The Navigator Vol 46 Issue 12

No 12

MAR. 11

MAR. 24

Vol 46

NAV I GATOR VANCOUVER ISLAND UNIVERSITY STUDENT PRESS

FREE

6

12

14

GENDER NEUTRAL BATHROOMS

SHANE KOYCZAN: WORD, SPOKEN

FLYING CIRCUS: YOUTH PRESENTS PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP

New gender neutral bathrooms throughout campus are helping to create a safer environment for students who identify outside the gender binary.

Internationally renowned spoken word artist, poet, and author Shane Koyczan is unlike anything you’ll find crossing over into the mainstream right now.

Making art out of climbing or circus, taking it to another level, and sharing the experience holds a place for beauty.

Contents

NEWS

04

05

06

07

Editorials

Thomas Mulcair visits Nanaimo

Proposed law could give ICBC “right to refuse” licenses due to unpaid debt

Humans of VIU is connecting students

Chemainus Secondary students and alumni work together to carve a traditional canoe

Gender neutral bathrooms now available on campus

First annual Festival Nanaimo coming in March

08

09

10

11

12

Salacious stories uncovered at Nanaimo Museum exhibit

Shane Koyczan ticket giveaway

Museum news: Coastal waters teem with herring

Museum news: Sights from the herring spawn

Shane Koyczan: word, spoken

The long commute: Homesickness

Natural world shines under Thoreau’s lens

14

16

17

18

Flying Circus: Nanaimo youth presents aerial and circus dance

In the flow zone with Karina Strong

Virtuoso pianist comes to Port Theatre

Teaching Canadian Literature Arts & Humanities Colloquium Talk

VIU’s Amazing Race

FEATURES

ARTS

Album review: I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty

SPORTS

19

20

21

22

Clippers one win away from advancing to Island final

14 questions with Mariners’ Ashley Van Acken and Megan Roselund

Buccaneers crowned by Glacier Kings

Odds and Ends Comics

Men’s basketball captures Provincial gold

Women’s volleyball rallies for Provincial gold

Men’s volleyball captures Provincial bronze Women’s basketball captures bronze, prepares for Nationals

02 CONTENTS

THE NAVIGATOR

No 12

Letters DEAD

LIN

TEN E EX

DED! CALL FOR RESUMES­—DEADLINE EXTENDED

We are hiring for next year!

Associate Editor

Assumes editorial responsibility for the features section (six pages); writes one editorial per issue; takes on the responsibilities of the managing editor when required; participates in copy editing for all sections and helps enter editorial changes on production weekend; participates in layout and assembly during production week; and calculates and presents an expense report to the business manager or bookkeeper detailing contributor payments for each issue.

News Editor

Assumes editorial responsibility for the news section (four pages); arranges for contributions, seeks out stories on campus that are timely and relevant to the student population of VIU, and edits submissions; monitors the editorial process for the news section and approves pages; gives approved pages to managing editor for final review; and participates in copy editing for all sections and helps enter editorial changes on production weekend.

Now accepting resumes for the September 2015 through April 2016 school year.

Deadline: Wednesday, March 26, 11:59 pm.

• Please submit resumes to The Navigator office, bldg 193, rm 217, or email <editor@thenav.ca>.

• The Navigator offers unparalleled work experience for students, a casual yet professional office environment, only two scheduled shifts per month, good times, and regular salary paycheques.

• For more information, call 250-753-2225 or email <editor@thenav.ca>.

Copy Editors

Assists the production manager during production week; edits contributors’ work for spelling, grammar, house style, content, and format; does fact checking as necessary; enters changes to text and saves the edited versions to the network files; proofs copy on production weekend; and checks copy for format and any errors.

Web Editor

Provides existing website with a fresh new look at the beginning of every volume; moves all articles from the print edition to the website between the time the paper is finalized (Sunday) and the time it meets the public (Wednesday); demonstrates above-average computing and communication skills; and possesses technical computer skills and can assist with troubleshooting, computer training, and maintenance of office computers.

Ad Sales Representatives

Assumes editorial responsibility for the A&E section (five pages); arranges for contributions, writes reviews and features, and edits A&E submissions; monitors the editorial process for the A&E section and approves pages; gives approved pages to managing editor for final review; participates in copy editing for all sections and helps enter editorial changes on production weekend; and maintains the events calendar.

Sells ads and meets sales goals under direction of business manager; seeks out new clients; makes sure each client is on the master ad list for each paper requested with the correct size and price for invoicing; possesses excellent time management skills and is selfmotivated; contacts clients far enough in advance so deadlines can be met, and paces themselves in order to provide quality client service; passes on information and materials from clients concerning ads to graphics staff, and directs construction of the ads; and sends proofs of the ads to the advertisers for confirmation.

Sports Editor

Art Director

Arts & Entertainment Editor

Assumes responsibility for the sports section (three pages); arranges for contributions, writes content for section, and edits submissions; and participates in copy editing for all sections and helps enter editorial changes on production weekend.

Production Manager

Oversees the process of organizing the paper for production; in case of illness of either the managing editor or the associate editor, the production editor fills in; schedules, co-ordinates, and tracks copy through the editorial and proofing process; using the Chicago Manual of Style, the Canadian Press Style Book, and CP Caps and Spelling as a guide, the production manager prepares editorial style sheets that outline house preferences regarding numbering, punctuation, spelling, and other text elements; and works with copy editors to edit contributors’ work during production week.

Produces or supervises the production of all graphics/ photos/illustrations that appear in the paper; designs, in consultation with the managing editor, the graphic elements of the newspaper and any signage or promotional material for the newspaper; supervises the layout of all articles in the paper; and trains and supervises the graphic design assistants.

Graphic Design Assistant

Works with the business manager on the production of ads for clients and assists art director as required.

No 12

Online Reporter

Responsible for making sure content is frequently going up online so we can have timely, relevant news content going up as it happens; reports, edits, and uploads stories from Nanaimo’s community and VIU campus as they break; stories will be short and succinct and can cover any subject (news, sports, arts, and features); and has basic editing and Wordpress skills to copy edit and upload their own stories.

www. thenav .ca

THE NAVIGATOR WELCOMES READER CONTRIBUTIONS

Has strong video shooting and editing skills; produces fresh, new media for the web, including audio interviews, video street surveys, and entertaining short videos; and works with the section editors to provide video coverage for their stories.

All submissions must be original work of the author. Editors reserve the right to refuse submissions, and to edit for space or clarity.

Stephanie Brown Jessie Deeble Shanon Fenske Jennifer Garceau Alexis Deighton Harrison Brian Hill John Hill Arlen Hogarth Brian Kingzett Anthony Labonte James MacKinnon Ian McAllister Alyssa Morton Chantelle Spicer

Ensures Facebook and Twitter are constantly being updated and finds related work and media from other presses to retweet and connect with; works with web editor to make sure related new media is being included with the articles (links, related videos); plays an avid role in connecting The Navigator with student paper resources, such as Canadian University Press (CUP), Canadian Writer’s Association (CWA), and Free Media; and is proficient in Wordpress administration, Google Analytics, and other tracking mechanisms to calculate ROI of advertisement budget.

Multimedia Producer

• To submit, visit <www.thenav.ca> or email <editor@thenav.ca>.

CONTRIBUTORS

Social Media Manager

Letters to the editor should be no more than 400 words in length. The Navigator does not pay for letters. Opinions expressed in The Navigator are expressly those of the author and/or artist and do not reflect the views of The Navigator staff.

900 Fifth St. Bldg 193, rm 217 Nanaimo, BC, V9R 5S5 T: 250-753-2225 F: 250-753-2257

STAFF

Leah Myers Editor-in-Chief

Natalie Gates News Editor

Jessica Reid Graphic Designer

Molly Barrieau Online Reporter

Lynne Williams Bookkeeper

Rio Trenaman Art Director

Ben Chessor Sports Editor

Dahlia Yuen Graphic Designer

Brendan Barlow Social Media Sp.

Christine Franic Business Manager

Alexandria Stuart Associate Editor

Kelly Whiteside Production Manager

Shaina Bolduc Ad/Sales Rep

Antony Stevens Web Editor

Gareth Boyce Board President

Denisa Kraus Arts Editor

Molly Barrieau Senior Copy Editor

Gabby Flemming Ad/Sales Rep

Elissa Doerksen Multimedia Prod.

THE NAVIGATOR

LETTERS 03

Editorials

License, registration, and student loan status, please Leah Myers Editor-in-chief The Navigator Today is your graduation day: it’s June, the seagulls are squawking, and the sun is shining. Beautiful British Columbia has blessed you with good weather, great people, and a $50k debt for your Bachelor’s Degree, fitted with the highest interest rate in Canada. And now? A new law proposed by your provincial government that promises to whip your lazy ass into shape by revoking your driving privileges should you fail to pay back your student debt in a timely manner.

First off, let’s not forget that driving is, of course, a privilege. And if you’re a woman, you should really be grateful you live in a country that lends you a license at all.

Also, regardless of how many job postings list “Must have a valid driver’s license,” ensuring your potential employer that you have a valid bus pass certainly should do the trick.

Have you ever taken a bus in Nanaimo? If you’re lucky, you

can arrive at your destination hours earlier than you need to, with plenty of time to catch up on your readings. You’re definitely as literate as you claim to be on your resume.

So what are you so scared of, $50k under, BA graduate?

Don’t be worried about that limited job market or steady unemployment rate; with your education, you’ve gained enough personal skills to blow your 18-year-old competition out of the water during that barista interview. And if you don’t have an extra $300 left after your $10.25 an hour, 40 hour work week, try cutting grocery costs by only eating canned beans. The best thing to remember when you’re struggling to make ends meet is that you made a commitment to your government, and that your yearning for a higher education is purely a selfish pursuit, not one that is at all essential to become a contributing member of society.

So really, if you’re struggling to make student loan payments, you should be punished and treated like a criminal.

You’re basically in the same category as the other law-breakers who are eligible to have their driver’s licenses revoked: dead-beat dads who aren’t paying their child support, poachers, and dumpers.

Our esteemed Finance Minister, Mike de Jong, claims the proposed law will simply prosecute all those wealthy graduates who are maliciously ignoring their debt (from the Vancouver Sun): “For folks that graduate and get a job

and are working and decide they just don’t want to take their obligation to repay their student loan seriously, this would be a mechanism to remind them, on a fairly regular basis, they need to honour that obligation,” said de Jong.

Hear that, all you 20-somethings, riding around in your BMWs, neglecting to pay back your debt? Mr. de Jong is on to you!

In BC, you can commit almost any traffic violation and buy your way out of it if you have enough money, yet the government is proposing a law to take away licenses from struggling graduates, for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with their ability to drive, and everything to do with how much income they’re bringing in. Seems logical, though. If people don’t have enough sense to be well-done by, how can we trust them on our roads?

Regarding the proposal, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students BC, Zachary Crispin, argued that if ICBC takes away people’s driver’s licenses because they’re having a hard time paying back their student loan, they’re going to lose their job and default even more. But, you know, I disagree with that—instead of looking at the exorbitant cost of tuition as the root problem, we should just accept the reality: most kids graduating these days are lazy, entitled, and they deserve the consequences that come along with the right, er, privilege of education.

Cultural culture of entitlement Alexandria Stuart Associate Editor The Navigator

When I wrote about the whole Empire Days fiasco last issue, I touched on the City’s Cultural Grant Program and the relationship that some organizations have with this type of funding. In the case of the Nanaimo Empire Days Celebration Society (NEDCS), there was much lighting of hair on fire and beating of chests when the City declined the opportunity to dole out the free money that the society was accustomed to receiving. Since the City provided funding year after year, wasn’t it reasonable to expect that the trough would remain full indefinitely? No, it was not.

There’s a deeply ingrained culture of entitlement around cultural grant funding in this city.

I’ve worked for non-profit societies, and many do wonderful things—they enrich our communities, provide services and supports, and produce events and celebrations that we

wouldn’t have otherwise. Make no mistake—the work of non-profits is important, especially in the cultural sector, where for-profit ventures are the exception, not the rule. I know first-hand how difficult it can be to keep the wheels on when you rely on volunteers—on the good will and skills of unpaid volunteers—for the bulk of your operations.

However, by their very existence, do cultural organizations qualify for handouts?

Requesting grant money involves the filing of reports, detailed budgets, and financial statements. The City needs to know that last year’s grant funding provided programming, not a cruise to Cabo. Governed and operated largely by volunteers, things can change a lot from year to year, so it’s important to go through the process annually. Is the paperwork a pain? Yes, but it’s free money—you’ve gotta work for it. And just because an organization’s intentions earned it a grant the previous year, there’s no guarantee that they delivered, or that their plans for the coming year are necessarily worthy of support. It’s all got to be backed up on paper with numbers and things. And if an organization can’t pull itself together enough to meet the application requirements, to submit a complete grant application by the deadline, they’re out of the running. This isn’t rocket science—we’re all adults—and if they can’t manage to construct a reasonably clear budget and fill in all of the

blanks on the forms, why on earth would they be trusted with a wad of taxpayers’ money?

I’ve heard stories about applications that grant committees receive: incomplete, coffee-stained, held together by chewing gum, missing attachments, with a budget scrawled on the back of a beer coaster. (I exaggerate, but it’s not as far from the truth as you might think.) And these organizations continued to receive funding because, well, they always had.

In 2013, Council recognized that something was wrong.

After reviewing the process and funding criteria, they determined that the program needed to work more strategically and that grants needed to be attached to tangible returns. Policies to this end come into effect with the 2016 funding cycle, and the city has promised clear communication with organizations so it will be a smooth transition.

These are new developments, so it’s hard to know how the new process will look, but in the spirit of cautious optimism, let’s say that it will look better. That sense of entitlement will melt away. Organizations will be forced to operate professionally, demonstrate they’re getting excellent value for our tax dollars, and meeting their objectives to put some sort of good back into this world (or community, anyway). They’ll need to work for it because there’s no guarantee it will be there next time they put their hand out. As a taxpayer, I can live with that.

Join The Navigator Online SHARE YOUR NEWS TIPS #NEWSTIPS

FACEBOOK /THENAVIGATORNEWSPAPER

04 EDITORIALS

THENAV.CA

THE NAVIGATOR

TWITTER @THENAV_VIU

No 12

News

Thomas Mulcair speaks to the public about strenghtening the economy, jobs, and

Thomas Mulcair speaks to the public about strengthening the economy, jobs, and the environment.

Natalie Gates

Thomas Mulcair visits Nanaimo NATALIE GATES Federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair spoke about his platform at Nanaimo’s Coast Bastion Hotel on March 3.

“My only priority is to get rid of Stephen Harper’s conservatives and replace them with our progressives,” Mulcair said. “I could make Stephen Harper turn beet red in 35 seconds.”

Mulcair’s points of focus include strengthening jobs and the economy, supporting small businesses, promoting social programs, encouraging youth engagement, and ensuring environmentally friendly strategies.

“Without a social license, nothing gets built,” he said.

According to Mulcair, the NDP

THE NAVIGATOR are the only ones standing up to Bill C-51. “Liberals are against it but will vote for it,” he stated.

Mulcair stated the NDP believes Canadians deserve to have both a strong economy, as well as a healthy environment.

The NDP’s proposed plans include increasing environmental assessments and supporting small businesses.

80 percent of new jobs are created by small and medium businesses, which he said gives initiative to support them, Mulcair said. The tax rate would be lowered from 11 to nine percent for small and medium businesses.

“The NDP will fight tooth and

nail to determine a system where the size of a family’s income doesn’t determine whether they have health care,” Mulcair said.

Mulcair stated he would aim to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Mulcair also claimed the NDP will address the poor conditions on First Nations’ reserves and further promote equality.

When asked about the NDP’s stance on medical marijuana, Mulcair said the NDP will rely on evidence-based decision-making.

He stated the use of marijuana is a personal choice by an adult and that it would be decriminalized.

Mulcair said the NDP will tack-

le the issue of student debt and encourage young people to vote.

“When young people stay home, the right wing wins and democracy loses,” he said.

Mulcair concluded by quoting former NDP leader Jack Layton: “Never let them tell you what can’t be done,” he said.

The VIU Political Society presented Mulcair with a letter of recommendations put together by club members and other students who were polled on what they believe would make a great Prime Minister.

The list was as follows: • We would like to see your government oppose C-51 so students don’t feel afraid of future consequences

while participating in lawful protest.

• We would like to see polling stations at universities to make it easier to vote.

• We would like to see the NDP reduce child poverty in BC. • We would like to see education reform; Political Science should be taught at an early age from an unbiased source.

• We would like to see an emphasis on helping university grads with job placement.

• We would like to see stricter banking and corporate regulation to lessen the inequality in our country. Without this, our determination and belief in the system just isn’t there.

Chemainus Secondary students and alumni work together to carve a traditional canoe JESSIE DEEBLE

CONTRIBUTOR

Master Carver John Marston has dedicated the next three and a half months to carving a traditional Coast Salish canoe at Chemainus Secondary.

The Chemainus alumni is doing his part to help bring awareness to the students about the cultural diversity in their community.

Marston has been working towards this project since last year and has been discussing it with Katherine Reid, the now-retired Aboriginal Education teacher for the northern families at the school, and George Seymour, a Cultural Teaching Assistant for the northern families in the district.

They proposed the idea of doing a traditional Coast Salish carving where the students could participate hands-on and learn about the Coast Salish culture. The concept for the piece was tossed back and forth a few times before settling on the canoe. The process started with a blessing ceremony that was performed on a red cedar log by members of the local nations: Stz’uminus, Penelakut, Halalt, and Quw’utsun.

The canoe is a large part of the Coast Salish culture, Marston said. It’s what their ancestors used for transportation and how they fished.

No 12

Marston hopes the project will bring a group of people to work towards the same goal. Observation is open to the community, as well as students and staff at the school.

“It’s a vessel for unity,” said Marston.

The school is located on the borders of three Coast Salish nations, and Marston hopes to not only share his passion for carving with the school, but to peak the students’ interest in their community’s cultural diversity.

“It’s not about carving; it’s about my relationship with the students, the students’ relationship with the school and the school’s relationship with the community,” said Marston.

Marston works at the secondary school every Wednesday from 8:30 am-2 pm but, come March, he is hoping to be there more. March is also when the students will be able to work hands-on with the project.

Right now it’s a lot of observing and question-asking, Curriculum Coordinator for Aboriginal Education Dan Norman said. The first four days of work, Marston had to use a chainsaw; he has been roughing out the shape, but they are hoping that very soon the students will be able to start helping.

THE NAVIGATOR

An art teacher, Craig Miller, said students can watch and apply what they learn to their own work, and be able to ask questions as they go.

Right now he has the students working on drawing out their own paddle and mask designs on paper using the traditional Coast Salish designs and patterns.

“It’s amazing to see all the ways the students can take the traditional style and give it a modern twist,” said Miller. “You can even see where the students that are visiting our school from the international programs have taken different aspects from their own cultures and applied them to their pieces.”

“We all have to paddle together, and everyone needs their own,” said Miller. He hopes to get his art classes working on carving their own paddles when it’s time for student participation.

Norman said the Laughing Bear Canoe will be in Marston’s care once finished, though the school and students will have access to it. He’s hoping that there will be a launching ceremony where the students will be able to take the canoe out, either at the Kinsman Park, or Fuller Lake in Chemainus.

The canoe is scheduled to be finished in May 2015.

NEWS 05

Proposed law could give ICBC “right to refuse” licenses due to unpaid debt MOLLY BARRIEAU

THE NAVIGATOR

This week, the BC government proposed a law, working with ICBC to help gather outstanding student debts.

A press release on the government’s website states, “Bill 13, Finance Statutes Amendment Act, includes amendments to the Financial Administration Act that would expand the ability of ICBC to refuse to issue a driver’s licence, vehicle licence, or number plates to a person who has defaulted on debts owed to the government.”

There is $185 million of student loans left unpaid, according to the Finance Minister, Mike de Jong.

This proposed law, he says, can help them collect $3 million a year.

De Jong claims that the proposed law is “a mechanism” for those students who “opted” not to repay their loans, and as a way to promote following through with the “obligation” of a student debt.

If the law passes, students will be given a chance to explain their reason for not covering their loan payments before they are denied the renewal or issue of a new license.

Students, current or former, reacted towards the idea of losing their license due to unpaid debts.

“I think it sucks,” Meg Anderson said. A former VIU Creative Writing student, Anderson has applied for repayment assistance every six

months since attending due to a disability that makes her unable to work.

“Taking someone’s ability to earn income is no way to get them to pay back their student loan.” Anderson said, “There are other ways to get the money without being so drastic.”

Anderson, who went to Malaspina from 2003-‘05, doesn’t believe the BC government can “penalize us for going to university.”

BC is the only Canadian province with one insurance company to have a monopoly on all BC residents.

ICBC already has the power to refuse license renewal if the resident has not paid off Translink fines, bridge tolls, or traffic tickets.

Gender neutral bathrooms now available on campus

Students Vivian Horne (left) and Emily Falder stand by one of the gender neutral bathrooms on campus.

ALYSSA MORTON

CONTRIBUTOR

New gender neutral bathrooms throughout campus are helping create a safer environment for students who identify outside the gender binary.

When asked how sie* felt with the change, one student replied with “Ecstatic.”

“That is something I was fighting in my high school the entire time I was there,” says Emily Falder, a VIU student who identifies sierself as non-binary. “I’ve been mentioning it to staff for a while.”

Signage for the 22 single occupant bathrooms was unveiled on Monday after being pushed forward by the Positive Space committee at VIU. The change was instantly noticed, and feedback was largely positive. Some wondered why the change was needed, and Falder was all too willing to explain.

“A majority of bathrooms are gendered male or female.

There are a number of students, like myself, who are non-binary, who don’t feel comfortable using either bathroom.

There are also trans students who feel uncomfortable going into the bathroom they identify with because they face a lot of discrimination. And they don’t want to go into the washroom they don’t identify with because they’re misgendering themselves. Speaking from experience, that does not feel good.”

With a little over one percent of BC’s population identify-

06 NEWS

Alyssa Morton

ing themselves as transgender, it is an issue that is coming more and more to light in the province. Recently, students at Simon Fraser University staged a protest regarding gendered bathrooms and the lack of gender neutral options available on campus. Here at VIU, it was the Positive Space group that saw the idea of gender neutral bathrooms through.

“A couple years ago, there was a discussion in the realms of the Positive Space committee about the need for safe spaces for students who do not fit or place themselves in the gender binary,” Positive Space steering committee member Kelly Muir said. On Monday, March 2, this was realized, and the signs were installed.

A couple days later, it was brought to members’ attention that printed signs had been added to some of the bathrooms around campus, claiming “Women only.”

Michael Olson, also a steering committee member of Positive Space, feels it was a lack of communication.

“Everyone (within Positive Space) saw this as a good idea; it all made sense to us,” he said, “What we recognize is that we missed the education piece with staff, community members, and students on what this change means, what it indicates and why. In hindsight, we see that not everyone knows what that sign means or why it’s there.”

Both Olson and Muir stressed that it was only if the infor-

THE NAVIGATOR

mation was presented but gendering signs still went up that it was an issue of individuals being bigots. If students feel this is happening, they are advised to contact Katrin Roth von Szepesbéla of The Human Rights and Respectful Workplace.

There, students can file a report of discrimination. But Olson hopes that after information is presented to the general public, the gender neutral bathrooms will be accepted and more steps can be taken to making VIU an inclusive environment.

“People, be it staff or student, come from all sorts of different backgrounds and experiences,” said Olson, “We are not just men and women identified people, and we are working towards making that change.”

“It was a big day when those signs went up, and that feeling of them being recognized,” adds Muir. “And we want this to keep going in that positive direction.”

When asked what they wanted to see next, both Muir and Olson, along with Emily Falder, say they want to see if some multi-stalled bathrooms can become gender neutral.

“It’s a big deal,” says Falder. “Most don’t think it is, but it is important to some people.” *Sie/sier/sierself are pronouns used to identify instead of assumed gender pronouns (such as she/her/herself).

No 12

Humans of VIU is connecting students NATALIE GATES

THE NAVIGATOR

The Humans of VIU administrator, Max Conrad, says he wants students at VIU to feel more connected.

“VIU is a commuter campus, and a lot of people think we don’t know our everyday students very well,” Conrad said. “It helps make the campus friendlier.”

Inspired by the popular Humans of New York blog, Humans of VIU’s Facebook page features photos of students with quotes that aim to tell their own personal stories.

Conrad believes the founder of Humans of New York would be pleased to see the many follower pages that have been created.

“It’s so applicable in so many

ways and places,” Conrad said.

The page is still growing and some people, unfamiliar with Humans of New York, still see it as a brand new concept, Conrad said.

Sometimes it can be difficult to strike up conversations with random people. “But I try to keep it light-hearted,” Conrad said.

Conrad wants the page to grow so more people will be familiar with it. He hopes it will act as a conversation starter when people recognize somebody who was featured on the page.

“Each post is increasingly popular,” Conrad said. With just over 300 likes, he hopes to reach 500 likes this semester.

Conrad is in his fourth year of Digital Media Studies and Business and is a student ambassador, so he meets many different students. He started the page in January with the help of a joint initiative between the Communication and Marketing Office.

Featured students are often asked about their goals; when asked about his own, Conrad said he wants to work in media production, communications, or marketing. “Interacting with people really interests me,” he said.

While Conrad will be graduating at the end of the semester, he hopes the page will be able to grow and continue for a long time.

Administrator of Humans of VIU, Max Conrad.

Natalie Gates

First annual Festival Nanaimo coming in March NATALIE GATES

THE NAVIGATOR

Courtesy of <festivalnanaimo.com>

Nanaimo locals and visitors celebrate all the city has to offer during the month of March with Festival Nanaimo.

Put on by the Vancouver Island Symphony in partnership with organizations such as Tourism Nanaimo, the Downtown Nanaimo Business Improvement Association, and the Chamber of Commerce, this is the first year of Festival Nanaimo. The festival includes concerts, theatre, arts and crafts, culinary treats, sporting events and tournaments, workshops, the Nanaimo Boat Show, recreational activities, golf specials, a rock and roll

music camp, a Pirate Fest Fun Day, an Irish street party, and more.

“The idea was to create a festival in March because there’s lots of things going on in the arts,” executive director of the Vancouver Island Symphony Margot Holmes said. “It’s March break for kids and people are looking for things to do.”

The Festival has created some new events, and will also be promoting existing events, that including VIU’s basketball championship and other sporting events. New events include musical performances; and Pirate Fest, a pirate-themed event targeted

at families on March 28.

“We wanted to tie things together for people that come to visit Nanaimo, and for people that live here,” said Holmes.

The majority of events require tickets, which can be purchased separately, or as a Festival Pass for $108. Free events include the Irish Rovers Street Party on March 17 and the Dance on the Plaza on March 28.

For a full list of events and their details, as well as to purchase tickets, go to <festivalnanaimo.com>.

“Hopefully people will support it,” Holmes said. “We want to do it again next year.”

VIU’s Amazing Race NATALIE GATES Students will be participating in VIU’s third annual Amazing Race March 28.

Based on the popular competitive reality show, VIU’s Amazing Race is one of the biggest events held by Campus Recreation.

In past years, the course has had bungee jumping, rock

THE NAVIGATOR climbing, and stand up paddle boarding, said Shane Hyde from the gymnasium and student activities department.

This year, there are some even bigger events planned, all of which are a surprise.

“It’s going to be even more exciting,” said Hyde.

There will also be various prizes awarded to winning teams.

There is space for about 12 teams of five and, while the sign up is close to full, Hyde said there is space for additional students is a strong possibility if they sign up by March 13.

The cost is $100 per team and the turnout has been very strong.

Contestants from last year’s Amazing Race.

No 12

“It’s by far the most exciting event of the year,” said Hyde.

Hyde tried planning an Amazing Race at VIU about nine years ago but was unable to get it coordinated. Now, he and the rest of the department have found it to be very successful.

Sponsored by Thrifty Foods,

the student activities department works with students from the Recreation and Tourism Management program to put on the event.

The race will take place March 28 from 10 am to about 4 pm, and spectators are welcome if they can keep up.

Courtesy VIU Campus Rec Facebook page

THE NAVIGATOR

NEWS 07

Features

Salacious stories uncovered at Nanaimo Museum exhibit

Image detail from infographic “Gambling, Sex Trade, and Minors.”

SHANON FENSKE Red Lights and Roulette at the Nanaimo Museum has all the elements of a good crime novel: sex, gambling, corruption, and murder.

“We uncovered stories that could inspire screenplays,” said Interpretation Curator Aimee Greenaway in her February 11 speech at the museum. Focusing from the 1890s to the 1920s, the exhibit displays a side of Nanaimo that is sparsely documented, and largely forgotten.

Nanaimo’s historic red light district occupied a stretch of Fraser St., an area that looks quite different today, she says.

A portion of Fraser St. still exists.

The narrow lane leaves the fivepoint intersection of Wallace St. and Fitzwilliam St. in the Old City Quarter and runs down a steep hill to meet the Terminal Ave. highway.

Before it was Terminal Ave., Fraser

Early French postcard.

Nanaimo Museum

FEATURES 08

Nanaimo Museum

CONTRIBUTOR St. continued along a mud flat until it intersected with Comox Rd. There were multiple brothels along Fraser St., Greenaway says, including “The Star,” a high-end house of ill-repute so infamous that police didn’t note its street address in their reports.

The exhibit infographics state that between 30 to 40 women probably worked in the industry at any one time. The ladies catered primarily to unmarried loggers and miners, and later to predeployed World War I soldiers as well.

According to census reports on display, brothel owners were usually older women while their employees were typically between 19 and 20 years old.

Greenaway credits the Nanaimo Archives for assistance with research. Others, including five museums outside of Nanaimo, were also invaluable. It took a lot of work to uncover the real lives of these women as they usually claimed to be dressmakers to census officials.

The exhibit tells the stories of several of the owners—madams— including one who was murdered in Kimberly in 1934. Another madam died of tuberculosis in 1895.

The young son she left behind grew up in an orphanage before turning to a life of crime.

Other characters include an ambitious reverend who spied on police officers who visited the brothels, an officer who was fired a decade later when he was caught engaged in a lewd act, and a doctor who voiced his concerns that most of the operations in Nanaimo were being conducted on women suffering from sexually transmitted diseases.

Visually, the exhibit includes women’s personal effects and undergarments from the era. Old photographs, postcards, census reports, and maps are also on display as well as items related to gambling and early justice.

There is only one known picture of the red light district, Greenaway says. The museum hopes that the awareness generated by the exhibit will uncover other images from personal collections.

Red Lights and Roulette is at the Nanaimo Museum, 100 Museum Way downtown, until May 1. The museum is open Monday to Friday from 10 am to 5 pm, and admission is $1.75 for students and $2 for adults. For more information, visit <nanaimomuseum.ca>.

The only known photo of Nanaimo’s Red Light District superimposed over an early map of the city.

Nanaimo Museum

THE NAVIGATOR

Entrance to Red Lights & Roulette exhibit.

“House of ill-fame” exhibit infographic.

Shanon Fenske

Nanaimo Museum

No 12

Shane Koyczan Ticket Giveaway

In Issue 10 of The Navigator we invited readers to submit their poems for a chance to see Shane Koyczan perform at The Port Theatre on March 25. We also promised to print the winners’ work. Here it is.

[poem in which the first line of the poem is also the title of the poem] Cupid’s Sorrow

by Ciro Di Ruocco A nine year old opens the door.

Eyes weepy and red. My heart drops.

A nightmare unfolds.

Please wake up. Pinch skin. Wake up!

Body is calm and adrenaline kicks in.

My heroine takes the boy.

Dial 9-1-1! she exclaimed.

Not another friend lost.

Six souls lay to rest on Valentine’s night.

12 parents forever changed.

The loss of life.

Angry at the disease.

Tears running down my cheeks.

Dropping to my knees.

Cherish those you love.

Hold them tight.

I miss my friend.

Loss and love on Valentine’s night.

by Philip Gordon

i would say that those things are poetry too but it’s harder to explain why.

for breakfast this morning i had abstract cheesecake. don’t just skim over that line; stop for a second. think about it. what would abstract cheesecake look like? does it mean abstract like jackson pollock? or abstract like the way someone on their cell phone isn’t really paying attention to the person making their sandwich at subway? a good trick for poetry is you can tell people to think about something and they’ll have to think about it. even if they try really hard not to. butterflies, you could say. autumn sunsets. maybe one of their parents died, or something. (if they did, sorry). you can even make them think about how words fit together kind of like colours in a big spinning wheel. the way the last syllable in “butterflies” kind of rhymes with “died” (and with “rhymes,” sort of). that is to say that poetry is the act of making people think about things. why do we have bigger words for it than that? why do we stop on a street-corner where someone has written the words “be love” and imagine that what we’re reading is anything other than poetry? the cool thing about poetry is that it comes out of you sometimes like dr pepper out of a recently shaken two-litre bottle. fsssht. at this point in the poem there’s a possibility you’re getting bored. you might be wondering when the poem will end. if the poem is in a book, you might be looking at the bottom of the page to see if it ends there. you might have given up and be preparing to throw the book away. if you’re listening to someone read the poem, you might be falling asleep, or thinking about other things, like your dog, or having sex with one of your teachers from high school.

STEPHANIE BROWN

The long commute:

Homesickness

No 12

maybe you picked this poem up in a book at your local bookstore, or in a pile of used books that are covered in dust and bright orange price stickers, or on the side of the road where it was left by someone who was experiencing life too quickly to stop and think about butterflies. maybe you will read this poem and it will intrigue you enough to read the poems next to it. if that’s true, i’ll feel like i’ve wasted my chance to say something meaningful. by this point i’m ramping up the anticipation for the last line of the poem so much that i have no idea what could possibly be enough of a revelation to write down. if i say something deliberately vague, people might mistake what i write for genius, and i will win fans and influence academic literary circles and maybe win an award. if i say something simple or banal, i will be obviously trying to circumvent the demand to be insightful, and people who have a string of counter-culture in them and listened to the punk music when they were young will possibly like my poem. i may be asked to read this poem at a big ceremony where the validity of my creative work is recognized. this could be the poem that catapults me to stratospheric levels of acclaim. i’m running out of steam. i’d better think of something to end the poem with. two days ago i went to victoria with my mom and we went to the museum and learned about vikings and then we went to the bug zoo and bought a t-shirt that said “save the bugs” and a lollipop with a scorpion in it and then we went book shopping and had dinner at a place called “fatburger” and drove back to nanaimo in the dark and talked about how the rain hitting the pavement in pure darkness was more gentle than at dusk or any other time and eventually we got home and i got out of the big truck my mom drives (which is a dodge ram which she has always wanted) and hugged her for a really long time and she said bye i love you and i said i love you too drive safe and then she drove away and i think that’s poetry too.

CONTRIBUTOR

As a follow up to the culture shock I seem to have conquered, another aspect of the long commute has emerged: homesickness. It’s like they’re teammates in a relay race; just when culture shock is finished, it hands off the baton to homesickness.

I honestly believed that I wouldn’t get homesick. Then I spent two days in bed staring at the ceiling and repeating, “I hate this place.” A slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

For me, homesickness felt like being back in grade school when I felt alone, misunderstood, and awkward. When it hit, I suddenly felt completely alone and removed from all that was familiar. I felt misunderstood because no one else appeared to be going through it, and awkward because I just couldn’t get the hang of living in this country. During the first month I was still planning trips, eating and drinking everything that seemed edible, and meeting new people.

Then, month two rolled around and I realized there were papers due, developing a lucky routine that involved a particular Starbucks on the left side of the street. In between

THE NAVIGATOR

washing my sheets for the first time and receiving my first letter from home, I realized this was my home right now. It was terrifying. I had never experienced homesickness before, but I am glad I did; it was an awful feeling, but I realized how much I loved the place I was missing.

Even the most stoic student will get homesick if you’re gone anywhere from half to a full year. Prepare to miss home and have a few bad days. Accept the homesickness.

What to do? That acceptance is the first step. After that there is treatment. For me, the best treatment was to keep busy and find unique things that were great in my new country that don’t exist at home. I focused on making new friends and taking epic pictures. The more I looked at it and thought about all the positive and cool things I’d done, the better time I had while I did even more amazing things.

Homesickness is a part of travel. Unfortunately it comes with the territory—it’s in our nature to compare things to each other. So when things went wrong, even Nanaimo seemed way better than it did before. But it’s just another part of the experience—one that passes.

09 FEATURES

Museum news: Coastal waters teem with herring JAMES MACKINNON

CONTRIBUTOR

As you read this, one of the ocean’s great feeding frenzies is occurring just off our shores. Eventually, it will extend up the entire BC coast.

The annual spawn of the Pacific herring, which brings millions of fish to near-coastal waters to lay their eggs on substrates such as Bull Kelp or eelgrass, is the stimulant for an astounding accumulation of wildlife that gathers around the breeding grounds to gorge on the herring roe (eggs). In many parts of the BC coast, the spawn represents the first large feeding event of the year, and the fats and nutrients that are gained by this feed bring benefits all the way up the trophic ladder to the largest of marine and terrestrial predators.

While the spawn occurs at different times on different parts of the coast, around the southern Salish Sea the first few weeks of March are the best time to watch the action.

Natural world shines under Thoreau’s lens

People all over the world are awakening to the importance of nature for our mental, spiritual, and physical wellbeing, which all echoes back to the convictions of Thoreau.

FEATURES 10

In late February, an excursion of students and staff from VIU’s field research station at Deep Bay set out to watch the spawn. The Baynes Sound/Deep Bay area has long been known as a herring hotspot, attracting wildlife viewers and fisherman alike, but is also the site of a considerable amount of marine research. Marine ecology, shellfish aquaculture, and engagement with coastal communities are just a few important topics that people at the field station are working on. VIU’s Brian Kingzette and the rest of the Deep Bay crew generously supplied their time and vessel for this viewing opportunity.

Neck Point Park, just off Hammond Bay Rd., provides an excellent viewing spot. On the right day, clouds of white milt that cover the surface of the ocean are often visible from the shoreline as the males fertilize the females’ eggs. The sec-

CHANTELLE SPICER

ondary effects of the spawn will remain for weeks as huge amounts of wildlife close in on the shorelines to feed on the recently laid eggs.

Gulls, ducks, and birds of prey circle overhead; seals and sea lions jockey amongst each other for the prime feeding zones; and Orcas watch. It is one of the most diverse and productive feeding affairs of the year.

For more information on the springtime Pacific herring spawn, and to see samples of much of the marine life found around Vancouver Island, visit the Museum of Natural History, run and curated by students and faculty from various sciences departments. The museum is open to students and the public on Mondays from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm, Tuesdays 1:30 to 2:30 pm, and Thursdays 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. More information is available on their Facebook page and at <viu.ca/museum/>.

CONTRIBUTOR

Since Thoreau’s publication of Walden in 1854, a subversive movement has rippled through the generations based on humanity’s inherit connection to the land. Finding roots in the 1960s movement, the back-to-the-land mentality has continued into today’s culture where it is flourishing 161 years later. Even this morning, awakening to a glowing sunrise (“Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me”) I found myself once again contemplating the incredible impact this book and ideology continues to have on my own life, and the lives of many people around me.

After attending a bustling Seedy Sunday on March 1, it dawned on me how vital and vibrant the community of Nanaimo is in terms of homesteading, gardening, and other forms of food and community sustainability. The philosophy of reconnecting with the natural rhythms of nature, finding a true sense of self and purpose through the lands around you, and the simplicity of life are sentiments which are easily found in this community—all of which find their roots in popular society through the writings of Thoreau and other writers who have followed him.

In the early 1850s, during the heart of the American Industrial Revolution, Thoreau went out into the woods and farmlands surrounding Walden Pond to live—in his words, “deliberately”—for two years, two months, and two days. He would shrug off the modern society of his time to explore what he had concluded were the essential facts of life: spiritual discovery, self-reliance, and simplicity, as well as nature and humanity’s place in it. He completed his time in the woods with meditative walks, the cultivation of bean fields, and periods of writing and drawing, from which he created Walden. Its reception at the time of publication was lackluster, taking five years to sell five thousand copies. It went on to become a classic piece of literature and totem of the back-to-nature mindset.

In today’s society we are, like Thoreau, experiencing our own experiment. The changes in climate we are now experiencing are unprecedented, our technological progress seems to have no finishing line, many of our valued social networks appear online, and our possessions seem, at the same time, to be both treasured and disposable. Where this will take us is unknown. Many people are becoming more interested in looking back to move forward though.

Sustainability has become the goal in all walks of life, from business people to activists, and a reconnection to the land at the heart of many of these movements. Japanese businesses are encouraging their employees to partake in Shinrin-yoku, or forest-bathing. This creates a calming neuro-physical effect, changing the nervous system by enjoying the presence of trees. Therapeutic gardening is now being used in hospice residencies, outpatient cancer centres, and other healthcare environments. People all over the world are awakening to the importance of nature for our mental,

THE NAVIGATOR

spiritual, and physical well-being, which all echoes back to the convictions of Thoreau.

We can continue to learn and apply the things he discovered in today’s modern world. In his time, he saw his beloved Virginian landscape stripped of its forests for farmland and expanding human habitation, he saw his neighbours turning away from their traditional ways to technological advances, and he saw a loss in personal revelation under the influence of a blooming industrialized society. Sound familiar? Rather than becoming embittered to this situation, he turned to himself and nature to heal. Some of his teachings we can apply to our own contemporary lives are: • Participating in the cultivation of our own food by growing a garden (even in containers), volunteering with local farm co-operatives, shopping at local farmers’ markets, or looking into raising your own backyard chickens.

• Taking time to truly enjoy the nature that surrounds us. Check out from daily schedules and obligations to go for a walk or bird watching, or try meditation and yoga in a natural environment.

• Try turning off your phone and stepping away from the computer for a whole day and see where your true self lies in life outside of technology. Rediscover old interests or try out new ones.

• Simplify your life by purging closets and possessions, complaining less, learning to say no to some things so you can truly say yes to those you really want to do, and spending time with people you genuinely enjoy being with.

• Writing a journal, poetry, and drawing are skills that encourage the brain to examine our daily lives and find a better understanding of our actions and ourselves.

• Finding a community of like-minded people that can help encourage us along a path that, if outside of societal norms, can be difficult.

A connection to the lands around us through recreation, art, gardening, or even picnicking are incredibly important to a healthy individual and community. Wendell Berry, who also wrote extensively on the topic of identity through the landscape, expressed that “A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other’s lives.” This idea of community support extends to the land itself as a member, creating a cyclic relationship where the more one appreciates the beauty of our natural world, the more desirous we are of properly caring for it.

Try some of these things out for yourself. You never know how they can improve your life or where they may take you. As Thoreau said, “I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

No 12

1

Museum news: Sights from the

herring spawn While the spawn occurs at different times on different parts of the coast, around the southern Salish Sea, the first few weeks of March are the best time to watch the action.

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

AS NUMBERED 1. VIU research vessel, the RV Chetlo.

2. Herring being trapped in a purse seine.

3. Herring spawn on the BC coast.

4. The pacific herring.

5. Herring roe.

No 12

6. Herring school.

Brian Kingzett

Pacific Wild

7. Juvenile and adult bald eagles gather and feed.

Brian Kingzett

Department of Fisheries and Oceans

8. A transient orca breaches.

Brian Kingzett

Brian Kingzett

9. Stellar sea lions basking on the rocky shore.

Brian Kingzett

Ian McAllister

THE NAVIGATOR

11 FEATURES

“

If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.

—Shane Koyczan, “Blueprint for a Breakthrough”

“

There will be bad days. Be calm. Loosen your grip, opening each palm slowly now. Let go.

—Shane Koyczan, “Instructions For A Bad Day”

Courtesy of Killbeat Music

Shane Koyczan: word, spoken ALEXANDRIA STUART

THE NAVIGATOR

Commanding. The figure, in any other context or on the street, would probably be seen as “unassuming,” just another guy waiting for the bus. But onstage, alone under a single spotlight, his quiet form draws all the energy from the room.

Compelling. The audience can’t take their eyes off him. He draws that energy in, and he speaks.

Poets rarely hit the mainstream, and the term “pop culture” is one you’ll seldom find in a discussion of poetry. But the spoken word genre smashes those norms. Underscored by music or beats, spoken word poetry becomes song-like, but transcends what is commonly regarded as a song.

Internationally renowned spoken word artist, poet, and author Shane Koyczan is unlike anything you’ll find crossing over into the mainstream right now (inasmuch as anything involving poetry can really cross over—sad but true).

His words always had the power to captivate an audience, once there was one. His poetry stands beautifully on its own, riding the rhythmic tones of his voice, but set to music, his words venture beyond poetry and become something else—not quite songs, something new. When audiences were unwilling to leave the house for a poetry reading, Koyczan tried something different. “Adding music to what I do was necessary to have people come and at least check it out,” he says. And it worked. A few years ago he played at coffee houses; today it’s soft-seat theatres. As his career grew in this new territory, he saw the potential. “I want the Junos to have to make a category for this,” he says.

The world took notice when Koyczan tumbled onto the international stage in Vancouver at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games’ opening ceremonies. “It was a lot of work and very stressful, but I was happy to give spoken word a spot on a much larger stage. I gave people a reference point for spoken word.” His performance of “We Are More” earned the applause of the planet. The. Entire. Planet.

Then, in 2013, his anti-bullying project, “To This Day,” went viral. “Bullying is a very isolating experience. It’s all based on fear. But if you can see that there are other people going through it, there’s a little bit of comfort.” Canada was rocked by some particularly tragic teen bullying-related suicides in 2012 and 2013. “I feel very fortunate that piece happened when it happened. It was something that people really needed to hear.” “To This Day” continues to support

and educate teens, parents, and teachers with its website and iPad app, and has over 14 million views.

Shane Koyczan’s subjects are raw and deeply human. He’s an artist that engages completely, guts-on-the-floor, holding nothing back from his audience. In return, they give back, rip their hearts out and slap them on their sleeves for all to see. His themes are universal—young love, high school hell, family—yet personal enough that everyone feels like he’s talking to them, about them. That’s Koyczan’s gift as a storyteller—he connects with the listener as if they’re the only other one in the room.

Shane Koyczan’s work in spoken word happens to be getting the most ink at this point in his career—he’s finally enjoying some hard-won success—but he’s always compelled

Koyczan looks forward to coming back to Nanaimo’s Port Theatre Wednesday, March 25. to explore a variety of projects and mediums. “I write everything. I’m working on a screenplay, I just finished a short film, I write short stories. I write all kinds of stuff,” he says.

And sometimes his work fuses all of these things.

“When I’m thinking about music for a piece, I think in terms of the cinematic. It’s like an emotional lubricant.” He has cultivated relationships with talented musicians, trusted collaborators who work like any band does: a sheet of words, an idea, a stray melody, and everyone’s contributions weave themselves into a composition.

Working with his full band, The Long Story Short, adds another layer to the time he spends on the road. “I love playing with the band, the back and forth. They’re great

people, I enjoy touring with them. Being on the road with friends is much nicer than [the isolation of] a solo tour. I love both shows equally—doing a solo show, holding an audience—but it’s lonely going back to your room at the end of the night.” As the Silence Is A Song I Know All The Words To tour crosses Canada this spring, The Long Story Short will be at home finishing an album in the studio.

Koyczan is celebrated in many circles, does good work that changes people’s lives—saves lives—but he’s not immune to his own deep feelings. He speaks openly of his challenges growing up, experiences with bullying and violence in school, and mental health. “Depression sneaks up on you.

Like paying rent to a really shitty landlord and you never know when they’re going to show up to collect,” he says. He likens it to something that’s “waiting in the wings, like The Nothing in The Neverending Story.” Like any artist, he also struggles with self-doubt. “I wonder if my creativity will run out one day? How long can I do this? How can I even have a career doing this?” But he does. And the part of his work that really puts a shine in his voice is the marriage of words, music, and images.

His videos extend beyond the world of fast-cut, four-minute marketing packages. Reviewing the body of work on his YouTube channel is like attending a short film festival; these are seven-minute masterpieces, each telling a story in compelling, often heart-wrenching prose, mixed with a variety of filmmaking techniques. Through this lens, his poems are screenplays, and he’s the omniscient narrator.

Koyczan’s latest album, Silence Is A Song I Know All The Words To, accompanied by Cayne McKenzie and Hannah Epperson, was released digitally last August. It’s designed as a companion piece to the book of the same name. “The graphic novel and the album play really well together,” he says. And they’ve gone on to spawn some beautiful pieces of short cinema that blur, scrub out, and redefine our beliefs about what music videos can be.

The latest release, “Heaven, Or Whatever,” (7:37) is a piece of live action film scored by Koyczan’s words and a selection of musical collaborators; it’s an homage to, and attempt to understand, his grandfather. “Ideally, I’d love to make a video for each piece on the album and have them stitched together to make a feature film. There would be a different visual

aesthetic for each piece.” The video for “Troll,” dedicated to those who have lost friends or family through online abuse, takes a different approach visually, featuring the artwork of graphic novel illustrator Gareth Gaudin. Koyczan’s recent collection of poetry, A Bruise On Light, also fits seamlessly with the work on Silence Is A Song I Know All The Words To. In spite of warm receptions and two satisfying years on the road, depression continued to lurk in the corners for Koyczan. “It's been a challenge to feel happy about my achievements while dark clouds appear constantly on the horizon,” he says. “Nevertheless, writing has been a source of great comfort, and helps me to occasionally pan small pieces of gold from these streams of consciousness. A Bruise On Light is a collection of stone and gold, impurity and shine.”

While Koyczan defines success as having a warm, safe place to live and good food to eat—and he is very grateful for his success—he isn’t living on easy street. The realities of being an artist in the online age make it hard to earn a living. It isn’t easy to sell CDs and digital downloads, but it’s still expensive to make an album, he says, “And I still have to pay my musicians. Even if I don’t sell anything, they still need to be paid.” Part of the struggle, he believes, comes from the nation’s failure to put real value on art. “In Canada, we mourn our artists; we don’t celebrate them like they

do in other parts of the world.” He jokes that artists should just be paid to make art because it makes the world a better place. But he’s only half joking. “Artists go into labour to create these pieces,” which is something that’s hard to attach worth to, to value the effort it takes. Under the realities of the economy and the industry, “Artists are in a really precarious position—how do we continue?”

Like others, he’s grappling with making a living from his art in the new market economy. Online work and social media are important pieces of that, but they’re time-consuming, and they don’t, in and of themselves, actually pay. Koyczan maintains a strong online presence at <shanekoyczan.com>, on Facebook at ShaneKoyczanPoetry, Twitter @Koyczan, and Instagram at shane_koyczan.

Touring is one income stream that has served him well.

It’s also a venue to get books and CDs into the hands of his fans without losing a cut of the profits to a middle man.

Taking Silence Is A Song I Know All The Words To on the road this spring is a welcome opportunity to share the material and reconnect with his fans across Canada.

Shane Koyczan visits the Port Theatre in Nanaimo on March 25. Tickets are available by phone at 250-7548550, from the box office at 125 Front St, or online at <porttheatre.com/theatre-info/ticket-info>.

To This Day:

Confessions There’s a birthmark, like a blob of peanut butter has fallen ker-splat, on the top of my right foot by my big toe. When we were children, my cousins called it my “dirty spot.” They’d scrub and scrub it when we were in the bath. To this day, whenever I think about my birthmark it’s like it begins pulsing—I feel it there—and I hear the words that I am dirty. – Alexandria

Courtesy of Killbeat Music

When I was in grade six, we moved and finally got Internet. My friends and I all made websites. Someone signed on pretending to be me and wrote on my friend’s webpage that she was only popular because she hung out with us, and something about her sweatpants, then signed my name. It was horrific, I was scapegoated, and everyone honestly thought I was capable of saying those things.

I lost my group of friends because they wouldn’t believe I didn’t do it. That night I listened to David Gray's “This Year’s Love” and “Fix You” by Coldplay on repeat.

To this day, it still sucks to hear those songs. – Molly

When I was growing up, kids told me I had funny-looking toes. To this day, I’m uncomfortable wearing sandals or any shoe that shows my toes (even though there’s nothing wrong with them). – Leah

Arts

Flying Circus: Nanaimo youth presents aerial and circus dance

Chantel and Rose of Cru pose during a mask and costume rehearsal.

DENISA KRAUS Crimson Coast Dance Society and The Body Talk program present The Flying Circus—a week-long aerial and circus dance workshop during the SD68 spring break between Monday, March 23 and Friday, March 27 at the Romper Room Climbing Centre. The event will round off with a gala performance on the Saturday night.

Organized by the Crimson Coast’s Body Talk Cru, the skill development workshop brings two established performance companies. Aerosia Aerial will introduce the students and audiences to aerial dance, and Vesta Fire will teach the many aspects of circus performance.

“The show on the last evening will be woven in a very circus-y kind of way and a fantasy theme,” Crimson Coast’s founder and artistic director Holly Bright says.

The Body Talk Cru is formed by a group of teens working under Bright’s guidance. The program started in 2003 when Bright, seeing the lack of youth involved in the local dance events, reached out to the community and recruited a group of teenagers to organize their own events according to their taste and preferences.

“The teens want to do their own thing. They didn’t want to dance with their little siblings, or mom and dad,” Bright explains the reason why the workshop is divided into two groups: adults and children, and teenagers.

Most of the current Cru members have stayed with the program for four years.

“They come in when they’re 13 or 14, and they inevitably stay until

ARTS 14

Denisa Kraus

THE NAVIGATOR they finish high school,” Bright says. “Once you’re in, you become a family member.”

Originally calling themselves “The Council Of Cool,” but eventually changing their title to “Cru,” the team presented workshop suggestions to Bright who facilitated the platform and guided them through the process. Her aim, however, was to give the teens as free a hand as possible to teach them independence and responsibility.

“When they told me what they’d like, I said ‘this is crazy. But you guys do it. I’m going to make it possible for you to do whatever you want to do,’” she recalls the beginnings of the process, which gradually became a mentorship in arts administration and event planning.

“It’s kind of a job the society looks for the ‘wiser, older adults’ to do,” Cru member Chantel, 16, says. “Then you see these teens coming in, making posters, and getting money for programs. I really enjoy that.”

The skills she has gained are not normally portrayed every day in the teenage environment. Individual tasks involve selecting the genres and artists, making posters, marketing and communicating with the media, and wrapping up the event at the end, all the while attending the dance classes they organized.

“They always pick hip hop. From the very start, all they want is hip hop,” Bright says. “We’re a contemporary dance company, and I love hip hop, because I know that’s what interests them. But this also has to work for us, our sponsors, and people who support us.”

The solution she offered was choosing two dance genres: one can be anything the group wants, the other should be cultural or unusual.

“Over the years they’ve picked hip hop and African dance, hip hop and salsa, hip hop and First Nations dance, and one year they had capoeira and flamenco. Last year, they picked hip hop and swing—it was nice to bring in something broader; a lot of people in Nanaimo like that.”

The Cru chose aerial and circus because, as Chantel says,“it’s something way out of the box. We did hip hop almost every year, so we wanted something completely different.”

Emma, 17, agrees: “You can go anywhere for a hip hop camp, but

where do you get aerial dance and learn how to dance with lights and fire?”

There had been an interest in bringing aerial dance into the program for several years. The Cru selected Aerosia, a Vancouver-based company, whose members are established mountain climbers and dance artists who work with silks and climbing harnesses. Crimson Coast has worked with the company in the past—organizing their show at the Port Theatre, where the artists danced down the outside walls of the building in 2005. The content consideration is different from aerial dancers who perform in circus settings.

All masks are created by Cru members.

THE NAVIGATOR

“For Aerosia, it’s not so much about spectacle as it is about making art,”Bright says. “Their dance is very magical and has some depth to it. When they’re dancing down the side of a building, they usually start really high at the top, then they’re jumping and doing back flips, running backwards, taking off, and soaring sideways. They make it seem gravity-less; it feels like a dream state.”

For the circus portion of the workshop, Cru selected Vesta Fire, who specialize in stilt performances and also fire spinning with hoops, but will offer easier options for students during the workshop.

Vesta’s founder Karina Strong and her partner-in-dance Kat perform

Denisa Kraus

No 12

and teach circus classes around town. (Read more about Vesta in the following interview on page 16) Jessina, 16, says the “wow” factor of these two genres will possibly bring a big crowd.

“There’s a lot of people in the hip hop community, but you never really hear of rock climbers,” she says.

“It will be intimidating because it’s heights, fire—something out of the usual—but also it’s intriguing and you’ll want to try it.”

Bright meets with Cru for weekly business and creation meetings to check on the progress and see what the team or the production requires. She helped hire sound and lighting technicians, costumers and dramaturge to work with Cru on the development of the piece.

“This is the first time we’ve ever done this,” she says. “The program is always changing because we always get feedback from the team, and we try to do what they want us to do. As they evolve, we evolve.”

The Body Talk brings another change into the schedule this year. It is the first time the Cru have become producers as much as organizers, and create their own play instead of adapting a wellknown work. In each of the seven scenes, the Cru members will perform as multiple characters.

Most importantly, all decisions and creative steps come from the group as a whole.

“The whole point of Body Talk is that there is no real leader,” Felix, 16, says. “Everybody is equal,

makes their own part of the play, and have their own scenes they’ve created. Some of us are more dominant than others and have more specific ideas of how details should play out. But in the end, everybody is in charge.”

Felix joined the Cru last year and says he hopes to use his creative skills to help put the performance together.

“I look forward to the play more than the workshop, because I get to show people a piece of my ideas.

I work very much based on that.”

Rose, 16, on the other hand, is excited about the workshop.

“Our performance will be really fun, but I mean, aerial and circus, man! Hanging off the ropes at the Romper Room and hula hooping with those LED lights!”

Each workshop class can take up to 24 students and is based on developing individual skill levels.

“You can enter it from many different levels and life experiences,” Bright explains the popularity of aerial and circus dance genres. “As long as you’re physical, strong, and healthy, you can do it. You don’t have to have done it since you were seven years old and trained every day.

Contemporary or ballet dancers know nothing but that art form if they intend to be successful— it’s an entire life commitment for them—but you can enter these genres at any point in life or skill level. All you have to do for aerial is be a climber. And don’t get me wrong, these people have really developed their skill, but every-

one can enjoy their own experience up to their level.”

Participation in Body Talk may be a life changing experience for all parties involved. Some of the Cru members even decided to take a different career or education path, such as switching to the Theatre program at VIU. Emma says she wants to work in performing arts, but would have never realized what her passion was without Body Talk.

“If I weren’t here, I’d be at the spring hockey camp,” she says. “I have an athletic background in the family, and if I’d never found Body Talk, I’d be doing hockey and not focusing on my career. And I feel that without that real insight the Body Talk has given me, I wouldn’t be able to say ‘hey, I know what to do. Let’s do it.’”

“It’s about following your passion in life,” Bright says. “You have to do what your heart is calling you to do, and if it doesn’t work out, go until you can’t take one more step. Then you can let that go. But if you never take that choice, you’ll never know.”

Aside from the practical experience, the Cru also get their volunteer hours for high school, gain employment skills, and receive reference letters and a honorarium of $200.

“Meeting new people and having this contact list on the resume is always good,” adds Jessina, who enjoys doing the backstage management and the graphic design portion of the work.

For Felix, it is an opportunity to meet and work with people he

With the experience from Body Talk, Emma, 17, has decided to pursue a career in performing arts. would normally never meet.

“I learned that you can be a part of something bigger that people can accept, and that they will listen to you,”he says. “You don’t have many places like that.”

Workshop participants, on the other hand, usually leave with a new experience, having pushed their boundaries and stepped out of their comfort zone.

“Creativity, movement, and art can be shared in many ways with lots of different kinds of people you would never normally choose,” Bright says. “It broadens horizons and it’s fun. The world

Denisa Kraus

is challenging or scary at times.

Making art out of climbing or circus, taking it to another level, and sharing the experience holds a place for beauty. For me, that’s the value the arts.”

The Body Talk workshops are open to the public and will be held at the Romper Room Climbing Centre between March 23 and 27. Teen classes will take place from 11 am-2 pm, all-ages from 5:30 - 8:30 pm. The final performance will take place on Saturday, March 28 at 7:30 pm.

Tickets and workshop passes along with price information is available at <crimsoncoastdance.org>.

Fact: The Dead Sea scrolls concern early Judaism. Less well known are the Nag Hammadi scrolls, which concern early Christianity. They were hidden around A.D. 367 and found in 1945. They include the Testimony of Phillip, which describes tension about the status of Mary Magdalene. Part of the testimony is missing.

In Crypt Code, Magdalene, the superior of a liberal, partly lesbian order of Sisters believes this missing book of the bible could deter the Vatican as it tries to evict the order from its thirteenth century monastery in France’s Languedoc region. The Sisters have seized control from the German Abbott Egon Kreuz, who remains based in a castle a few hundred feet away. A temporary court order separates the two sides as each tries to infiltrate the other. Both know of the legend that some written material extremely damaging to the Vatican is hidden in the monastery.

Magdalene’s allies include an archaeologist and a holidaying couple swept into the conflict. They beat Kreuz, an accomplished exorcist, to an overgrown Cathar mortuary as they look for directions to the scrolls. But when the search leads to catacombs beneath the monastery, Kreuz does not shrink from employing the demons he controls.

Get your digital copy for $6.66 Search “Crypt Code Book” in Amazon.ca

No 12

THE NAVIGATOR

15 ARTS

In the flow zone with Karina Strong DENISA KRAUS

THE NAVIGATOR

If you attend a festival on Vancouver Island this summer and see a figure stilt-walking in a spectacular costume, chances are you’ve encountered a member of the Vesta Entertainment circus crew. And in Nanaimo, where the community of spinners and circus performers is only beginning to build a profile, Vesta owner and “ring mistress” Karina Strong’s presence makes up for the lack of strength in numbers. Even her civilian outfits include leather corsets and hypnotizing contact lenses, the colour of which she chooses “depending on the day” and the clothes she wears. She will hug a stranger with the same sincerity as a dear friend, explaining that “that’s how we do it in circus.”

Strong originally imagined herself as a social worker. She worked for government organizations for 10 years, but the experience with the bureaucratic system left her craving another way to make a difference in people’s lives.

Circus and performance has been Strong’s hobby for a decade. She occasionally experimented with amateur performance and sang at festivals until she eventually started her own full time entertainment business. Named after the Roman goddess of fire and hearth, the Vesta Entertainment group now performs at numerous festivals and large events, making the list of the Vancouver Island Music Festival in Courtenay, Victoria International Busking Festival, and Vancouver Island Exposition, among many others. Although the bulk of the company’s work is within the local Island scene, the company occasionally ventures out to international tours in Asia and the US. The other spectrum of Vesta’s activities centres around classes and workshops, such as the Flying Circus which will take place from March 23-28. Strong talked to The Navigator about the upcoming workshop and shared her views on joy, inspiration, and perseverance.

It’s not competitive in any way. We start with where the student is. With poi, [performance equipment] for example, it’s about just being able to spin it next to you without hitting yourself. We’re encouraging and supporting each other in our classes to celebrate our successes. Because, in circus, it never gets easier—the tricks just get more complicated.

The feeling of struggling is always there, trying to make the object you’re manipulating to go where you want it to go. It’s not about what you do, but about the feeling that you can do it. What we teach children is that it’s a journey between not being able to do something, the perseverance to stick with it, and the success when you can do it. That’s the essence of why I do what I do.

Do you still hit yourself with poi?

All the time. Because I’m learning more and more complicated patterns and work with partners now.

How has Vesta developed over the five years it has been in business?

I have a really strong team that works for me. And I’m still learning. My technical level of prop manipulation and performing is different now than five years ago. I’ve got much better, but it’s not the skill level—it’s the way it’s delivered to the audience, how we teach and interact while we’re teaching. And there’s the whole world running a business—marketing and strategic planning are my main challenges. I’m very happy with the shows we’re producing now. We’re always doing better and bigger shows, and we’re always doing more things and making our routines more complicated. My performers don’t usually have a dance background, so we’re working with choreographers who

a not-for-profit education organizations, to visit and teach in schools as artists-in-residence. We also team up with the police-based drug prevention team to work on DARE, which is a show for schools.

Your daughter, who is 11, also performs with you.

She stilts and has started hula hooping, and she’ll perform depending on the show.

If she decided she wants to do what you do for a living, what advice would you give her?

Do what you’re passionate about, what resonates through your soul. It’s specific to this field and to life. We all struggle through life trying to find something that makes us happy.

It makes me happy to inspire and help people. For her, that might be something different.

What are your performances like?

Which type of performance are you asking about? Fire show?

Stilting? They’re all different. The fire shows are definitely the ones that give you the “rock star” feeling. We do these six people fire shows with propane canons and pyrotechnics. They’re so much fun! We also do variety show acts and they’re pre-packaged story shows with a theme. But the fire shows really awe people. I like stilting because it’s more interactive and we talk to people and I’m very social so I love being able to talk to kids and play with them.

How do you make yourself approachable to the youngest audiences?

My favourite part of the fire show is after, when you talk to the kids and they bring you cards to sign. That’s my opportunity to connect, and thank them for clapping and supporting us during the show. It’s important for me to make them feel important.

Is it any different from working with adults?

No. It’s not different at all. The skills we teach are sometimes more advanced, but the basis is still the same. Adults are ok, but teenagers can be hard sometimes. They don’t want to appear foolish in front of their friends. They may pick up a hula hoop, try it once, and when it falls down, they’re out. They won’t try it again because of the fear of judgement.

So that’s something we really work with them on—that nothing comes easy.

The Ring Mistress, Katrina Strong.

What can we imagine under the term “circus?”

There’s a lot of history to the term ‘’circus,” and it’s very subjective. People tend to think of elephants and tigers, the ringmaster and clowns—that’s circus to them. Other people think of aerial: tight rope walking, silks, that type of thing.

But what we do and teach in the circus community is “flow arts,” which is dancing with props, and prop manipulation.

Basically doing stuff with things.

What does circus mean to you?

It’s a way for me to interact with people and children and to bring joy, play, and laughter. Because of my history in social work and child protection, I’m a strong believer in play therapy and how healing laughter can be. Having a business based around entertainment and teaching allows me to do that important work that drives me.

What can flow arts and circus offer to people who have other interests or a different “drive” in life?

ARTS 16

Artez show us different ways to think about movement on stage and how to move our bodies instead of just working with the props.

What background do your performers come from?

They’re all so different. All of them are pretty young, though.

Kat, who’s doing the Body Talk program with me, started off in the company as a juggler. But he has a background in chemistry. He’s very science-minded, like a mathematician— very analytical; not a dancer. But crazy, amazingly good at breaking down a movement and explaining how it works.

How do you help and inspire people through circus?

It’s about supporting kids to find their passion and surround themselves with positive people who do the same. The best way to do that is by modeling how you live and what it is that we’re doing. I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t have an amazing team to do it with.

I love working with the youth. We’re funded by Artstarts,

THE NAVIGATOR

The Flying Circus is designed by and around teenagers. How will you accommodate their interests and challenges?

The type of choreography I’m planning with them is not individual. It’ll be all about partnering and working together as a group to make shapes with hula hoops, so it’s not competitive.

The concept of Body Talk is to bring two dance genres, present them in a workshop, and then fuse them into one hybrid genre in the final performance. What are you planning for the joint show with Aerosia?

We’re working on choreographing one or two group poi pieces based on what we will teach in the workshop. The group pieces are very different and for all skill levels. Then Kat and I will demonstrate some advanced techniques. And in the finale, we’ll perform with fire.

The Flying Circus workshop will take place during the spring break week between Monday, March 23 and Friday, March 29. To register and/or buy tickets for the high flying performance finale on Saturday, March 28, contact <www. crimsoncoastdance.org> or <climbromperroom.com>.

Vesta’s current drop-in classes take place every Sunday at Nanaimo Gymnastic Centre withtwo up to six people per class. Children practice from 10-11 am ($15) and teens and adults are 11 am - 12:30 pm ($20). For more information, visit <vestaentertainment.ca>.

No 12

Virtuoso pianist comes to Port Theatre

Laplante has been called “an artist of rare romantic inspiration.”

DENISA KRAUS AND ALEXIS DEIGHTON HARRISON On Sunday, March 15, Nanaimo will have the rare opportunity to welcome world class pianist André Laplante. Widely regarded as one of Canada’s best, the Québécois virtuoso will appear at the Port Theatre in solo concert.

A pianist of global repute, Laplante is the recipient of international attention after winning prizes at the Geneva and Sydney International Piano Competitions; his capture of the silver medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow remains a bright moment in Canadian music history. Laplante recently talked with the representative of Nanaimo Conservatory of Music about his approach to teaching, his fondness of heart music, and the riveting charm of his latest favourite film The Imitation Game.

One important thing to remember is that there is no such thing as a definitive performance; rather, some are more convincing than others.

You’ve said in previous interviews that you already planned to play music professionally from a very young age. Were your parents supportive of you?

I started when I was about six years old, a year after my older sister

No 12

began her studies, although she didn’t take to it as I did. I liked to practice and I insisted on lessons. My mother and father weren’t initially encouraging of this seriousness. You know, every parent worries about their kids making a living. I think they also suspected that after a year of scales I would get sick of it and wouldn’t want to continue. I really struggled to convince them that this is what I knew I had to do.

Courtesy of Nanaimo Conservatory of Music

CONTRIBUTOR slightly slower pace—just slightly. I still only do it part time today. I’ve had offers from big institutions, but they require me to teach full time, so I turned them all down.

The Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec allows me to take a small selection of students, so I am very happy in my capacity there. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy teaching, but playing must come first for now.

What kind of impact did your music teacher, school, or broader community have on this early ambition?

In my childhood, I tried a number of different teachers who taught privately, not in a Conservatory or something similar. I found these teachers lacked rigour and it never really worked for me. I don’t think I truly had my first piano lesson until age 15, when I began to work with Yvonne Hubert at École de musique Vincent-d’Indy. She was an expert in the turn of the century of French composers, who had won acclaim while studying at the Paris Conservatoire with Gabriel Fauré.

Her tutelage made a tremendous difference for me.

With teaching in Montreal and giving master classes in places like Vermont, you constantly encounter emerging pianists. What are some of the changes in young professionals that you’ve noticed since your own debut?

The current tendency is that young people suffer from a strange perfectionism. They want to be very effective, very efficient, and they want to play the really big stuff.

Students also feel a lot of pressure to succeed at a very young age. I think everyone has a pace and some people simply bloom later. I know teachers who say that if you haven’t had a major appearance by the time you’re 18, your career will never go anywhere, but I really do see potential in later learners.

And yourself, did you begin teaching early on?

About one year after the Tchaikovsky [competition]. Up until then, I was fully occupied with touring, but as it wound down I took an assistantship at Juilliard.

However, it wasn’t long before I found myself too busy with concertizing to continue seeing students. I really only had time in the summers, when my schedule had a

Your discography mainly specializes in the Romantic era of composition.

Do you consciously avoid playing other styles in order to focus on the 19th century?

In my current evolution, I think I have the flexibility to play just about any style well. But I do like to record what I know best. As a result of my teachers and own tastes I may have neglected the classics a little in favour of the big Romantic pia-

THE NAVIGATOR

no works as a young student, and so when I arrived at Juilliard I was familiar with these composers and not so much the foundations. I am definitely open to classical projects in the future. I think it’s a good idea not to specialize too much.

I understand you do play contemporary works, for example, in live settings, which leads me to ask: how is choosing a programme for a live performance different from planning an album?

For concerts, I select programmes a year in advance, but take about two years for a recording. Usually I will test out a tentative programme while touring before bringing it into the studio. My attitude in a recording environment is that you should feel 200 percent free to experiment—because, after all, you can always do it again. I am not big into post production and I don’t like a lot of splicing. At first I was very hesitant and careful, but now, being used to the pressure, I have more freedom to innovate and be spontaneous and relaxed in recording. One important thing to remember is that there is no such thing as a definitive performance; rather, some are more convincing than others. In such a situation, an artist has gone to the end of his or her own feelings in a piece. This is the highest measure.

It’s exciting to think that some of your live programmes are road tests for future recordings. What can Nanaimo audiences expect to hear at the Port Theatre this March 15?

Are there any potential LPs hidden in this repertoire?

Well, I think it will be a very well-balanced programme, including the Quebecois composer François Morel, some Liszt, and some Schubert, the latter being indeed a possible future project. I think the music will be very much alive and full of feelings with real intelligence. It’s heart music, perfectly crafted and elegant in its simplicity.

When you’re away from the piano, how do you like to spend your time?

I like to read and exercise. I try to put music away for the moment and take fast walks. I am so lucky to have lots of friends all over the world, with whom I try to stay in good touch. I also enjoy seeing films, and I highly recommend The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing. It’s one of the best I have seen in a long time—simply riveting, especially the acting. It’s hard to stop working but we have to do it, so go see this movie!

Experience André Laplante live at the Port Theatre on Sunday, March 15 at 2:30 pm. This solo piano concert is produced by the Nanaimo Conservatory of Music, a 35-yearold organization offering classical music performances and music education of the highest calibre.

Tickets cost $38, $25 for students, and are available from the Port Theatre box office at 250-754-8550 or online from <porttheatre.com>.

The master class taking place Monday, March 16 at 10 am at 375 Selby St. is open to observers for a $10 admission fee. To register, call 250754-4611.

17 ARTS

Teaching Canadian Literature Arts & Humanities Colloquium Talk JOHN HILL

CONTRIBUTOR

“We live in an age when the assumption that fiction is essential in the classroom cannot be taken for granted,” says Joy Gugeler. If we are to maintain a vigorous Canadian Literature, she suggests “the task of revolutionizing Canadian teachers and students seems essential.” She will address this topic in her upcoming Arts & Humanities Colloquium presentation entitled Firing the Canon and Hiring the Reader: How to Win the Classroom War on CanLit. The talk will be held in the Malaspina Theatre on Friday, March 27, beginning at 10 am.

“It is easy to blame,” says Gugeler, but “it is much more challenging to propose a practical and inspiring alternative.” Importantly, she puts teachers at the core of any change. As social critic Noam Chomsky once said: “To safeguard a revolution, first you have to get to

the teachers and the priests.” Her talk, she notes, “will leave religion out of it, but will attempt a somewhat radical overturning of the curricular aristocracy” to change the way in which Canadian Literature is taught in schools.

She proposes that a student-centred approach, employing modern leisure reading strategies in the classroom, could radically expand opportunities for teachers by encouraging them to use new activities on and offline: collective reading and writing projects, virtual author visits, book camps, teen publications, radio and television communal reading campaigns, student-juried contests, digitally shared lesson plans, cyber seminars, mobile and digital libraries with “sample” podcasts, trailers, and more.

“To inspire generations of students to read, write, buy, publish, and teach CanLit for a lifetime,” says Gugeler, “we must present them with a wealth of Canadian novels and story collections written by authors from as varied backgrounds as their own. They need to see their cultural, linguistic, gender, geographical, sexual, and social identities reflected, and they need help imagining the backgrounds and identities of others.

Gugeler argues that her approach gives students permission to interpret their lives through their chosen texts, and represents a sea of change in how literature could be taught. Students are not empty vessels that await pre-screened information; they possess hidden knowledge that stories evoke, stimulate, and resist. The question is not only “What does this mean?”

but “What does this mean to me?”

This strikes a balance between honouring a student’s experience and adding to it. She says, “If we empower students to claim authority previously only accorded by the author, text, and instructor, authority they have when reading texts of their own choosing at home, students will seek out those titles personally meaningful and imaginatively relevant, Canadian titles chief among them.”

Gugeler is from the departments of Media Studies and Creative Writing at VIU and is currently completing a doctoral thesis in Communications at Simon Fraser University, from which this talk is drawn. In the past she launched and hosted a bi-weekly radio program interviewing Canadian writers of fiction and poetry, and was on the editorial boards of a number of literary

magazines. She worked for 20 years as an acquiring editor of fiction for Quarry Press, Beach Holme Publishing, Raincoast Books, and ECW Press. She has been Editor-in-Chief of three online magazines and citizen journalism news sites and publishes Portal literary magazine and helps to organize The Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poets Lecture Series. She also founded the Canadian Children’s Book Camp that has run annually in Vancouver and Toronto for 11-17-year-olds for the last 15 years.

The Colloquium presentation on March 27 will be of special interest to teachers, future teachers, readers, writers, and those concerned about the state of Canadian culture.

The illustrated talk is open to faculty, employees, and the general public. Students are especially welcome and there will be refreshments.

Album review: I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty’s new album, I Love You, Honeybear.

JENNIFER GARCEAU

Tillman’s heart being poured all over your living room carpet is the kind of thing you need to be prepared for.

ARTS 18

With glitter in his beard and performing on what ends up being a player piano, Father John Misty introduced the world to his single “Bored in the USA” from his new album I Love You, Honeybear on David Letterman. Replete with a full orchestra and finishing the performance with an impassioned plea from the singer, “Save me President Jesus / I’m bored in the USA / How did it happen?” you get a sneek peek into the experience of the album—expect the unexpected.

Under the moniker of Father John Misty, Joshua Tillman has created an album that is implausibly a mix between a new husband’s love and adoration for his wife with a caustic examination of the modern condition. Dovetailed into all of this is a bitter account of Tillman himself as is evident in his song “The Ideal Husband” when he sings, “Knowing just what people want to hear / Bingeing on unearned attention / I’ve said awful things / Such awful things / And now it’s out.”

At times, Tillman’s efforts to sound raw and “real” are so tryhard you experience a mental facepalm. In his country-tinged “Nothing Good Ever Happens at the

THE NAVIGATOR

Courtesy of <monofesto.org>

CONTRIBUTOR Goddamn Thirsty Crow,” Tillman taunts a person who is hitting on his wife “But my baby, she does something more impressive than the Georgia Crawl / She blackens pages like a Russian Romantic / And gets down more often than a blow-up doll / … Your chance has been taken—good one.” Lyrical moments like this make my face wince every time he finishes a line, even though the vocal performance is perfection and set against a sweeping, country orchestra, pop ballad of astounding sublimity.

So yes, even though the lyrics sometimes leave me laughing out loud or snorting in indignation, I truly love this album. The lush string arrangements, the unabashed love for glockenspiel, the California brand of Americana, and impeccable production of Jonathan Wilson (the producer of this album’s predecessor Fear Fun) all satisfy a longing to be washed over by opulent, ambitious music. As grandiose as the music is the crystal clear tenor of Tillman (tinged with just enough So-Cal crackle) which is the true star of the album. And when his lyrics are right, they affect you in a most peculiar way.

When he softly inquires “How many people rise and say, / ‘My brain’s so awfully glad to be here for yet another mindless day / Now I’ve got all morning to obsessively accrue / A small nation of meaningful objects and they’ve gotta represent me too’ on the title track of the album, I sat in reflection for days about the monotonous domestic reproduction I participate in and how unfair it felt to be personified by the artefacts of material goods I command. Flash forward days later when I was still thinking about it and I realized in utter embarrassment that Tillman wants the listener to recognize how lucky they are to be concerned with boredom, what a developed nation complaint. “They gave me a useless education / And a subprime loan on a craftsmen home.”

Tillman’s heart being poured all over your living room carpet is the kind of thing you need to be prepared for—an experience that can sprain your soul if you haven’t warmed up first. So if you want to make sure your ears are limber and adjusted, watch the Letterman performance. Enjoy the sparkle beard and canned laugh track moments of absurdity with an audience of a bewildered Letterman.

No 12

Sports

Clippers one win away from advancing to Island final BEN CHESSOR

THE NAVIGATOR

The Nanaimo Clippers got off to a hot start in the BCHL playoffs. After four games, the Clippers lead the Alberni Valley Bulldogs three games to one in their best of seven first round series.

The Clippers won the first three games of the series, and had an opportunity to win the series in four straight games on Saturday, March 7 in Port Alberni. Nanaimo opened the scoring late in the first period with a powerplay goal at 17:17, but the Bulldogs got a goal from Mitch Makin just 43 seconds later to tie the score at 1-1 after the first period.

Nanaimo got the lead back early in the second period on a goal by Spencer Hewson. Then, with just over five minutes left to play in the second period, Nicolas Carrier jammed the puck past Bulldogs goaltender Billy Christopoulos to give Nanaimo a 3-1 lead. But before the end of the period, Makin scored his second of the game to cut the Clipper lead to 3-2 heading into the third period.

Eight minutes into the third period, Sheldon Rhemple scored to give the Clippers a 4-2 lead, but the Bulldogs refused to quit. With just 1:37 left in the third period, Clipper goaltender Guillaume Decelles mishandled the puck and turned it over to Chris Schutz, who deposited the puck into the open net to make the score 4-3. Then, off the ensuing faceoff, the Bulldogs gained the Clipper zone and threw the puck into a crowd of bodies in front of the net. The puck somehow found its way onto Schutz’ stick, who scored his second goal in 11 seconds to tie the game at 4-4 with just over a minute to play, sending the game into overtime.

In overtime, the Clippers had a couple of great chances to end the series, but Christopoulos made a couple big saves, including one of Hewson in the slot. Then, with just 13 seconds left in the first overtime period, Bulldogs forward Eric Margo cut over the Clipper blue line and fired a wrist shot through the legs of Decelles to give Alberni Valley the

Cole Maier protects the puck as he circles the Bulldogs’ net during the first period of game four of the teams’ first round series.

5-4 win. The victory for the Bulldogs means the two teams will travel back to Nanaimo for game five of the series on Monday, March 9.

Despite the heartbreaking loss in game four, the Clippers still have a commanding 3-1 lead in the best of seven series.

The Clippers took game one of the series 6-1 on March 3, and picked up a 3-1 victory on home ice the next night in game two. The third game was in Port Alberni on March 6, where Nanaimo held on for a 4-3 victory.

Offensively, the Clippers have been led by San Jose Sharks’ draft pick Jake Jackson. Jackson, who has eight points in four games, scored six goals in the first three games of the series, one more than the entire Bulldogs’ roster.

Men’s basketball captures Provincial gold No 12

BEN CHESSOR The third time proved to be the charm for the VIU Mariners’ men’s basketball team, who defeated the Langara Falcons in the finals of the PacWest Provincial Championship on March 7. In each of the last two years, the Mariners had lost the gold medal game to the Falcons.

The first quarter between the two teams was evenly matched, with the Mariners leading 25-23 after the first. The second quarter was just as even as the first. But with time winding down in the half, Chris Parker forced Langara to turn the ball over before hitting a buzzer-beating three to take a 42-39 lead at halftime.

The Mariners came out strong to start the second half, determined to put the game away before the

THE NAVIGATOR

Ben Chessor

The Clippers will try once again to finish off the Bulldogs on March 9 as the series will shift back to Nanaimo for game five of the series. If necessary, game six of the series will be played on March 10 in Port Alberni with game seven the following day in Nanaimo if needed.

If the Clippers can eliminate the Bulldogs, games one and two of the BCHL Island Division championship will be on Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14 in Nanaimo, where the Clippers take on the winner of the other Island Division series between Victoria and Powell River. That series, between the Kings and Grizzlies, is tied at two after four games.

For more information on the Clippers and their playoff run, visit <nanaimoclippers.com>.

THE NAVIGATOR fourth quarter. But the Falcons managed to hang around, matching each Mariners’ run with a streak of their own. After three quarters, the game was tied at 58.

The Mariners took the lead early in the fourth quarter. VIU had a five point lead late in the fourth, but were dealt a scare as the game entered its final moments. Justin King, the Mariners’ leading scorer and PacWest player of the year, suffered an injury with just over two minutes left in the game. But despite missing their leading scorer in the game’s final minutes, the Mariners were still able to hang on to capture the PacWest championship, picking up a 82-76 victory over the Falcons.

The Mariners advanced to the

finals of the Provincials by defeating the Douglas College Royals 89-82 in the semi-finals. VIU trailed the Royals 14-7 in the first quarter, but shook off the slow start to advance to the finals.

Both the Mariners and the Falcons will now travel to the CCAA National Basketball Championships in Hamilton, ON at Mohawk College, March 18-21. The Mariners and Falcons will enter the National Championship looking for their second title in the past three years.

The Mariners have a couple of weeks to rest and prepare for the trip to Hamilton for the National Championships. For more information on the Mariners and their upcoming games, visit <mariners.viu.ca>.

SPORTS 19

14 questions with Mariners’ Ashley Van Acken and Megan Roselund “Q: Who’s your childhood hero? A: Dog the Bounty Hunter. I was obsessed.”

MOLLY BARRIEAU

THE NAVIGATOR more to prove. It’s kind of, like my last shebang. There’s nothing to lose anymore.

So, you’re like role models?

A: Every one that played before you, they set the stage. They’re so impressionable, it’s like you’re handing them something.

How long have you played volleyball?

A: I’ve played since grade five.

Megan Roselund (left) and Ashley Van Acken in their “Saturday” jackets.

On February 28, the VIU women’s volleyball team captured Provincial gold. Third year players Megan Roselund and Ashley Van Acken sat down with The Navigator to discuss their underdog season, the Nationals in Quebec, and their favourite breakfast cereal.

What are you looking forward to regarding the Nationals in Quebec?

Molly Barrieau

M: I’m excited to just go there, excited to see how our other teammates adapt to the situation. For some of them it’s their first time being at Nationals. I like playing teams we’ve never played before A: This is my last year playing.

I’m excited to leave an impression on all the babies. It took a lot to win provincials. We are the underdogs; we have so much

Did you love it?

A: Yeah, definitely. I just got really interested in it. My best friends always played. I grew up with our Libero, Kelsey Johnson; she played for Rush Volleyball, a club in Campbell River. They kinda got me hooked, they were always the best.

M: Yeah, I’ve been playing since grade five. My sister got me into it, I was always at her tournaments.

I’d always have the ball with me.

Did you choose VIU for its volleyball?

M: Yeah. My sister went here for five years, and I was always kind of in her shadow. I was looking at Capilano, Camosun, and a team from Alberta. I realized I didn’t like snow, so I didn’t wanna go to Alberta. Then I thought, you know what, VIU is the best team.

A: I was supposed to go to VIU straight out of high school. But

I bailed out in July, right before the season was supposed to start.

Before I took the year off, I signed with Capilano. I played a year there, but I just wanted to be on a team that would win. I asked the coach if he would take me back, and he said yes.

If you weren’t playing volleyball, which sport would you play?

M: Tennis. Or soccer. I played soccer for 13 years; and I’m a very big fan of tennis, no actual skill. I’ve got roller blades too.

A: None. I’d probably just be a professional couch potato.

Favourite professional sports franchise?

A: I gotta say Vancouver Canucks.

My dad and brother are huge hockey fans and if I even breathe anything else, it’d be the end of me.

M: I don’t watch sports. And if I said something and someone read it, they’d ask, “Megan, who’s on their team?”

What do you hope to do with your degree?

A: I’m super big on the environmental movement. My dream is to work with developing countries so they do not become the western world, and preserve their respect to the resources and land. Last year, I went to Belize and did a huge

environmental assessment on a village. We did a compendium for the government and I got my first published report.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A: An actress. Even if I wasn’t going to be an actress, I wanted to be famous, fa-mous.

M: I think I wanted to be a singer.

Who’s your childhood hero?

A: Dog the Bounty Hunter. I was obsessed.

M: I’d say my dad, but that’s lame.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

M: Not in BC, though? California.

A: Brazil, on the coast.

What’s the most complicated thing you know how to cook?

A: I just like to cook. Whole turkey dinner, I could handle it. You gotta have the brussel sprouts going at the right time, the stuffing in the turkey…

M: Scalloped potatoes.

Favourite breakfast cereal?

A: Not a cereal girl. But if I had to, Raisin Bran, but like every four months.

M: Lucky Charms.

You like the marshmallows?

M: Obviously.

Women’s volleyball rallies for Provincial gold BEN CHESSOR The VIU Mariners’ women’s volleyball team is no stranger to adversity. The team, losing five of its first six games of the season, battled back to capture third place in the PacWest standings.

In the Provincial gold medal game on February 28, the Mariners found themselves battling once again. The Mariners trailed the home town Camosun Chargers, losing the first two sets 25-15 and 25-21. But, facing elimination, the Mariners battled back. VIU won the third set 26-24 and picked up a 25-14 victory in the fourth set to force a fifth and deciding set for the gold medal. In the fifth set, the Mariners completed the improbable comeback, stunning the home town crowd with a 15-12 fifth set victory.

20 SPORTS

THE NAVIGATOR The victory gave the Mariners their second PacWest Provincial gold medal in a row. Third year Mariner Megan Groenendijk was named VIU player of the match.

Megan finished the game with 14 kills and two blocks.

The Mariners advanced to the gold medal game with a five-set victory over the Capilano Blues in the semi-finals. The Mariners never trailed in the match, winning the first and third sets 25-20 and 25-18. But the Blues managed to rebound to win the matches during the second and fourth sets, setting up a fifth and deciding set between the two teams, which the Mariners won 15-11.

The Mariners also picked up a three-set sweep over the Douglas

The Mariners credit strong team chemistry as a big factor in their mid-season turnaround.

Courtesy of VIU Mariner’s’ Flickr Royals in the quarter-finals: 25-19, 25-15, 25-16.

The PacWest champion Mariners now prepare to travel to the CCAA Women’s National Volleyball Championships in Longueuil, QC.

THE NAVIGATOR

The Mariners enter the Nationals as the second ranked team in the tournament. VIU will play their first round match against the Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics on Thursday, March 12 at 10 am PST.

No 12

Buccaneers crowned

by Glacier Kings BEN CHESSOR The VIJHL playoffs got off to a promising start for the Nanaimo Buccaneers as the team won the opening game of their series against the Comox Valley Glacier Kings. But the game one victory was all the Buccaneers could muster as they lost the first round series to Comox Valley in five games.

The Buccaneers picked up the 5-2 victory in Comox Valley in game one of the series on February 17, but the Glacier Kings took over the series after the game one victory, winning game two 4-3 in overtime in Nanaimo. Then the Glacier Kings picked up the 5-3 win on home ice in game three, and took a 3-1 lead in the series with a dominating 8-4 victory in Nanaimo in game four.

The Buccaneers tried to stave off elimination in game five, but the Glacier Kings proved to be too much to handle for the Buccaneers.

THE NAVIGATOR 6:50 into the first period, Comox captain Derian Hamilton scored to give the Kings a 1-0 lead. Later, Grant Iles scored to give Comox a 2-0 lead at 15:21 of the first, but Carter Turnbull scored just 46 seconds later to cut the Kings’ lead to 2-1 after the first period.

Early in the second period, the Kings got goals from Iles and Hamilton to give the Kings a 4-1 lead.

Zach Funk got the Buccaneers back into the game with a shorthanded goal with just under five minutes left in the second.

The Buccaneers needed a third period comeback to fight off elimination and force a game six back in Nanaimo. The Buccaneers’ comeback got off to a good start, with Clayton Peace scoring on the powerplay to make the score 4-3. But just over a minute after Peace’s goal, Frank Colapaolo

beat Buccaneers’ netminder Jakob Severson to restore the two-goal Comox lead. The Buccaneers tried to mount a comeback in the final minutes of regulation, but were unable to find another goal as they fell to the Glacier Kings by a final score of 5-3.

For the Buccaneers, the five-game loss marks the second year in a row that the team has been defeated in the first round. The Buccaneers fell to the Campbell River Storm in six games in the first round of last year’s playoffs.

The Buccaneers will have the opportunity to ice a very strong team next season, as every player except 20-year-old Johnathan Speer is eligible to return, although they are also likely to lose leading goal scorer Carter Turnbull, who seems destined for at least JR A hockey next season.

Men’s volleyball captures Provincial bronze BEN CHESSOR

THE NAVIGATOR

The VIU Mariners’ men’s volleyball team captured the bronze medal at the PacWest Provincial Volleyball Championships, held February 26-28 in Victoria.

The Mariners’ opponent in the bronze medal match was the fourth-seeded Columbia Bible College Bearcats. The first set between the two teams went down to the wire as the Mariners picked up the 25-22 victory. The second set was even closer than the first, as the Mariners needed extra points to take a 2-0 lead in the match with a 28-26 second set victory. The third set was just as close as the first two, but once again the Mariners managed to come out on top as VIU picked up the 26-24 victory in the third set, ending an extremely close three-set match.

The Mariners found themselves in the bronze medal game after suffering a semi-final loss to the host Camosun Chargers.

The Chargers came out strong and won the match’s opening set 25-17. After the Mariners captured the second set with a dominating 25-10 win, the Chargers put the match away with victories in the third and fourth sets, 25-19 and 25-21.

The Mariners, who entered the Provincials as the third place team, advanced to the semi-finals with a hard-fought five-set victory over the sixth place Capilano Blues in the quarter-finals.

The Blues jumped out to an early lead in the match, winning the first two sets 25-23 and 25-21. But the Mariners refused to be eliminated early as the team bounced back to win the final three sets of the match 25-5, 25-15, and 16-14.

The victory in the bronze medal game was extra sweet for fifth year Mariners Diego Bustos and Rylan Brouwer, who ended their Mariner careers on a winning note.

Women’s basketball captures bronze, prepares for Nationals BEN CHESSOR

THE NAVIGATOR

It might not have been the medal they wanted, but the VIU Mariners’ women’s basketball team overcame a disappointing semi-final loss to defeat the hometown Camosun Chargers and capture the bronze medal.

The match was a tightly contested one between the two Island rivals as the Chargers came out strong early in the game, determined to capture a medal in front of their home town fans. But the Mariners did a good job of battling back as the game progressed. At halftime, the Mariners led 22-20.

By the second half, the Mariners started to pull away from the Chargers, who were ultimately unable to compete with the Mariners’ powerful offense. When the final buzzer sounded, the Mariners captured the PacWest bronze medal with a 57-44 victory. Sienna Pollard led the Mariners, with 14 points and seven blocks in the victory.

The Mariners did a good job of rebounding from a tough semi-final loss the night before against the Douglas Royals.

The Mariners got off to a hot start against Douglas, taking an 11-4 lead early in the first quarter. But after the early outburst, the Mariners’ offense went ice cold, allowing the Royals to jump out to a 29-16 lead at halftime. The Mariners came out strong in the second half and narrowed the Royals’ lead to a single basket late in the third quarter. But the Royals continued their strong play and never let the Mariners tie the game. The Mariners had their chances to pull even in the game’s final moments, but ultimately fell to Douglas by a final score of 62-57. The Douglas victory marked the second time this season the Mariners lost a game to a team other than the Provincial Champion Quest Kermodes.

Despite the third place finish at the Provincials, the Mariners will still get a chance to compete at the CCAA National Championships as the host team. The Nationals are in Nanaimo from March 19-21. The Mariners’ first game of the Nationals is Thursday, March 19 at 6 pm.

No 12

THE NAVIGATOR

SPORTS 21

Odds & Ends Little Things Help a Little

Comic by Arlen Hogarth

Filbert

ODDS & ENDS 22

Comics by Anthony Labonte

THE NAVIGATOR

No 12

March

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

11

12

13

14

Visiting Artist and Designer Series: Liz Rideal

The Nanaimo Theatre Group presents: Absurd Person Singular

Community Meditation

Portal’s St. Patty’s Day Party

Nanaimo campus, Bldg. 200, rm. 203 Free 4:30 PM – 6 PM

Bailey Studio, 2373 Rosstown Rd. $18-$20, tickets available at <nanaimotheatregroup. com>, goes until March 14

Bent Tree Wellness Centre, 123 Nicol St. $5 suggested donation 7 – 8 PM

Koncept Nightclub, 240 Skinner St. $3 cover at door 11 PM – 2 AM

8 – 10 PM

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

Spring Sundays at Milner Gardens

Italy Field School Fundraiser

St. Patrick’s Day: Free Baked Potato

Early Morning Class

Milner Gardens and Woodland, 2179 W Island Hwy.

Nanaimo campus, bldg.

300 (upper cafeteria)

Nanaimo campus, bldg.

193 (Students’ Union)

The Body Politic with Atlas Collapses, Ellice Blackout, and Red Bycicle

An Evening of the Blues on the Dock with David Gogo

$5

Free

Science and Technology Lecture Series: Chemical Separation: Can They Be a Panacea for Industrial and Clinical Problems

10 AM – 2 PM

11 AM – 1 PM, or until 250 potatoes are gone

Nanaimo campus, bldg.

356, rm. 109

7 – 8 PM

$5.25 ($3.15 students) 11:30 – 3:30 PM

OmTown Yoga Studio, 43 Commercial St. $15 ($13 student)

Free

Harbour City Theatre, 25 Victoria Rd. $15 6:30 PM

Dinghy Dock Pub, 8 Pirates Lane $25 7 PM

7 – 8 PM

22

23

24

Free Lions Skate

Colin James

Frank Crane Arena, 2300 Bowen Rd.

Port Theatre, 125 Front St.

Bitter Sweet: Why Sugar Makes Us Fat

Free

$61.50

North Ridge Fitness Centre, 5800 Turner Rd.

12 – 1:30 PM

7:30 PM

Free or by donation 7 – 8:30 PM

ADVERTISE WITH THE NAVIGATOR

ads@thenav.ca Join the Navigator Online SHARE YOUR NEWS TIPS #NEWSTIPS

FACEBOOK /THENAVIGATORNEWSPAPER

No 12

THENAV.CA

THE NAVIGATOR

TWITTER @THENAV_VIU

CALENDAR 23