Stanley Park Train Reopening 2021

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The Stanley Park Train will be reopening! Starting Saturday, May 22nd, the train will be open on weekends, including statutory holiday Mondays, with COVID protocols in place.

StanleyParkTrain-JohnBollwitt

Stanley Park Train Reopening

When: Weekends from 11:00am to 4:00pm, including statutory holiday Mondays
Tickets: Purchased onsite at the ticket booth, debit/credit only

The Stanley Park Railway has always been popular with locals and tourists alike. The 20 gauge, 2km track winds through the forest over ground cleared by Typhoon Freda, the most devastating storm in Vancouver history which blew through in 1962. The railway’s collection of old locomotives is a locally-built replica of Canadian Pacific Railway Engine #374, famous for pulling Canada’s first transcontinental passenger train into Vancouver in the late 1880s.  

Passengers can get a close-up look at a vintage engine and a quick photo before boarding for the 15-minute ride. 

Masks are required for all passengers 3 & up to board the train and must be worn for the duration of the ride. There are plexiglas dividers between the benches and they are sanitizing the trains before and after daily operations. The standard physical distancing protocols are in place for all visitors while on site.

On June 30th, summer operations will come into effect, with the train running Wednesdays to Sundays until Labour Day.

Related: Stanley Park Christmas Train, Stanley Park Easter Train

Trivia Night Supports Youth Education Program

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The second (and final) Aunt Leah’s Virtual Trivia Extravaganza is happening May 29th and you can win your way in! Register and encourage your friends, family, coworkers, and social groups to play and donate to a great cause.

Aunt Leahs Trivia May 2021

Aunt Leah’s Virtual Trivia Extravaganza

When: May 29, 2021
Where: Online
Tickets: Register here for $20

Can’t make on the 29th? You can host your own trivia event to support Aunt Leah’s. If your calendar is packed and can’t accommodate a trivia event, you can still be a superstar and support foster youth by participating in the online auction or donating.

Trivia Nights Support SEFFY Program

The trivia nights benefit the Supporting Education for Foster Youth (“SEFFY”) program. SEFFY supports long-term education planning for foster youth and former foster youth in care. The emphasis is on highlighting strengths, identifying needs and advocating for resources that lead to success for youth. Each youth is connected with an educational specialist and receives help applying for bursaries and training opportunities, from a variety of schools and programs.

Scotiabank has generously offered to match every donation dollar for dollar up to $25,000 in support of the SEFFY program. Aunt Leah’s Place helps prevent children in foster care from becoming homeless and mothers in need from losing custody of their children. To support them on their journey to self-sufficiency, they provide supported housing, job training, and coaching on essential life skills.

Giveaway

I have two tickets to give away to the May 29th trivia extravaganza! That way you can sign up and also have a friend or family member join the fun from their screen at home. Here’s how you can enter to win:

  • Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
  • Like Aunt Leah’s and Miss604 on Facebook (1 entry)
  • Click below to post an entry on Twitter
[clickToTweet tweet=”RT to enter to win tickets to @AuntLeahs Virtual Trivia Night Extravaganza http://ow.ly/HqR050ERO0i” quote=” Click to enter via Twitter” theme=”style6″]

I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 9:00am on Tuesday, May 25, 2021.

Miss604 is the proud Media Sponsor of the Virtual Trivia Extravaganza

Things to do in Vancouver May Long Weekend 2021

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With non-essential travel not allowed between BC’s 3 travel zones, stay close to home and enjoy some local restaurants (for patio, takeout or delivery), our beautiful outdoors spaces, featured attractions, and more right in our own backyard. Miss604 is a proud sponsor of Summer at Burnaby Village Museum and you can find this and many more things to do in (Greater) Vancouver May Long Weekend right here:

Things to do in Vancouver May Long Weekend

Friday, May 21, 2021
Sponsored by Miss604: Burnaby Village Museum
Wilderness and Awareness Workshop
Upintheair Theatre Presents 2021 rEvolver Festival
Nicholas Krgovish & Veda Hille – This Spring Record Release
Krystle Dos Santos and Friends: BLAK | Canadian Women in Music & Arts
Jaylene Tyme, Allan Morgan & Friends: Reflections
Vancouver Startup Week
The May Long Festival fromt the Anvil Centre Theatre
Rumpus Room – A Jenn Brisson Experience
BIKEnnale/WALKennale
yellow objects – an exhibition by Derek Chan at Firehall Arts Centre
ParkerArtSalon Online Auction and New Exhibitions
Crafted Vancouver

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Commit Us to Memory: Black Women Curators Interrupting the Canon

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The Vancouver Art Gallery, in collaboration with The State of Blackness, presents Commit us to memory: Black Women curators interrupting the canon, a public program organized within the framework of the exhibition Where do we go from here?. Moderated by the exhibition’s guest curator and featured artist Nya Lewis, the roundtable will include her guests Alyssa FearonKosisochukwu Nnebe and Geneviève Wallen.

Commit Us to Memory: Black Women Curators Interrupting the Canon

Commit Us to Memory: Black Women Curators Interrupting the Canon

When: Thursday, May 27, 2021 at 4:00
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery ZOOM channel  
Tickets: RSVP here

The roundtable stems in part from Commit Us to Memory (2020), a provocative site-specific installation by Lewis conceived specifically for Where do we go from here? in response to the Gallery’s colonialist architecture and history. Located at the centre of the exhibition, this monumental text-based work functions as a kind of manifesto, poem, and testimony, which speak to the complexity of Black Canadian expression and experience. Lewis integrates into the installation the titles of important exhibitions curated by Black curators in Canada, proposing a groundwork for an art history of Black artistic production across Canada. For this important roundtable discussion, Lewis and her peers will reflect on the ongoing work—both past and present—of building a Black art history for the future.

About the Speakers

Alyssa Fearon currently holds the position of Director/Curator at the Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina Public Library. Integral to Fearon’s curatorial practice is a community-based approach that prioritizes the voices of historically underrepresented audiences. In 2018, Fearon was the inaugural Curator of Nuit Blanche Toronto’s Scarborough zone. Fearon was also a Curator at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba (2018-2020). She has held lecturer positions at York University, University of Toronto Scarborough, and Brandon University.  Raised in Scarborough, Ont., Fearon is now based on Treaty 4 territory in Regina, Saskatchewan. 

Nya Lewis is a Vancouver-based, independent curator and MFA candidate at OCAD. Moved by the goal of equitable access to art and diverse stories in Canada, her work is the culmination of African resistance, love questions, actions, study, and embrace. Currently, she serves as the Founder and Director of Black Art Gastown, a year-round programmer Vancouver Queer Film Festival, and contributing curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery and UBC Museum of Anthropology. A writer, activist, and community organizer committed to building just and inclusive cultural and social infrastructure in Vancouver – her work celebrates the strength and perseverance of Black Canadian culture, history, and its diversity. 

Kosisochukwu Nnebe is a Nigerian-Canadian visual artist. An economist by training and a policy analyst by profession, her visual arts practice aims to engage viewers on issues both personal and structural in ways that bring awareness to their own complicity. Her work has been exhibited at AXENEO7, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Place des Arts, the Art Gallery of Guelph, the Nia Centre, Studio Sixty Six, Z-Art Space, Station 16, and the Mohr Gallery in Mountain View, California, She has given presentations on her artistic practice and research at universities across Quebec, including Laval, McGill, and Concordia, and has facilitated workshops at the National Gallery of Canada, the Ottawa Art Gallery, and Redwood City High School in California. She is currently based in Ottawa. 

Geneviève Wallen is a Tiohtiá:ke Mooniyang/Montreal and Tkaronto/Toronto-based independent curator, writer, and researcher. Wallen’s practice is informed by diasporic narratives, intersectional feminism, intergenerational dialogues, BIPOC alternative healing platforms. Her ongoing research focuses on the intersections of longevity and pleasure as contemplative spaces for care work in the arts. Wallen is the Exhibition Coordinator at FOFA Gallery. She is also part of the collective YTB (Younger than Beyoncé) Gallery; the co-initiator (with Marsya Maharani) of Souped Up; a member of the Black Curators Forum; an advisory committee member for the BLACK PORTRAITURE[S]: Toronto, Absent/ed Presence conference and she recently joined the advisory board of the Centre for the Study of Black Canadian Diaspora. 

Follow the Vancouver Art Gallery on Facebook for more event information and exhibition updates.

Kal Tire’s Vehicle Maintenance Tips for Summer

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Disclosure: Sponsored Post — Sponsored by Kal Tire Please review the Policy & Disclosure section for further information.

With warmer weather and the potential for reduced COVID-19 restrictions on the horizon, many Canadian drivers will be looking to hit the open road and safely explore their regions. For many, that means getting back into a vehicle that’s been sitting idle save for short trips for essentials. I spent the afternoon sharing an Instagram Live with my followers, getting some super helpful vehicle maintenance tips for summer from Kal Tire.

Barrie checking tire depth at Kal Tire in New West
Barrie checking tire depth at Kal Tire in New West

Vehicle Maintenance Tips for Summer

“Now that drivers are likely going to be heading out on road trips again, we want to help ensure their vehicles are safe and highway ready,” says Mike Butcher, regional director for urban retail stores, Kal Tire. “When vehicles go long periods of not being driven or missing some of those seasonal inspection points—especially after winter—there’s a risk that critical components haven’t had the attention they need.”

A handful of simple preventative maintenance steps help improve the performance, lifespan and safety of a vehicle’s most important parts. To help drivers keep their tires and vehicle performing at their best, Kal Tire is sharing some spring maintenance steps and ‘How to’ resources:

Checking Tread Depth,  Kal Tire photo
Checking Tread Depth, Kal Tire photo
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