COVER

ARTS Powell Street Festival pays homage to the spirits

Now in its 45th year, this celebration of Japanese Canadians remains a beacon of social justice and equality

by Charlie Smith

The members of Onibana Taiko are old hands when it comes to drumming. With more than 100 years of experience between them, the trio of E. Kage, Noriko Kobayashi, and Leslie Komori have performed their original and Japanese traditional works in many venues with their much-admired feminist, queer, punk aesthetic.

But on the B.C. Day weekend, they’re going to participate in something that’s never been done in Vancouver before: a 29.5hour durational drumming marathon on the roof of the Vancouver Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall in the 400 block of Alexander Street. Led by Kage, this ceremonial taiko event will begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday (July 31), carry on through the night and the next day, before ending at the conclusion of the Powell Street Festival at 6 p.m. on Sunday (August 1).

“We see it as a healing ceremony because drumming is healing,” Kage told the Georgia Straight by phone. “We are doing it in the Downtown Eastside because that is an area that has been hit with an overdose crisis. There’s poverty, displacement, and homelessness going on there.”

Not only that, the neighbourhood once known as Paueru Gai—the Japanese translation of Powell Street—used to be home to a thriving community of Japanese Canadians. That was before the residents of Japanese ancestry were stripped of their possessions during the Second World War and sent to internment camps and work farms far away from the West Coast.

On the roof of the language school and hall, there will be several elders who will be invited to speak as the drumming is taking place, with the volume being brought far lower at those times so that their words can be heard. And yes, Kage conceded, this ceremonial durational drumming can be seen as honouring the spirits of those former residents of the neighbourhood who are no longer alive.

“We often do a participatory obon dance, which is the dance to celebrate and honour the spirits who go to die—our ancestors,” Kage said.

Onibana Taiko won’t be the only group participating—other taiko drummers have also registered to perform, each for up to six hours.

“Those of us who have signed up to drum are very excited,” Kage said. “It’s kind of like a challenge—how long can we last?”

This year, the Powell Street Festival is celebrating its 45th anniversary but because of the pandemic, there won’t be any large public gatherings. But for anyone who visits the Powell Street Festival website, there are more than 100 ways to enjoy the festival through online discussions, artistic events, and community engagement. Throughout its history, this festival has never become commercialized, retaining its quirky grassroots sensibility while advancing social justice, LGBT+ equality, and topnotch arts and cultural events.

As an example of “quirky grassroots sensibility”, the festival commissioned the Paueru Mashup in 2020 with music composed by Onibana Taiko and choreography by Company 605. Riffing on traditional Tanko Bushi dance and Radio Taiso morning exercises, it’s a collective line dance that executive director Emiko Morita hopes will be embraced across North America in the coming years.

On July 31, to coincide with the public component of the festival, there’s going to be a flash-mob performance of the Paueru Mashup in Oppenheimer Park. In fact, lessons in the mashup have been offered in the park since it reopened earlier this year.

“We’ve also had people from across the country joining online lessons earlier in the spring,” Morita told the Straight.

The Paueru Mashup is a joyous dance, but a serious message lies underneath. Morita said that she recently learned a Japanese word, furusato, which means “hometown”.

“It’s the village that your family comes from,” she explained. “Maybe you weren’t even born there but it’s your furusato. And Powell Street is that for many people right across the country who have Japanese heritage.”

Powell Street, or Paueru Gai, is certainly Morita’s furusato. Her immigrants grandparents had restaurants on Alexander Street and Powell Street before they were shipped to an internment camp in the B.C. Interior community of Greenwood. That’s where her father was born.

For Morita, it was an emotional event returning to Oppenheimer Park to practise the dance. “We had a Japanese senior out and we had community park patrons joining us,” she recalled. “The composition is fantastic.”

Powell Street Festival organizers also collected folded origami daruma (a traditional doll of the founder of Zen Buddhism) in the park in advance of its Daruma Community Art Installation Campaign.

It’s another sign that they’re very conscious of the need to involve members of the Downtown Eastside in their event. Like the organizers’ ancestors, Downtown Eastside residents are also facing the possibility of displacement, only this time around it’s more often on the basis of poverty. Every weekday since the pandemic, the festival has funded the preparation and delivery of 200 meals through the WePress Community Kitchen.

That’s not all. Prior to the pandemic, when the festival set up in Oppenheimer Park, it hired local residents to keep an eye on the site overnight.

“We don’t hire commercial security teams,” Morita said. “We rely on the local residents because they know everybody in the park. They understand the dynamics and they can teach us how to understand and support people who might be agitated.”

Kage, the taiko drummer, knows all about the festival’s progressive history, pointing out that the settlers of Japanese ancestry were living on stolen Indigenous land. And Kage, who prefers being called by the pronoun “they”, noted that Japanese Canadians weren’t the only people who’ve been kicked out.

Onibana Taiko members Leslie Komori, E. Kage, and Noriko Kobayashi are getting ready for their first rooftop performance. Photo by Toonasa.

Powell Street Festival is my Pride. It’s always been my Pride.

– Onibana Taiko member E. Kage