Thursday November 4

Workshops
FLAMENCO DANCE with Kelty McKerracher
Thursday November 4, 10:30am-12:30pm
EWMA Studio, 54 E. Cordova

Attention: Flamencas of all ages, shapes and abilities! Want to move your body in a new way, build self-confidence, and stomp around a bit? Come and join a fun and exploratory Flamenco workshop for Women! We will play with rhythms, move to flamenco music, and celebrate our power as women. No dance experience necessary, just curiosity and a desire to try something new. The workshop is presented by EWMA (Enterprising Women Making Art Studio), a program of Atira Women’s Resource Society, and the Heart of the City Festival. All self identifying women are welcome. For more information contact: jessica_numminen@atira.bc.ca or phone 604-685-8043. Free

Workshop
MAKING ART THROUGH DIALOGUE
Series Launch
Thursday November 4, 1:30pm-3:30pm
EWMA Studio, 54 E. Cordova

This is the launch of a collaborative mixed media art project facilitated by EWMA Artists Montana King (painting) and Karenza T Wall (chindi needlework design). The series will be a living piece of art and dialogue. Women can drop into the studio every Thursday for five weeks to continue working on the project. The project will follow the theme of this year’s Heart of the City Festival, “Heart and Home”, a theme that will be explored through weekly sessions that combine artistic creativity and dialogue. The workshop is presented by EWMA (Enterprising Women Making Art Studio), a program of Atira Women’s Resource Society, and the Heart of the City Festival. No experience necessary, just a willingness to explore and be open to discussion and creation. All self identifying women are welcome. Following the series launch, this project will continue for four more weeks Nov 11, 18, 25 and Dec 2. For more information contact: jessica_numminen@atira.bc.ca or phone 604-685-8043. Free

Presentation
LAUNCH OF THE DTES COLLECTION
Thursday, November 4, 1pm-3pm
Carnegie Reading Room, 401 Main

Over the past 30 years the Carnegie Library Branch has built up a Downtown Eastside collection of books, DVDs and videos, reports, articles, programs, and photos. In 2010, the Friends of the Vancouver Public Library gave a grant to make the community’s stories, history and culture more accessible to people in the Downtown Eastside and beyond. Come and celebrate the launch of the enhanced Downtown Eastside Collection with guest speakers and poets from various publications, see images from the photos of the collection. Special guest: George McWhirter, poet, writer, translator, editor, teacher and Vancouver’s first Poet Laureate. Join us in the Carnegie Reading Room to peruse the collection. Free

Literary Salon
RESPONDENCY WEST
Thursday November 4, 8pm
W2 Woodward’s Meeting Room, 250–111 W. Hastings CHANGE in VENUE People’s Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial 604-253-6442 WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE

The Kootenay School of Writing presents the Respondency West series, which began last fall and is designed to bring “poetry and readers together in dangerously close proximity with the goal of revising the relationship between readers, writers and text.” This evening Maxine Gadd speaks about Christine Stewart in an evening of reading, critical discussion and schmoozing, www.kswnet.org. Free

Walking Tour
CRAB PARK & THE NEST PROJECT
with Greg Ferguson & Don Larson
Thursday November 4, 4:30pm-6pm

Meet at Wendy Poole Park, NW corner of Main & Alexander
Environmental artist Sharon Kallis spent the summer in workshops with community members to create woven sculptures for the marsh pond located in CRAB Park. They wove perches and protection for park birds and helped to make the area more livable for birds in the DTES, www.crabparknest.wordpress.com. As they worked they learned about the history and stories of the favourite waterfront from Don Larson, activist and founder of CRAB Water for Life Society. Led by Don’s persistence in the mid-80s, determined residents set up a tent-city for almost three months to fight for the right to build a park in the DTES. Their persistence eventually paid off and we celebrate the results of their activism in this natural jewel of a park. Don and Greg Ferguson, biologist, will lead a walking tour of the park history, ecology, and various memorials and art works. $10 for non-residents, pay what you can for local residents

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Digital Stories & Exhibition
LIFE WITH A VIEW
Thursday November 4, 7pm-9pm
UBC Learning Exchange, 612 Main

A premiere of digital stories and artwork: what happens when people come together to explore their lives and their neighbourhoods through new media? They tell their stories and discover their artistry. Downtown Eastside residents, professional photographers and UBC Learning Exchange students have been working together, sharing their local and technical knowledge to create this exhibition. This project brings together people who might not otherwise collaborate, building on their individual talents and experiences, in a digital media learning exchange. We hope that visitors to the exhibition will also learn and be inspired. (www.learningexchange.ubc.ca) Free

Opening Reception
SUSTAINING MEMORIES Colleen Carroll
Thursday November 4, 6pm-8pm
radha yoga & eatery, 728 Main 2nd floor
Exhibition November 4 to 30

Downtown Eastside artist Colleen Carroll has lived at Main and Hastings for nine years after moving here from the north due to severe health challenges. She loves it here and says she’s “never looked back.” “Painting helps me in many ways. It makes me focus on things other than my pain and poor memory. It takes me back in time and place to where and when I had my health. It lets me record the beauty I have found, and still find, in my life, living here in the DTES.” She works in acrylic, mostly on canvas, with subjects from Haida Gwaii to Ecuador but mostly her work these days is of “the hood.” (Colleen Carroll) For tonight’s reception Stan Hudac will play some of Colleen’s favourite piano selections and as a special Diwali treat, Nazil Kara will do complimentary mehndi designs for the guests. The eatery is open for dinner 6pm-10pm. For information 604-605-0011 or www.radhavancouver.org

Interactive Writing
WRITE TO THE CITY: Adventures in Social Writing
Thursday November 4, 8:30pm-10pm
Brickhouse Bar, 730 Main

Join the Thursdays Writing Collective with guest author Michael Turner for 90 minutes of writing prompts, pencil-chewing, and laughter as they push the phrases and numbers that determine how we navigate Vancouver into a creative realm. Numbers, acronyms, forms: how can we repurpose these constraints and social controls into an act of creative liberation and change the way we experience civic space? Pencils and paper will be supplied and participants will have the opportunity to share their writing. Michael Turner is a Vancouver-based author of fiction, criticism and song. His books include Hard Core Logo, The Pornographer’s Poem and most recently 8×10. He blogs at this address: http://mtwebsit.blogspot.com/. The Thursdays Writing Collective, directed by Elee Kraljii Gardiner, has been called by Geist magazine “the biggest, boldest, and by far the most vital conspiracy of writers operating in Vancouver at present.” TWC meets at Carnegie Community Centre every Thursday for drop-in creative writing sessions. More info at www.thursdayspoemsandprose.ca. Cash bar. Free admission

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