The Georgia Straight - Finding Your Muse - February 3, 2022

FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022 | FREE

Volume 56 | Number 2816

ESTATE SALE

Whopping price in Southlands

SEA SICK

Play plumbs ocean depths

FINDING YOUR MUSE How VCC helped Stevie Thomas discover the world of fashion design; plus, SFU’s Semester in Dialogue and making education more inclusive COVID-19

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MAKING DUMPLINGS

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DARA HORN

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PuSh FESTIVAL

HEALTH

Academic questions B.C.’s death count from COVID-19

CONTENTS

February 3-10 / 2022

10 COVER

Several years ago, fashion designer Stevie Thomas took a noncredit course at Vancouver Community College that led to a life-changing career choice.

by Charlie Smith

By Charlie Smith Cover photo by Roger Mahler

6

FOOD

Many Vancouverites gorged on dumplings over the Lunar New Year, but did you know that they’re actually quite easy to make at home?

By Martin Dunphy

8

EDUCATION

The Semester in Dialogue at SFU not only gives undergraduate students a suite of skills, but it also offers tools to change the world.

By Charlie Smith

e Online TOP 5

e Start Here

On the second anniversary of B.C.’s first COVID-19 diagnosis, Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix suggested that the province has managed the pandemic with a fair degree of success.

B

.C. has reached another grim milestone. By the end of January, it had surpassed 2,600 fatalities from COVID-19. And the number of people hospitalized with the disease reached a record 1,048 on January 31.

At provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix’s January 28 briefing, a chart was presented showing that B.C. still has far fewer deaths per capita than other large provinces.

“B.C. has had, relative to other jurisdictions, some success, but there have been real losses,” Dix stated.

Dix’s overall tone, which was delivered on the second anniversary of the first COVID-19 diagnosis in the province, was that it has been a gruelling fight but the province is doing the best that it can to stem the worst effects of the disease. Another chart showed that B.C.’s hospitalization rate has been lower than those of other large provinces.

This has offered British Columbians reassurance that the provincial government has responded competently to the pandemic.

But an associate professor in the University of Toronto faculty of dentistry has publicly questioned whether B.C. might be underreporting deaths due to COVID-19 to a degree far greater than other provinces.

Dr. Tara Moriarty directs the Moriarty Lab, which researches blood-borne bacterial pathogens. She has a cross appointment in the University of Toronto’s department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in the faculty of medicine.

In a long Twitter thread looking at the provincial fatality rates, Moriarty suggested that there is a “possible 5-fold under-detection/under-reporting” of COVID-19 deaths in B.C. 2

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

She based this on “predicted new daily deaths for Omicron, based on age-specific mortality rates, vaccination rates, boosters, vaccine protection against death due to Omicron, how many people in each group live in a region, minus deaths reported so far in each region”.

Moriarty updates this information daily.

According to her analysis, Quebec is the only province in Canada with a COVID-19 death total that matches her estimate for expected deaths.

Not surprisingly, Moriarty’s analysis is generating a fair amount of discussion on social media, including among some doctors.

Steve Morgan, a professor in UBC’s School of Population and Public Health, encouraged his Twitter followers to read Moriarty’s thread and then “ask questions accordingly”.

Here’s the problem with Morgan’s recommendation about asking questions accordingly: the vast majority of the population does not have the wherewithal to review whether hospitals and health authorities are accurately reporting COVID-19 death statistics.

Yet this is an extremely serious issue, given the number of fatalities. That’s aside from a growing controversy over whether the provincial government is responding appropriately to an airborne virus.

B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau has already called for an independent science table on COVID-19 and updated data on the ages of people hospitalized with COVID-19.

In light of Moriarty’s conclusion that B.C. has the fewest recorded deaths in comparison to expected deaths from COVID-19, don’t be surprised if Furstenau’s next demand will be for an independent review of COVID-19 deaths.

FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022

see page 4

14 7 18 2 17 12 4 17 15

BLACK HISTORY MONTH BOOKS CLASSIFIED ADS HEALTH MUSIC PUSH FESTIVAL REAL ESTATE SAVAGE LOVE THEATRE

e Listings

14 ARTS

Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 56 | Number 2816 #300 - 1375 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6H 0B1 T: 604.730.7000 E: gs.info@straight.com straight.com DISPLAY ADVERTISING: T: 604.730.7020 E: sales@straight.com

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Here’s what people are reading this week on Straight.com.

1 2 3 4 5

On the truckers convoy, extremists in Ottawa, and the reality of COVID-19.

Luxury home listed at $34.8 million has been reduced to $24.8 million.

Six old-growth activists arrested in Trans-Canada Highway blockades.

Check out this behaviour from supporters of Freedom Convoy 2022.

Massive dust storm forms over Arabian Sea, lowering temperature in Mumbai.

DISTRIBUTION: 604.730.7032

EDITOR Charlie Smith GENERAL MANAGER Sandra Oswald SECTION EDITORS Mike Usinger (ESports/Liquor/Music) Steve Newton SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy STAFF WRITERS Carlito Pablo (Real Estate) SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT Jeff Li

@GeorgiaStraight

ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER Janet McDonald GRAPHIC DESIGNER Miguel Hernandez PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Glenn Cohen, Luci Richards, Catherine Tickle, Robyn Marsh, David Pearlman (On-Leave) MANAGER, BRANDED CONTENT AND MARKETING LEAD Rachel Moore CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR Tamara Robinson

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from page 2

Part of the problem in evaluating whether someone died of COVID-19 is the widespread perception that it’s a respiratory disease. In fact, there’s a growing number of scientific experts who argue that it’s actually a vascular disease with primary symptoms of a respiratory ailment.

“Our Public Health officials insist on calling COVID a respiratory illness when clearly that is only the first phase of this complex syndrome,” a group called Protect Our Province B.C. wrote in a January 17 open letter to Health Minister Adrian Dix. “The concerning part of COVID-19 is the vascular injury which can manifest, often some time later, in damage to multiple organs, including the heart, lungs, liver and brain, causing long-term, lifechanging illness for some,” the letter continued. “Patients who develop the, as yet poorly understood, Post Covid syndrome or Long Covid suffer in silence and are

classified in the statistics as ‘recovered’.”

In one January briefing, Henry said that COVID-19 will need to managed like other respiratory diseases, such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and enteroviruses that cause the common cold. On the second anniversary of the first COVID-19 diagnosis in B.C., Henry made no mention of the disease being airborne or vascular.

On the same day, Henry told CBC Radio One broadcaster Matt Galloway that there’s a high level of immunity in B.C. due to the extent of vaccination against COVID-19.

“This is like a very bad influenza season,” Henry said in the interview.

She reiterated to Galloway that the Omicron variant is causing “mostly mild illness”. And she predicted that B.C. will have a “relatively gentle spring”.

“We have the tools to deal with what comes next—and we’ve learned that,” Henry declared. g

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FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022

METROLAND REALTY

REAL ESTATE

Estate assessed at $124K sells for nearly $13 million

by Carlito Pablo

Engel & Volkers Vancouver marketed this 1.38-hectare property at 2999 West 53rd Avenue, which ended up changing hands for more than 102 times its assessed value as farmland.

S

outhlands is a slice of country in the international city that is Vancouver. It’s an idyllic setting where one can see horses grazing on elegant estates.

Situated in the southwestern part of the city, the Southlands neighbourhood represents a unique urban farmland with stables, a riding club, huge single-family lots, and Old World charm.

As such, it’s not at all surprising for realtor Gregory Carros that Vancouver real estate in this rural neighbourhood comes at a premium.

The Engel & Völkers Vancouver agent recently completed a deal for a 1.38 hectare (3.42-acre) estate that sold for $12.8 million.

“You can’t replicate that sort of property,” Carros told the Straight in a phone interview. To do that, Carros said, one has to “go out to Langley or further out of town”.

The selling price of $12.8 million was more than 102 times the assessment for 2999 West 53rd Avenue, which is classified as a farm. The property has a 2022 assessment of $124,624.

The valuation of the property as of July 1, 2021, is broken down into $15,624 for the 1.38 hectares of land and $109,000 for the buildings.

“The assessment means nothing,” Carros said. “By that, I mean farm classification gets a much lower assessment.”

“It’s not like houses, where they kind of relate to sale prices,” Carros said.

The farm valuation of the property is based on Section 23 of the Assessment Act and B.C. Regulation 411/95. These provide requirements for land to be classified as a farm for assessment and tax purposes.

Based on legislation and regulation, the assessor must classify as farm all or part of a land used for a qualifying agricultural activity: like raising crops,

a farmer’s dwelling, or the training and boarding of horses in conjunction with their rearing.

Carros’s listing described 2999 West 53rd Avenue as “one of the largest properties in Southlands”.

The real estate includes an indoor riding ring ideal for dressage activities, and a 12-stall barn operating as a boarding facility for horses.

Also, the property is situated across from the Southlands Riding Club. Except for quarters serving caretakers, there is no home on the estate, Carros said. He also said that the property’s allowed uses include residential.

The realtor explained that the owner can build a home of at least 5,000 square feet. But as far as Carros knows, the buyers aren’t keen on having a house there.

“They’re interested in the equestrian facilities,” he said.

Carros said he believes that the new owners are going to improve the facilities and help maintain the rural character of Southlands.

He noted that some owners in the neighbourhood are not enthusiastic about keeping the unique rural quality of this urban property. “This won’t be the case here,” Carros said about the new owners.

“They’re very sensitive to that issue.”

The West 53rd Avenue property was listed on July 8, 2021, for $16 million. It was sold on October 16, and the sale was reported to the real-estate board on January 24, 2022.

Carros said there were conditions attached to the sale, and it was after the removal of these subjects that the deal was reported.

The realtor noted that the listing attracted a lot of potential buyers.

“All local,” Carros emphasized. g

ALUMNI

Congratulations to Vancouver Community College’s Outstanding Alumni winners of 2021

CAREER SUCCESS

COMMUNIT Y CONTRIBUTION

COMMUNIT Y CONTRIBUTION

Bernie Johnson

Demitri Kulik

Julia Pavlova

Director of Human Resources, Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver

Utility Maintenance Worker, Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation

General Duty Nurse, St. Paul’s Hospital

Bernie has proudly represented VCC over his two-decade rise through the hospitality industry. In addition to being a major employer, he continues to provide student mentorship and program advising.

A role model in building services, Demitri offers career sessions and work experiences to VCC students. With a heart for his community, Demitri also redeployed to service low-income housing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since graduating, Julia has become a public face for those who work directly with COVID-19 patients. In addition to providing highly demanding health care, she has frequently represented her fellow workers in local media.

vcc.ca/alumni CHANGEMAKER

HONORARY ALUMNI AWARD

Esther Winder

Brandt Louie

Emergency Planning Technician, Secwepemc Health Caucus

VCC Foundation Donor

Esther uses out-of-the-box thinking to help address the social determinants of health issues in her First Nations community and was a driving force behind a new Secwepemc Collaborative Emergency Management Agreement.

As a perennial volunteer, donor, and supporter of VCC students, Mr. Louie has served on the Foundation Board and chaired numerous committees that led highly impactful fundraising events for scholarships and bursaries.

FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

5

FOOD

Relive your Lunar New Year with DIY dumplings

I

by Martin Dunphy

f you just celebrated Lunar New Year on Tuesday (February 1), you might have eaten some dumplings.

You might also have asked yourself if you could make them at home, and how difficult that might be.

The answers are “yes” and “not at all”.

The delicious stuffed dough pockets often served for the national holiday in several Asian countries (which is sometimes called Spring Festival) can be steamed, boiled, or fried (when they are often called potstickers) after assembly.

Dumplings (jiaozi in Mandarin) are one of the traditional foods of Lunar New Year (some others are whole steamed fish, spring rolls, and “longevity” noodles).

They are usually stuffed with a groundmeat mixture, often pork—though some versions add shrimp and/or finely chopped cabbage, radish, or other ingredients—and served with a soy-based dipping sauce.

The plump pork pillows are usually made the evening of the celebration, for the new year dinner, and are sometimes eaten during both the hour before and the hour after midnight.

Dumplings are considered to be good luck and a harbinger of wealth for the new year, and some people eat prodigious quantities of them during the celebratory meal in order to guarantee prosperity during the coming months.

The Chinese have been making dumplings for at least 1,800 years, especially in the country’s northern regions, where the flexible dough skins are made with wheat flour. (In the south, a more common riceflour covering is often used).

In Taiwan, an omelette-style egg-based dough is sometimes used, which gives the dumpling a golden hue.

What follows is a somewhat generic pork-dumpling recipe that doesn’t require you to make and roll out the dough yourself.

Many supermarkets or specialty stores sell packages of refrigerated premade dumpling or wonton wrappers that work perfectly well. (In Vancouver, Powell Street’s Double Happiness Foods supplies both citywide.)

Ingredients for filling 1 cup raw ground pork (or ground turkey or chicken) ½ cup chopped Napa cabbage (or bok choy) ¼ cup green onions (sometimes sold as scallions) 1 tsp sesame oil 1 tbsp soy sauce 1 ½ tsp cornstarch (Note: fine-chopped celery, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and shrimp can be substituted/added to the mixture if care is taken to keep proportions about the same.

Minced fresh ginger and/or garlic cloves can also be added for flavour, as can a 6

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If you use round store-bought dumpling wrappers, you can fold them in a traditional half-moon shape. Photo by dashu83/Getty Images Plus.

tablespoon of dry sherry.)

Instructions Mix the meat and vegetables together in a medium-large bowl until well combined.

Mix the sesame oil and soy sauce in a

small separate bowl, then stir in cornstarch until dissolved.

(Note: some people prefer to refrigerate the mixed ingredients for a few hours to combine flavours and allow the cabbage to

S avio VOLPE’S NEW CHEF

Fraserhood neighbourhood, as voted by

Straight readers.

d THERE’S A NEW HEAD CHEF making meals over an open fire in one of Vancouver’s most popular restaurants.

Andrea Alridge is settling into this position at Osteria Savio Volpe, which won in the best Italian category in the 2021 Georgia Straight Golden Plate Awards. Osteria Savio Volpe also tied Say Mercy! as the best restaurant in the

FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022

“Cooking Italian food with open fire is an absolute joy of mine,” Alridge said in a January 31 news release issued by her employer. “It requires much patience, love, and respect for the ingredients. I believe that working with fire truly brings people closer together, the way it bonds a team, the dishes that come from it, and the presence that fills the room from the hearth of the fire.”

Alridge was previously chef de cuisine at Cin Cin Ristorante on Robson Street.

Last year, the Vancouver Community College grad competed on Top Chef Canada on Bravo, making it through seven rounds before losing in the “elimination challenge”.

Osteria Savio Volpe’s culinary director, Phil Scarfone (photoraphed above with Alridge), described her as “a natural choice” for the position. “With her sterling reputation, strong work ethic, and friendly demeanour, Andrea is the total package of a leader,” Scarfone said in the release.

by Charlie Smith

slightly wilt for ease of stuffing, but this is not necessary to make delicious dumplings.)

Pour the liquid over the meat mixture and lightly work it in/toss to coat.

(Note: always wash hands after handling raw meat, especially chicken.)

Put a large tablespoon of the filling on the centre of a dumpling or wonton wrapper. Wet your finger in a small bowl of cold water and run it around the wrapper edges to help it seal. Then fold the wrapper over the filling (so the dumpling is a halfmoon shape if a round wrapper is used, or corner-to-corner for a triangle shape if you have square ones) and pinch all the edges so it stays sealed.

Steam in a bamboo steamer basket for eight minutes (place dumplings on a leftover cabbage leaf or some parchment paper to prevent sticking).

Or you can fry them in a pan (do not crowd) with two tablespoons of vegetable oil for one or two minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned. Add one-third of a cup of water and cover tightly, cooking until the water has just about boiled off.

Uncover, reduce heat to medium-low, and fry for another minute or two.

Serve with a dipping sauce made with four tablespoons of soy sauce and one and a half tablespoons each of rice wine and rice vinegar. (Chopped green onions can be added to this, as can chili sauce/paste to taste.)

Enjoy! g

BOOKS

Author Dara Horn digs into uncomfortable terrain

U

by Charlie Smith

.S. author and essayist Dara Horn has a simple exercise to demonstrate how little most people know about Jewish culture. At public events, she asks how many of her readers in the audience can name four Nazi concentration camps.

“That’s often something that many readers can do—or just three concentration camps,” Horn told the Straight by phone. “I would then ask those same readers: how many people here can name three Yiddish writers?”

That’s a far tougher question for most people. “My point, of course, is 80 percent of the people who were murdered in the Holocaust were Yiddish speakers,” she said.

That raises troubling follow-up questions. Such as, why do people care so much about how many people died if they really don’t care how people in this famously literary culture actually lived?

And why is Jewish identity so often defined by what the outside world did to the Jews rather than what Jews have stood for and accomplished through the millennia?

Horn addresses these issues in her provocative 2021 book of essays, People Love Dead Jews: Reports From a Haunted Present. The title is derived from the opening lines of her 2018 essay on Anne Frank in Smithsonian magazine: “People love dead Jews. Living Jews, not so much.”

Shortly after the essay was published, a hate-fuelled gunman attacked the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 and wounding six. That prompted a New York Times editor to ask if she would “like to write about dead Jews”.

“As I put it in the book, I became the go-to person for the emerging literary genre of synagogue-shooting op-eds—not a job I applied for,” Horn said wryly.

A scholar of Hebrew and Yiddish literature, Horn had already written five novels on themes of Jewish culture, history, and tradition before embarking on People Love Dead Jews. She thinks that people often tell stories about dead Jews to make them feel better about themselves rather than demonstrate genuine curiosity about the lives of Jewish people.

“I now look back and think I was a little naive,” she said. “I think I didn’t appreciate this vast role that Jews—and especially dead Jews—play in the wider not-Jewish world of imagination.”

People Love Dead Jews delves into a wide variety of topics, including why the world is so devoted to Anne Frank but not nearly so much to Jews who wrote about their experiences in concentration camps.

The book also reveals how the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin brazenly

In People Love Dead Jews: Reports From a Haunted Present, author Dara Horn pushes back against a societal view of Jews as a symbol rather than real people. Photo by Michael Priest.

markets its Jewish history—long after the Jews were displaced—in pursuit of tourist dollars while offering little insights into their lives building the community. Horn pointed out that a museum about former Jewish residents in Harbin is one of many examples of a tourist-industry concept called “Jewish heritage sites”.

“This term is a brilliant marketing ploy because it sounds so much better than property seized from murdered or expelled Jews,” Horn says. “Like, who wants to go to that? ‘Jewish heritage sites’ sounds so benign.”

Horn’s book also addresses antisemitism in Shakespeare’s work—and her 10-year-old son’s reaction to it—as well as modern-day attacks on the Jewish community in America even after all the efforts to educate people about the Holocaust.

Along the way, she has been influenced

by University of Chicago historian David Nirenberg. He argued in his 2013 book Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition that western civilization defined itself in opposition to Judaism. “He traces this not just through Christianity and Islam but also in the Enlightenment through to, you know, Communism,” Horn said.

The Straight asked Horn what aspects of Jewish culture and identity are overlooked by broader society. She first mentioned “the idea of independent thinking”, as well as the “integrity of having your own civilization”.

Then she said that there’s a widespread misconception that average people only learned to read after Johannes Gutenberg created a printing press in the 15th century.

“It’s a lie,” Horn said, “because Jewish communities have had universal male literacy for, like, a thousand years before

the printing press—at least. Poor Jewish kids in 12th-century Yemen knew how to read.”

By the 1700s and 1800s, she added, Jews were at the vanguard in the movement to-

ward creating liberal democracies. Then there’s the Jewish appreciation for ambiguity as reflected in the Talmud.

“Participating in an intellectual tradition means being able to hold multiple ideas even with contradictions,” she said. “That’s a huge part of Jewish civilization.”

High-school history books might have a chapter on the Holocaust, Horn noted, but there’s almost never anything said about how Judaism has been a “counterculture” running through the history of the world.

Through the ages, Jews didn’t conform to the status quo by sharing the beliefs of their neighbours. And for that, they paid a very high price.

“What do you mean when you say ‘diversity’?” Horn asked. “What does it mean to live in a pluralistic society? Those are the questions you don’t have to ask if you’re just [saying] ‘Jews are just this symbol.’

That’s what I’m pushing back against in this book.” g The 2022 Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival: the virtual edition runs from February 6 to 10. Dara Horn will speak about People Love Dead Jews at 1 p.m. on February 6 with David Baddiel, author of Jews Don’t Count.

FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

7

EDUCATION

SFU’s Semester in Dialogue drives social change

S

by Charlie Smith

imon Fraser University has registered a few firsts over the years. One of those came when the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue opened in September 2000. According to its executive director, Shauna Sylvester, it made SFU the first Englishlanguage university in the world to create a centre devoted to dialogue.

When Sylvester’s predecessor, Mark Winston, launched the Semester in Dialogue in 2002 on Nature, Environment and Society, it was the first program of its kind in the world. The Morris J. Wosk Centre also hosted the first citizens’ assembly on electoral reform in Canada, in 2004, chaired by former SFU president Jack Blaney.

“We offer something unique in the world,” Sylvester told the Straight by phone.

She pointed out that Canadians have often played the role of convenor in foreign affairs on everything from human-rights issues to environmental councils to facilitating the first international treaty on land mines. But until the Semester in Dialogue program was created, there was nowhere in Canada for undergraduates to develop those skills.

“It’s all about learning and building through community engagement,” she said.

It’s all about learning and building through community engagement.

– Shauna Sylvester

In the summer of 2018, students (above) enrolled in SFU’s Semester in Urban Energy Futures with instructors Shauna Sylvester and Michael Small; this summer’s focus will be philanthropy.

According to Sylvester, the Semester in Dialogue has been an incubator for many ideas, policies, and programs over the years, including the Radius SFU social-innovation

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FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022

centre and the CityHive youth-engagement organization. It operates on a “cohort model”, where students guide their own learning on a different theme each semester.

Sylvester has been an instructor for two of the semesters, but she emphasizes that she doesn’t teach the students.

“I introduce them to certain people and facilitate a process for their learning,” she said.

Students host thought leaders, who are invited to come in and make a presentation. The students moderate dialogues, engage in self-directed learning projects, and develop skills in workshops.

Sylvester will be one of three instructors on the upcoming summer semester in Trust, Money and Power: Funding Change course, which offers students 10 credits.

They’ll be enrolled Mondays to Fridays, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., for seven weeks in May and June. The early bird deadline for enrollment is February 18.

Prior to joining SFU, Sylvester worked in international development and climate action, raising millions of dollars for various organizations over the years. The two other instructors also bring a great deal of expertise to the class. Jacqueline Koerner is the founder and cochair of Ecotrust Canada. In addition, she’s a director of Foundations for Social Change, a director or trustee of three private foundations, and has conducted doctoral research on the world’s largest microfinance organization, the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

“She has a deep understanding of the practicalities from so many different vantage points of what philanthropy is,” Sylvester said.

The other instructor, Kris Archie, Ts’qescenemc ell Seme7, is CEO of the

Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada and previously served as project manager on the Vancouver Foundation’s groundbreaking Fostering Change initiative focusing on young people aging out of government care.

“She’s not just rethinking philanthropy,” Sylvester said, “she’s shifting the whole terrain in which it exists.”

One of the objectives of the Semester in Dialogue is to ensure that students gain confidence in their own capacity to create change.

“They also become more curious and they’re more capable of initiating a conversation, particularly with people they may not agree with,” Sylvester added.

Through students’ participation in dialogues, they also gain greater listening skills. And Sylvester hopes that they realize that they can rethink and reshape philanthropy, which should not be seen as the exclusive preserve of the wealthy. Plus, they’ll come out of the class knowing what questions to ask about this subject in the future.

Sylvester added that students will also become better writers, as one of the program’s goals is to write a publishable piece.

But if they feel that podcasting is their preferred form of communication, that will also be encouraged.

Last November, Sylvester attended the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, where the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue hosted a panel discussion with Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman and former Toronto mayor David Miller, who’s now with the C40 Cities organization. It was launched by the Cities and COP26 initiative. A former student, Fergus Linley-Mota, came up with the idea while doing directed studies in the Semester in Dialogue course and he’s now program coordinator for Cities and COP26 for Moving in a Livable Region.

Another creation of the Semester in Dialogue program was the Keys to the Streets program, where pianos were placed in outdoor locations for the public’s enjoyment.”These are all things that emerged from student projects related to our city,” Sylvester said. g

EDUCATION

Prof aims for more Black inclusion on campuses

W

by Carlito Pablo

hen June Francis imagines SFU in coming years, she pictures academia with a flourishing Black community.

It’s a vision of educators, staff, and students thriving in an institution that celebrates their excellence.

“We see representation across research, teaching, and senior administration,” Francis told the Straight by phone about her dream.

Francis is an associate professor with SFU’s Beedie School of Business and an advocate of inclusion, diversity, and equity.

She is originally from Jamaica and moved to Canada to pursue higher education.

From June to December last year, she served as special advisor on antiracism to university president Joy Johnson.

During that period, SFU signed the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education. SFU joined more than 40 other universities across the country in a commitment to rectify anti-Black racism.

SFU’s Black Caucus, which Francis cofounded, and the Students of Caribbean and African Ancestry in the university contributed to the charter.

“For the first time,” Francis said in an

SFU media release at the time, “academics across the country are coming together and asking our institutions to make a longterm commitment towards action.”

When reached by the Straight on February 1, Francis outlined work she said needs to be done. “Let me say the first thing I hope we’ll see is representation increases of Black faculty and staff at senior levels,” she said.

This entails not only being hired but promoted through the university system.

Francis explained that it also means that they should be “allowed to do the work that reflects their histories and worldviews”.

“I think it’s important to start there,” she said. “It’s not sufficient, of course, but it is an important component because as we look at universities, we know that both Black faculty and staff are significantly underrepresented at SFU.” When SFU announced in November 2021 that it had signed the Scarborough Charter, it noted that it had been undertaking a number of measures “in line with the principles” of the declaration.

These included a vote by the SFU senate in the fall of that year to hire at least 15 additional Black tenure-track faculty members.

“I would like to see that happen quickly,”

Professor June Francis wants Black students to feel welcome and not excluded. Photo by SFU.

Francis said in the interview.

But it has to “go beyond hiring”.

“We need ways to support faculty who come here, so that includes ensuring that they rise through the ranks, their research is awarded and supported, [and] that teaching opportunities allow them to bring in this kind of material to the classroom,” Francis said.

This is crucial because “at the end of the day, universities are about students”.

Francis went on to explain how Black students feel “excluded”.

“So they’ll walk into a classroom, whether it’s business, science, technology, or arts, no matter where you look in the university, the content of what they get exposed to completely erases and really devalues Black history and Black thought,” she noted.

Francis added that this fosters a condition wherein students “intellectually and socially suffer”.

By way of example, Francis said that some Black students may be interested in doing further research about how racial bias is reflected in programming for artificial intelligence.

“But there is nobody to supervise them because all of their professors have been trained in the same way,” she said. “So often they don’t get to do the work they want and they don’t feel supported and they don’t go on to the career they like.”

Canada observes Black History Month in February. Francis will deliver a talk online about the history of anti-Black racism in Canadian schools and universities on Saturday (February 5), from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.

For details, visit the website of the B.C. Black History Awareness Society. g

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sfu.ca/continuing-studies FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

9

EDUCATION

Fashion designer finds muse through VCC program Snuneymuxw member Stevie Thomas never anticipated that going to college would transform his life

S

by Charlie Smith

everal years ago, fashion designer Stevie Thomas took a noncredit course at Vancouver Community College. Little did Thomas, who prefers the pronouns they and them, know that this would set them on a path to discovering what they wanted to do for the rest of their life.

“For me, it’s leaning into your spirit,” Thomas told the Straight in a recent phone interview. “If you don’t feel fulfilled every day, it makes life harder.”

Thomas knows this firsthand after a disappointing time in the postsecondary system prior to attending VCC. After graduating from high school with high marks, Thomas bounced from program to program in university because they couldn’t find the right fit.

The experience left Thomas feeling like a number. But their world changed when they signed up for a fashion-design course in the summer of 2013 at VCC. The thrill was immediate.

By fall, Thomas was a student in the fashion-design certificate program. Because they belong to the Snuneymuxw First Nation on Vancouver Island, the band agreed to pay tuition.

“For VCC, because of the way the course worked out, I could only do the part-time program,” Thomas revealed. “Otherwise, I would have to pay for more out of pocket on my own.”

But it worked well with Thomas’s life: they could work during the day, take classes in the evening, and work on patterns and design after, often into the early hours of the morning.

“It really helped to push me to my limits, physically,” Thomas recalled.

By the time graduation rolled around in 2015, Thomas had learned a long list of skills, including pattern drafting, couture sewing, industrial sewing techniques, and designing fashion for a collection.

The highlight came when Thomas presented their design at Vancouver Fashion Week, which was held in partnership with VCC. “It was amazing,” Thomas said. “There were a lot of emotions for me just because we had been working so hard and for so long.”

Thomas wanted to present clothes that they loved—and that happened. Afterward, they felt on such an emotional high that they walked down to a park on Main Street near where the event was held. Thomas needed a moment to process everything that had occurred.

“I cried from emotional exhaustion and joy,” Thomas said.

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Stevie Thomas created this shimmering green dress, which also appears on the cover of this week’s Georgia Straight, as a result of entering a Vancouver Community College design challenge created to stimulate the imaginations of alumni of the fashion program. Photo by Roger Mahler.

Thomas credits the VCC fashion-programs coordinator, Sarah Murray, for continuing to be a great resource for alumni.

The green dress that’s on the cover of this week’s Georgia Straight resulted from one of Murray’s design challenges.

doesn’t want to be too exposed to the vicissitudes of the retail industry by producing works on consignment. The last thing Thomas needs is to have a bunch of merchandise returned, because that would clutter up their apartment.

I want to build my Indigeneity into my brand, but I don’t want it to be the whole catalogue because I’m more than just my Indigenous heritage.

– Snuneymuxw FirstNation fashion designer Stevie Thomas

“It’s been a fun way to stay involved, stay motivated, and stay driven, creatively,” Thomas said.

Thomas is going through the process of transitioning while being in the midst of launching a fashion brand. It’s called Stevie, like the name Thomas has chosen to use personally.

It’s not an easy time to be launching a business, but he’s receiving financial help from their First Nation. But Thomas

FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022

Instead, the Stevie brand will offer products via ecommerce, starting with T-shirts.

“I am going to be using illustrations and words, and I want to tie my language back into it,” Thomas said. “I’m not fully f luent in Hul’q’umi’num’, the language of my people, but I want to pick words.

Then from the words, show the English translation as well as the illustration that can tie into it.”

Over the longer term, Thomas plans

to create products in different segments.

There might be three or four pieces of Native art, then others with a street style, then evening wear.

“I want to build my Indigeneity into my brand,” Thomas said, “but I don’t want it to be the whole catalogue because I’m more than just my Indigenous heritage.”

Nowadays, the VCC Fashion Design & Production Certificate program takes two to three years to complete. Students learn a wide range of skills, including fashion production, technical illustration, pattern drafting, and draping.

There is also instruction in garment construction, textile print and dye techniques, branding and marketing, and precision drawing. In addition, students learn how to create knit garments, lined dresses, and office attire. That’s in addition to lessons on testing and sourcing fabrics, textile-industry ethics, fashion history and culture, and fashion-industry issues and trends.

“For myself, as someone who likes to be challenged and intrigued and just wants to learn, it’s a great place to go to,” Thomas said. “If you have any doubts about what you’re doing for schooling, I would say dip your toe out and explore.

“The whole reason I got into this is because I took a noncredit class for fun on my own free time.” g

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FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022

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11

PuSh FEST

Demers knows “where lies the beauty of live art”

W

by Steve Newton

hen Mélanie Demers was five years old, she started ballet classes, although, looking back, she doesn’t understand why. As a kid, she wanted to be a writer.

“I don’t remember asking my mom to be in a ballet class,” the dancer-choreographer recalls by phone from her home in Montreal. “My body was not the type of body that would fit the [ballet] aesthetic, so I always felt a bit inadequate.”

That all changed for Demers by the time she was 16, though, when she discovered the more inclusive aspects of contemporary dance, which allowed her to be the person that she was. Her embrace of the form eventually led her to found Montreal’s MAYDAY experimental dance company in 2007, which, according to its website, was created to explore “the powerful link between the poetical and the political”.

Demers laughs when asked to explain just exactly how her company does that.

“That’s interesting,” she replies. “You know, like when you have a label, you have to justify your label. Um… I don’t know how I do that. I guess I try to create links between the artistic object that I create and the world. Sometimes dance can be a little bit abstract and outside of any social, historical preoccupations, and then I try to use those links. I try— for me, to my eye—to make it relevant.

Like what does this art form have to say about the world?

“Because it’s a totally different thing, having to observe the world and translate it into a dance piece rather than in an essay, you know. So there is an intelligence, there is a logic, there are meanings that we can find in watching bodies move.”

With those ideas in mind, Demers set out on an artistic path that has seen her choreograph more than 30 dance works and, last year, be awarded the prestigious Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal. She describes her latest piece, La Goddam Voie Lactée (The Goddamn Milky Way)—which will be performed in Vancouver from February 4 to 6 as part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival—as her response to the harshness of the world.

“I first started to think about this project in the summer of 2020,” she explains, “when there was a high level of tension, social tension, around Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo movement and stuff like that. So I guess I thought, ‘What can I do, what can I say that has any relevance to these tense times?’ And instead of getting very close to the human conditions— something that I do often—I just wanted to take a step back and look at the world from a very, very far angle. I was thinking

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Director-choreographer Mélanie Demers calls the performers in her PuSh Fest show, La Goddam Voie Lactée, “badass”. Photo by Mathieu Doyon.

So there is an intelligence, there is a logic, there are meanings that we can find in watching bodies move.

– choreographer Mélanie Demers

about Nina Simone when she was singing ‘Mississippi Goddam’, and my idea was like, ‘It’s not just Mississippi that was goddamn, it’s the whole goddamn Milky Way.’ Like, we’re all under the same umbrella; we’re all doomed.”

La Goddam Voie Lactée is performed

by Stacey Désilier, Frannie Holder, Chi Long, Léa Noblet Di Ziranaldi, and understudy Misheel Ganbold, who is replacing original dancer Brianna Lombardo for the local run. Demers admits that it was quite a challenge finding the ideal blend of talent for the piece.

“I am usually someone that is very loyal to the people I work with,” she points out, “but I try to make a very distinct selection of who is going to be onstage. Like who do we give light to, who is going to embody my ideals and my ideas?

So, yes, it’s always a little bit delicate, but I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by amazing women, talented artists, very

FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022

badass performers who dance but also sing but also act and who can also play guitar—they’re all very versatile.

“So it was hard to find them,” she adds, “but also it’s very easy to work with them. And then I like to think that selecting people that you put on-stage is really, I don’t know, like a microcosm of your ideal society, in a way. So we have dancers that are in their 20s and 30s and 40s and 50s. It’s a very beautiful, diverse cast of people.”

As choreographer and director of La Goddam Voie Lactée, Demers doesn’t appear on-stage. But one might wonder if, when she sees her creation unfold, her own dance instincts might make her want to join in.

“Oh, no,” she says, laughing again.

“I’m quite happy now to actually leave the space and the light to other performers. I’m excited by crafting a work more than embodying it. I mean, I still love to

perform, and it’s something that I will always do, but I don’t have the urge to replace a dancer. The way that I work is to really craft a role onto their personality, so people are not easily replaceable; it’s actually really hard. You cannot join in and jump in in a work like that, because I use their bodies as my personal archive, so I really go deep and find their specificities and differences and put that in perspective.”

So far in her career, Demers has had her dance works shown in some 40 cities across Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia.

One of the joys of her profession comes from seeing the different attitudes people have to her work from place to place.

“That’s the beauty of touring a work,” she says, “to actually submit it to another gaze, another culture that will probably analyse it under a different light. You know, there’s a big deal about touring, that it’s really prestigious and glamorous, but for me what is interesting is to actually be in contact with that friction between what I created in a small studio in Montreal and what people can receive from my perspective, and then how they can interpret it. I think that’s where lies the beauty of live art.” g La Goddam Voie Lactée will be performed at the Scotiabank Dance Centre from February 4 to 6 as part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

PuSh FEST

Chinese poet’s emotional journey reaches PuSh stage

by Charlie Smith

FEB

11/12

Paul Shaffer Live!

Fri, Sat, 8pm | Orpheum

Paul Shaffer, former music director to David Letterman, shares symphonic renditions of his favourite pop, R&B, and jazz tunes plus anecdotes and reminiscences from a remarkable career.

•

Paul Shaffer

Hear it. Feel it.

Mendelssohn & Satie* FEB

3/4/6 Music Picnic artistic director Njo Kong Kie hoped to present his solo show about a Chinese factory worker live at last year’s PuSh festival, but the pandemic got in the way. Photo by Dahlia Katz.

T

oronto-based musician and theatre artist Njo Kong Kie doesn’t have a lot in common with migrant Chinese factory workers. Njo grew up in the bustling city of Macao, attended a preparatory school and university in Canada. Then he went on to great success as the founder and artistic director of Music Picnic, which melds melancholic piano compositions with compelling stories.

But Njo found himself attracted to the tale of Xu Lizhi, who wrote heartfelt poems about his bleak existence in Shenzhen, cranking out electronic products for western consumers. In 2014, Xu committed suicide, leaving behind a body of work that both chronicled his sad existence and contained fond recollections of his childhood in rural Guangdong. There was something universal in Xu’s story— after all, there are millions of migrant factory workers like him all over the world. He missed his mom and had little to look forward to in the future.

So Njo decided to write a song cycle, which is one of the components of his oneman show depicting the lonely labourer’s life in a tiny apartment. In I swallowed a moon made of iron, Xu’s poetry is prominently displayed in English and Mandarin on the wall as Njo performs haunting songs on the piano and depicts Xu’s pain on-stage.

“I feel a certain empathy toward this person’s experience even though I have not lived it,” Njo tells the Straight by phone from Kelowna. “But the emotions that he describes with his words are not unfamiliar to me.”

Njo was in the Okanagan in advance of performing I swallowed a moon made of iron live for the first time in more than two years.

Last year, Njo was scheduled to present his homage to Xu live at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, but it was moved online due to a provincial health order. He is very much looking forward to presenting it live at this year’s PuSh fest.

“There are things that people will see in the stage version that they don’t see in the streamed version, and vice versa,” Njo says.

For example, there’s more movement in the live show and it’s more immersive with a darkened theatre and giant projections. The music remains the same. Njo was trained in the European classical-music tradition, and the songs reflect that, with baroque references, hints of Franz Schubert, and a minimalist approach at times so as not to take away from the power of Xu’s poetry.

This is not a thesis or analysis of global issues, Njo emphasizes. Rather, it’s his personal response to the experience of the poet, done in a way that’s intended to touch the hearts of others.

“For people looking for a meditative space to be in at this time, I think this will be a very good piece for them,” Njo says. g The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival presents Music Picnic and Creative Links’s coproduction of I swallowed a moon made of iron at the Waterfront Theatre at 8 p.m. on February 4 and 5. There will be a relaxed performance at 2 p.m. on February 6. A streamed performance will be available from 4 p.m. on February 6 to 11:59 p.m. on February 7.

Fri, 7pm | Orpheum Thurs, Sun, 2pm | Orpheum

Let the VSO transport you to Europe with a program that showcases the colours of French Impressionists (Satie’s Gymnopedies), and the beauty of the British Isles and Italy through Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture and Italian Symphony No. 4.

Andrew Crust Thunderbird by Doug Lafortune, Coast Salish | Courtesy of Native Northwest

FEB

13

Carnival of OUR Animals Sun, 2pm | Orpheum

A special collaboration with the VSO Indigenous Council presents a new take on Saint-Saëns’s famed composition and adds new music inspired by animals of the Pacific Northwest.

Mozart & Brahms FEB

Fri, Sat, 8pm | Orpheum

18–20 Sun, 7pm | Bell Centre, Surrey Be moved by Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, and the lightning virtuosity of the VSO Concertmaster, Nicholas Wright, and Principal Viola, Hung-Wei Huang, in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante.

Hung-Wei Huang

*Note: Large symphonic pieces require more musicians on stage. To keep the musicians safe and provide increased physical distancing on stage, the VSO has changed the programming of its Feb 3-6, and Feb 18-20 concerts.

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Concerts presented at 50% capacity, in adherence with Provincial Health Orders

FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

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ARTS

Events celebrating Black History Month in Vancouver

by Steve Newton

ARTS LISTINGS ONGOING

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19

VANCOUVER SHORT FILM FESTIVAL This year’s festival will feature 51 films across six programs, including 13 films in the genre-based After Dark series.

To Feb 6, online, vsff.com. $8-$10.

CANOE CULTURES :: HO'-KU-MELH Work of 20 Indigenous artists and carvers curated by Indigenous artist and cultural historian Roxanne Charles. To Jul 3, Vancouver Maritime Museum. $13.50/$11.

SHO ESQUIRO: DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY Solo exhibition by designer, artist, and activist showcases meticulously crafted couture gowns, textiles, paintings, and photographs. To Jun 5, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art.

FAN EXPO VANCOUVER Three-day celebration of all things pop culture features sci-fi, true crime, horror, anime, and gaming. Feb 19-21, 10 am–5 pm, Vancouver Convention Centre. From $32.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4 MAYDAY: LA GODDAM VOIE LACTÉE Performance

by Montreal’s Mélanie Demers as part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Feb 4-6, 8 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre. $37.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5

Montreal-based Kalabanté Productions performs at the Chan Centre on February 24, fusing African arts and European circus traditions for Black History Month. Photo by Peter Graham.

V

ancouver has quite a diverse array of events, both in-person and virtual, lined up in February to celebrate Black History Month.

First up, on February 4 at 10 a.m., is an online celebration of the life of Joe Fortes, Vancouver’s first official lifeguard. The event, presented by the honorary consul for Barbados in British Columbia on the 100th anniversary of Fortes’s death, includes prayer, placing of a wreath, official ceremony, story, and drumming. The event is on Zoom (meeting ID 836 2959 4053; passcode 2022).

The next day, February 5, will see June Francis—director of the Institute for Diaspora Research and Engagement at SFU and a director of Hogan’s Alley Society—speak at a webinar that explores the ways in which the history of Canadian educational institutions have contributed to anti-Black racism in the educational system. The Zoom event takes place from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., and you can register through the B.C. Black History Awareness Society website.

February 8 sees an online talk with ItalianGhanaian filmmaker and activist Fred Kudjo Kuwornu on the topic of “Black Lives Matter in Italy and the Legacy of Colonialism”. The lecture—hosted by UBC’s department of French, Hispanic, and Italian studies, with the support of the Dante Alighieri Society of B.C.—takes place at 11 a.m. and is followed by a Q & A session. You can register for a Zoom link through the department.

Also taking place online is “Being a Hope Amid Crisis”, a conversation with philosopher and activist Cornel West, which takes place February 16 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. West—a professor at New York City’s Union Theological Seminary who has taught at Yale, Harvard, and the University of Paris—will explore themes of economics, democracy, racial justice, and Black identity. You can register for the

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Zoom event through the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ B.C. office website.

AFAM African Fashion Week Vancouver on February 19 features a fashion show, marketplace, and art, music, and dance performances. The event takes place at the Newmont Stage in the BMO Theatre Centre at 7 p.m., and you can learn more at afw.ca.

On February 24, the Chan Centre presents Kalabanté: Afrique en Cirque, a performance in which Montreal-based troupe Kalabanté Productions fuses African arts and European circus traditions to showcase dancers, gymnasts, contortionists, equilibrists, and musicians. The event takes place at 8 p.m., and you can find tickets at ChanCentre.com.

Vancouver soul vocalist Dawn Pemberton performs at the Rickshaw Theatre on February 25, with guests Beau Wheeler and Hoodie Browns. Tickets are priced at $19.72.

As part of the Vancouver Mural Festival’s Winter Arts Fest, running from February 11 to 27 in-person in downtown Vancouver and online, is “Dynamic Diasporas”. The event highlights B.C.’s Black history through visual storytelling and dance. For more info, visit the VMF Winter Arts Fest website.

Also of interest during Black History Month is Sankofa: African Routes, Canadian Roots, an exhibition centred on works by contemporary artists from Lagos, Nigeria, and Vancouver that shares stories, histories, and projects of African and Black affirmation. It runs until March 27 at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. Black History Month at Vancity Theatre offers audiences an opportunity to engage with Black stories from a range of Black voices from around the world. Films screened during February include Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, The Sleeping Negro, Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, and Music, Money, Madness… Jimi Hendrix in Maui. g

FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022

LUNARFEST WELCOMES THE YEAR OF THE TIGER In-person festival celebrating the Year of the Tiger, filled with crafts workshops, fortune telling, and cultural stories. Feb 5-6, Vancouver Art Gallery.

VANCOUVER CELLO QUARTET The Vancouver Chamber Music Society presents a program of classical masterpieces arranged for four cellos.

Feb 5, 7:30 pm, West Vancouver United Church. $35 general, $20 students.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6 KALLACI STRING TRIO The Vancouver Chamber Music Society presents Korean trio composed of violinist Yoojin Jang, violist Hanna Lee, and cellist Joonho Shim. Feb 6, 7:30 pm, Anvil Centre. $20-38.

LUCY YEGIAZARVAN & GRANT STEWART New York City jazz artists Lucy Yeghiazaryan and Grant Stewart perform with Vancouver's Chris Gestrin on piano, John Lee on bass, and Jesse Cahill on drums.

Feb 6, 8-9:30 pm, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. Inperson $30-35, stream $15.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7 ADVANCE THEATRE FESTIVAL Dramatic readings over five nights of five new plays written and directed by diverse, under-represented theatre artists. Feb 7-11, 8 pm, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. In-person $30-35, stream $15.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9 SEA SICK Alanna Mitchell's production about climate change and the state of the global ocean. Feb 9-19, Historic Theatre. From $29.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11 JAZZ @ THE 'BOLT A three-day jazz event in Burnaby featuring world-class acts from Canada and the U.S. Feb 11-13, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. $35-$100.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 PRIMA BALLERINA CHAN HON GOH’S 2022 CANADIAN MASTERCLASS SERIES An opportunity for dancers ages 10+ to receive personalized instruction from one of North America’s most celebrated ballerinas. Feb 13, 1-4 pm, Goh Ballet Academy. $34.48.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 A TRIBUTE TO JOHANNES BRAHMS Music of Brahms performed by pianist Jean-Sébastien Lévesque and violinist Victor Fournelle-Blain. Feb 20, 2 pm, Pyatt Hall. $15-25.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23 TUNING New duet created and directed by Vanessa Goodman, featuring collaborating dance artists Alexis Fletcher and Ted Littlemore. Feb 23-26, 8 pm, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. $15-35.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28 DANCELAB STUDIO SHOWING: CALLE VERDE Performance by flamenco trio Calle Verde, composed of dancers Maria Avila and Michelle Harding and guitarist Peter Mole. Feb 28, 5 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre. Free (register in advance).

THURSDAY, MARCH 3 DANCE DOUBLE BILL: BLUE SPACE + MELON PIECE A double bill of solo dance works created and performed by Kelly McInnes and Arash Khakpour.

Mar 3-5, 7 pm, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre. $20-35 (plus service charge).

SATURDAY, MARCH 12 STEVEN PAGE WITH THE VSO Former Barenaked Ladies frontman performs solo tunes and BNL hits with the Vancouver Symphony, accompanied by guitarist-vocalist Craig Northey of Odds. Mar 12-13, 8 pm, Orpheum Annex.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16 HEY VIOLA! Vancouver singer and actress Krystle Dos Santos stars in a one-woman musical based on the life of Black activist Viola Desmond. Mar 16-27, Anvil Centre. $25-35 .

THURSDAY, MARCH 17 MADE IN ITALY The Arts Club presents a play about a second-generation Italian teen struggling to find his place in Jasper, Alberta. Mar 17–Apr 17, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. Tix from $35.

THURSDAY, MARCH 31 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS The story of a nine-year-old who comes out as a boy to his family and how they learn to accept his gender identity. Mar 31–Apr 23, Waterfront Theatre. $24.

SUNDAY, APRIL 3 OPEN STAGE #2 Program of dance works by Anya Saugstad and Artists, Lamondance, Linda Hayes, Rachel Maddock, and Tomoyo Yamada. Apr 3, 7 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre. $25/$20.

FRIDAY, APRIL 8 BEETHOVEN & LISZT: A MUSICAL AFFINITY Russian historical keyboardist Olga Pashchenko explores the connection between Liszt and Beethoven.

Apr 8, 7:30 pm, Christ Church Cathedral. From $32.25.

MATRIARCHS UPRISING 2022 The fourth edition of Matriarchs Uprising Festival features new contemporary Indigenous dance, masterclasses, workshops, and artist conversations. Feb 14-19, Scotiabank Dance Centre and online. Free; registration required.

FRIDAY, APRIL 22

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18

ARTS LISTINGS are a public service provided free of charge, based on available space and editorial discretion. Submit events online using the eventsubmission form at straight.com/AddEvent.

Events that don't make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

INTO THE LIGHT Step inside the ancient tale of the sea-monster Nian to gain a deeper understanding of Lunar New Year rituals and customs. Feb 18-20, Gateway Theatre. $18-28.

DAVE CHAPPELLE AND FRIENDS Comedy superstar, 2019 recipient of the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, performs two standup shows. Apr 22-23, Rogers Arena. Tix at Ticketmaster.

ARTS

Sea Sick brings ocean climate woes to the surface

by Charlie Smith

while exploring the oceans.

“It’s a very intense emotional journey for the audience as we go through all this stuff together,” Mitchell says.

For her, knowledge is power. The journalist in her is deeply interested in understanding climate heating on an emotional level as well as on a scientific level. And she has no desire to tell people what to do.

“It’s not what I’m about,” Mitchell declares. “But I am really interested in people knowing what’s at stake—and I think this play does that. I think it’s a way to sort of step over the mountain. That’s how I think of it.”

She discloses that she fell into clinical depression once she comprehended the magnitude of the threat to humanity posed by the

impact of rising greenhouse-gas emissions on the oceans. “I went to bed for a month after I put all these pieces together,” Mitchell says. “I just thought: what’s the point?”

It was her final journey that helped her comprehend what was truly at stake. She says that she’s never felt that level of despair since then.

Despite the emotional roller-coaster that she experienced, Mitchell emphasizes that Sea Sick is actually a lot of fun.

“It’s not preachy,” she insists. “It’s just not preachy.” g The Cultch presents the Theatre Centre’s Sea Sick at the Cultch Historic Theatre from February 9 to 13 and February 15 to 19 as part of the Femme Festival.

W Fi ee na ke l nd

The Reuters Foundation and International Union for Conservation of Nature once named Sea Sick writer Alanna Mitchell the best environmental reporter in the world. Photo by Alejandro Santiago.

C

anadian journalist, author, and playwright Alanna Mitchell says she still has nightmares about an undersea voyage that she took many years ago.

In researching her bestselling book Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis, she went on 13 journeys over three years. She talked to scientists and visited oceans in different parts of the world. On her final expedition, in the Dry Tortugas south of the Florida Keys, she descended 914 metres (3,000 feet) into an ocean trench in a submersible. She was told at the time that it was the deepest point that any journalist had ever gone.

“I wanted to know what it was like to be that deep—to be in this medium, in this ocean—that I had been writing about for all this time,” Mitchell tells the Straight by phone from Toronto. “To see this part of the planet nobody had ever seen before. So I did it.”

She adds that it has since become uncommon for people to take trips like that.

“Now they have remote-operated vehicles to do that kind of stuff because the dangers are too great,” Mitchell says. “The journalist in me—I wanted to feel it. I wanted to know what it was like to be that deep.”

Long before Canadians had heard about atmospheric rivers, heat domes, and the sixth extinction (the Anthropocene), Mitchell was a climate keener. More than two decades ago, in 2000, she was named the best environmental reporter in the world by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Reuters Foundation.

Her book explored the “evil troika”— warming water, oxygen depletion in the water, and ocean acidification—resulting from rising carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere. According to Mitchell, 90 percent of the world’s additional warmth created through global heating is being absorbed by the oceans.

She points out that warmer water sends species moving at different rates to different parts of the sea in search of cooler waters. That can leave their predators without traditional food sources. In addition, less oxygen is dissolved when water warms.

Then acidification caused by more carbon dioxide being absorbed creates dead zones.

“The oceans are becoming warm, breathless, and sour,” Mitchell says.

Moreover, she notes that the overall effect is greater than the sum of the evil troika’s parts.

“What that does is affect the ability of the ocean to support life,” she says. “And you think that might not affect us, but as goes the ocean, so goes the rest of the planet.”

Following publication of the book, she delivered many lectures on this topic. On one occasion, the artistic director of the Theatre Centre in Toronto, Franco Boni, was in the audience. He suggested to Mitchell that her book could be adapted into a play.

“I thought it was hilarious that he would think this,” Mitchell recalls.

She couldn’t comprehend how anyone would be interested in a nonfiction play performed by a journalist. Yet she still ended up spending months working with Boni and stage director Ravi Jain, tearing apart the stories and crafting a storyline for a theatre audience. And she’s delighted with the results of this work in the stage version of Sea Sick.

“I wrote a lot of new stuff, new connective tissue, in the play,” Mitchell says.

She explains that the set is very simple: she stands in a chalk circle with a blackboard behind her.

“Obviously, it’s theatrically lit,” she adds, “and there’s a soundtrack.”

For 65 minutes or so, she shares her experiences and introduces the audience to some of the scientists she spoke with

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CHILL.

Enjoy stress-free reading without the noise on CreatorNews.

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MUSIC / SAVAGE LOVE

Virtual concerts ushering in a new breed of star

E

by Mike Usinger

ven though he’s obviously got more than a little skin in the game, Jon Vlassopulos has some interesting observations about the music industry and the way we experience our favourite stars on stage. Video game fans may, or may not, know Vlassopulos as not only the vice president of Roblox, but also its head of music. In an interview with NME, he suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the ground rules for concertgoing.

Over the past 24 quite frankly miserable months, Roblox has hosted virtual reality concerts featuring the likes of Tai Verdes, Lil Nas X, and Twenty One Pilots. While no substitute for edging one’s way up to the front of the stage and making eye contact with the performer, those concerts have at least provided a break from rewatching every episode of Adventure Time. (Admittedly, that hasn’t been the worst thing. All together now: “Jaaaaammmes Baxxxxxxter”).

Roblox isn’t the only game that’s put on virtual concerts—recall, if you will, the full-blown, server-crashing event that was Travis Scott’s Fortnite concert back in the lockdown spring of 2020.

In the interview, Vlassopulos suggests that there are a whole host of selling points, including: • Artists can instantly reach a global audience without ever having to get on a plane, tour bus, or load into a 1973 Gremlin where the only way the drums

The members of KINGSHIP spend most interviews explaining that they aren’t related to Gorillaz.

fit is to strap them to the roof.

• Video games like Roblox and Fortnite already have a massive built-in audience, and have given musicians the ability to reach a demographic that normally wouldn’t know 21 One Pilots from a commercial airline pilot.

• Virtual reality concerts are limited only by the imaginations of the people who put them on, which means artists have the ability to create worlds that only exist in the minds of Butthole Surfer Gibby Haynes after he’s shotgunned two bottles of red wine, gobbled a handful of Orange Sunshine, and then fired up a bong the size of the Empire State Building.

• No one has to save nine months of dishwashing wages to attend a concert in the metaverse. If only that had been the case when you spent $600 to be in the front row the last time Lana Del Rey played Vancouver. (And admit it—that was totally worth it, even if you accidently deleted the selfie she took with you in the middle of “Born To Die”).

• The Internet might as well be the world’s biggest merch table, and because every virtual reality concert has been a mega-event, fans clearly want to remember the experience. According to Vlassopulos, merch sales from Lil Nas X’s show topped

US$10 million dollars. (Dispute that all you want, but not before considering that an estimated 30 million people tuned in).

Vlassopulos’ takeaway from all this, in case it’s somehow not clear, is that the future belongs to those who aren’t afraid to have digital versions of themselves join the worlds of Roblox, Fortnite, and maybe even Grand Theft Auto.

“We also expect artists to use virtual concerts to kick-off real ones,” he told NME, “like Twenty One Pilots did last year—and for labels to view them as an essential marketing opportunity just as important as social media or television.”

With the immediate future of concerts still uncertain in these COVID times, expect to see more Roblox metaverse events in the months ahead featuring everyone from established artists, up-and-comers, and DJs. As for the years ahead, Vlassopulos predicts the rise, and then megastardom, of acts which only exist in the virtual world.

Kind of like Gorillaz before Damon Albarn got greedy and hit the stadium circuit.

Or Universal Music’s band KINGSHIP, the four members of which are non-fungible tokens (NFTs), doomed to perform forever in the metaverse and not on physical stages. Or maybe, you know, KINGSHIP is blessed. After all, it’s not like they’ll ever have to spend a day smelling each other’s beer farts in a tour van driving 14 hours from Toronto to Thunder Bay. g

Dirty talk can be a great alternative to dipping out

by Dan Savage

b LONGTIME READER here, first-time writer. I’m a bisexual woman. I’ve been married to a straight man for eight years. Our marriage and our sex life are amazing. We communicate well and we have a lot of fun together. You probably think you know where this is going, Dan, but trust me—this isn’t your typical bisexual-person-marriedto-a-straight-person problem.

Here’s the thing: I would call myself a heteroromantic bisexual. I love men. I love dick, and I love having sex with men. Men turn me on. And I have always been interested in men romantically. I’ve also always been into women, but only sexually. I can’t picture myself dating a woman.

Or being married to one. But I’ve never been able to get off from straight sex or straight porn. When I orgasm, I am either watching lesbian porn or gay male porn or I’m thinking about it.

I am turned on by my husband. I find him attractive, and the idea of having sex with him gets me wet. But when it comes time to get off, I go into my head and think about two women or two men. If I don’t do this, I can’t orgasm!

I’ve always been this way.

My husband is satisfied; I’m getting off; and we both enjoy sex together. So what’s the problem? I don’t want to have to leave the moment to get off! I want to be able to get off while being fully present! I feel like I’m losing out on a ton of intimacy with my husband by not being in the moment with him

while I’m trying to cum. I want to cum from straight sex!

Do you think there is a way I can achieve this? Is it fucked up that I have to think about something else to orgasm when I’m with a man? Help me! I haven’t told my husband this because it would crush me to learn he had to “dip out” to get off.

- Being In Moment In Straight Sex Is No-Go

PS I fully explored the possibility of being a lesbian but I’m sure I’m not. I really, really like men. I like men a lot. I couldn’t live without them.

There’s a solution here, BIMISSING, one that would allow you

to remain in the moment without sacrificing your orgasms.

Zooming out for a quick second, BIMISSING, let’s put your problem in perspective first. You’re married to a man you love; you have a great sex life; and you’re getting off. You’re winning. And you’re not the only person with this… well, I don’t wanna call it a “problem”, BIMISSING, because for some people, fantasizing during partnered sex—the kind of “dipping out” you describe— is a solution. Lots of people need to imagine a particular scenario and/or particular cast of characters to get themselves to the point of “orgasmic inevitability” (to use one of my favourite phrases from the sex-research literature), and if entertaining go-to fantasies during partnered sex is the thing that gets them to that point, they shouldn’t

hesitate to entertain those fantasies. In other words, BIMISSING, while I wanna offer you a fix, I don’t want you—or anyone like you—to think you’re broken. Or fucked up. Because you’re not.

Now, here’s the simple, easy, obvious fix—here’s the sex hack—that’ll keep you in the moment without derailing your orgasms: dirty talk.

A quick review of my tips for dirty-talk beginners: tell ’em what you’re gonna do (“I’m going to fuck the shit out of you”), tell ’em what you’re doing (“I’m fucking the shit out of you”), tell ’em what you did (“I fucked the shit out of you”). You can also ask someone what they’re gonna do, what they’re doing, and what they did.

Now, if you’re already doing that kind of dirty talk, BIMISSING, great. If you’re not, start. Then, once you’ve mastered Gonna, Doing, Did (GDD) basics, you need to start mixing your basic GDD dirty talk together with dirty talk about your go-to fantasies.

But before you can do that, BIMISSING, you are gonna have to level with your husband about these fantasies and your reliance on them. Telling your husband that you’ve always had to think about gay sex to get to the point of orgasmic inevitability—while emphasizing that he makes your pussy wet, and you love having sex with him—is definitely a risk. He could have a bad reaction. If he has a see next page

FEBRUARY 3 – 10 / 2022

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go-to fantasies of his own that he’d love to share—fantasies he may rely on when he needs a little help getting to the point of orgasmic inevitability. If you can successfully integrate your go-to fantasies (two women or two men fucking the shit out of each other) with your in-the-moment reality (your husband is fucking the shit out of you while you describe two women or two men fucking the shit out of each other), you won’t have to “dip out” to come.

PS I feel the exact same way—really like men, couldn’t live without men—and I’m not a lesbian either. Coincidence? I don’t think so. There are no coincidences.

Follow Lori Brotto on Twitter @ DrLoriBrotto. Brotto’s new book, Better Sex Through Mindfulness: The At-Home Guide, comes out soon.

from previous page

problem with it, BIMISSING, tell him you’re like a woman who can’t come from vaginal intercourse alone, a.k.a., most women, only instead of needing to press a vibrator against your clit during intercourse to get off, you need to press a mental image of gay sex against your brain to get off.

So, yeah, your husband could have hurt feelings, and it could take some time to work through this. But think of the potential rewards! Instead of leaving your husband behind when you start fantasizing about men fucking men and women fucking women, you’ll get to take him along! (And I don’t want to tell on straight guys here, but some of them really like hearing about two women fucking. Your husband could be one of those guys.)

“BIMISSING can be fully present in her body and feel the great pleasure of sex with her husband—and know that this is where her pleasure is coming from, physically— while also being intentional about bringing this fantasy into her mind at the same time,” said Lori Brotto, a clinical psychologist and a sex researcher at the University of British Columbia and the author of Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire. “And if BIMISSING can share her fantasy out loud, she’ll be able to hear herself sharing the details of this fantasy, which is an auditory trigger that will keep her rooted in the here-and-now even more and intensify the pleasure. If her husband responds with his own sounds of pleasure, or with fantasies of his own that build on yours,

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UBC’s Lori Brotto is the author of Better Sex Through Mindfulness. Photo by Martin Dee/UBC.

“that will further anchor BIMISSING in the present moment.”

Picture this, BIMISSING: You’re having hot straight sex with your hot straight husband. You start thinking about two hot fags or two hot dykes going at it. But now, instead of feeling guilty about these fantasies, you’ll be able to share them with your husband. And, yes, it’s a hard truth to share, BIMISSING, but for all you know, your husband has some

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b THIS IS MY first time asking for your advice. I’m a gay man in his early 50s, a bit heavy, but people tell me I’m handsome. I haven’t gotten close to a man, let alone had sex with one, in many years. I decided to try some dating apps. In the past week, I’ve had two hookups, both safe, but neither was successful. The first went south very quickly, the second went better, with the other guy getting off.

While I very much enjoyed the physical closeness, I couldn’t get hard either time. I have no problems with that by itself. I tried relaxing and just getting into the experience, but I just couldn’t get aroused. Both guys were attractive, the second even more so, but I couldn’t get into it either time.

Any thoughts on how I might be able to get past this block? I just feel like giving up on physical relationships for good.

- My First Time

off yourself and your dick by telling your next partner that you wanna focus on his dick, not yours. And be honest about why: “I’ve been out of action for a few years and I’m easing back in to sex and right now it’s working better for me to focus on getting the other guy off.” Then pop a Viagra, put on a cock ring, relax, and enjoy. If you wind up being able to get off with him, great. If you don’t but you liked the guy and he enjoyed being with you, suggest getting together again. Then with those first-timewith-a-new-guy jitters out of the way, MFT, it’ll be easier to get out of your own way, get hard, and stay hard.

It’ll also help if you gave less weight to the one experience that went south quickly and more to the one that “went better”. Start rounding that second experience up to a success instead of down to a defeat, okay?

PS Heavier guys can be handsome, and some men strongly prefer heavier guys. So believe those guys who tell you they think Massage you’re handsome. Because as a general rule, MFT, when someone who’s actively trying to get in your pants tells you they find you Companion hot or think you’re handsome, they’re probably not lying. g Take the pressure

Follow Dan Savage on Twitter @FakeDanSavage.

Email: mail@savagelove.net. The Savage Lovecast, books, merch and more are all at www.savage.love.

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