Malarky Launch

We had a lovely time at Anakana Schofield's launch of her novel Malarky at the People's Co-op Book Store on April Fool's Day and I was the fool. I brought my honey blondies, took photos of the food and the drink, played the uke and sang, but I was so charmed by the author I didn't take a photo of the star. MEA CULPA!!!!!!!!!

The spirit of hospitality was warm and homey, with friends and family members stepping in to make food and serve Irish tea, Guiness and whiskey. Anakana's son Cuan played some fiddle tunes to entertain us and Anakana did a fabulous job of reading excerpts from her novel which is receiving excellent reviews and creating a real buzz.

The launch was so successful that that the author sold out of books and she had folks lining up out the door to get their copies autographed.

Yes, we were served tea in proper bone china!

Congratulations AK on a great launch!

Malarky Reading March 21 at the VPL and More Dates!

My dear friend and colleague Anakana Schofield is launching her new novel called Malarky. It is a fascinating exploration of the inner life of an Irish woman who is fearlessly working to try to understand her son's past. If you are in Vancouver you can hear her read at the Vancouver Public Library on March 21. or you can attend the book launch at the most excellent Co-op Bookstore on April Fool's Day from 3-6 pm. I will be singing and playing my uke for the first time in public!

If you are in Toronto, you can catch her on Wednesday May 16th, 2012 at the Northern District Library at 12:30pm or later that evening at the North York Central Library at 7:30pm.

Go Against the Flow!

Be a part of the Vancouver Counter Culture. Come to our event instead of watching the game! See Madame B in her riot gear!

Rereading The Riot Act II
Artists' Performance Cabaret
Presented by UNIT/PITT at The Waldorf Hotel, 1489 E Hastings St, Vancouver
BC Canada
8 - 11 pm Wednesday, June 15 - Free admission

In an ongoing interrogation of the historical events of April 23, 1935 --
when Mayor Gerry McGeer read the Riot Act to the relief camp protesters, their families and supporters gathered at Victory Square -- Rereading the Riot Act II - Performance Art Cabaret offers contemporary responses to Vancouver's turbulent labour history.

Four performance and visual artists -- leannej, My Name Is Scot, Carol
Sawyer and Lori Weidenhammer -- will present new works. The works are
expanded responses to both the events of April 23, 1935 and the reenactment
event that took place in Vancouver on April 23rd 2011.

The Cabaret will feature film, performances, music, video projections and a
sculptural installation by Jeremy Isao Speier.

Rereading the Riot Act intends to provoke an emotional, politicized
engagement with civic space and how or whether we want to narrate (back) to it.

Rereading the Riot Act is a series of actions curated by Anakana Schofield
through a UNIT/PITT curatorial residency project.

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=215530985134027

UNIT/PITT Projects gratefully acknowledges the support of the British
Columbia Arts Council, the Canada Council, the City of Vancouver, the
Waldorf Hotel, SFU Institute for the Humanities, and the support of its
members, volunteers and individual donors.

--
UNIT/PITT Projects
Office: 100 - 221 East Georgia Street, Vancouver BC V6A 1Z6 Canada
Project site: 15 East Pender Street, Vancouver BC V6A 1S4 Canada
+1.604.681.6740
www.unitpitt.ca

Taxi!: The Walking Tour

How many jobs have you had? Let's see: actress, waitress, performance artist, sound artist, installation artist, teacher, street performance director/creator, volunteer co-ordinator, life guard, writer, blogger, editor, make-up and bodycare product salesperson, museum shop salesperson, arts project administrator, and census taker. I think that's it. Those are the ones I got paid for anyway. Most hated: waitressing. Hated it and I sucked at it.

Reading Helen Potrebenko's novel about a woman taxi driver brings back all those terrible job memories--sexual harassment in the kitchen from hell, dysfunctional co-workers and bosses, stress, fatigue, boredom, lack of training, lack of proper job description, and general feelings of vulnerability and lack of respect.

May 1st is a day set aside for celebrating workers. So why is it so bloody DEPRESSING? Because we still haven't figured out the living wage. And I am sick of hearing two bit businesses whining about the raise in the minimum wage. Take your blinders off and look at the reality of working world! Don't even get me started on what artists are(n't) paid.

Anyway, enough with the rant. Anakana Schofield organized a fantastic walking tour and we had some marvelous readers. I was very chuffed that people on the street gave the thumbs up to my Insecurity Guard shirt.

We were very excited to hear the author talk about her work to make it clear that the main character is not Helen, it is a fictional character even though the customers in the taxis are based on real people.

We competed with the sounds of the street, and we interacted with the spectacle of daily life in downtown Vancouver.

We stopped for a coffee break.

Thanks to everyone who came out and celebrated Taxi!

Rereading the Riot Act

This event will mark the anniversary of the reading of the Riot Act in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on April 23, 1935 by Mayor McGeer to an assembled group of unemployed workers, their families and supporters. It is the first in a series of Rereading the Riot Act events, curated by Anakana Schofield.

Meet us outside 16 E. Hastings at 2pm on Saturday, April 23. We will make our way to Victory Square from there.

Rereading the Riot Act intends to provoke an emotional, politicized engagement with civic space and how or whether we want to narrate (back) to it. We also hope to re-inscribe Vancouver's history of labour struggle and mass protest into the commemoration of the city's 125th year. Rereading The Riot Act will culminate in a publication to be released in September 2011.

Participants in the project will include Lori Weidenhammer, Carol Sawyer, mynameisscot, leannej, Jeremy Todd, Juliane Okot Bitek, Hanif Karim, Renee Rodin, Dave Eby, Dianne Wood, Karenza T. Wall, Christine D'Onofrio, Aaron Vidaver, Penny Goldsmith, Michael Barnholden, Bobbi Kozinuk, Jeremy Isao Speier, and members of the Solidarity Notes Choir conducted by Earle Peach.

UNIT/PITT Projects gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Canada Council, the BC Arts Council, and the City of Vancouver. We are also grateful for the support of many artists and cultural workers, without whom we would be unable to continue.

I hardly ever go to downtown Vancouver these days because it depresses the hell out of me. I hate shopping malls. I hate the big box stores. I hate the cement and concrete. The architecture is cold and uninspiring. The rampant consumerism sucks the joy from my heart. What an interesting journey it was to travel through the shadow and the valley of this capitalist darkness into the warm afternoon light of Rereading the Riot Act.

This collective event was the brainchild of my friend Anakana Schofield, a brilliant writer who is also starting an exciting new career as a performance artist. It always takes someone like Anakana to breathe new life into the discipline, and she is generously bringing us along by asking other artists to respond and take part in her events.

I loved watching the members of the Solidarity Notes choir arrive, greet each other warmly and warm up their voices and bodies. They infused the event with a spirit of inclusiveness, fun, and a sense of the history of class struggle and worker's rights.

Each artist that performed or read at the event hit their own notes of solidarity, from Carol Sawyer's wailing vocalizes to Bobbie Kozinuk's socially critical performance vignette. This is the kind of performance that used to happen when I first came to Vancouver that inspired me to make it my home. As Vancouver becomes more and more of a resort town we need these interventions to keep the city's critical voices free and alive.