May is almost here and the event list is filling up with community activities, family fun, theatre, arts, markets and more! Start the month off right with a fun lineup of things to do in Vancouver this weekend:
The adults-only evening takeovers of Vancouver’s STEM-themed geodesic dome are back on as Science World After Dark events resume May 19th then continue on the third Thursday of each month.
Science World After Dark – Photo submitted
Science World After Dark Adults Only Nights
When: Thursday, May 19, 2022 from 6:00pm to 10:00pm, then monthly Where: Science World (1455 Quebec St, Vancouver) Tickets: Available to purchase online. Early Bird Price of $29+ tax will be available until May 9th. After that, tickets will be available at $35+ tax
During the event visitors (ages 19+) have the chance to explore the current feature exhibition, T. rex: The Ultimate Predator presented by RBC and White Spot Restaurants and other exhibition favourites.
With admission, visitors are also free to explore the permanent exhibitions and galleries whilst enjoying alcoholic beverages, food from Triple O’s, music, exciting live science shows at Centre Stage and more.
Science World is a BC-based charitable organization that engages the people of British Columbia in STEAM literacy. Their mission is to ignite wonder and empower dreams through science and nature. Their vision is that within a generation, Canada will be a country of thriving, sustainable communities rooted in science, innovation and a deep connection to nature.
Zee Zee Theatre, in partnership with a consortium of Canadian theatre companies, has announced the establishment of Canada’s first-ever National Queer and Trans Playwriting Unit. Starting today, 2SLGBTQ+ emerging and mid-career theatre makers from across Canada are invited to submit applications by July 5, 2022 for consideration in the new mentorship and play creation program.
Canada’s First-Ever National Queer and Trans Playwriting Unit
The selection process will see five artists announced in September 2022 to participate in a 10-month process, during which they will receive living wage compensation and one-on-one mentorship as they write a new work. The developed plays will be performed live and streamed online in September of 2023.
“Art has the power to elevate voices and ideas that can change the world. Now, more than ever, the arts sector needs to prioritize those who have been systematically left out of the conversation,” says Cameron Mackenzie, Zee Zee Theatre’s Artistic and Executive Director.
“The impacts of this project will be far reaching and numerous: For the playwrights, it offers growth, stability, and a national platform for their voice and stories to be heard. For the consortium companies, it creates a new body of work and connects them with vital queer and trans communities. For our sector as a whole, it offers new representation and reflection in ways that are meaningful and non tokenizing.”
The inspiration for the Queer and Trans Playwriting Unit occurred when Zee Zee Theatre identified a gap existing in the Canadian theatre ecology. Seeking programming for their own season led to countless conversations with curators, producers and presenters across the country who were consistently struggling to find works emerging from and representing queer and trans communities. The underrepresentation of such works in the Canadian theatre canon means that the 1 million Canadians who belong to the 2SLGBTQ+ community (Source) do not have adequate opportunities to see themselves, their lives or their families reflected on stage.
To rectify this, Zee Zee Theatre resolved to lead the charge in building the first-ever National Queer and Trans Playwriting Unit that establishes a new model for play creation and dissemination, leading to more equitable representation of 2SLGBTQ+ artists and stories on Canadian stages – ultimately strengthening the bonds of professional artists and collaborators across the country, while furthering equality for all queer and trans people.
The process began with gathering a cross-regional consortium of 10 queer and non-queer, intersectional producing companies who all share a common ethos and belief that investing in diversity benefits the entire community. Representing the full geographic spectrum of Canada’s coasts and the north, they have issued a call for submissions welcoming artists to learn about and submit for this opportunity by its July 5, 2022 closing date.
The consortium will act as a selection committee in identifying five emerging and mid-career artists to participate in the unit, which will be run virtually across Canada. Each selected artist will be paid a living wage for the 10-month program, during which they will work as a collaborative cohort and with an assigned dramaturg mentor in a one-on-one relationship.
At the end of the 10-month process, each artist’s play will be produced as a staged reading by one of the consortium members – while the other companies will offer streaming access to their communities. The consortium will then commit to full productions or further development of all five of the new scripts generated in the unit.
Key dates: April 27, 2022 Submissions open; July 5, 2022 Closing date; Artists will be notified by September 1st, 2022; Unit begins October 3rd, 2022; Developed plays will be performed live and streamed online September of 2023.
The Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC and The Americas Research Network (ARENET) present the world premiere of Xicanx: Dreamers + Changemakers / Soñadores + creadores del cambio. The exhibition will showcase for the first time in Canada the rich traditions of 33 Xicanx artists, whose art practices draw on their Mexican-American heritage and generations of activism that began as part of El Movimiento, the Chicano civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s in the U.S.
La Güera, Ana Hernández. Private collection. Photo courtesy of the artist
A celebration of the many Xicanx artists who have and continue to combine art and activism in the vital, ongoing fight for social justice for all.
Xicanx is jointly curated by Greta de León, Executive Director of The Americas Research Network, and Jill Baird, Curator of Education at MOA.
“Xicanx” – the neutral grammatical gender of Chicano/a – is a term that transcends borders and gender to represent the lived, multigenerational experiences of Xicanx people’s personal, social and political activism. Largely identifying as Mexican American, Xicanx artists encompass many diverse backgrounds, including Mestizo/a (mixed ancestry with an Indigenous background), feminist, queer, non-binary, immigrant, and more.
Working across all artistic mediums, Xicanx artists began their activism through art in the 1960s and 70s, rooted in the wider U.S. civil rights movement, and remain essential to the movement towards social justice today, speaking to issues of borders and immigration, racism and hate crimes, identity and belonging.
Xicanx features artworks by 33 Mexican American artists from Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, New York and Texas, most exhibiting in Canada for the first time. The exhibition is centered around five themes: neighbourhoods, identity, borderlands, home, and activism. The works span from 1970 to 2022, and encompass predominantly paintings and prints, but also sculptural works, multimedia, and a newly commissioned, site-specific altar installation with a spoken-word video component celebrating “Rasquachismo,” a term coined by eminent Chicano scholar Tomás Ybarra Frausto.
Each theme will be accompanied by quotes from Xicanx writers, scholars or artists, thereby centering the voices of the community as the authors of their own story. Representing an expansive collection of Xicanx works, diverse in form, aesthetic, and theme, the curatorial variety showcases an inherent strength in the movement’s diversity of thought, influence, and practice, while inclusive of their shared intercultural and intersectional identities.
The exhibition is accompanied by Xicanx Digital, an online platform with artists’ contributions and essays on Xicanx film, food, music and murals.
