This month marks the ten year anniversary of the Places That Matter to Vancouver, a plaque program and community history resource website created in 2011. Initiated for Vancouver’s 125th anniversary of incorporation, the program features 125 community-nominated sites, covering some of the people, places and events that tell the story of the city’s history.
Places That Matter to Vancouver 10 Year Celebration
When: Tuesday, February 16, 2021 from 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Where: Online
Tickets: Register for free
I was honoured to be on the selection committee back then, along with John Atkin, Arabella Campbell, Marguerite Ford, Charles Gauthier, Michael Kluckner, Kamala Todd, Hal Wake, Catherine Wang and Bruce Watson.
Each of the 125 sites is profiled with their own webpage exhibiting the plaque text, historic research, oral histories, contemporary and historic photos, as well as opportunities for community contribution. You can view an interactive map online here.
To celebrate ten years of the campaign, here are ten of the sites listed:
and many more! A decade later, with 88 plaques installed, the online community history resource continues to grow with community contributions of personal stories and photographs for 125 sites.
Have anything to add? The Vancouver Heritage Foundation welcomes comments, feedback, quotes, stories, information and questions in the “submit your story” form.
Since 2007, Pink Shirt Day has grown into a national movement which sees thousands of Canadians showing their support for safe and inclusive schools, workplaces and communities. Here’s where to get your Pink Shirt Day t-shirt in Vancouver for Pink Shirt Day on February 24, 2021:
Where to Get Your Pink Shirt Day T-Shirt in Vancouver
London Drugs: Official Pink Shirt Day t-shirts, toques, bracelets, and buttons are now available at all London Drugs locations across Western Canada in youth or adult sizes and on the London Drugs website. Net proceeds are distributed through CKNW Kids’ Fund to support youth anti-bullying programs across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
Urban Native Youth Association: Designed by K.C Hall, these pink shirts are available from the UNYA Main Office 1618 East Hastings (during office hours 9:00pm to 5:00pm Monday to Friday only, closed for lunch hour) or they can be shipped. All sales support UNYA’s programming.
Masks, shirts, bracelets and more are available through the official Pink Shirt Day store online as well.
About Pink Shirt Day
In 2007, two Nova Scotia students (David Shepherd, Travis Price) decided to take action after witnessing a younger student being bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school. The students bought 50 pink t-shirts and encouraged schoolmates to wear them and send a powerful message of solidarity to the bully.
Related: I Wrote About Cyberbullying a Decade Ago: Here’s What’s Different About This Problem Today
For its 25th annual Black History Month program, the BC Black History Awareness Society (“BCBHAS”) is hosting five online events to recognize and celebrate the achievements and contributions of historical and contemporary people of African descent.
BCBHAS Black History Month Events
Putting Black British Columbia History to Work: Contemporary Implications of Historical Blackness
When: Sunday, February 7, 2021 from 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Where: Register online
About: “In this talk I try to address the persistent “absent presence” of Blackness largely in terms of history but also in terms of geography. More specifically, I take up named (and for the most part, somewhat known) historical figures (Mifflin Gibbs, Sylvia Stark and, if we dare colour him Black, Sir James Douglas) and use them to try to explain the strategy (racist erasure) by which Blackness has come to be rendered almost fully absent from the conception of BC and to assert the contemporary presence of a rich diversity (e.g. in terms of gender, sexuality, diaspora) of Blackness that belies and resists that erasure.” – Prof. Handel Kashope Wright, Director of the Centre for Culture, Identity and Education and co-editor of African and Diasporic Cultural Studies Book Series.
Symposium: Black Migration and British Columbia
When: Wednesday, February 17, 2021 from 2:30pm to 4:15pm
Where: Register online
About: In 1858, an estimated 800 men, women and children of African descent came to British Columbia. Questions include why they came, what was their impact, why many left, where they traveled and many others. In this symposium Canadian and American scholars present their recent research that reveals informative insights on this period of Black history. Speakers include Dr. Adam Arenson, Sherry Edmunds-Flett, Dr. Stacey Smith, with moderator Dr. Dana Elizabeth Weiner and commentator Dr. John Lutz.
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Western Canada’s largest free literary festival, Word Vancouver, is hosting a handful of free events online in February.
Word Vancouver Free Events in February
World Read Aloud Day with Laura Farina
February 3, 2021 from 9:00am to 9:30am
For Grades K-3 | Hosted by: Bonnie Nish
Join Word Vancouver and children’s author Laura Farina to share in the power of reading aloud. World Read Aloud Day is a day conceived and run by Lit World, a day when we all come together to celebrate story, poems, books, tales.
World Read Aloud Day with Yvonne Wallace
February 3, 2021 from 10:00am to 10:30am
For all ages | Hosted by: Bonnie Nish
Join Word Vancouver and playwright and storyteller Yvonne Wallace of the Lil’wat Nation to share in oral story forms. World Read Aloud Day is a day conceived and run by Lit World, a day when we all come together to celebrate story, poems, books and tales.
Un/settled: Reading Black Women, Art, Poetry and Place
February 10, 2021 from 7:00am to 8:00pm
Join artist-writer Chantal Gibson, poet Otoniya J. Okot Bitek, and SFU librarian Ebony Magnus for a night of readings and reflection, as they discuss un/settled, the towering, photo-poetic art installation at the corner of Hastings and Richards that drapes Black womanhood over 240 ft2 of SFU Belzberg Library’s street-front windows. In conversation, the panelists will consider what it means to centre Black bodies in the downtown landscape, and to reimagine how spaces closed by the pandemic can open dialogues about justice, solidarity, and the beauty of Black lives. All three live and work with gratitude on the unceded, traditional, ancestral lands of the Coast Salish Peoples.
I Read Canadian, with the Storytelling with Drag Queens Foundation
February 17, 2021 from 9:30am to 10:30am
Hosted by: Candie Tanaka
Word Vancouver is proud to be taking part in I Read Canadian, Word Vancouver is pleased to have Satanix and Dank Sinatra from the Storytelling with Drag Queens Foundation to read some Canadian authors children’s books. Bring your classroom, mother, grandfather, dog and pull up a chair in front of your laptop and tune in on Zoom to these great storytellers share some fun, important and dynamic books.
RSVP for these events for free. The Official Bookseller for this series is Iron Dog Books.
Word Vancouver is an annual festival of reading that takes place in September but you can join special events like these throughout the year.
