural teachings about reciprocity and community. The Draw: Dancers of Damelahamid was founded in the 1960s to protect and revitalize Indigenous artistic practices when the Potlatch Ban was lifted in 1951.

HILLEL KOGAN: WE LOVE ARABS

AT SCOTIABANK DANCE CENTRE, APRIL 13-15

> How can we co-exist in conflict? Hillel Kogan and Mourad Bouayad deconstruct the question with biting humour as a Jewish choreographer collaborates with an Arab dancer. The Draw: A sharp commentary on stereotypes, bias, and peace.

FAKEKNOT: PIÑA

AT SFU GOLDCORP CENTRE FOR THE ARTS FROM MAY 4 TO 6

> Named for the delicate Philippine fibre made from pineapple leaves, Piña is underscored by cultural resilience. The work, inspired by FakeKnot artistic director Ralph Escamillan’s identity as a first-generation Canadian-born Filipinx, draws parallels between the delicate strength of the textile and that of the diaspora. The Draw: Escamillan’s always vibrant choreography, and an original score by Kimmortal.

KASANDRA FLAMENCO: ROJO Y

SOMBRA

AT SHADBOLT CENTRE’S STUDIO THEATRE FROM MAY 26 TO 27

> The Kasandra Flamenco offers a theatrical interpretation of the folkloric art form originating from Southern Spain. In the piece, dancing with a piece of red silk, the ensemble explores the ebbs and flows of energy with their bodies alongside the changing textures of the fabric. The Draw: A fresh take on flamenco, all the way down to the music, which pairs classical guitar with electronic sounds. GS

MAILLARDVILLE

MARCH 24 | 25 |

IN THE GRAND CHAPITEAU

LES GRANDS HURLEURS TÉLAGE DIOUF A GENTICORUM JOCELYNE BARIBEAU Sparkling

FORRÓ DO CANA DEVON et LOUIS LÉGER

THE SYBARITIC STRING BAND with caller SHERRY NEVINS iMÉTIS JIGGERS

PODORYTHMIE LES ÉCHOS DU PACIFIQUE

IN THE PETIT CHAPITEAU

MADAME DIVA SEEKA SINGS WILL ET SEEKA

ROBIN LAYNE CONTE D’AFRIQUE avec MULUNGIE

being part of the new music process a thrill for chow

by John Lucas

It’s fair to say that once Vicky Chow found her true calling, she never looked back. After a solid grounding in the classics as a student at The Juilliard School, the pianist discovered her love for new music almost by chance. Her friend, composer Zhou Tian, was preparing for a concert of his work and asked Chow to pinch-hit when the original pianist bailed out.

That’s when Chow realized that her musical heart belonged to minimalism and postmodern techniques far more than it ever had to the conservatory.

On a Zoom call from Bogotá, Colombia, where she’s on tour as a member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Chow notes that one of the advantages of specializing in contemporary music is the ability to work directly with the composers—which, short of a successful seance, is not a possibility with the long-dead masters of the Romantic and Baroque periods.

“It is the most exciting thing to be able to talk and work with the composer and get feedback,” Chow says. “I work with a lot of different composers, and every collaboration is different. It is a special relationship, because the score has only so much information for the performer to interpret. You’re actually able to have the composer there and ask them about the dynamics and the structure.

“And sometimes there are composers who like to leave it open to the performers, or they might even work directly with the performer, so we get a little bit of input. Like, they might ask, ‘I’m trying to look for this kind of sound; what can you do on this

instrument to create that effect?’ ”

As a prime example, the pianist cites Julia Wolfe, one of the founders and artistic directors (along with David Lang and Michael Gordon) of Bang on a Can, the New York–based arts organization that Chow joined in 2009.

“Julia really likes to explore directly, so a lot of the times when we’re premiering works of hers, we have worked together in the room with her to get the right sound, which is so great,” Chow says.

“And you can’t do that with Chopin or Beethoven; you can assume, or make the most educated guess what the stylistic interpretation would be. So that’s definitely an exciting part of doing new music, being part of the whole process.”

When Chow returns to her hometown of Vancouver on March 28, she’ll be performing music by another living artist, Philip Glass, and while she didn’t have the benefit of helping the minimalist icon develop his Études, he has certainly heard how she approaches playing them.

“I don’t know him well, but I have shared the stage with him,” she says.

“When I did play the Études with him at the Winnipeg New Music Festival [in 2018], he was performing them with me and a few other pianists; all 20 Études in one evening. He was sitting there and he listened to each one of our performances. He didn’t just go backstage, back to his dressing room. No, he was sitting on the side of the stage when he wasn’t performing. It was so sweet.”

Nor was Glass idly observing the other pianists; he was listening closely enough to

provide specific feedback, Chow says. “For one of the pieces, he really liked it, but he just mentioned to me, ‘Actually, this needs to be a little bit slower. It needs to have a different pace.’ Feedback like that directly from the composer is invaluable.”

Glass, who is justifiably better-known as a composer than as a performer in his own right, famously wrote the Études as technical exercises for himself, as a way to improve certain aspects of his own piano-playing.

Last year, the Bang on a Can–affiliated Cantaloupe Music label released Chow’s recording of Book 1 of the Glass Études The pianist finds the emotional heart in each piece, making a convincing argument that the rippling arpeggios and circular melodies add up to more than mere formal drills. That the music leaves so much space for personal interpretation is, in Chow’s estimation, both the beauty of minimalism and also its inherent challenge.

“I feel like when you’re playing something repetitive, it takes a simmering kind of concentration and energy to keep that excitement throughout,” she says, likening the experience to that of driving on a long road trip. “You still have to concentrate. There’s nothing about this music where you can sit back and relax and kind of just go through it. No, I feel like there’s a very delicate balance.”

In her recording of Glass’s Études, Chow has found that balance—or least

one very important listener thinks so. The composer himself has said of the album: “It’s a highly dynamic and expressive performance. There’s a certain energy that is uniquely her’s.”

“Many pianists have recorded these pieces, and if you listen to them, everyone does it differently. All the interpretations are so different, and they’re very personal,” Chow offers. “I feel that this is a very personal approach that I’m taking; the way that I’m phrasing the repetitions of every single line, I’m thinking of it in my own way and imparting the expressiveness that I find in the score.”

Playing this music in her hometown adds an extra layer of personal significance for Chow. This will mark the first time she has been on a Vancouver stage since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the Brooklyn resident has not lived here in over two decades, she maintains close ties to the city where she was born.

“My brother just moved back to Vancouver, actually, from Hong Kong, so now it’s a full house again,” the pianist notes. “I have a niece now, and he’s there with his wife. And my sister’s there, and I have aunts and uncles and cousins. I’ve always kept a deep connection with Vancouver.” GS

Music on Main presents Vicky Chow performing Philip Glass’s Piano Études, Book 1 at Christ Church Cathedral on March 28.

Vicky Chow. Photo by Kaitlin Jane

critics’ picks Spring Arts Preview MUSIC

By Mike Usinger

Bring on the spring and the following musical highlights because, as beautiful as the snow can be, sometimes you’re ready for the flowers.

POPCAPPELLA III

AT ST. ANDREW’S-WESLEY UNITED CHURCH

MARCH 3-4

> Working with composer Marie-Claire Saindon and bassist Jodi Proznick, Chor Leoni finds the sweet spot between choral music and classic pop. The Draw: Reimagined versions of smashes by Adele, Kate Bush, and, believe it or not, AC/DC.

THE RITE OF SPRING

AT THE ORPHEUM ON MARCH 10 AND 12 AND BELL PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE ON MARCH 11

> The Rite of Spring sent shock waves through Paris when it debuted in 1913. Here the VSO not only dives into Igor Stravinsky’s epic masterpiece, but expands on the theme of seasonal renewal with Rodney Sharman’s After Schumann, and Bloom, a new work by Japanese-Canadian composer Rita Ueda. The Draw: Focusing on the idea of starting fresh rather than dancing yourself to death.

OUR HEARTS IN THE HIGHLANDS

AT CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL ON MARCH 11

> Our Hearts in the Highlands helps kick off the 2023 edition of Celtic Fest, centred this year at the Vancouver Art Gallery March 17-18. The Draw: There’s also something magical about the idea of singing to “Skye Boat Song” at Christ Church.

ANGELA HEWITT: BACH, BRAHMS, AND SCARLATTI

> AT THE CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS ON MARCH 12

Canadian piano legend Angela Hewitt joins Early Music Vancouver to turn a spotlight on Doménico Scarlatti. Works

STARTING AT $ 5

of the 18th century Italian piano virtuoso will lead off the program, after which Bach’s English Suite No. 6 in D minor and Brahm’s Sonata in F minor Op. 5 take cente stage. The Draw: Hewitt is one of the world’s foremost interpreters of Bach.

ZAKIR HUSSAIN AND MASTERS OF PERCUSSION

> AT THE ORPHEUM ON MARCH 19

With a lineup that includes Indian sarangi royalty Sabir Khan and Colombia’s multi-talented Tupac Mantilla, one is hard-pressed to come up with a better title for the showcase. The Draw: The masterful Zakir Hussain.

SPRINGTIME

AT THE ORPHEUM ON APRIL 2

> Calgary-raised piano great Jane Coop joins the Vancouver Chamber Choir for three new works: The VCC–commissioned Ay li lu (somewhere in infinity) by Swedish composer Jacob Mühlrad; the four-movement Blake’s “Seasons” by Toronto-based Colin Eatock; and a piece by Iman Habibi. The Draw: Take one of

the country’s longest-running choral ensembles and then add a Canadian classical giant in Coop.

BEETHOVEN’S MISSA SOLEMNIS

AT THE ORPHEUM ON APRIL 8

> Not only considered one of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s most important and respected works, Missa Solemnis is also seen as the greatest mass this side of Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Here the Vancouver Bach Choir is joined by the West Coast Symphony Orchestra. The Draw: Consider all that Beethoven accomplished, and that Missa Solemnis holds its own against his beloved immortals.

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN

AT THE QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE APRIL

29-MAY 7

> In Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman the title character is a sea captain stuck on a ghost ship for eternity, his one break on land coming every seven years, when he has a window in which to fall in love. The Draw: Everyone loves a ghost ship—until you’re trapped on one. GS

Little Mountain Gallery Gets a new lease on life...on water street

By Stephen Smysnuik

At 110 Water Street, there’s a large white development application sign posted to the building. A message, scrawled in black sharpie, reads “the land was never yours,” followed by “sorry [smiley face].”

Paper signs peek out of various windows to let people know this is the new home of Little Mountain Gallery, which had been producing local comedy at its original location on East 26th Avenue since 2016, when current executive director Brent Constantine took over.

Lately, Constantine has overseen Little Mountain’s move to 110 Water Street, and the impending renovations that have resulted in the big white sign. Those renovations, he’s quick to point out, are a massive, painful thorn in the ass.

“It’s an insane thing that I’m not sure why I’ve done it. And even how I’ve convinced a lot of other people to come along for my delusion,” he says.

Little Mountain’s original location, nestled on East 26th Avenue, around the corner from Main Street, provided the only dose of regular entertainment in an otherwise quiet neighbourhood. It was one of the few consistent comedy rooms in Vancouver, alongside the Comedy Mix and Yuk Yuk’s.

Now, with those other two rooms closed for good, Little Mountain is all that’s left. Initially opened as an art space, it ran comfortably for over two decades, until the building was sold off to developers. Even before that happened, the comedy rooms had been selling out, and the organization had been looking to move for years.

And then COVID happened, and everything stalled. Little Mountain survived through it all, to “do a run of whatever that was” after the initial lockdown ended, but they were evicted in January 2022.

“When you’ve been in there for a long time and you shut down, there are always stories about these places—Little Mountain included—where people are like, ‘Well, it’s the market dictating that you’ve failed as a business,’” Constantine says. “But it’s not really the case when you’ve been there for two decades. It’s kind of a failure of the real estate market. We operated, we were very successful, and we’ll be successful again. It’s just finding that space and setting up and redesigning.”

Which brings us back to that development application sign.

Little Mountain secured the space through a partnership with Community Impact Real Estate Society, a subsidiary of BC Housing that has a mandate to fill the agency’s buildings with service organizations or revenue-generating tenants.

It’s a perfect fit—BC Housing gets an arts organization in its portfolio, and Little Mountain gets to operate in a high-foot-traffic neighborhood at sub-market rent. Except now, the space needs renovations in order to operate at full capactiy, and the work is currently caught up in the City of Vancouver’s permitting process.

Which—tangent alert!—leads to one of the unfortunate realities of art spaces in Vancouver. With few exceptions, organizations like Little Mountain are moving into found space—nail salons, storefronts, warehouses—that aren’t up to code to operate as theatre or performance spaces. That means

arts orgs are on the hook for city-required, extensive (and expensive) renovations to old buildings. When you’re a not-for-profit arts organization operating on not-for-profit arts budgets, things get dicey.

“The city doesn’t want to shut down art spaces that are operating, but just the bureaucracy that exists and the limitations and administration makes it almost impossible,” Constantine says.

Because the space isn’t fully built out yet, Constantine says it’s hard to say what exactly the programming will look like for the spring. But the gallery is bringing back some of the improv group and standup shows it’s known for, including performances by local stalwart Graham Clark and Juno winner Jacob Samuel. The plan is to run shows on weekends until construction is complete, then offer programming all week.

“Community space is so important, and I think that any discipline needs to have a community space,” Constantine says. ”Comedy is really overlooked as an artistic discipline, but… it’s so important to have a space that’s dedicated full-time to maintaining the art form.”

The closing of Yuk Yuk’s and the Come-

dy Mix has actually created an opportunitry for enterprising comics and promoters to develop their own rooms, in bars or empty retail spaces to revitalize the scene and cultivate local talent. But as Constantine says, this is dependent on the whims of bar managers and property owners. There’s no room for comics to come together, to see each other night after night, and to develop that camaraderie that Vancouver has a long tradition of—and that other comedy cities benefit from.

“We’re underserved. I’ll say we’re underserved for comedy,” Constantine says.

This is exactly what Little Mountain is trying to solve, in its own volunteer-based, not-for-profit way. The venue will be a home for everything comedy-related— standup shows, improv performances, and other “weird stuff and alternative programming,” much of it self-produced.

“The barrier to entry is very low,” Constantine says. “Before people would say, ‘Oh man, they’re so exclusive. I don’t know how to book a show with Little Mountain.’ Literally, all you need to do is email me and then I check if you are a neo-Nazi. And if you’re not, you can do a show. That’s really all it is.” GS

Comics perform at Little Mountain Gallery on February 25: (Clockwise from top left) Graham Clark, Ola Dada, Jacob Samuel, and Jane Stanton. Photos by Skye Portman

critics’ picks Spring Arts Preview comedy

By Stephen Smysnuik

The city has a long history of great comedy, but the closing of the two main clubs—Yuk Yuk’s and the Comedy Mix— means there’s no homebase for comics to form the kind of community necessary for a healthy, evolving scene. Fortunately, enterprising young comedians have been creating their own rooms to fill the gap.

CHILL PILL COMEDY

AT THE PORTSIDE PUB, MARCH 8 AND MARCH 22; LOFT LOUNGE, EVERY THURSDAY IN MARCH AND APRIL

> Talie Perry has launched her own brand of comedy shows, currently working out of several rooms throughout the city this spring. The highlight is the monthly Society

Saturday Comedy series, held at a secret venue, which is designed like a Speakeasy, the location of which is revealed after tickets are purchased. The Draw: A great show for die-hard comedy fans who are into the art of the craft and watching material develop.

BIG LAUGHS COMEDY PRESENTS COMEDY UNDERGROUND FRIDAYS

AT 120 WEST HASTINGS, EVERY FRIDAY AT 7:30 AND 10PM

> Mike Greenwood’s DIY room fills the comedy club void with his underground room, located in Gastown under what used to be Wildebeest. The shows feature local headliners popping by to work out new material, and offers a more consistent homebase for the local scene. The Draw: It’s a literal underground comedy club that’s not quite a comedy club, but maybe could one day be a comedy club?

BLIND TIGER COMEDY

AT CHINA CLOUD STUDIOS, WITH TWO SHOWS EACH ON WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY

> The comedy group (and school!) has returned to in-person performances,

producing weekly standup, improv and sketch shows and featuring founding members of the Sunday Service and Hip. Bang! troupes, as well as BTC faculty and students. The Draw: BTC is ground zero for every kind of comedy—as well as the finest up-and-coming talent— Vancouver has to offer

THE IMPROV CENTRE

AT 1502 DURANLEAU STREET, EVERY WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY, AND AT LEAST ONE SHOW PER WEEKEND

> The former Vancouver TheatreSports has been rebranded and features a whole new cast of uber-talented performers for some of the highest quality improvisational comedy in the country. The schedule is stacked, and you really can’t go wrong with any of the shows. The Draw: Mind-bogglingly talented improvers take the audience on a wild ride of hilarity.

THE MOTN AT 1826 TRIUMPH STREET, EVERY THURSDAY AND SATURDAY

> Perhaps the most enigmatic and

weirdest of the comedy rooms in Vancouver, the MOTN is both a comedy club and a tattoo studio run by 22-yearolds Austin Jamieson and his best friend Jake LaPierre. The shows include a Hot Ones-inspired comedy show, Hot Take and Movie Madness, where comics watch a movie alongside the audience. The Draw: Truly underground and cutting-edge comedy in the depths of East Vancouver.

TIGHTROPE THEATRE

AT 2743 MAIN STREET, EVERY THURSDAY, FRIDAY AND SATURDAY

> Formerly known as Sour Dog Theatre, Tightrope calls itself “Impro Theatre” (distinguishing itself from the related “improv”), focusing on the practices and games laid out by OG Keith Johnson. Tightrope opened its own space in 2022, offering a range of clever concepts, including an elimination-style show, improvised Shakespearean dramas—and more! The Draw: A distinct flavour of improvisational comedy, in the middle of Mount Pleasant. GS

SUNDAY, MARCH 12 3 p.m.

Spring Arts Preview Visual Arts critics’ picks

ourselves. The Draw: Boyle worked with an amusement park innovator to change the gallery into an interactive space.

By V.S. Wells

My great-grandmother was a painter. Why am I telling you this? Art is in everyone’s blood. Every artwork is a little piece of someone’s soul, and a reminder of our long history as creatures who crave creation.

AMY RICE: OH CANADA

AT 716 EAST HASTINGS GALLERY TO MARCH 25

> Amy Rice’s collection of mixed-media prints, created on vintage envelopes that were mailed to Canada, makes a connection between materials and images. The Draw: Pocket-sized, nostalgic images

SALÓN SILICÓN: SENOS DE HOMBRE

AT SUM GALLERY TO MARCH 25

> SUM’s opening exhibition of 2023 asks what a queer body looks like. The Draw: Ruby-red, fuzzy little dildos mix humour and sex with serious considerations.

JIN-ME YOON: LONG TIME SO LONG

AT THE ART GALLERY AT EVERGREEN TO APRIL 30

FRIDAY, MAY 5 / 7:30 p.m.

> Local superstar Jin-me Yoon’s new collection of multimedia work explores that elephant in the room: the COVID-19 pandemic. The Draw: A multilayered soundscape adds a dream-like edge.

AS WE RISE: PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE BLACK ATLANTIC AT THE POLYGON GALLERY TO MAY 14

> In As We Rise, Black artists take photos of Black people, depicting them as they wish to be seen, as varied and idiosyncratic as a family photo album. The Draw: Dozens of artists in an exhibition that centres the familial and the familiar.

SHARY BOYLE: OUTSIDE THE PALACE OF ME

AT THE VANCOUVER ART GALLERY FROM MARCH 4 TO JUNE 4

> Outside the Palace of Me takes the language of performance arts and mixes it with ceramics, drawings, and two-way mirrors to ask how we see each other and

CAPTURE PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

AT VARIOUS LOCATIONS FROM APRIL 1 TO 30

> Taking over dozens of galleries and public spaces every April, Capture celebrates photography and film, connecting the public with gorgeous art and each other. The Draw: Everyone has a camera today; fine art photography reminds us it’s still an art.

WINTERS HOTEL: A SENSE OF PLACE

AT MRG: MACKENZIE HEIGHTS FROM APRIL 13

> When the Winters Hotel burned down and killed two residents, Yasmeen Strang’s photography changed from personal documentary into ponderous eulogy. The Draw: Local history lasting beyond the physical building.

A SMALL BUT COMFY HOUSE AND MAYBE A DOG

AT THE RICHMOND ART GALLERY FROM APRIL 22 TO JUNE 11

> Amy Ching-Yan Lam and HaeAhn Woo Kwon delve into the complexities of how colonialism shapes colonized peoples’ longing. The Draw: The eponymous dog is based on a pup stolen from China during the Second Opium War.

THINGS THAT DO NOT COME BY THE ROAD

> AT THE MORRIS AND HELEN BELKIN ART GALLERY FROM MAY 5 TO JUNE 4

The annual exhibition of UBC’s Master of Fine Arts students answers the question: what do they teach kids in art school these days? The Draw: Students of today are the great masters of tomorrow.

CAMP: SITE 003CAMP

AT SLICE OF LIFE ART GALLERY FROM MAY 18 TO 23

> Laveen Gammie explores both camp(ing) as a part of “West Coast” culture; and camp as an exaggerated, kitschy aesthetic. The Draw: Affordable originals, merchandise, prints and fine art are all for sale in the cute and cozy Slice gallery space. GS

The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts Angela Hewitt piano

St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church

Chor Leoni & The Leonids directed by Erick Lichte; Alexander Weimann Graf fortepiano perform songs by Franz Schubert

Know your local jewelry maker

Lana Lepper’s Vancouver-based brand of hand-crafted jewelry, LanaBetty, has just launched its latest collection, Mantra

> TELL ME WHAT YOU DO?

I make geometric contemporary jewelry using a combination of traditional goldsmithing and 3D design, using 3D printing, 3D modelling, and traditional lock wax casting to create my design. I want my pieces to tell a story that people can hold close to their hearts, that can give them reassurance.

If you’d seen some of the jewelry I made back in 2011 and 2012, when I first came onto the scene, it was very cutesy, which was indicative of the times. Everybody loved the “put a bird on it” meme and everything had a mustache on it. Pineapples were cool. But I’ve always wanted to grow the brand with the customers and the clientele as we also grew older.

So when the pandemic hit, I was like, you know what? It’s time. I wanted to show people what I’m capable of. I wanted to be more thoughtful and to tell a bigger story as an artist.

> HOW DID THE PANDEMIC AFFECT THE BUSINESS?

Everything stopped. It was the great pivot for LanaBetty and I reworked the website. I invested deeply in Facebook and Instagram ads. I learned how to make reels and I doubled down on everything I knew. I’ve always been going from market to market, craft show to craft show, selling in person, which was great. It’s fun when people can see the product. You can talk about it and they can try things on. It was an easy sell at that point. But I had to pivot to actually photographing my products, putting up product listings, learning SEO, building a website that was user-friendly. I really

leaned into that graphic design aspect that I love.

But 2020 wasn’t actually awful, it was just more of a “can we break even?” Since then, I’ve moved my studio from a 200-square-foot space in Gastown to a 650-square-foot space on Broadway. I have three employees—they’re all part-time, but you know what? Three employees! That’s great. I’m working with models and photographers, and building my brand out bigger than before. I’m selling my jewelry in California, New York, Toronto, Calgary. It’s good. I’m growing.

> THE PANDEMIC SHIFTED YOUR FOCUS TO MORE ONLINE SALES. DID IT SHIFT YOUR DESIGNS?

One hundred per cent. One of the biggest issues with the pandemic and the subsequent shift in supply chain was the cost of 3D printing. I was sort of already on the line in terms of what I thought was a reasonable cost to have something 3D printed, cast, polished, hand-created, made into jewelry and then sold to customers. Then when the pandemic shifted the supply chain, I was going to have to be charging $400 or $500 for a unicorn necklace, up from $200. That was too much for me. My art isn’t that elevated.

So I shifted the way I make my jewelry. With the pandemic, I finally had space and time to do some prototyping. When you’re always going from market to market, you don’t always have time to prototype, then get it back, hate it, then try something different. The pandemic gave me a little bit of space and breathing room to explore my art. It was really therapeutic in a time of high anxiety.

> WHERE ARE ALL YOUR PRODUCTS MADE?

Here, in my studio. I don’t currently possess all the tools to do the casting, which is common. So I work with one of the big casting houses here in Vancouver. I give them my prototype, they make a mold, they use the mold to make wax casts. They take the wax and make a large mold out of that. And then they pour molten metal into that and give me back hunks of metal that I then make look beautiful.

> AND FROM THOSE HUNKS OF METAL, YOU’RE WHITTLING THEM DOWN INTO WHAT PEOPLE ARE WEARING? That’s right. I add all the finesse, add it to the chain and add the patinas, then photograph it. I make it into jewelry.

> HOW LONG DOES THAT PROCESS TAKE? Longer than I’d like.

> WHY DO YOU LIKE DOING THIS? WHY IS IT A THING FOR YOU, IN A WORLD ALREADY FULL OF JEWELRY?

There’s such a strong sense of satisfaction that I get personally from working with my hands, and when I make a piece of jewelry that I think is both artistically beautiful and technically beautiful. I get immense satisfaction from the love and excitement that customers get when they try something on. And if you’re seeing it in person, you can watch their body actually relax when they try on a ring and it’s perfect, it’s the one for them if. That moment is worth everything.

lanabetty.com | @lanabetty

Know Your Local features independent Vancouver-based artists and creatives. If you’re interested in being featured, or know someone who should, hit us up at ideas@straight.com

Lana Lepper runs LanaBetty out of her studio on East Broadway. Photo by Jon Healy.

Blue Rev finds alvvays rewriting indie rock’s rules

By Yasmine Shemesh

There’s a song on Blue Rev, the monumental current album from indie pop band Alvvays, that’s named for the late Tom Verlaine. Verlaine also had a song called “Always,” but more on that parallel in a second. The first time lead singer Molly Rankin heard the Television frontman, with his singular swagger on the guitar, was probably back in Prince Edward Island, where she lived in her outfit’s early days.

“To hear guitar that way was really eye opening,” Rankin tells the Straight. “And even Tom’s vocals, I think, maybe get a bit overlooked. The whole thing is a really timeless combination, and still exciting and relevant to me.”

In “Tom Verlaine,” Rankin channeled the art-punk icon’s disaffected image (“I think of him as sort of a classic, fashionable, chic person who is a face of the scene in New York”) when thinking about the subject of the narrator’s conflicted love. Over textures of surging melodic noise, he materializes in the final lines, as Rankin’s tone ripples: “You were my Tom Verlaine, just sitting on the hood.”

There are many other cultural- and nostalgia-tinged reference points on Blue Rev. The album’s title itself is a nod to the sugary vodka cooler Rankin and keyboardist Kerri MacLellan drank as teenagers in Cape Breton. Another is “Belinda Says,” which name-checks Belinda Carlisle’s signature pop epic “Heaven is a Place on Earth”: “Belinda says that heaven

is a place on earth,” Rankin lilts. “Well, so is hell.” Like on “Tom Verlaine” with the “Always”/Alvvays connection, these shout-outs are interpolated into poignant lyrics that wrestle with the emotional weight of how life’s small moments are often the ones that hit us the hardest.

“The way that I have always approached lyrics—and Alec [O’Hanley, guitarist], too—is just to have fun and think about little cultural references that can be sprinkled in here and there: little Easter eggs and puzzles,” Rankin explains.

“The idea of ‘Belinda,’ I mean, the [‘Heaven’] song blasting through a car stereo felt really cathartic to me, as someone who was exiting a really volatile situation and escaping into this new terrifying world of freedom and sort of envisioning the people that sing to the radio as a companion. That, to me, felt really meaningful at the time. And that song is such an anthem.”

Similarly, Alvvays has always maintained a clear vision when it comes to building soundscapes. The band’s meticulousness is well-known. The quintet has tweaked and refined its sonic alchemy— rooted in an affinity for creative approaches to loud guitar—since its 2014 self-titled debut. Alvvays’ sophomore effort, 2017’s Antisocialites, brimmed with fuzzed-out riffs and dreamy melancholy. Blue Rev takes things further, as Alvvays—true masters of its craft—crank up the noise and distortion to flood into the screaming edges of shoegaze, all while layering in those devastatingly beautiful melodies.

“A lot of the evolution, I think, was very natural,” Rankin notes. “It’s not something that we planned or orchestrated, it’s just how our influences, the things that we listen to every day, however that subconsciously shaped the things that we were trying to make.”

While Antisocialites positioned Alvvays as indie rock heroes for a new generation, with Blue Rev the group’s members have created something altogether more vital. It’s not just the global acclaim the album’s received, how it’s been universally named one of 2022’s best records, how it’s been hailed as a defining entry in the band’s catalogue, or even how it has created a

new frontier for the genre at large. Blue Rev is one of those staggering albums that can shift the orbit of your entire world.

As the band has toured through the U.K. and U.S., ahead of its upcoming leg across Canada this month, “it’s been really exciting to see the way that people have already latched onto little lyrics and guitar lines,” Rankin says.

“If there’s one thing that I definitely try to do when I’m building songs is just to make sure that I believe what I’m singing,” she adds, noting that her other main objective is to write melodies that move her, structuring them in lifts and falls that hopefully also stir something in the listener. She wants to leave an impression.

“I don’t know,” Rankin muses. “It’s almost like if you have all of those things in those moments, then the presentation is less important as well—even though we’re very fussy about all of that stuff. But yeah. If I believe the things that I’m singing, I feel like it resonates more with others.” GS

Alvvays plays the Commodore Ballroom on March 16 and 17.

Blue Rev by Alvvays is loaded with Easter eggs. Photo by Norman Wong.

it’s not something that we planned or orchestrated.

– Molly Rankin

Evolving new Pornographers still in love on Guest

By Yasmine Shemesh

Sometimes, when Carl

“A.C.”

Newman is in the studio, he starts going through old voice notes and hard drives. One time, he came across a song his former New Pornographers compatriot, Dan Bejar, had written for the band’s 2014 album, Brill Bruisers, that wasn’t released. The chorus stood out, with its beautiful line: “We sit around and talk about the weather/My heart just like a feather/Really really light.” Newman decided to write a song around it.

“I thought it would be funny and conceptual to interpolate a song that nobody knows,” Newman tells the Straight, on the line from his home in Woodstock, New York. “Sometimes it’s fun to just approach it from a different way. Even if I’m going to arrive at a rock and roll song or a pop song, it’s fun to take some circuitous path to get there.”

“Really Really Light”, buzzy and bright with thumping drums, is the first single off the New Pornographer’s forthcoming record, Continue as a Guest. To Newman, the heart of that band that made Brill Bruisers almost a decade ago—also the last time Bejar was officially part of the supergroup, save for 2021’s live performances of landmark albums Mass Romantic and Twin Cinema—still feels very much the same. Since forming in Vancouver in 1997, the New Pornographers have always been what Newman describes as a “studio project”—a collective of musical savants who throw ideas around until something sticks, and turns into that perfect indie power pop they’re renowned for. Continue as a Guest features longtime contributors Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, Todd Fancey, and Joe Seiders.

“But, at the same time,” Newman notes, “the music on this record feels new to me and I don’t know why, exactly… I feel like what I want to hear now is different. I spent more time on the vocals. I find myself being a lot more concerned with the vocals. I find myself being a lot more concerned with lyrics. But that’s just me. I realized I wanted to make something different.

“Like, relearning those old records,” he continues, “especially some of the songs on Mass Romantic—I’m singing them, and I’m trying to learn them and I’m learning the arrangements, and I’m thinking, like,

‘Who was this guy? I know it was me, but what the hell was I trying to do here?’ I feel like, ‘Oh, this is cool, but it’s not the kind of music I would want to make now.’ But I guess maybe that’s what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to try and change and evolve through the years.”

The album’s title, Continue as a Guest, along with feeling like a wink at the band’s sometimes-revolving roster, speaks to this evolution, in terms of being a musician and trying to make an enduring career of it, especially when one’s been at it for so long.

“I just thought about the idea of, like, you’re years on and you’re just doing your thing and you just have different expectations,” Newman explains. “And that’s the music career and also just life: you settle in and you realize people are always striving towards something. And I think some people spend their entire lives trying to get someplace that they’re never going to get to, and some people just get to a place and go, ‘This seems all right, I’m going to stay here.’

“So, I think,” he continues, “it was about that idea: ‘I’ve got this, I’ve got my home, and my life, and my family, and my little career. This feels all right, I’ll just stay here.’ Sometimes, I’m afraid people are going to read it as a suicide note, but it’s not really. I think it’s a very hopeful idea.”

It runs through many of the songs thematically. “Really Really Light,” especially during times of the pandemic—“which we’re still in,” Newman notes—feels aspirational in the way of, one day, we’ll be able to just talk about insignificant things again. Similarly, the melodic singalong “Last and Beautiful” dreams of places someone would want to go to in the world, but questions what it’s worth if they don’t have the people they love with them.

The feeling is further driven by the musical landscape, which is warm and expansive. “I wanted that on this record,” Newman says, “because I think, especially the first few records, although we were always a pop band, there was something kind of angular and almost abrasive in our music. As fun and melodic as it was, there’s a lot of hard angles in our music. It’s fun trying to figure out ways to smooth it out.”

Much of that quality can be attributed to the addition of Zach Djanikian’s

saxophone, which ripples brightly through songs such as “Marie and the Undersea”. Djanikian is a friend of Newman’s, an “amazing musician” who also plays guitar and bass on the record. Elsewhere, “Firework in the Falling Snow” is a glimmering album highlight co-written by Speedy Ortiz frontwoman Sadie Dupuis.

Newman had a couple of ideas and, feeling a little stuck, reached out to Dupuis, who he admires as a lyricist, over Twitter. It was very much a cold call, he laughs, but she got back to him quickly with some lyrics that were “really great.” Newman cut them up, as is his style, but there was one that stood out that he kept intact: “firework in the falling snow.” Newman couldn’t believe nobody had ever written that line before.

“Again, it was something where I thought, okay, that’s the centre of it. That’s going to be the title. It’s going to be called ‘Firework in the Falling Snow,’ ” he says. “And sometimes that’s all you need, some-

thing grounding that feels like the foundation. Now I know what the song is about.”

It evoked a hopeful image that lingered while Newman worked on the song, which became about love and how it survives. As he describes it, it’s hard not to draw parallels to the New Pornographers themselves: a band of collaborators who have been friends for nearly 30 years and still find new inspiration in each other.

“I was thinking about when you’ve been together with somebody for so long and it transforms—and it turns into something else, you know?” he says. “When you meet somebody, it’s never the same five years later than it is in the two weeks that you first met. Things are exciting and electric and you think, this is the greatest thing. And then, years pass and you realize, oh, it’s changed. But you still love them.” GS

Continue as a Guest is out on March 31 via Merge Records.

Chef Chanthy yen’s cooking is an exploration of identity

By William Johnson

Chef Chanthy Yen is, in no uncertain terms, a rising star— even if he’s not quite ready for that label yet. Though modest and soft-spoken, the Ontario native with Cambodian heritage has trained under some of the best chefs in Europe, including Ferran Adrià and Magnus Nilsson. In Canada, he was voted Eater Montreal’s Chef of the Year. More recently, Nightshade, the Vancouver vegan restaurant where he’s executive chef, was the only plant-based concept that Michelin put on its Bib Gourmand list. What’s more, he just wrapped up a yearlong stint in Ottawa as Justin Trudeau’s personal chef.

Understandably, when the Straight caught up with Yen last week, the chef admitted that he’s “still trying to navigate it all.” Now, with a revamp of the Nightshade menu and a cookbook on the way, he’s not making it easy for himself. But as he maneuvers increasing expectations, and perhaps ambitions, Yen has a rich and diverse collection of experiences to lean on—for both belief and inspiration.

He grew up in Windsor, Ontario, after his family fled the civil war in Cambodia. His culinary journey began in his grandma’s kitchen.

“Every morning, I would wake up to either karaoke or my grandmother’s mortar

and pestle,” Yen recalls. He’d work with her all day, cleaning chickens, picking lemongrass, or grinding powders for curries. But what Yen’s grandma taught him went beyond food, he says. She gave him a passion for using food to nurture.

Yen’s earliest restaurant job was at a humble Italian joint. But from there, he found himself in a slipstream of culinary opportunities—working with chefs like Ned Bell and Jefferson Alvarez, studying at Vancouver’s Northwest Culinary Academy, and making his way to multiple Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe.

Back in Canada, Yen opened Fieldstone in Montreal in 2017, which eventually earned him that Eater award. By 2020, he

was elevating British classics at the city’s iconic Parliament Pub & Parlour. But then, right as Yen’s culinary passion had now moved from simmering to a rolling boil, COVID hit. The world shut down.

“I had no kitchen to call my own and I couldn’t call myself a chef anymore,” Yen has said about that period. So he pitched Parliament’s owners on opening up a small Cambodian pop-up. They obliged. He called it Touk.

It became an outlet for him to connect with his roots. While working in Spain, Yen says, he was always cooking other people’s food. At Fieldstone, he was expressing himself creatively, but it still “didn’t really hone in my passion for food,” he says. “So, then Touk happened, and I was able to relate with multiple generations. I had people crying at the table because the food reminded them of their mother ’s cooking.”

Fast-forward to 2021, and having moved back to Vancouver, Yen was set to open up Nightshade. But 4,300 kilometres away, Justin Trudeau had just been re-elected, and soon after, offered Yen an opportunity to become his executive chef.

Yen says plating food for the PM was very personal. His family were refugees in the 1980s. “Justin’s father was the one who opened the borders to Canada,” Yen says. “And I was the very first BIPOC person and queer person to be able to stand in that role of executive chef.”

Yen left the position last month, but says it was a privilege to “feed the son and the family members of the person who allowed

my family to come to this country.”

Still, there’s another world leader Yen would like to nourish: the King of Cambodia. As part of that goal, he’s been working on a Cambodian cookbook—which, to be official, must get royal assent in Cambodia. It will be called Recipes From Yey

The idea for the cookbook stemmed from Yen’s desire to, as he explains it, tell the stories of Cambodian Canadians who fled the country’s wars but are now fighting for acceptance from people within Cambodia.

“I travelled there,” he says, “and they’re like, ‘Oh, no, you left us. You are not a real Cambodian.’ And I just want to prove that we are still Khmer [ethnic Cambodians]…We are just living different paths and lives.”

For Yen, there are community-focused aspects to creating Recipes From Yey, but there are personal elements too.

“Writing the book and cooking Cambodian food is a showcase of navigating my identity,” he offers.

When asked what he’s still navigating, Yen holds nothing back. “I’m still working on myself. I’m still working on all of my insecurities and my imposter syndrome,” he admits.

Thinking back on his vast bank of experiences, Yen says, “It’s not the end for me. I have a plethora of books here and I’m looking at them right now while talking to you. I see a lot of my biggest mentors and inspirations there. I still have way more to learn.” GS

Chef Yen’s parsnip cremeaux. Photo by Elena Aleksandraviciute

Chef Chanthy Yen. Photo by Sylvie Li

why do fascists hate dad jokes?

They just do Nazi what’s so funny. Here’s why that’s a problem.

By Dan Mangan

Consider this: “I don’t always tell dad jokes, but when I do… he usually laughs.” Did you roll your eyes just now? Let’s break it down:

You considered the pun. Did you get it? Of course you did, you’re smart.

You basked, for an instant, in the absurdity. You may have even experienced a brief urge to chuckle, but then…

You weighed the joke’s silliness against your threshold for being taken seriously in this godforsaken wasteland of existence. You recoiled. You played it safe. You protected yourself from scrutiny. You decided this joke is lame.

Of course, not all dad jokes are good jokes. But bad dad jokes are bad because they are bad jokes, not just because they are dad jokes.

When I was a kid, people used to say that sarcasm was the “lowest form of humour.” I don’t think that is correct. Sarcasm alone is not the folly, so much as sarcasm’s common association with meanness.

Meanness is, in fact, the lowest form of humour. Meanness reaches for the lowest hanging fruit on the shortest tree. It aims below the belt, and is most often volleyed by someone with paper-thin skin. It’s why Trump can’t be (intentionally) funny. He punches down. He’s a bully, and if you enjoy a bully’s humour, I’m sorry to say that you are most likely one of the bad guys.

Self-deprecation, by contrast, is a higher form of humour. It demonstrates a reflective character, thick skin, and whimsy. It’s magnetic, and if done well, makes the joke-teller bullet-proof. Making fun of someone already willing to make fun of themselves is rarely funny.

So let’s talk about dad jokes. Of course, dad jokes are not exclusively told by actual dads, but I myself am a dad. And because this entire essay’s purpose is to outwardly rationalize my own personal enjoyment of dad jokes, I will henceforth refer to dad-jokers as “dads.”

Consider this: have you ever heard a dad joke that was mean?

I can’t recall a single dad joke that was at somebody else’s expense. On the contrary, I’d suggest that dad jokes are arguably at the dad’s own expense. Dads expect the eyeroll and deliver the punchline anyway. The act is, by nature, self-deprecating.

Let’s assume that life is not exactly easy. Let’s imagine a world where there are looming ecological consequences for several centuries of unfettered resource extraction and rampant capitalism. In this world, let’s suggest that anxiety, depression and reproductive fascism are generally trending upward.

The dad joke exists to offer a brief moment of existential respite from the madness. Levity. Joyful absurdity. Dads create a laugh at their own expense to make life more manageable for those around them.

Dads tell dad jokes so they can take one for the team. It’s an act of caring. Sheltering. Loving.

It’s not a lack of awareness that makes dads an easy target for despondent teenagers and cynical adults. Dads understand more than anybody that the dad joke is inane. But they follow through anyway. The execution is as much a part of the joke as is the wordplay. There’s no guile, couth, or malice involved.

This childlike wonderment at simple language is laughable, and that’s the point.

Skepticism is important. There are countless things of which we should be skeptical. Skepticism keeps powerful forces in check. Skepticism serves the marginalized, because it pokes holes in the infrastructure that maintains the status quo.

Cynicism, on the other hand, serves the powerful. It deflates spirits. Cynicism produces shame and guilt—it encourages us to keep quiet. Inward. Fosters an environment in which we must protect ourselves from the scrutiny of others. It is the watchful eye of inhibition. Causes us to second-guess our gut impulses.

By bemoaning the dad joke, we practice cynicism. We punch down on something that has already existed only to punch itself. We shun the curiosity of a common moment and, in doing so, perpetuate the systems that keep us from enjoying anything at all. We poison the well.

Why suffocate playfulness? The result is homogeneity. We should not punish those willing to be joyful in a hostile world. Cynicism nukes hope, and hope is at the core of most good things.

Humour should be generous. It should be an invitation. Good humour doesn’t just make light of life, but offers a moment of common understanding through shared lightness.

Isn’t it remarkable how truly funny

people tend to make you feel like you yourself, in their presence, are funny too? It’s the magic of having fostered an environment where anyone can drop their armour and participate without being pierced.

The next time you hear a dad joke and feel the urge to deride the perpetrator, perhaps ask yourself who your cynicism might be serving, and to what end. Have you been conditioned to be cynical toward lightheartedness by a world too self-conscious to be lighthearted?

And if you should remain cynical… hi Cynical, I’m Dan. GS

Dan Mangan is a Vancouver singer-songwriter. His latest album, Being Somewhere, is out now.

Call for artists

North Vancouver Recreation & Culture is seeking performing, visual and multidisciplinary artists to be part of our 2023 events season.

All genres welcome. Apply by March 31. Learn more: nvrc.ca/artist-call-2023

Worst-case pegging scenario isn’t all bad

by Dan Savage

> MY BOYFRIEND OF SIX MONTHS WANTS TO TRY PEGGING AND I’M DOWN.

But he wants “the whole experience,” which means sucking the dildo too. That raises a red flag for me. I know how this sounds before I even ask, so please forgive me if this question is insensitive. But does his desire to suck on the dildo indicate gay or bi tendencies? He says he’s not attracted to men, but he will sometimes make remarks about a “good looking guy” he saw. He also told me he had a threesome in his early 20s with a married couple and that the husband sucked him off. He says he hasn’t done anything like that since—and he’s had tons of sex and done a lot of freaky stuff. Is this a kink? Would this leave him wanting the real thing? He wants to get married and all that. Should I be concerned?

Wondering About Sexual Proclivities

I’m gonna crawl out on a limb here and assume your boyfriend has demonstrated—to your satisfaction—that he enjoys straight sex. Or opposite-sex sex, I should say, since not everyone who has “straight” sex is straight. Bisexuals have “straight” sex all the time; sometimes even gays and lesbians have “straight” sex, and not always under the duress of the closet. Just

as some straights are heteroflexible, some gays and lesbians are homoflexible.

Anyway, I’m gonna assume your boyfriend likes to kiss you, he likes your tits, he eats your pussy, and he fucks you senseless. And I feel confident in making this assumption because if he was only going through the motions when he was having sex with you, if the “straight” sex you were having together was bad or infrequent, you surely would’ve mentioned that fact.

Let’s game out your worst-case scenario: Your boyfriend is bisexual. Would that really be so bad, WASP? If you’re going to obsess about the downsides of marrying a bisexual guy—he’s going to want to fuck a guy once in a while—you should at least pause to consider the upsides. For instance, you won’t have to be on the receiving end of penetration every time you say yes to sex, WASP, because you’ll get to do the penetrating every once in a while. And the occasional MMF threesome… well, that seems like the best-case scenario to me, WASP, but I’m a little like your boyfriend: here for the freaky stuff.

> I’M A 38-YEAR-OLD MOTHER OF TWO YOUNGISH KIDS IN A 10-YEAR HETERO RELATIONSHIP THAT I AM DESTROYING I cheated with a girl at my job at the end of last year and now I have feelings for her.

I’ve ended the affair several times, but each time we start back up again. I’ve always known that I’m bisexual but never really explored that side of myself. I don’t know if I never explored this side of myself out of fear, internalized homophobia, or that the right girl never presented herself. Now I need to choose. Do I stay with my longterm partner, a man I love dearly, and tamp down this side of myself? Or do I break up with him and explore my sexuality? If we didn’t have kids, I would choose the latter. We have talked about opening up the relationship but he is way too hurt for that to be an option anymore. I know I majorly fucked up. I betrayed his trust and snuck around with this girl. Am I just a horrible person who needs to get her shit together and somehow patch things up with my partner? Or is exploring my sexuality something that I should prioritize over stability and long-term love?

Confused As Fuck

If you were childless—or child-free— you would leave. But you aren’t childfree, CAF, and you owe it to your kids to at least try to make things work with your long-term partner.

That said, CAF, you aren’t obligated to stay in a relationship you can’t make work. If your actions have irrevocably destroyed your partner’s ability to trust you, and if you can’t come to some sort of accommodation moving forward that allows you to be the person you are (an accommodation that could take many different forms), ending it may ultimately be in the best interests of your kids. Because a bitter, loveless, high-conflict relationship will not only make you and

LOOKING FOR ORGANIC YOGURT AFTER A WORKOUT, WHOLE FOODS KITS

your partner miserable, but it will also make your kids miserable.

If your relationship never recovers from the blows you’ve inflicted on it—if you can’t get past this—then you’ll have to end it. But at this point you simply don’t know whether or how this relationship can be salvaged. So, give it a chance, do the work, and see where you are in a year. If leaving was ultimately the right thing to do, it’ll still be the right thing to do a year from now. If leaving was the wrong thing to do, you won’t be able to undo it a year from now.

As you may have noticed—as anyone who’s been paying attention should have noticed by now—monogamy isn’t easy for anyone. And while it’s considered bi-phobic to suggest that monogamy might be a little bit harder for bisexual people, most of the people making that argument to me are bisexuals who made monogamous commitments before fully exploring their sexualities. LGBTQ people never tire of pointing out how a particular thing might be harder for gay men and a different particular thing might be harder for lesbians and another particular thing might be a whole lot harder for trans people and a long list of other things might be a bazillion times harder for asexuals, demisexuals, sapiosexuals, omnisexuals, etc., etc., etc. And yet it’s somehow taboo to suggest that monogamy—which, again, is pretty damn hard for everyone—might be just a tiny bit harder for bisexuals.

Send your burning questions to mailbox@ savage.love. Podcasts, columns, merch and more at Savage.Love!

SYLVIE—WE SHOPPED FOR MUJI NOTEBOOKS— DROP ME A LINE?

TATTOOED DUDE AT STEPH TOLEV COMEDY SHOW

You were sitting at the end of the fifth row, to the left of the stage. I was sitting a couple metres away on the raised stools. Couldn’t tell who you were watching more, the comedian or me! Cute, shy exchange of smiles at the end. You should have said hi.

From: F to M

When: Friday, February 24

Where: The Biltmore

Whole Foods Kits. Almost closing time. Long jacket? Dark hair. You were looking for organic Greek yogurt. It was right where I was standing. I pointed it out. You got some yogurt. I got some yogurt. “Ah, 17 grams of protein,” you said. “Are you training for something?” I asked. “You had just come from the gym,” said you. You had said you did a lot of sports. Instead, I headed home. Try again? Meet you in the yogurt section?

From: F to M

When: Friday, February 24

Where: Whole Foods Kitsilano

Which one of us started a conversation about notebooks for writing in, then little travel bottles, working in Yaletown, and your plans to visit a southern place? I wished I’d spoken up, given you my card, asked you to write me a line. I felt appreciated by you, and I was so surprised to feel that, that I “lost track of my toes” so to speak, such that I missed the little leap needed to make better contact right then. Thank you for those little moments.

From F to F

When: Tuesday, February 7

Where: Muji shop, Robson Street