The Georgia Straight - Summer Arts - June 2, 2022

JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022 | FREE Volume 56 | Number 2833

HOUSING DEALS

Condos for less than $200K

DRAGON BOATS

Returning to False Creek

SUMMER ARTS Montreal’s Ebnflōh Dance Company will be at the 34th annual Dancing on the Edge—one of many festivals heating up the city; plus, theatre and visual arts roundups, the VSO Day of Music, and a Touchstone Theatre world premiere KITCHEN TABLE CHEF

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ROCK AGAINST RACISM

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MOODY ALES

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OLD SOUL REBEL

FEATURE

False Creek welcomes back evolving Dragon Boat fest

CONTENTS

June 2-9 / 2022

8

COVER

Dancing on the Edge is one of many festivals that will shine a spotlight on arts, culture, and music in Metro Vancouver this June and July.

by Charlie Smith

By Charlie Smith Cover photo by Melika Dez

5

REAL ESTATE

The $200,000 condo has become an endangered species in Metro Vancouver, but we managed to find one for sale in Richmond.

By Carlito Pablo

19

MUSIC

Lola Whyte and Chelsea D.E. Johnson are Old Soul Rebel, a fast-rising Vancouver soul-rock duo that’s not afraid to crank up the guitars.

By Steve Newton

Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival organizers have looked to reinterpret the event for modern audiences, showcase local culture and sport, and provide a platform for people to tell their stories.

T

he Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival is returning to False Creek this summer. And the 2022 event features two days of free live music at Creekside Park on June 25 and 26, along with racer-only events on June 24.

Emblematic of Vancouver’s diversity, the Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival will feature a blend of different musical traditions. These will include a traditional Chinese music ensemble and groups representing the region’s Indigenous heritage dating back more than 10,000 years.

“As our event evolves alongside the city, we’ve reinterpreted what a modern dragon boat festival can be while respecting and amplifying our heritage,” Dragon Boat B.C. development, marketing, and operations director Dominic Lai said in a news release. “While the festival looks different than when it began thousands of years ago, we’ve returned to its core purpose to showcase local culture and sport, and uniting people to tell their stories.

“We’re excited to share our platform with artists that reflect our community’s diversity on the 102.7 THE PEAK Main Stage, and invite everyone in to experience our community’s rich cultural fabric,” he added.

On the Saturday (June 25), performers include the Zolas, Hotel Mira, Mauvey, Children of Takaya, Dacey, Ludic, AHSIA, Eagle Song Dancers, and Qing Yun Music Ensemble.

The following day (June 26) will feature Desirée Dawson, Tonye Aganaba, Coastal Wolf Pack, Coco Jafro, Best Night Ever, and Niña Mendoza on the main stage.

The festival wouldn’t be possible were it not for the support of Concord Pacific, which covers registration fees of overseas 2

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

The festival looks different than when it began thousands of years ago.

– Dominic Lai

competitors, and the provincial and federal governments.

Over the years, the event has not only brought different communities together, it has also helped draw attention to the fight against breast cancer. Teams of survivors compete in the Paddlers Abreast Canada Breast Cancer Division.

Every junior team competes for free as a result of the generosity of the Milton K. Wong Legacy Project, which is named for a deceased Vancouver philanthropist who funded many projects, including antiracism initiatives.

The Milton K. Wong Legacy Project also subsidizes access rates for those competing for the under-24, senior, and all-access race cups. All-access teams are comprised of people with different abilities, as well as cancer survivors.

Dragon boat racing has been practised in southern China for 2,000 years, with 18 to 20 people in a standard boat and eight to 10 in a small boat. They often have a helmsperson and drummer.

These human-powered vessels made their debut in Vancouver at the Expo 86 world’s fair. In 1989, the Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society launched the Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival. Next year will mark its 35th anniversary. g

JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

e Start Here 16 ARTS 6 BEER 22 CLASSIFIED ADS 2 FEATURE 20 FOLK FESTIVALS 17 INDIAN SUMMER 15 MORAG 21 MUSIC 22 SAVAGE LOVE 12 THEATRE 13 VISUAL ARTS 11 VSO DAY OF MUSIC e Listings 18 ARTS

Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 56 | Number 2833 #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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EDITOR Charlie Smith GENERAL MANAGER Sandra Oswald SECTION EDITORS Mike Usinger (Liquor/Music) Steve Newton SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy STAFF WRITERS Carlito Pablo (Real Estate) SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT Jeff Li ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER Janet McDonald

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Tim Louis: It’s time for Dr. Bonnie Henry to stop pandering.

Vancouver police seek public’s help in finding missing 20-year-old woman.

CIBC expects new 0.5 percent interest rate hike as market starts to slow.

Senior turns himself in to RCMP after manure dumped at Horgan’s office.

Check out this list of 70 Vancouver concerts taking place in June. @GeorgiaStraight

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

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C edar SEEKS APPROVAL

d THE CITY OF VANCOUVER has received a rezoning application to build a new Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House. The East Vancouver facility is located at 4065 Victoria Drive.

The neighbourhood house has provided a variety of social services to the Kensington–Cedar Cottage community for many years.

A submission prepared by D A Architects + Planners and CitySpaces Consulting Ltd. stated that the plan involves the replacement of the current 7,704-square-foot building.

A much bigger (19,361 square feet) facility is being proposed in the

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rezoning application.

The application noted that the Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House opened its doors in 1964. The property is owned by the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of B.C. “The new facility will allow for the expansion of the existing programs as well as the opportunity to provide new offerings,” the application stated.

If approved, the building will include a 37-space licensed childcare facility.

Also included in the plan are an adult daycare facility with commercial kitchen, multipurpose community spaces for small- and medium-sized group activities, administration and support spaces, covered and open outdoor spaces, and underground parking.

The rezoning application said that the Cedar Cottage neighbourhood is the city’s “third largest neighbourhood and home to a quarter of the City’s residents with increasing densification”.

“Population projections for Cedar Cottage foresee an increase of up to 60,000 new residents by 2035,” the application stated.

The 4065 Victoria Drive location is situated in a single-family neighbourhood. g

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REAL ESTATE

Metro Vancouver haystacks have a few needles

by Carlito Pablo

in 2087, compared to 2073, the year when most leaseholds expire in the West End neighbourhood of Vancouver.

The West End is home to many leasehold properties in Vancouver.

Hutchinson also noted that prices in Richmond are a lot more affordable compared to Vancouver.

“It really depends which location works best for you, because both options provide affordability in an expensive market,” Hutchinson told the Straight.

To show an example, Hutchinson cited the March 22, 2022, sale of 1003–1330 Harwood Street in the West End. The studio property, measuring 430 square feet, sold for $302,888. The monthly maintenance

fee for the unit is $321.80.

The maintenance fee for 208–7220 Lindsay Road is higher, at $450.56, but it covers property tax, water, heat, and hot water.

“I have many clients that have bought and sold West End leasehold properties because they’re affordable and also provide a good return as an investment,” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson also mentioned another thing to consider about leaseholds.

“Typically, banks require a higher down payment for leasehold properties, which is normally about 35 percent down,” Hutchinson said.

Bottom line: “Leaseholds aren’t for everyone, but they can work quite well for the right buyer.” g

The Sussex Square low-rise condo development in Richmond features a leasehold unit that has been listed for $199,000. A recent study suggests that its price makes it a rare find in Canada.

A

recent report highlights Canadian housing unaffordability by showing how it is “almost impossible” to find a home for less than $200,000.

“Although not the lowest figure, $200,000 (about one-quarter of the average national home price) is a suitable reference point to gauge the share of what is now referred to as an ‘affordable listing’,” Point2 Homes noted in its May 24 report.

The Saskatoon-based digital platform for real-estate searches stated that the “reality is that $200K isn’t enough to land a home in almost any of Canada’s most coveted cities”.

“In fact, only about 10% of all homes for sale in Canada are less than $200K— and very few of them are in major cities, where median home prices are exploding,” Point2 Homes reported.

Moreover, “data shows that housing options for less than $200,000 are incredibly scarce in the top 50 largest and most expensive cities”.

“These needles in the haystack account for less than 1% of the entire stock for sale,” Point2 Homes stated.

There are no such needles in Vancouver and Burnaby.

In Surrey, homes priced at less than $200,000 account for less than one percent (0.46 percent) of homes for sale, and Point2 noted that most of them are manufactured homes.

In Abbotsford, it’s 0.26 percent; in Richmond, it’s even less: 0.17 percent.

The Straight went looking for the needle in the haystack and found one in Richmond.

That would be in Sussex Square, a low-rise condo development in Richmond’s Granville neighbourhood. The strata complex of 216 units contained in three-storey buildings is located at 7180–7280 Lindsay Road.

Sussex Square was built in 1974, and it has 216 units, based on information from the condos.ca site. Ownership is leasehold, which means that the owner can use the property

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for a long, but limited, period of time.

The leases have been prepaid until 2087.

On May 4 this year, a one-bedroom unit at the building listed for $199,000.

The 208–7220 Lindsay Road condo spent seven days on the market, and it sold on May 11 for $194,000.

“This is one sweet suite!” the listing said about the 634-square-foot unit overlooking a neighbourhood school park.

Previously, on March 3, another onebedroom unit at Sussex Square, at 108– 7280 Lindsay Road, sold for $190,000.

This 622-square-foot unit is located on the ground floor and had an asking price of $197,000.

Prospective buyers may want to check out 106–7240 Lindsay Road. The one-bedroom unit listed on May 17 with an asking price of $199,000; this offering expires on August 15, 2022.

There are also two- and three-bedroom units at the building that are available for less than $300,000.

In a previous interview, Vancouver realtor David Hutchinson indicated that leasehold offers a more affordable way of getting into the real-estate market.

“What’s a good deal?” Hutchinson asked in a July 11, 2021, report by the Straight. “It all goes into doing your due diligence and finding the right fit for you and your budget, and how much you’d like to take on.”

When told about Sussex Square, the Sutton Group–West Coast Realty agent noted that leases at this building expire

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BEER

Moody Ales Sour Box features two towering stars

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by Mike Usinger

Moody Ales & Co Sour Box Mix Pack.

and cheeky handfuls of dried cranberries.

Strawberry Jasmine Sour: A strawberry milkshake disguised as a fruited sour with notes of jasmine flower.

Raspberry Lavender Sour: This absolute sweetheart of a sour boasts notes of fresh raspberries and fragrant lavender.”

THEIR WORDS

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“An 8-beer mixed pack featuring four limited sour flavours: Cherry Blossom Sour: A delicate bouquet of rosy aromas introduces a fruity, cherryforward flavour profile.

Peach Hibiscus Sour: Summery stone fruit and berry-tart hibiscus infuse this brew with nostalgic flavours of iced peach tea

Just as someone is always picked last for the gym-class baseball team, one of the realities of life is there are next-level stars and then there’s the rest of us. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with those chosen third, fourth, or 17th.

Instead it’s more that someone undeniably outshines them.

Moody Ales’ Sour Box Mix Pack is perfect for a B.C. spring that’s been a little late showing up.

In that spirit, not all of the four beers in Moody Ales & Co’s Sour Box Mix Pack are MVP standouts. Starting in the runner-up category, the Peach Hibiscus and Cherry Blossom are both perfectly delightful: subtley fruity, delicately scented, and surprisingly light for beers that clocks in at five percent ABV. But there’s no overlooking that they end up having to compete against two absolute heavy hitters.

The brilliance of the Strawberry Jasmine is the way the floral and the fruit elements wage a spirited tug-of-war for complete dominance. The jasmine wins when the beer’s cold, notes of fresh organic strawberries taking over the party once things warm up in the glass.

Just when you think things won’t get any better comes Raspberry Lavender. As with the Strawberry Jasmine, the “sour” is a bit misleading; instead expect a beer that’s pleasantly perfumed, both scentand taste-wise. And speaking of taste, good lord, once again expect a pitched battle between the fruit and floral parts of the equation. The raspberries suggest a

6

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

bumper-crop at an Okanagan U-pick. The glorious lavender is a reminder that few things are more beautiful than Valensole Plateau in Provence when it’s late June and the fields are endlessly purple.

Yes, the Raspberry Lavender is that sublime. Which isn’t to say necessarily better than the Strawberry Jasmine—or that it has to play second fiddle. As proven in gym class for decades, picking first isn’t always easy.

DEEP THOUGHTS

For whatever reason—maybe God is making up for last year’s scorching June heat dome—spring has seemed a little late coming this year. The Sour Box Mix Pack triumph from Moody Ales & Co makes for a great transition from the heavy stouts that just got you through winter to the grapefruit and lemon radlers that await in the lazy summer days ahead.

And while the two world-beating stars of the pack kind of steal the show, it’s hard not to think the second-stringers here would be first in another setting. It’s not easy standing in the shadow of greatness. g

FOOD

Kitchen Table chef places a premium on simplicity

V

by Charlie Smith

ancouver chef Valerio Pescetelli came by his love of food naturally. Growing up in a house outside Rome in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was no shortage of fruits and vegetables in the area. Figs, walnuts, kiwis, potatoes, and tomatoes all flourished.

“We started a hopeful ritual making pizza dough,” Pescetelli, the 36-yearold executive chef at Vancouver-based Kitchen Table Restaurants, tells the Straight over Zoom.

The family had a large, rectangular implanted table made of marble that was perfect for the task. For their weekly pizza nights, they would then put it in a beautiful forno (oven) that his nonno (grandfather) had built.

After the pizzas were removed, his nonna (grandmother) would load the oven with lasagna, parmigiana, sweets, and crostadas.

“You name it, she used to leave stuff in it overnight,” Pescetelli says with a laugh.

“Of course, the temperature was down [by then], so it was like slow cooking.”

The next afternoon, these goodies were served for lunch. It’s a terrific story for him to share just as Vancouver kicks off Italian Heritage Month in June.

From these humble beginnings, Pescetelli ascended to the heights of the restaurant world in London, Sicily, and Vancouver, where he oversees food preparation for a fleet of dining establishments. They include Ask for Luigi, Bacaro, Carlino, Di Beppe, Pizzeria Farina, Pourhouse, and Super Veloce. Last November, Kitchen Table Restaurants expanded to Toronto with a new Giovane Caffè in the Shangri-la Hotel Toronto.

Pescetelli is a big believer in the value of humility, noting that if he can share with Kitchen Table Restaurants chefs the mistakes he has made, they’ll be far less likely to repeat them. He also worries that TV shows focusing on chef competitions convey the impression that restaurant kitchens are miserable, stressful places to work. He, on the other hand, thinks it’s vital to offer emotional support to the chefs who report to him and help them achieve a proper work-life balance.

“I used to do a lot of martial arts for many years,” Pescetelli says. “I always use the values of martial arts in the kitchen, like respect, persistence, unbreakable spirit, and perseverance.”

At Ask for Luigi and Di Beppe, to cite two examples, he also places a premium on techniques and ingredients to make these establishments “the best of the best”.

And Ask for Luigi was certainly seen as outstanding this year by Georgia Straight readers, who voted it as both the best Italian restaurant and the best pasta restaurant in the annual Golden Plates awards.

I always use the values of martial arts in the kitchen, like respect…

– chef Valerio Pescetelli

Valerio Pescetelli worked in top restaurants in London and Italy before settling in Vancouver.

the Rocco Forte Group.

It was in Sicily where Pescetelli gained an even greater appreciation for the importance

of ingredients and the value of simplicity in cooking.

“You have some of the best bresaola from Nebrodi,” he says. “In Bronte, you have the best pistachios.”

With superb ingredients, Pescetelli says there’s no need to overcomplicate things in the kitchen.

To cite another example, he mentions the burrata cheese from the Apulia region of Italy. Sure, you can get American burrata, he says, but it’s not imbued with six or seven generations of tradition.

“That’s also part of the Italian cuisine,” Pescetelli says. “My job is to let that philosophy continue—and not for it to be overridden somehow.” g

Other establishments under the Kitchen Table Restaurants umbrella also did extraordinarily well in the Golden Plates. Pizzeria Farina won as best pizzeria and came third in the takeout-pizza category; Pourhouse won for best burger and best restaurant for a stiff drink; and Di Beppe came third in the Gastown selections.

Pescetelli is particularly proud of his recipes, including the Cacio e Pepe at Di Beppe, which he developed in Rome.

With this and other dishes, such as Carbonara at Di Beppe, he says the key is simplicity—something he learned from his grandmother.

“When it comes to Italian cuisine, a lot of people sometimes go off the plot and make it very complicated—and it doesn’t need to,” he says.

Over at Ask for Luigi, he worked with the chef de cuisine on a new Bigoli Nero dish with uni butter, some vermouth, and herbs.

“It’s pretty phenomenal,” Pescetelli declares. “A lot of good people are going crazy for it.”

He started attending culinary school at the age of 13 and spent the next few years juggling his studies with a job working alongside his dad in a Mexcan restaurant.

At the age of 18, Pescetelli moved to London. His first job there was at Orso, which had been attracting celebrities for decades.

He also spent a short while working at Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill before it shut down for major renovations.

“It was a very amazing experience— Michelin stars, 40-plus people in the kitchen,” Pescetelli says. “It was one of the very few places with Michelin stars where they will do lunch and dinner at the same time... It was a big lesson on accuracy and extreme perfection.”

But some of his greatest lessons came later, when he went to work in restaurants in Sicily. One of his mentors there was Fulvio Pierangelini, a Michelin-starred chef who describes himself as the “artistic director” of JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

7

SUMMER ARTS

Festivals amplify the local arts and music scene

W

by Charlie Smith

the same venue on the following evening, it’s the Manchester-based Gogo Penguin (June 28). In addition, there are more than 60 free concerts, including the Josh Zubot Quartet and Darius Jones at Performance Works (June 24), Terminal Station at Ocean Art Works (June 24), DJ Koakea and DJ Keilani Rose at Ocean Art Works (June 24), the Sister Jazz Orchestra at the Georgia Street Stage (June 25), and Joyce N’Sana at North Vancouver’s Civic Plaza (June 25). Who’s the festival for? This is not your grandparents’ jazz festival— music runs the gamut from straight-ahead jazz to more experimental forms of music.

e’re coming up on festival season in Vancouver, which sometimes offers a way to take in the arts at bargain prices—or even for free. In this article, we’ll cover many of the big events in June and July. Next month, we’ll follow up with a roundup of the festivals taking place in August, including Pride and TAIWANfest.

QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL

(June 18 to July 8) The lowdown: This boundary-busting annual event will focus on the theme of “Hauntings” this year in a range of visual art, performance, music, and literary events. The Queer Arts Festival kicks off with an opening reception on top of its headquarters in the Sun Wah Centre in Chinatown. That’s where a free visual arts show, curated by Adwait Singh and directed by S D Holman, will showcase queer artistic practices from South Asia throughout the festival. There’s another free art exhibition in partnership with James Black Gallery, entitled Pride in Art Community Show. In addition, the QAF is partnering with the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival for the first time in presenting Adria Kain and Janette King at Performance

DANCING ON THE EDGE The wildly inventive Tara Cheyenne Performance, headed by artistic director Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, returns to the Dancing on the Edge festival in July. Photo by Wendy D. Photography.

Works on June 24. Who’s the festival for?

Music and art lovers who hope to discover what’s on the cutting edge of queer expression.

TD VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL

(June 24 to July 3) The lowdown: The Coastal Jazz and Blues

Tickets on Sale Now

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JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

Society always puts on a world-class event at multiple venues. This year’s highlights include American blues-guitar legend Buddy Guy at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (June 24) and three-time Grammy winner Lucinda Williams at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (July 2). Another Grammy winner, Cécile McLorin Salvant, will be at the Vancouver Playhouse (June 27). At

(July 7 to 16) The lowdown: Dancing on the Edge turns 34 this year, making this the country’s oldest and longest-running contemporary dance festival. It has endured, in part, due to its stellar lineups of visiting artists but also because Vancouver has become such a leading centre for innovative choreography. This year’s festival will feature celebrated Canadian artists Zab Maboungou/Compagnie Danse Nyata Nyata (Montreal), Alexandra see page 10

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9

from page 8

the big festivals is its location: in Surrey’s scenic Holland Park. FVDED in the Park headliners are Illenium, a.k.a. Nicholas D. Miller. Last year, Illenium’s fourth album, Fallen Embers, snagged him a Grammy nomination in the best dance/electronic album. Who’s the festival for? Ironically, it’s for hip-hop and electronic fans who have mostly tuned out the Grammys.

‘Spicey’ Landé/Ebnflōh Dance Company (Montreal), Olivia C. Davies/Maamawi Collective (Ontario), and Vancouver’s Vanessa Goodman/Action at a Distance, Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg/Tara Cheyenne Performance, Michelle Olson & Starr Muranko/ Raven Spirit Dance, Alvin Erasga Tolentino/ Co.ERASGA, James Gnam/plastic orchid factory, Calder White, and others. If you’ve never checked out live dance before, this is the year and this is the event. Who’s the festival for? It’s for everyone who knows that Vancouver has risen to surprising heights in the world of dance—and for anyone else who is curious to know why.

KHATSAHLANO! MUSIC + ART FESTIVAL

INDIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL

(July 7 to 17) The lowdown: The ever-quotable artistic director of the Indian Summer Festival, Sirish Rao, noted before last year’s festival how human predicaments can result from a crisis of the imagination. He wanted to

Taiko drumming, as demonstrated here by Jeanie Ow with Katari Taiko, has been a staple at the Powell Street Festival dating back to the late 1970s. Photo by Powell Street Festival Society.

explore the implications of the shrinking number of languages, but the pandemic

got in the way so he had to improvise. So he came up with 10 COVID-safe events with various shapeshifters, including sitarist and composer Anoushka Shankar and legendary tabla master Zakir Hussain. This year’s festival, which will be the last hurrah for Rao and his wife and cofounder Laura Byspalko after 11 years at the helm, has the theme of inner and outer climates. “The concerns we all have now are for our own health and, of course, planetary health,” Rao told the Straight. “So a lot of the events at the festival speak to that.” He’ll announce the full lineup on June 6, but the festival has already revealed that one of the shows will feature Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Arooj Aftab. (See page 17.) Who’s the festival for? Indian Summer has always aimed high, whether it’s with its musical, literary, theatrical, culinary, or visual-arts components. So let’s just say that it’s for the smart, curious, and open-minded among us.

BARD ON THE BEACH

(June 8 to August 24) The lowdown: Vancouver’s popular outdoor Shakespeare festival has retained its appeal even as the Bard himself has come under more intense academic scrutiny over how he portrayed women and minorities. Part of the reason is that Bard on the Beach has been evolving with the times, even commissioning a film last year, Done/Undone, which examined these controversies in an evenhanded manner. This year, the festival opens with one of the English playwright’s favourites, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Another popular play, Romeo and Juliet, comes later in the run. In a nod to the Black experience in North America, Bard on the Beach is also presenting Harlem Duet, which is Djanet Sears’s examination of a Black couple at three pivotal periods in history. Who’s the festival for? This year, it’s not only welcoming lovers of Shakespeare but also those with a keen interest in the challenges faced by Black people.

FVDED IN THE PARK

(July 8 and 9) The lowdown: One of the things that sets FVDED in the Park apart from most of 10

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

(July 9) The lowdown: Who knew that a bunch of local musicians and artists could attract 80,000 people to a shopping district on the West Side? Nobody expected that back in 2011, when the Kitsilano 4th Avenue Business Association launched one of the city’s premier neighbourhood festivals, but it happened within a couple of years. Who’s the festival for? Anyone who can get to West 4th Avenue without a car, because there sure as hell won’t be much parking in the area.

CARNAVAL DEL SOL

(July 8 to 10) The lowdown: This year, Vancouver’s Latin American plaza moves to Jonathan Rogers Park for the very first time. Carnaval del Sol attracts crowds not only for its wide range of Latin American cuisine but also because of the music that traces its roots from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego. This festival is part of three weeks of celebrations for the Latin American community, which also includes salsa workshops, a f lamenco and tango night, standup comedy, and the Latinx Pride Parade. Who’s the festival for? Those who love futbol and who have no problem with friendly, extroverted people sharing amusing stories from their homeland.

POWELL STREET FESTIVAL

(July 30 and 31) The lowdown: Many people think of the Powell Street Festival as an annual feast in Oppenheimer Park to celebrate the neighbourhood’s Japanese heritage. But it hasn’t always received sufficient credit for its remarkable artistic output over the past 45 years. One of the festival’s early coordinators, celebrated playwright Rick Shiomi, told the Straight earlier this year that some organizers of other festivals look back longingly at their heyday in the past. But he said that the Powell Street event, on the other hand, has become an even more “dynamic, forceful entity” with each passing year. It has also demonstrated a tremendous social conscience toward marginalized residents of the area, setting an example for the broader community of Japanese Canadians. “It has people who are dedicated to some of the best ideals and issues of our time,” Shiomi said. Who’s the festival for?

Those who love kabuki, taiko drumming, and contemporary examinations of what it really means to be Japanese Canadian in the 21st century. g

SUMMER ARTS

VSO Day of Music is free, fun, and full of surprises

O

by Charlie Smith

nce again, Vancouver’s downtown core will be filled with a multitude of musical performances.

On Saturday (June 4), the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra will host a long list of classical, choral, jazz, and popular performers demonstrating the breadth of the city’s community of musicians.

The Day of Music is entirely free and can be enjoyed over a 12-hour stretch at four venues: the Orpheum, Annex, VSO School of Music, and Port of Vancouver Stage on the plaza at the north side of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

It begins at 10 a.m. on the Orpheum stage with the VSO in an open rehearsal.

The VSO also performs that evening at the same location, from 8 to 9:15 p.m.

In between, this stage will feature shows by the Richmond Delta Youth Orchestra, Vancouver Folk Ensemble and Dovbush Ukrainian dance troupe, Charlie Chaplin’s short film “The Cure” (with the historic Mighty Wurlitzer organ), Christine Lee, and MEI Screaming Eagles Marching Band.

Over at the Port of Vancouver Stage, Krystle Dos Santos will kick things off at 1 p.m. with soulful tunes from her albums,

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s eclectic Day of Music on Saturday (June 4) will feature the local Afro-fusion band Zimbamoto (above), among many others. Photo by Wendy D. Photography.

which have won Western Canadian Music Awards in the R & B and urban-recordingof-the-year categories.

She’ll be followed by the local Afrofusion band Zimbamoto, the eight-piece Latin alternative group MNGWA, and the healing sounds of nonbinary jazz and soul singer Tonye Aganaba.

The Annex will be the site of music

THE ZOLAS HOTEL MIRA

MAUVEY

with roots in many countries. At 10 a.m., it begins with the VSO School of Music Junior Jazz Combo, followed by a combo performance by VSO jazz faculty and TAs. Then, at noon, Raagaverse takes the stage, followed by the B.C. Chinese Music Association and the Mohamed Assani Trio. Assani, an award-winning sitarist, is one of Canada’s top Ismaili musicians and

has twice performed before Ismaili spiritual leader Aga Khan IV. The Azalea Chinese Music Ensemble follows, along with Quartetto Vivo 2 Pianos 8 Hands and the VSO School of Music Big Band.

The largest number of performances on the Day of Music will be at the VSO School of Music. They include, among many others, the Vinh Nguyen Piano Trio, the Itamar Erez Quartet, the Daniel Hersog Duo, Opera Opulenza, and Al Mozaico Flamenco. The action at the VSO School of Music takes place in Pyatt Hall, the Willms Salon, and workshop rooms 411 and 412.

The Day of Music is presented by BMO Bank of Montreal with support from the B.C. government, City of Vancouver, and Jane McLennan Fund. The VSO’s community-engagement programs occur as a result of a partnership with Newmont North America. g The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s free Day of Music begins at 10 a.m. on June 4 and will take place at the Orpheum, the VSO School of Music, the Annex, and the Port of Vancouver Stage on the north side of the Vancouver Art Gallery. For more information, visit the DayofMusic.ca website.

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JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

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SUMMER ARTS

Vancouver’s summer theatre scene fit for Queen

W

by Steve Newton

keep her town and dreams alive. Warning: adult content, gunfire sound effects.

hether it draws you to the lush confines of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre or out under the stars at Stanley Park’s Malkin Bowl, the lure of Vancouver’s theatre scene will be powerful in the coming months.

Bard on the Beach (Vanier Park, June 8 to September 24) The annual outdoor Shakespeare festival features performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed

by Scott Bellis (June 8 to September 24, BMO Mainstage); Harlem Duet, directed

by Cherissa Richards (June 15 to July 17, Howard Family Stage); and Romeo and Juliet, directed by Anita Rochon (August 3 to September 24, Howard Family Stage).

Hamilton (Queen Elizabeth Theatre to June 19) Broadway Across Canada presents performances of the Tony-winning musical that blends hip-hop, jazz, R & B, and Broadway to tell the story of American founding father Alexander Hamilton. With book, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

S’effondrent les vidéoclubs (Studio 16 to June 4) Théâtre la Seizième presents André Gélineau’s quirky tragicomedy set in a doomedto-disappear video club in the village of Saint-François-Xavier-de-Brompton, where four marginal and whimsical characters intersect. Directed by Gilles Poulin-Denis. rEvolver Festival (the Cultch Historic Theatre to June 5) Upintheair Theatre’s 12-day festival focuses on presenting new works— critical, comedic, and quirky—by emerging to early mid-career artists.

Theatre Under the Stars will rock you at beautiful Malkin Bowl this summer with a repertory program that includes a tribute to legendary British hitmakers Queen. Photo by Shawn Bukhari.

The Mountaintop (Pacific Theatre to June 11) Katori Hall’s intimate fantasia of the final night of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life.

Directed by Omari Newton and starring Kwesi Ameyaw and Shayna Jones.

New Societies (Progress Lab 1422, June 1 to 5) Rumble Theatre presents a work created by

Re:Current Theatre and directed by Brian Postalian in which ideal societies are created in a megagame of collaboration, competition, and potential utopia. Performers include Sena Cagla, Howard Dai, Alexa Fraser, Evan Medd, Hannah Meyers, Pascal Reiners, Amanda Sum, Montserrat Videla, and Meagan Woods.

Terminus (Pal Studio Theatre, June 1 to 12) Mark O’Rowe’s blackly comic vision of Dublin in which three lonely souls are catapulted into a fantastical world of singing serial killers, avenging angels, and lovesick demons.

This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear (KW Studio, June 2 to 4) Pi Theatre presents writer-performer David Gagnon Walker’s poetic fable about how to live with the slowly unfolding emergencies of our world.

Kill the Ripper (Presentation House Theatre, June 2 to 4; Anvil Centre, June 16 to 20; Rio Theatre, July 7 to 9 and 14 to 16) Geekenders and Affair of Honor present the world premiere of Canadian playwright Fairlith Harvey’s darkly comic revengefantasy about three working women in Whitechapel, London, who must protect themselves during Jack the Ripper’s infamous 1888 murder spree.

Exit Laughing (Hendry Hall Theatre, June 3 to 18) North Vancouver Community Players present Paul Elliott’s comedy about three longtime friends who gather to mourn the loss of a beloved friend, one of their bridge partners for more than 30 years.

How the West Was One (Vancity Culture Lab, June 7 to 11) Leaping Thespians presents an original queer western comedy about a saloon owner who plans a blackjack game to swindle enough money to

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Driving Me Crazy (Presentation House Theatre, June 8 to 19) The Serendipity Theatre Collective, in association with the PHT Creative HUB, presents Linda A. Carson and Suzanne Ristic’s multigenerational comedy about a grandmother fighting to keep her driver’s license, her independence, and her voice in society.

Directed by Roy Surette.

Kinky Boots (Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, June 9 to July 31) The Arts Club Theatre Company presents the Tony Award– winning musical based on the Miramax motion picture of the same name. Starring Stewart Adam McKensy and Sayer Roberts and directed by Barbara Tomasic, Kinky Boots tells a story of compassion and acceptance, in which a man struggling to save his shoe factory teams up with a drag queen.

Morag, You’re a Long Time Deid (Russian Hall June 9 to 19) A collaboration between Scottish-Canadian creator/performer Claire Love Wilson and Austrian director Peter Lorenz, the experimental musical Morag, You’re a Long TIme Deid traces a journey of queer discovery through the remixing of traditional Scottish music. It’s presented in association with Touchstone Theatre, with additional support from frank theatre company.

Marjorie Prime/Pass Over (Waterfront Theatre, June 15 to July 1 [Marjorie Prime]; June 16 to July 2, [Pass Over] ) Ensemble Theatre Company presents two dramas— one a science-fiction exploration of memory and technology, the other a radical rewriting of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot—running in repertory.

We Will Rock You/Something Rotten! (Malkin Bowl, July 2 to August 27) Theatre Under the Stars presents We Will Rock You, featuring more than 20 hits from the legendary rock band Queen’s songbook, including songs like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Are the Champions’”. It will run in repertory with the musical comedy Something Rotten!, set in an Elizabethan England, where William Shakespeare is a Renaissance rock star and his playwright siblings are stuck in his shadow. g

SUMMER ARTS

Local galleries fill their walls for balmy browsing

By Martin Dunphy

artistic tradition of lived experience and activism that encompasses generations.

Burnaby Art Gallery (July 15 to September 18) This art museum in Burnaby’s Deer Lake Park is contained in the historic Fairacres Mansion and is dedicated to showcasing works of art on paper. The exhibition Diyan Achjadi: Carried Through the Water contains new works from the Vancouver-based Achjadi, including a watercolour stop-motion animation.

The Bill Reid Gallery is mounting an ambitious exhibition, including Atheana Picha’s mixedmedia Blue-blackfish (left) and Steve Smith’s striking A Time for Love (acrylic on red cedar).

N

o matter how this summer’s weather turns out, an art gallery is always a good place for a popin, even if you’re just looking for an air-conditioned respite from broiling heat or a cozy, thought-provoking cocoon on a chilly day.

Here are just some of the exhibitions that will be available at local galleries both large and small during this summer.

until September 11; The Imitation Game: Visual Culture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, until October 23; Shahla Bahrami: Censorship and Autocensorship—I Bite My Tongue, until August 31; Spotlight: Sandeep Johal, until October 16; and the upcoming Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment (June 11, 2022, to January 8, 2023) and Offsite: Christopher K. Ho (June 23 to October 16).

Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art (June 15, 2022, to March 19, 2023) The Canadian premiere of True to Place: stímetstexw tel xéltel—an ambitious exhibit of multimedia works by 10 emerging or established Northwest Coast Indigenous artists—runs for nine months. Curated by Xémontalót Carrielynn Victor (Stó:lō), this largest collection ever exhibited by the gallery includes artists such as Robert Davidson, Crystal Worl, Ocean Hyland, Shawn Hunt, Atheana Picha, and Corey Bulpitt.

Contemporary Art Gallery (To August 29) Montreal-based photographic artist Michelle Bui is featured in an exhibition titled Mutable Materialism, with works featured at the CAG façade and at the YaletownRoundhouse Station.

Petley Jones Gallery (Opening reception June 2; exhibit June 3 to 19) Solo show of illustrations, oils, and watercolours from local artist/ author Michael Kluckner’s latest illustrated book, The Rooming House, in an exhibition titled The West Coast in the Seventies.

Kay Meek Arts Centre (To July 3) Coastal Reflections is an atrium exhibition of the landscape works of two North Shore photographers, Sanam Khani and Trevor Schmidt, who spurn purely representational works of our natural environment in favour of artistic interpretations. Open for viewing Monday to Thursday and select evenings and weekends; call to enquire about hours.

Vancouver Art Gallery (Current and upcoming exhibitions, various dates) Vancouver’s premier art edifice offers eight exhibitions available for viewing this summer: Kids Take Over, until September 11; Everything Under the Sun: In Memory of Andrew Gruft, until September 11; Restless: Recent Acquisitions,

grunt gallery (To June 18) The exhibition An Insufficient Record: The photo-ethics of preserving Black Vancouver examines—through the juxtaposition of gelatin

mugshots of Black Vancouverites with portraits of self-identifying Black and African people—the failure of the City of Vancouver photographic archives in representing the lives and experiences of Black Vancouver residents throughout the city’s history.

Museum of Vancouver (Until October) Currently on view is Boarder X, copresented by the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

This travelling exhibition features the works of contemporary Indigenous artists from across Canada and examines hybrid identities, contested spaces, and political borders while reflecting on political and environmental perspectives about the places we occupy. g

CLAIRE LOVE WILSON & PETER LORENZ IN ASSOCIATION WITH TOUCHSTONE THEATRE PRESENT

THE WORLD PREMIERE

MORAG, YOU’RE A LONG TIME DEID

BY C L A I R E LOVE WI L S O N & PE T E R LO R E N Z

Centre A (To August 31) The Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art presents artist Ali Cherri’s combined recovered/found objects in a series of works titled Graftings, on view at the Canada Line’s Broadway–City Hall Station.

The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Capture Photography Festival and the InTransit BC public-art program.

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery (June 17 to August 14) This gallery on the UBC campus will host an exhibition titled Start Somewhere Else: Works From the Collection, centred around Krista Belle Stewart’s video installation Seraphine, Seraphine and featuring works by many of the gallery’s collected artists, including Rebecca Belmore, Brian Jungen, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Marian Penner Bancroft, Innukjuakju Pudlat, Ken Lum, and a dozen others.

Museum of Anthropology (Until January 1, 2023) This bastion of diverse cultural knowledge at UBC is hosting works by artists of Xicanx (Mexican American) heritage in an exhibition titled Xicanx: Dreamers + Changemakers / Soñadores + creadores del cambio. The works, representing a multitude of mediums, reflect an

THE RUSSIAN HALL

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Morag, You’re a Long Time Deid is a dynamic musical journey where original compositions are playfully interwoven with electronic loops to tell old stories anew.

The show will invite audience members to close their eyes and listen to textured traditional songs, tap their toes to celtic grooves, and dance to club beats.

JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

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SUMMER ARTS

VSO voyages into deep space with Star Wars

I

by Steve Newton

f you’re a fan of both the Vancouver Symphony and the Stars Wars films, you may want to consider circling a date on your June or July calendars.

On June 10 and 11, then again on July 6 and 7, the VSO is presenting Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in Concert, which will see the full orchestra performing live to a screening of director Richard Marquand’s actionpacked 1983 sci-fi epic. (The movie grossed $374 million during its initial theatrical run, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1983, more than doubling the box-office gross of the second place Terms of Endearment.)

The third installment in the original Star Wars trilogy (though now labelled Episode VI), following 1977’s Star Wars and 1980’s

TH T H E 45

The thrills of Star Wars will be brought to life by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi features a musical score composed by John Williams and performed by the London

Symphony Orchestra. The VSO will be performing it under Erik Ochsner, who is considered one of the world’s leading conductors of films with live-orchestra accompaniment.

A dual Finnish-American citizen living in New York City, Ochsner was principal touring conductor of La La Land Live in Concert, for which he conducted 50 international performances of Justin Hurwitz’s Oscar- and Grammy-winning score. Other films he has conducted include Back to the Future, Batman, Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Ghostbusters, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, Love Actually, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek (2009), and Star Trek Into Darkness.

Ochsner’s credits also include work with

the Krakow Film Music Festival, where he has led sold-out performances in a 16,000seat arena of Pixar in Concert, Frozen, and Beauty and the Beast, plus Disney in Concert: The Magic of Music with the Krakow Film Music Festival Youth Orchestra. As an in-demand conductor, his international travels have taken him to such cities as Athens, Beijing, Jakarta, Leipzig, Melbourne, Mexico City, Moscow, Reykjavik, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Taipei, Tokyo, and Vancouver, where he conducted La La Land: Live in Concert with the Vancouver Symphony in 2018.

You can find tickets for Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in Concert at www.vancouversymphony.ca. g

A N N UA L

Broadway’s Blockbuster Hit Hit. A Deliriously Entertaining Crowd Pleaser.

Book by

Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell

20 22

MUSIC

JULY 15 | 16 | 17

Music and Lyrics by

FESTIVAL

Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick Conceived by

JERICHO BEACH PARK

Karey Kirkpatrick and Wayne Kirkpatrick

and

A LE J A N D R O ES CO VE D O | A L L IS O N R U SS E L L | AS LE E P AATT THTTHEHHEE W H E E L TTHE TH H E B R OS L A N D R E T H | F R A Z E Y F O R D | H A LE Y H E Y N D E R I C K X THHE HE N E W P O R N O G R A P H E R S M O L L Y T U TT LE & G O L D E N H I G H WAY | TTHE R O B B E N F O R D | S H O V E L S & R O P E | TA J M A H A L

BBEE LE LE DR D R ON O N E | B ELLA EELL LLAA W HHII TE TE | B LU LU E MO M O ON O N M AR AR QQUU EE E E WWITITITH D UUKKE KE RROO BBII LLLL AARR D LEEESS I M CCHH RI R IST S TIINN E TA TASSSSAANN EETT LES MPP OOSSTE S TE TE UURR EESS | C LE TEUR LE RREE L | D EEBBBAS AASS HHIISH S H B HAA TTAC TTAC TT ACCHA HHAARYA RYA RY LA L A | | | F I VVEE A LA FI L ARRM M F UUNN K F OORR D PI P I ER E R F OR O RTU T U NNEE B LOCK LO CCKK G OOLLOS LO OSA O RRQQQUE UUEEEST S TA ST ANND N D TTHH E R O HHOO US U S EW E WIIFF E | K AANNAT N ATA A TAALL | LAACCHH E CE AT C E RC R C EELL AND RCEL OM M A JJAA ZZ Z Z E NNSS EEM M BLE B LE BL LE NNNN IE LE I E G AALL LLAA NNTT | QQUU OT OTE TTHTHEHHE R AV AVENN | R EEDD BBII RRDD | R EV E V OL O LUS U SON S OONN | R US U SSSEE LL L L D EECCAARR LE LE | | | S G AAAANA A NA N AG W WAA SSIINN I NN N N OI O I S TTRR IN I N GB G B AN A N D SU S U NNDD AE SUND A E S UUZZZIE IIEE U NNGG ER E R LLEEEID I D EERR ID VA NNCCOU VA O U VVEE R FFIIIDD DDDD LLEE C LU DDLE LU B | V IL LUB I L D Á | WIITT CH C H P ROPH R O PPHH EETT RO

SEE YOU AT THE BEACH! TIX & INF FO t h e f e s t i va l . b c .c a eventpower

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JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

It’s a Kind of Magic.

The Hard-Rocking International Phenomenon.

Music and Lyrics by

Queen

Story and Script by

Ben Elton

JULY 2 to AUGUST 27 2022 at Malkin

Bowl in Stanley Park

(PERFORMANCES ALTERNATE EVENINGS)

TICKETS & INFO: call 1.800.514.3849 or visit

tuts.ca

Morag musical is fiction, yet it’s rooted in ancestral reality

by Charlie Smith

SUMMER ARTS

Festival d’été francophone de Vancouver returns with an outdoor stage and food trucks after two years of online shows

Festival d’été francophone de Vancouver will be offering face-to-face entertainment this year.

In Morag, You’re a Long Time Deid, Rory Comerford (left) shares compositions and arrangements credit with Claire Love Wilson; Rob Thomson is the sound designer. Photo by Sewari Campillo.

T

here’s a popular PBS show called Finding Your Roots, in which historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. helps his guests learn about their genealogy through old newspaper clippings, government records, and DNA samples.

Vancouver theatre artist and musician Claire Love Wilson took a different approach. Several years ago, she decided to move to Glasgow to fulfill a personal desire to learn more about her grandmother, whose death had remained a taboo topic within her family.

The result of that voyage of self-discovery is Morag, You’re a Long Time Deid, an experimental musical performed by Wilson, who cowrote it with director Peter Lorenz. The other cast members are Steve Charles, Rob Thomson, Sally Zori, and Dennis Joseph, with Zori providing musical direction and Thomson overseeing sound design.

“The seed of it is an ancestral search that is based on a true story but lives in a fictional world in the piece,” Love Wilson tells the Straight by phone. “It’s not an autobiographical piece.”

Love Wilson’s lead character, Sam, discovers a love letter from her grandmother Morag, which is comprised of lyrics from Scottish ballads. With a piano that Sam inherited from Morag, she embarks on a musical storytelling journey with the help of an electronic looping device. Along the way, Sam ponders whether Morag had a queer love affair that she remained silent about.

And Sam uses her creativity to feel what her grandmother’s life might have been like.

“There’s this energy that Morag has,” Love Wilson continues. “Like, what happens when we sing into those silences? What happens when we imagine into those silences?”

Love Wilson’s queer identity was already well established before she went to Scotland. And she has often wondered if she had queer ancestors.

“I certainly haven’t been told about any of them,” Love Wilson says.

This story didn’t emerge quickly. She spent five years in discussion with Lorenz, often over long distances, because he’s based in Germany. There were three inperson development periods, with two of them in Scotland.

Morag, You’re a Long Time Deid touches on serious topics, like mental illness, but Love Wilson emphasizes that the music is often very uplifting. In the past, she was mentored in Scottish balladry by musicians Alasdair Roberts and Rory Comerford, who shares the compositions and arrangements credit with Love Wilson.

She once attended a workshop led by director, dramaturge, and writer Diane Roberts, where Love Wilson was guided to connect directly with an ancestor through a facilitated embodiment process.

Love Wilson is keen to tell the story in a manner that respects Indigenous traditions. This meant bringing on elder Xwechtaal (Dennis Joseph) of the Squamish Nation to offer cultural leadership and expertise on cultural protocols in the final development process.

She acknowledges that Indigenous faculty members at UBC had a profound impact on her worldview as she was studying for a degree in Indigenous studies and creative arts. In particular, she cites Daniel Heath Justice—a member of the Cherokee Nation who focuses on human kinship and Indigenous belonging—for nudging her to look toward her own ancestors. “The whole degree drove home the importance of ancestral knowledge and intergenerational connection,” Love Wilson says. g

(This story is sponsored by Le Centre culturel francophone de Vancouver.)

I

t’s finally time to put virtual festivals behind us. Dancing in your apartment sufficed for the past couple of years but it simply doesn’t compare to the immersive live-music experience. There’s something so magical about being part of a buzzing audience that’s emotionally connected to the performance.

After an online format for two years, Festival d’été francophone de Vancouver (Vancouver Francophone Summer Festival) is back with a lineup of artists and activities that’s more exciting than ever.

The 33rd edition will take place from June 15 to 25 at multiple indoor and outdoor venues in Vancouver and North Vancouver. Along with resuming real-life performances, the festival will still be providing streaming options for those who prefer virtually attending events.

The 11-day celebration provides francophones and francophiles with a unique cultural experience that includes an eclectic mix of concerts from Canadian artists. There will also be several kid-friendly activities and a selection of food trucks serving up delicious eats to those who’ve worked up an appetite.

Festival d’été francophone de Vancouver

kicks off with an opening show on June 15, featuring hip-hop enthusiast, songwriter, and musician Missy D from B.C. Quebecbased rapper FouKi will also grace the stage, where fans are likely hoping he’ll perform his latest single, “Poutine Sauce”. The event will be held indoor at Studio 16 (1555 West 7th Avenue) and is scheduled to start at 8 p.m.

Studio 16 will also showcase performances by other talented Canadian artists, including Bellows and Strings, Marie-Clo x éemi, and Arnaud Granoux.

The kid-friendly afternoon festival, with performances and activities, will take place at the outdoor stage on West 7th Avenue between Granville and Fir streets on June 18. That evening, Klô Pelgag and Coeur de Pirate will perform at 7 p.m., and food trucks will also be on-site.

Free events include an indoor show on June 24 at the Croatian Cultural Centre (3250 Commercial Drive), where Vallée des Loups and Joyce N’sana will entertain audiences. And on June 25, N’sana and guests will take over Civic Plaza (126 14th Street West) in North Vancouver for another free performance in the sunshine.

If you’re part of the French-speaking community in B.C. or simply have a passion for francophone artists and live music, this festival is not to be missed. g JUNE 15-25

JU

IN

INFO - BILLETS - TICKETS SCANNEZ M

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Touchstone Theatre presents the world premiere of Morag, You’re a Long Time Deid from June 9 to 19 at the Russian Hall. The opening takes place on June 10.

JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

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SUMMER ARTS

VIVA and Max Wyman awards announced for 2022

T

by Martin Dunphy

he Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation has announced the winners of 2022’s VIVA and Max Wyman awards.

This year’s two VIVA prizes have been awarded to artists Jan Wade and Charles Campbell; UBC professor and contemporary-art curator Scott Watson received the Max Wyman Award for Critical Writing.

The VIVA Awards—founded in 1988 to advance visual arts in B.C.—are worth $15,000 and are granted annually to mid-career B.C. artists who display “outstanding achievement and commitment” in their work.

(In years that the Shadbolt Foundation bestows the biannual Alvin Balkind Curator’s Prize, one VIVA prize is awarded;

two are awarded in the subsequent year.)

The Max Wyman award carries with it a $5,000 prize as well as a special emeraldand-gold pin designed by Robert Chaplin, a Vancouver artist and jeweller. It has been awarded by the Yosef Wosk Family Foundation in collaboration with the Shadbolt Foundation since 2021 and was founded by philanthropist Wosk in 2017 to honour Vancouver journalist, arts critic, and author Max Wyman.

A Shadbolt Foundation release said that the award recognizes “informed and compelling writing that stimulates critical thinking, fosters ongoing discussion about the role of arts and culture in contemporary society, and demonstrates the value of

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VANCOUVER INTER-CULTURAL ORCHESTRA

2001 2021

VANCOUVER ERHU QUARTET AND 88 STRINGS

MONTREAL’S ENSEMBLE PARAMIRABO

VICO WITH CONDUCTOR AYYUB GULIYEV

AZERBAIJANI TAR VIRTUOSO RAMIZ GULIYEV

Artist Jan Wade’s work was recently shown at the VAG. Photo by Thelonius Dule Mthombeni.

creative commentary in our understanding of the world around us”.

Wade, an African Canadian painter and textile artist who creates mixed-media assemblages as well as text pieces, moved to Vancouver from Hamilton, Ontario, in 1983.

The foundation release noted that her works—often made of recycled and found materials such as “antique buttons, coins, shells, Scrabble tiles, pop-culture figurines, and religious symbols”—are heavily influenced by the musical traditions of blues and jazz.

GLOBAL SOUNDSCAPES FESTIVAL JUNE 9 – 12 20 22

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Before Wade’s recent solo Vancouver Art Gallery show, Jan Wade: Soul Power, she exhibited mainly in small public galleries throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Victoria-based multidisciplinary artist and writer/educator Campbell is a former chief curator of the National Gallery of Jamaica and presently holds the title of adjunct curator with Charlottetown’s Confederation Centre Art Gallery.

Historical slavery and colonialism in the Caribbean region informs much of his work. Campbell, who was born in Jamaica and raised on Prince Edward Island, is presently studying B.C.’s Black pioneers.

UBC professor, writer, and curator Watson—who is a director emeritus and research fellow at UBC’s Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery—has won curatorial and writing awards, among other distinctions, during his more than three decades of professional work.

The Max Wyman jury citation reads, in part, “...his informed and accessible curatorial commentaries lead the viewer not only to fresh insights about the work under discussion but also, more generally, fresh understanding of art’s relationship with contemporary society” g

SUMMER ARTS

Indian Summer booked Aftab before Grammy fame

T

by Charlie Smith

he cofounder and artistic director of Indian Summer has a new take on hybridity two years into the pandemic. The term is often used in connection with performing-arts events that are offered live and online.

“I think there was a lot of excitement about the word hybridity,” Sirish Rao tells the Straight by phone. “Hybridity is a super-exciting state, but sometimes it can feel a bit like quicksand.”

But there’s also a positive side of hybridity that’s definitely not quicksand, he adds. This type of hybridity is linked to the cross-pollination of artistic influences rather than the hassle of putting events on live and online simultaneously.

And for Rao, it’s epitomized by Arooj Aftab, a rising star whom he’s bringing to Vancouver on July 13 as part of the Indian Summer Festival. The Brooklyn-based Grammy winner was born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents and went on to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

“She’s grown up listening to Abida Parveen and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan but also listening to Jeff Buckley and Leonard Cohen,” Rao says. “So you can feel in her voice this inheritance of that kind of incredible soul of

I listened to it and it was so beautiful and so gorgeous – Sirish Rao

Brooklyn musician Arooj Aftab counts two presidents as fans. Photo by Blythe Thomas.

someone like Abida Parveen and then her own jazzy singer-songwritery feel.”

Jarrett Martineau, the nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) and Dene Sųłiné curator in residence at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, is a longtime collaborator with the Indian Summer Festival. Rao says that Martineau drew his attention to Aftab in

late 2020 or early 2021.

“He sent her work, saying, ‘Listen to this new artist who I think is going somewhere.’ And I always call Jarrett the soothsayer,” Rao quips. “I listened to it and it was so beautiful and so gorgeous.”

This was well before Aftab showed up on the playlist of former U.S. president Barack Obama. It was long in advance of her receiving a 2022 Grammy nomination for best new artist following release of her Vulture Prince album. One of the tracks, “Mohabbat”, captured the 2022 Grammy for best global performance.

A month later, on May 2, Aftab joined

With Generous Support By:

The Indian Summer Festival presents Arooj Aftab at the Chan Shun Concert Hall in the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on July 13.

Supporting Sponsor:

Jane Irwin and Ross Hill The Poseley Family Rick Erickson and Donna Partridge Additional Support from:

President Joe Biden in a celebration of Eid al-Fitr at the White House.

Rao describes Vulture Prince as part experimental electronic, part jazz, and part qawwali music. He’s especially impressed by her song “Udhero Na”, which, in Aftab’s words, decribes an underrated, unique, and fleeting emotional moment—“when the thought of someone from a very old and ‘passed’ relationship just pops into your head as you go about your present day-to-day”.

Rao mentions that this song also appeals to him because it’s a collaboration with another artist who defies categorization: Anoushka Shankar. She’s another Grammy winner and paragon of hybridity who has appeared at previous Indian Summer Festivals.

For Rao, it’s only fitting that Aftab will perform in the Chan Centre, which has such outstanding acoustics. And he says that her presence in Vancouver will fit into Indian Summer Festival’s 2022 theme of exploring inner and outer climates.

“Arooj very much speaks to our inner climate of our emotions,” Rao states. g

AI Youth Programs Sponsor: The Dr. Michael Smith Science Fair Endowment

Media Partners:

The S.M. Blair Family Foundation

The Imitation Game: Visual Culture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence is organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Bruce Grenville, Senior Curator and Glenn Entis, Guest Curator Scott Eaton, Entangled II, 2019, 4k video (still), Courtesy of the Artist

JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

VANARTGALLERY.BC.CA

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ARTS LISTINGS

ONGOING

THE IMITATION GAME: VISUAL CULTURE IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Exhibition surveys the extraordinary uses (and abuses) of AI in the production of modern and contemporary visual culture around the world. To Oct 23, Vancouver Art Gallery.

XICANX: DREAMERS + CHANGEMAKERS / SOÑADORES + CREADORES DEL CAMBIO Exhibition showcases, for the first time in Canada, the rich traditions of 33 Xicanx artists. To Jan 1, Museum of Anthropology at UBC. ALEXANDER GLYADYELOV: GATHERING DARKNESS Photographs of Russia's war on Ukraine by Alexander Glyadvelov. To Jul 3, Polygon Gallery.

REVOLVER FESTIVAL Twelve-day theatre festival featuring new works by emerging to early mid-career artists. To Jun 5, The Cultch. $22.

THE MOUNTAINTOP Katori Hall's intimate fantasia of the final night of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life. To Jun 11, 8-9:30 pm, Pacific Theatre. $15-$35.

S'EFFONDRENT LES VIDÉOCLUBS Four marginal and whimsical characters intersect at a video club in the village of St-François-Xavier de Brompton. To Jun 4, 8-10 pm, Studio 16. $26-30.

NEW SOCIETIES Players are placed in groups to compete against or collaborate with each other in order to build their ideal society. Jun 1-5, Progress Lab 1422. Pay what you decide.

TERMINUS A blackly comic vision of Dublin infested with demons, from the author of Howie the Rookie.

Jun 1-12, 7:30 pm, Pal Studio Theatre. $30.

THURSDAY, JUNE 2 THIS IS THE STORY OF THE CHILD RULED BY FEAR Pi Theatre presents a story about worry and wonder, loneliness and community, beauty and fear. Jun 2-4, KW Studios. $25.

EXIT LAUGHING North Vancouver Community Players present a comedy written by Paul Elliott. Jun 2-18, The Theatre at Hendry Hall. $20/$18.

VSO/JAMES EHNES PLAYS BEETHOVEN The Vancouver Symphony and James Ehnes perform Beethoven. Jun 2, 7:30 pm, Orpheum Theatre.

KILL THE RIPPER Fairlith Harvey's darkly comic, female-led, Victorian revenge fantasy. Jun 2-4, 7:30 pm, Presentation House Theatre. $30/$25/$18/$15.

FRIDAY, JUNE 3

Credit: Javier R. Sotres

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

GHOSTS OF THE MACHINE An exhibition about humans, technology, and ecology, curated by Elliott Ramsey. Jun 3–Aug 14, Polygon Gallery.

C/4: CANADIAN CHORAL COMPOSITION COMPETITION Go behind the scenes with Chor Leoni and three Canadian composers in an interactive evening of exploration and connection. Jun 3, 7:30 pm, St. Andrew's–Wesley United Church. $35.

SATURDAY, JUNE 4 VSO DAY OF MUSIC A day-long celebration of music, with free live in-person concerts, open rehearsals, and family-friendly activities. Jun 4, 10 am–10 pm, Vancouver Downtown. Free.

CARRY ME HOME: A LIVE & VIRTUAL JOURNEY Live show combines the virtual worlds of dreams, storytelling, acrobatics, dance, and music. Jun 4, 1 pm, 6 pm, Animatrik Film Design. $10-$25.

SUNDAY, JUNE 5 VSO/BEETHOVEN LIVES UPSTAIRS The Vancouver Symphony performs its final Kids Concert of the 2021-2022 season. Jun 5, 2 pm, Orpheum Theatre. $16.90-$28.33.

THURSDAY, JUNE 9 GLOBAL SOUNDSCAPES FESTIVAL 2022 The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra presents four nights of inter-cultural artistry, including performances by Montreal’s Ensemble Paramirabo and Azerbaijani tar virtuoso Ramiz Guliyev. Jun 9-12, The Cultch. $30-$50.

MORAG, YOU'RE A LONG TIME DEID Experimental musical traces a journey of queer discovery through

the remixing of traditional Scottish music. Jun 9-19, Russian Hall. $10 to $75.

KINKY BOOTS Tony Award–winning musical that celebrates compassion and acceptance. Jun 9–Jul 31, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. From $43.

FRIDAY, JUNE 10 VSO/STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI IN CONCERT The Vancouver Symphony performs the epic score live with the film. Jun 10-11 & Jul 6-7, 7:30 pm, Orpheum Theatre.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22 STORY, STORY, DIE. DanceHouse presents the West Coast premiere of winter guests’ evocative work, choreographed by artistic director Alan Lucien Øyen, Jun 22-23, Vancouver Playhouse.

THURSDAY, JUNE 23 SOUND OF DRAGON MUSIC FESTIVAL 2022 Various cross-cultural music events, in-person and online, including Inuit and Mongolian throat singing and Taiwanese folk music fused with jazz. Jun 23-26, Orpheum Annex.

FRIDAY, JUNE 24 TD VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL The Coastal Jazz & Blues Society presents top-name musicians from across the globe at various Vancouver locations. Featured performers include Buddy Guy and Lucinda Williams. Jun 24–Jul 3.

THE DAYS Duet created by English choreographer Theo Clinkard in collaboration with Finnish dancers Maria Nurmela and Ville Oinonen. Jun 24-25, 8 pm, Scotiabank Dance Centre. $34/$25.

SATURDAY, JULY 2 THEATRE UNDER THE STARS TUTS presents performances of the musicals Something Rotten! and We Will Rock You, running alternate evenings.

Jul 2–Aug 27, Malkin Bowl.

SYMPHONY AT SUNSET Music director Otto Tausk leads the Vancouver Symphony in an open-air concert. Jul 2, 7 pm, Sunset Beach Park. Free.

MONDAY, JULY 4 ARTS UMBRELLA SUMMER SESSION Summer programs in art, design, dance, theatre, music, and film for young people aged three to 19. Jul 4–Aug 26, Arts Umbrella.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 13 VSO/HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 IN CONCERT The Vancouver Symphony performs Alexandre Desplat's epic score live-topicture. Jul 13-15, 7:30 pm, Orpheum Theatre.

FRIDAY, JULY 15 VANCOUVER FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL Communitybased celebration of folk and roots music features artists from Korea, Chile, Mexico, Taiwan, India, Finland, the USA, and Canada. Jul 15-17, 3-11 pm, Jericho Beach Park. $46.97-$221.58.

SATURDAY, JULY 16 THE VSO AT DEER LAKE The Vancouver Symphony performs a free, open-air concert in Burnaby. Jul 16, 7 pm, Deer Lake Park. Free.

TUESDAY, JULY 26 RONDEAU Fundraiser for Early Music Vancouver features master of ceremonies Bill Richardson, poet Fiona Tinwei Lam, and musicians David Greenberg, David McGuinness, and Lucas Harris. Jul 26, Sage Bistro. $225.

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.

MUSIC

Old Soul Rebel is not afraid to crank the guitars

by Steve Newton

tions, with the top-billed Arkells.

The recent heightening of the duo’s profile, gigwise, isn’t the result of getting signed by any hot-shot management firm or anything.

“Well, that’s just another highlight: that somehow Chelsea and I have been managing ourselves and doing it, I think, rather successfully,” Whyte says. “We’ve had a lot of really great offers, but we just think that we know ourselves best, and we’d like to guide our own careers.”

One of the upcoming concerts Old Soul Rebel is most excited about playing is a show on Granville Island on June 24 that’s copresented by the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival and the Talking Stick

35th Annual

Chelsea D.E. Johnson (left) and Lola Whyte are Old Soul Rebel, a self-managed soul-rock duo that is on the rise thanks to wicked vocals, sharp songwriting, and a willingness to crank it up.

W

handles the duo’s six-string action. “You know, I grew up with rock ’n’ roll, blues, B. B. King, Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground, Mountain—I just really like the crunch of guitar and rhythm. So once I started playing electric, it was kinda like, ‘Let’s turn up,’ and all of those influences came in. Jimi Hendrix is definitely in there. I don’t roll like him, but in my mind I’m serving what he’s serving.”

On killer tracks like “One Day” and “Runs in the Family”, Johnson’s gutsy guitarwork shines, but then so does Whyte’s tasty banjo playing. It wasn’t as if the latter learned to play the instrument after hours of studying banjo greats like Earl Scruggs or Ralph Stanley, though.

“Who do I take my banjo licks from?” she ponders. “I mean, I actually got inspired to pick up the banjo from an ex-girlfriend I was dating, around the same time I met Chelsea.

And so I had already been playing guitar for many years, and I think just being in the music industry, you know, you are who you hang out with, and if everyone around you is great at what they’re doing, then eventually you want to be just as great. So I definitely had to work at it. And I’m not the best lead guitar–slash–banjo player, but...”

As far as future recording goes, Old Soul Rebel say that they’ve been contacted by Matthew “Slim” Moon, founder of the American independent music label Kill Rock Stars, about working on their next single. In the meantime, highlights of their career so far include getting booked for upcoming festivals featuring acts like the Black Pumas (the Squamish Constellation Festival) and the Wu-Tang Clan (the Laketown Shakedown in Lake Cowichan). On July 1, they’ll be taking part in the free Surrey Canada Day celebra-

Old Soul Rebel performs at Granville Island’s Ocean Art Works Pavilion on June 24 as part of the Talking Stick Festival and the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

Follow Your Folk!

Artwork by Serena Trinder

hen Lola Whyte and Chelsea D. E. Johnson first met in 2014, through mutual friends and musicians on Commercial Drive, it was a marriage made in soul-rock heaven. Whyte had discovered her love of music at age five, teaching herself how to play “Greensleeves” on the organ, before buying her first tape—an Aretha Franklin cassette—at 16. Johnson had grown up in a musical family, loving rock and blues and singing in the gospel choir her mom had put together. Then there was the convergence of Whyte’s First Nations and Johnson’s African American backgrounds.

“Well, rock ’n’ roll is the fusion of Black and Indigenous people,” Johnson posits from East Van during a conference call, with Whyte chiming in from Squamish, “so I think just us playing music together is kind of our ancestors communicating, for sure.

And because we talk about our human experience, the experience of being a Black or Indigenous person kind of just rains through with the topics that end up getting brought up, just from us being us, and collaborating.”

A year or two after connecting, the two musicians formed Old Soul Rebel, which CBC Radio quickly named one of Canada’s best new bands. And judging by the sound of the self-titled five-track EP the duo released last year, that assessment was bang on. Recorded at the Tragically Hip’s Bathouse Studio in Bath, Ontario and “ghost produced” by the Hip’s longtime tech guy, Dave “Billy Ray” Koster, it shows both Whyte and Johnson to be stunningly soulful singers. And on the opening track, “Old Soul Rebel”, it’s nice to hear that they aren’t afraid to crank up the guitars.

“Hell, yeah!” declares Johnson, who

Festival, the latter of which runs from June 12 to July 3 at various Vancouver venues.

“We love the Talking Stick Festival,” Whyte notes. “A few years ago, a friend of ours, Zaccheus Jackson, was running it, and because he’s since passed, it just has so much power along with it. And now with Nimkish and Rob [artistic producers Nimkish Younging and Rob Thomson] running the festival, and all the other beautiful people that are a part of it, it has a heavy place in our hearts for sure.” g

Concerts | Workshops | Family Fun | Camping | Artisan Market | Food

William Prince (MB) • Le Winston Band (QC) • Shred Kelly (BC) • Aysanabee (ON) Shakura S’Aida (ON) • Golosa La Orquesta (Chile) • The McDades (AB/QC) Kanatal (Taiwan) • Ronnie Dean Harris (BC) • Clerel (Cameroon/QC) Puuluup (Estonia) • Amanda Rheaume (ON) • Lonesome Town Painters (BC) Graham Lindsey (ON) • Robert Sarazin Blake (WA) • Good Medicine Songs (BC) The Crescent Sky (BC) • Quote the Raven (NL) • Stongbow and Wry (BC) • Strangely (WA)

missionfolkmusicfestival.ca JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

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MUSIC

Vancouver and Mission deliver folk for a new era

M

by Mike Usinger

ore than ever, we live in a time when musical lines are being blurred—where there’s nothing strange about acts pledging allegiance to multiple sonic flags.

Remember when Bob Dylan outraged audiences at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival by arriving onstage with an electric guitar and full backing band? Today he’d be lauded if he showed up hell-bent on combining the best parts of African rumba giant Franco, indie-saddo Phoebe Bridgers, and rock agitators Rage Against the Machine.

The spirit of artists interested in pushing boundaries is reflected in the lineups of the 2022 editions of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival and the Mission Folk Music

Festival. Yes, there are plenty of traditionalists in the two fests, both making a welcome return to action after two years where COVID-19 disrupted the world as we once knew it. But with things finally getting back to some sense of normalcy, now’s clearly the time to look to the future while also embracing the past.

It’s symbolic that one of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival’s featured performers this year is Allison Russell, whose powerful 2021 solo debut Outside Child embraced everything from torch-song jazz to Memphis soul to sepia-toned folk. Vancouverites first got to know Russell as a member of the scrappy folk duo Po’Girl, while America discovered her brilliance with the gospel-

Allison Russell’s genre-jumping approach to music makes her perfect for the Vancouver Folk Festival.

tinted Birds of Chicago. Outside Child finds the singer exorcising past demons with songs that suggest her record shelves are stacked with best-of collections from not only Blue Note and Stax, but also Matador, Saddle Creek, and Beggars Banquet.

Fellow mainstage performers the New Pornographers took all of one album—2000’s Mass Romantic—to establish themselves as indie-rock heavyweights.

The Neko Case-penned “Letter From an Occupant” is the song that put the Vancouver-launched supergroup on the playlists of discerning pop fans. And 2010’s Together is the record that made it clear the New Pornographers were a rarity: a band that actually gets better with each album.

On the legacy-headliners side of things, the Vancouver Folk Music festival will feature venerable blues icon Taj Mahal, jazzinfluenced guitar wizard Robben Ford, and Austin Western-swing vets Asleep at the Wheel. Just as exciting and noteworthy are next-generation talents like Portland DIY upstart Haley Heynderickx, Finnish folk fusionists VILDÁ, and Korean ambient experimentalists Sinnoi. (For the full lineup and ticket prices, go to thefestival.bc.ca.)

If there’s a dark-horse candidate for Vancouver Folk Music Festival standout of 2022 it’s the great Alejandro Escovedo, who knows something about taking inspiration from all sections of the record store. First surfacing as a member of San Francisco first-wave punks the Nuns, Escovedo later helped invent cowpunk with trailblazers Rank and File before heading out on his own as a solo artist. Over the decades his gold-star records have drawn on everyone from rock rebels the Stooges to country outlaws like Townes Van Zandt.

Come armed with Kleenex, because if Escovedo draws up a set list that includes “Pissed Off 2 AM”, “Wave” and “Last to Know”, you will find yourself crying no matter how hard you try to keep it together.

Idyllic and chill are two great starting points for what to expect at the Mission Folk 20

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

Music Festival, located in beautiful Fraser River Heritage Park. And so is boundary pushing, with Fernie-spawned Shred Kelly drawing on gold-soundz college rock and anthemic indie-pop, Clerel bridging MOR with Sunday morning soul, and the McDades proving not all Albertans wear cowboy hats with their rollicking Celtic jazz.

Gunslinger country fans can look forward to Bellingham’s Robert Sarazin Blake, while Vancouver’s Lonesome Town Painters do bluegrass like they were raised in the American South. (For the full lineup and ticket prices, go to missionfolkmusicfestival.ca.)

Driving home the importance of seeing the world as a global village, the Mission Folk Music Festival’s international guests include technicolor Latin roots renegades Golosa La Orquesta, whose origins lie in the vibrant underground of Santiago, Chile. Taiwan’s Kanatal combines Indigenous folk with Asian pop and softfocus electronica. And multilingual Shakura S’Aida—who was born in Brooklyn, raised in Switzerland, and now calls Toronto home—comes at the Memphis blues from a uniquely global perspective.

For traditionalists for whom folk will always be about acoustic guitars and socially conscious lyrics that uplift while educating, the Mission Folk Festival isn’t lacking.

Peguis First Nation singer-guitarist William Prince tackles issues like colonialism, faith, and trauma on his profoundly moving new album Gospel First Nation, and Newfoundland’s Quote the Raven takes a gorgeously honey-dipped approach to acoustic Americana.

What do all of the above artists at both the Mission Folk Music Festival and Vancouver Folk Musical Festival have in common? That one’s easy: no one’s going to suggest that they would be a welcome warm-up act for Bob Dylan at Newport back on that famous afternoon in 1965. But, more importantly, there’s no denying that they all belong under the folk umbrella today. g

MUSIC

Sadly, there’s still a need for Rock Against Racism

A

by Mike Usinger

lmost a half-century ago, when punk rock was first entrenching itself on the shores of the West Coast, nuclear war, the struggles of the working class, and systemic racism all served as lyrical flashpoints.

Ask yourself how much has changed in 2022. Thanks to Vladimir Putin, the threat of a nuclear catastrophe looms over the planet, owning a house in Vancouver is a sad pipe dream for those not named Howard Hamlin, and tragedies like George Floyd continue to make horrific headlines.

Need further evidence that the more things change, the more they remain the same?

In 1978 D.O.A. played one of the first Rock Against Racism concerts in Vancouver,

with a Smilin’ Buddha show on May 8 funding an appearance at a massive R.A.R. Anti-Nazi Rally later that year.

On June 4 D.O.A. will stage a Rock Against Racism benefit at the Rickshaw Theatre, with all benefits going to local organizations that have devoted their efforts to making the world a more tolerant place. In addition to headliner D.O.A., the evening features Roots Round Up, Kàrá-Kàtá Afrobeat Group, Buckman Coe, China Syndrome, and the Asian Persuasion All Stars.

In announcing the benefit, D.O.A. founder and mainstay Joe Keithley said, “We are in a tough and unsettled time right now and as we have gone through the pandemic we have seen ra-

Those rallies were a great success and they motivated people…

– Joe Keithley

cism grow in Canada, to the point where racist organizations are seemingly getting stronger. So as a way of trying to fight this scourge I thought back to the Rock Against Racism rallies that D.O.A. played on in the late 1970’s.

“Those rallies were a great success and they motivated people to stand up to this kind of BS,” he continued. “So the Rickshaw Theatre and I have asked musicians to join this cause,” he continues. “I really believe this will work because music has always had the effect of making us stronger and it has the power of healing at the same time.”

Groups benefiting from the Rickshaw fundraiser will include Nation Skates Youth, South Burnaby Metro Club, Urban Native Youth Association, Aboriginal Mothers Centre, and Kàrá-Kàtá African Village.

For those who need a quick history lesson, Eric Clapton was—for all the wrong reasons—the man who inspired the very first Rock Against Racism concert in England.

At a concert on August 5, 1976, a drunken Clapton told the audience, “I think we should send them all back,” arguing that Britain was in danger of becoming a “Black colony”.

Just weeks later Carol Grimes played the initial RAR show in a London pub, followed by a slew of U.K. concerts that matched reggae giants like Aswad and Steel Pulse playing with punk provocateurs like the Slits, Stiff Little Fingers, and Generation X. As for today, all you need to think of is the Black Lives Matter movement to get a handle on why the Rock Against Racism movement endures today.

For more information on Rock Against Racism at the Rickshaw, visit RickshawTheatre.com. g

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

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I’ve told him he shouldn’t do that because I was never officially his girlfriend.

For 99.999 percent of the time I’ve known him, we’ve been friends, compared to the .001 percent of the time when we

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3272 W. Broadway (& Blenheim)

604-558-1608 WWW.

COMFYSPA.CA

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Newly Renovated.

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Validated parking at rear.

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Pls. call for Appt. & Details.

Call 604-568-2248

STRAIGHT 25 – JULY 2 /2 2020 2 THE 22 GEORGIA THE GEORGIA STRJUNE AIGHT JUNE – 9 / 2022

Vancouver Saturday June 11

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Celebrating 25 Years! Best Experience!

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2525 Arbutus Street Van.

604-738-3302

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604-805-1342

Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. Email: questions@savagelove.net. Listen to Dan on the Savage Lovecast. Columns, podcasts, books, merch, and more at savage.love. To read other letters by a 31-year-old queer person who recently met a wealthy 46-year-old man and by a kinky gay man with a belief in God, please visit Straight.com.

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March with us in the fight against Canada’s unjust prostitution laws!

jamesenash54@gmail.com

He may not be doing it knowingly, but he’s doing it just the same, and it’s a shitty thing to do to a friend. And the next time he does it, NHG, object and object loudly: “Don’t be ridiculous! I was never your girlfriend!” g

10th Annual Red Umbrella March

2 P.M. VANCOUVER ART GALLERY, ROBSON ST

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2583 Kingsway (near Slocan) | 604.428.2002

AMNESTY International

www.amnesty.ca

MANSION one

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$180 / 7 HRS (Only $25/HR) $67 (Tip inc.) 2 for 1 Free $10 Off!

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8642 Granville & 71 Ave., Van. 10AM MIDNIGHT

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872 Seymour St. Downtown, Vancouver

at our new pop-up location at

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3958 Main Street!

MASSAGE

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$80/30 min (incl. tips)

Volunteer with

My Sister’s Closet

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HE: $80/30 MIN., $100/45 MIN., $120/60 MIN.

E S T A B L I S H E D 19 9 3 HIRING: 778.893.4439

FREE PARKING AT REAR

(HIRING 604.376.7218)

NEW HOURS as of April 1st 11am - Midnight ( SINCE 1973 )

JUNE THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT23 3 JUNE 2 –259 –/ JULY 20222 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

An authentic Irish experience, in the heart of Vancouver.

Donnellan's

Smith's of Gastown

Shamrock

1082 Granville Street

208 Carrall Street

1184 Denman Street

Donnellan's is said to be the most authentic Irish pub experience outside of Ireland.

Located in the heart of Gastown, Smith's is where tradition meets good company.

The Shamrock is described as the West End's coziest neighborhood pub.

Every detail that goes into this space has been curated to bring our Irish friends from abroad a little closer to home.

Sing along to live music in the bar, catch up in our snugs in the lounge, or enjoy our private hidden bar; The Forge.

A variety of live music, draft beers and the best Sunday Session in Vancouver leaves our customers coming back for more.

donnellansirishpub.com @donnellansirishpub

smithsofgastown.ca @smithsofgastown

theshamrock.ca @shamrockbar_

www.irlgroup.ca

24

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

JUNE 2 – 9 / 2022

+1 (778) 328 1884

info@irlgroup.ca