Metro Vancouver has hosted major, world-renowned skateboarding events in the past, including Slam City Jam and EXPO 86’s Transworld Skateboard Championship, and we’re about to get another! The Generations Skateboard Society has announced the first 7 Generations Cup, an Indigenous-hosted pro skateboarding invitational that will take place in Langley.
Left: Walter Caleb Nicholls Right: Maddy Balt photos by Ryan Clark
7 Generations Cup
When: June 10-12, 2022
Where: Langley Events Centre (7888 200 St, Langley)
The name 7 Generations Cup takes inspiration from the Kwantlen First Nations’ seven laws of life – health, happiness, humbleness, generations, generosity, forgiveness and understanding. Events include:
Mini Ramp Challenge Celebrating the original Mini Ramp Challenge with the 35th anniversary legends invitational.
All Terrain Contest Full course event, from mini-ramp to street, with heats of 5 skaters for 5 minute sessions.
Best Trick Sessions Signature obstacles inspired by Indigenous hosts and the province of BC: Coastal Canoe, Hockey Net, and Cedar Hat Hip.
Freestyle Invitational Top international freestyle skaters will compete and showcase modern flatland freestyle skateboarding.
There will also be Pow Wow dancers, Indigenous drummers and singers, a Basket Repatriation Ceremony, Indigenous vendors and more.
Brenda Knights of the Kwantlen First Nation and Bentwood Skateboards is a Board Member of the Generations Skateboard Society and is helping to ensure strong Indigenous leadership and inclusion. She says: “There will be no doubt that guests of the event will have the opportunity to have both an Indigenous experience as well as enjoy a fantastic skateboard event.”
As part of its mission to be as inclusive an event as possible, organizers say they have taken steps to ensure gender equity and inclusion of persons with disabilities.
The event will also feature a newly-built version of a famous ramp that was originally designed by pro skaters Kevin Harris and Lance Mountain. Harris, a world-record holder and Canada’s first pro skater, is a board member of Generations Skateboard Society and a key organizer of the event. Harris also co-founded the legendary Richmond Skate Ranch that helped launch many of Canada’s top pros.
The 7 Generations Cup will also mark the return of Jason Bothe (a.k.a. Renee Renee) as emcee. Bothe is an icon in the skateboarding world for his emceeing at various events and on FUEL TV, as well as having appeared in a number of skate-oriented films and music videos.
Follow along on Instagram for more information and updates.
Kitsilano’s Mister Ice Cream Bar is celebrating its sixth anniversary with a special collaboration with another Vancouver favourite: Lee’s Donuts
Photo submitted
Mister Ice Cream Bar and Lee’s Donuts Collab
From June 11 to 12 Mister, Vancouver’s original artisan liquid-nitrogen churned ice cream shop (at 1835 West 1st Ave), will feature a limited-edition Chocolate Trio Ice Cream Donut ($8.50). Mister’s chocolate trio ice cream is mixed with Lee’s Donut Chocolate Cake for an exclusive flavour explosion, then served in a classic Lee’s Donut Honey Dip. It is hot pressed to order to give guests an ice cream sandwich feel.
“Opening Mister six years ago, we honestly didn’t know what to expect, because nitro ice cream was still a new concept in Canada,” says Tommy Choi, who co-owns Mister with Michael Lai and opened its original Yaletown location in 2016.
“The support has been incredible! And we now have a second location in Kits. To celebrate, we wanted to create a unique treat for our guests to enjoy and thought, why not a donut ice cream sandwich? And chocolate is one of our most popular flavours. We are huge fans of Lee’s Donuts, and they have been fun to work with.”
In addition, a special Chocolate Trio Ice Cream Pint ($13) will be available at Lee’s Donuts (1689 Johnston Street) and both Mister locations in Yaletown (1141 Mainland) and Kitsilano, starting June 11, 2022. It features an Ovaltine ice cream base with Nutella swirl and Lee’s Donut Chocolate Cake crumbles.
Following a sold-out run in Toronto, the frank theatre company presents the West Coast premiere of White Girls in Moccasins by Yolanda Bonnell, directed by Quelemia Sparrow and co-presented by the Talking Stick Festival and Full Circle: First Nations Performance.
An irreverent Indigenous reclamation story, written by the Dora Award Nominated author of ‘Bug’, featuring Danica Charlie, Lisa C. Ravensbergen and Emily Jane King.
Miskozi goes on a search for herself and her culture, accompanied by her inner white girl, Waabishkizi, and guided by Ziibi, a manifestation of an ancestral river. White Girls in Moccasins world-hops between dreams, memories, and a surreal game show as Miskozi grapples with living her own truth in a society steeped in white supremacy.
North America’s premier Indigenous arts and culture festival is back for a 21st year June 12 to July 3, 2022. The Talking Stick Festival began as a way to showcase and celebrate Indigenous art and performance to a wider audience. From its humble beginnings, this unique and exciting event has grown into a full 2 week festival at locations across Vancouver.
Vancouver’s own Missy D is going back to where her passion for music began and starting on a new path of hope and healing with her recently-released EP Case Départ. We’re all welcome on this heartfelt and nostalgic journey that looks to the future with a renewed sense of purpose, place, and home.
Missy D’s Case Départ is the Beginning of Something Wonderful
I had the privilege of sitting down with Missy D to go through Case Départ (which translates to the idiom square one or a starting point) track-by-track, but first here’s a bit of backstory:
Diane Mutabaruka, aka Missy D, is a hip-hop, rap, and soul artist who has been performing music since she was eleven years old. You’ve perhaps seen her on stage either as herself or as a part of Laydy Jams at local events and festivals, or internationally at SXSW in Austin, Texas.
She traces her passion for music and writing to an elementary school program where her teacher developed a curriculum on hip-hop, at the request of the students. She learned about the genre’s roots and rhyme schemes, and her final project of the year was to write and perform a rap.
“Something happened that day,” Missy D recalls. “I realized I really loved music as a whole: making music and performing as well.” Her classmates could tell she had a gift and encouraged her to keep it up.
“I moved schools, I learned a new language, and the rest is history. I came here [to Vancouver] and I still kept doing it. It hasn’t left me. Every time I have tried to leave it – it’s the one thing that’s remained the most consistent in my life.”
Her first album, When Music Hits You Feel No Pain was released in 2016 and in March of 2020, she dropped the Yes MamaEP which followed her journey through the grief of losing her father. But as we all experienced, March 2020 was a pretty tumultuous time. She had to cancel her EP release party, and release and promote the project on her own. What was supposed to be a cathartic process turned into more of the sadness and grief she felt writing it.
“I was supposed to go home finally, and I wasn’t able to go home. I’m the baby of the family, so my siblings some live in Montreal, my mom lives in Ivory Coast with my brother, and I always feel like I’m very isolated. I already felt very isolated before the pandemic, then during it I also couldn’t see my friends, I couldn’t see my co-workers.” She realized she was still grieving the Yes Mama project, and her dad’s passing which is still in her heart to this day. All of it made her sad and anxious.
“These are feelings that a lot of people went through this year, so when I started thinking about that, I started thinking about: let’s go back to what I do and let’s go back to my why. Why was I writing music?”
She had her answer, and her inspiration for Case Départ. “Maybe the reason you do music is because you fell in love with it,” she told herself. “And where did you fall in love with it? When I was a kid.”
Missy D’s music is influenced by MC Solaar, Diams, Erykah Badu, India Arie, J.Cole, Missy Elliott and Lauryn Hill, which you’ll hear as soon as you hit play on Case Départ.
This French EP, with some English mixed in, immediately transports me back to Mme Salvail’s class at Riverdale Elementary in the 90s – the peak of my French Immersion days. Not only with the mix of language, but the music influence and style. You can’t help but smile, I even felt like a kid again listening to it.
Missy D’s goal for Case Départ was to get back to her roots, and it shows. “I’ve been rapping in English for the last ten years, and I discovered that when I start rapping in French or singing in French, I’m back to that eleven year old me.”
“Everything in the past eight months or so has been very Francophone in every sense of the word, so when I went back to writing it I was like, ‘Oh wow the flow is different, I’m rapping like 90s hip-hop!’ I’m still that kid inside. When you hear the music, I think it’s supposed to bring you back, this is old school.”
Case Départ Track by Track
While Missy D describes her music career as her “5 to 9” for now, the passion that comes through on this EP is a 24/7/365 vibe that will touch your soul, and lift it up:
Every Spring at Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland (“Big Sisters BCLM”), they celebrate the impact mentorship has on inspiring the youth in our community to achieve more. This year the celebration is taking shape in the form of their new Spring Social event with networking, speakers, raffle and more.
Big Sisters Spring Social
When: Wednesday, June 22, 2022 4:30pm to 7:00pm
Where: Joey Bentall One (507 Burrard St, Vancouver)
The featured Spring Social speaker is Amelia Warren, CEO of Epicure, a direct-selling company that is dedicated to bettering the lives of families through healthy meal solutions that go from raw-to-ready in 20 minutes or less. She is the founder of the Good Food. Real Fast.™ Movement, and is on a mission to give every person the knowledge, skills, and tools to cook and eat well for a lifetime of good health.
Mentoring Matters
With social pressures at an all-time high and the world reeling from the long term impacts of the global pandemic, kids in our community need positive, caring role models now more than ever. Big Sisters BCLM is doing its most important work right now. Their youth are among the hardest hit by the social, financial and educational impacts of the pandemic with many coming from low-income and immigrant families. A positive mentoring relationship gives these youth a chance to realize their full potential despite the adversities they face.
82% of parents said they believe their child feels better about themselves and is more confident since being involved with Big Sisters.
96% of adults who had a mentor as a child say they are happy and 92% feel confident.
Children who are mentored are 2X less likely to be depressed and 3X less likely to have social anxiety.
Children with a Big Sister are 4X less likely to bully than those without a mentor.
This relationship helps build resilience so youth can face challenges today and in the future, ensuring that all have the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Big Sisters BCLM provides supportive mentoring relationships to children who may be facing challenges like bullying, isolation, poverty, abuse, social anxiety, low self-esteem, and more. Follow on Facebook for the latest news from the organization and consider a donation if you cannot attend this event.
