Queer Arts Festival – Dispersed is a three-week eco-apocalyptic exploration of queer experience and artistic expression in the face of an ongoing pandemic and marginalization. Vancouver’s premiere artist-run, multidisciplinary roister of art and culture, Queer Arts Festival (“QAF”) is back for its 13th year this summer, in a hybrid format with both online and offline events and performances.

Queer Arts Festival – Dispersed

• Where: Various venues & online
• When: July 24 to August 13, 2021
• Tickets: Limited quantity of early bird passes are available online for $69 (that’s a 50%+ discount) only until July 1st.

For the first time, QAF’s suite of visual art, performance, music, literary and  workshop events will be presented in a dispersed format across the Lower Mainland—from the depths of the Sun Wah Centre and rooftop overlooking historic Chinatown, to Mountain View Cemetery, False Creek and QAF’s usual stomping grounds, the Roundhouse Community Arts Centre. Following the success of last year’s online festival, QAF will also have a streaming component.

Event highlights include: Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour and SD Holman’s visual art curation; a fabulously punk Japanese folk music and dance performance from Onibana Taiko and Alvin Erasga Tolentino; and a reimagining of Annea Lockwood’s 20th-century classic, Piano Burning, where fire becomes a vehicle for reclamation and decolonization (yes, they are burning a piano).

Event Lineup

ArtParty!
Saturday July 24, 7:00pm to 10:00pm
Festival Opening | SUM & Sun Wah 268 Keefer
QAF’s opening: animating the Sun Wah Building from the basement, to the SUM gallery to the rooftop overlooking Chinatown and beyond, they’re launching the Dispersed QAF in champagne style with DJ O Show.

it’s not easy being green: Curated Visual Art Exhibition and Tour
Saturday July 24 to Friday August 13
Visual Art | SUM  & Sun Wah 268 Keefer Lower Ground
Navigating the heart breaking and familiar landscape of apocalyptic post-colonial collapse, artists selected by Co-Curators Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour and SD Holman explore how Queer Art unfurls and blooms in continued and stubbornly vibrant survival. 

The 38th annual, and 2nd annual virtual, YWCA Women of Distinction Awards took place tonight in Vancouver, and beyond. Dozens of incredible women were nominated across twelve categories, and over $75,000 (and counting) was raised through donations, a raffle, and a silent auction.

As Social Media Sponsor, I spent the evening live-Tweeting and live-Instagramming, and it was so inspiring to hear not only from the recipients but also two YWCA moms, Lindsey and Stella.

Here are your YWCA Women of Distinction Awards 2021 Recipients:

YWCA Women of Distinction Awards 2021 Recipients

• Outstanding Organization or Workplace: Clio
  • Clio provides cloud-based legal technology and is embracing a new way of working called “Distributed by Design,” which allows Clio to operate with a fully remote workforce, supported by world-class physical offices in hubs within key urban centres. The company invests in best in-class tools, technology and culture to ensure team members are able to do their best work either from an office or remotely. Women hold 43% of management positions at Clio and the company actively develops reintegration plans for new parents going on leave. Clio supports a Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Equity Organization and deeply invests in employees’ physical, mental and social wellness. The company continuously challenges and develops its employees – by opening new roles, encouraging staff to pursue their ideas and providing mentorship.
• Environmental Sustainability: Dr. Melina Scholefield
  • Melina is a Professional Engineer and Manager of Green Infrastructure Implementation with the City of Vancouver. She led the creation of Vancouver’s multi-award-winning Rain City Strategy, which has won 8 National and Provincial Awards. It is a transformative and visionary strategy for holistic and integrated approaches to water management over the next 30 years, introducing nature-based solutions that integrate with engineered approaches. Melina brought six different internal departments and more than 30 branches across the organization together, along with City staff, the public, industry, Indigenous peoples and technical experts, to establish a green rainwater infrastructure as a viable, cost-effective and strategic water management infrastructure. Melina and her team have designed and constructed 46 innovative green infrastructure assets, which capture and clean 32 million litres of polluted rainwater run-off per year.
• Non-Profit: Armin Amrolia
  • Armin is Associate Vice President, Development Strategies at BC Housing, delivering thousands of non-profit homes to communities across BC every year. In her current role, she has successfully delivered more than 23,000 housing units for seniors, families, Indigenous communities, women fleeing violence, youth and those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Armin has been on the forefront of using modular construction, incorporating daycares into affordable housing projects, programing space for women’s shelters, healing space in Indigenous projects, safe injection space in supportive housing projects. She has also championed access to safe and hygienic menstrual products to provide dignity and equity to women experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness. Armin has been at the forefront of every housing program that created new housing in the province since 1990.
• Arts, Culture & Design: Nadine Westerbarkey
  • Nadine is Studio Head of 2D Animation at Atomic Cartoons, where she oversees more than 300 artists and crew. She promotes an artist-driven environment and utilizes her position to support female leadership and the full inclusion of BIPOC and LGBTQ2+ groups. Nadine has been instrumental in achieving the company’s mission to produce socially responsible and inclusive content that helps make the world a better place. She oversaw the production of the first-ever kids’ series in the USA to feature an Indigenous lead character, Molly of Denali, which recruited Indigenous crew to produce and voice the series. Nadine has also helped establish company partnerships, mentorships, sponsorships and scholarships with colleges, non-profits and community groups to create new opportunities for under-represented communities to gain experience to break into the industry.    
• Community Champion: Dr. Balbir Kaur Gurm
  • Balbir Kaur is the Founder and Chair of Network to Eliminate Violence in Relationships (NEVR), and a Professor Faculty of Health, Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Dr. Gurm started the grassroots, interdisciplinary group in 2011 and has grown to more than 200 members from more than 100 participating organizations, groups and individual members. Dr. Gurm’s book Making Sense of a Global Pandemic: Relationship Violence and Working Together Towards a Violence Free Society was published in 2020 and includes multiple perspectives and resources to provide a comprehensive overview of relationship violence. It serves as an online platform and living resource. As a Nursing Professor, Dr. Gurm is a role model for nursing students. She introduces the concepts of violence being a community issue and facilitates nursing students to participate in community activities within their classes.

To commemorate Indigenous History Month, the Vancouver International Film Festival (“VIFF”) and Museum of Vancouver (“MOV”) present the Who We Are film series in conjunction with MOV’s latest exhibition, That Which Sustains Us. Launching on VIFF Connect on National Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21), the series programmed by Indigenous curators Rylan Friday, Jasmine Wilson and Sharon Fortney includes five feature films showcasing a diversity of Indigenous experiences.

National Indigenous Peoples Day – Who We Are Film Series

• When: June 21 to July 4, 2021
• Where: Online here through VIFF Connect
• Tickets: 5-Ticket Pass $25; Single Tickets $10.
  • The Who We Are series pass and tickets are free to Indigenous Peoples.
  • VIFF+ Silver, Gold and Monthly Connect members get free access to Fire Song and can purchase a pass for $16.

Indigenous History month is a time to acknowledge those who came before us throughout turtle island, to validate lived experiences & the trauma left behind from the legacy of residential schools and the ripple effects of colonization that are prevalent in modern society. As Indigenous people, we must honour the past but most importantly walk forward and hold each other up as a community to a path of healing as these experiences shaped Who We Are.

These five films share universal hard truths that deviate from trauma based narratives, but explore the themes of: healing, resiliency, joy, laughter, pain and community all woven throughout as a singular curation.

Films

Fire Song (dir. Adam Garnet Jones, Canada)
Adam Garnet Jones’ poetic drama about a gay Anishnabe teenager explores themes of love, loss, belonging, isolation and ultimately self-acceptance while stamping out colonial ideologies on sexuality.

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (dir. Zacharias Kunuk, Canada)
When Atanarjuat displaces the Chief’s son by winning the hand of the beautiful Atuat, his brother pays the ultimate price. This cautionary tale, based on an Inuit oral tradition, shows the consequences of putting personal desires ahead of community needs. Camera d’or for Best First Feature Film, Cannes 2001; Best Canadian Feature Film, TIFF 2001.

Boy (dir. Taika Waititi, New Zealand)
When his father comes home unexpectedly, 11-year-old Boy must come to terms with the realization he is not the man he wishes him to be. A humorous and heart-warming coming-of-age story about Maori masculinities from Taika Waititi.

The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (dir. Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn, Canada/Norway)
Discovering a pregnant Indigenous teen (Violet Nelson) sobbing on a rainy East Vancouver street, Aila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) works feverishly to get her access to proper support networks. Riveting and intimate; a revelatory odyssey. VIFF 2019 Best BC Film Winner.

Rhymes for Young Ghouls (dir. Jeff Barnaby, Canada)
Blood Quantum director Jeff Barnaby’s audacious, genre-bending debut takes the nightmare of Residential Schools as a jumping off point for a supernatural revenge thriller, one of the most notable homegrown movies of the past decade.

Follow VIFF and the MOV on Facebook for more info.

Related: National Indigenous Peoples Day Events

The new Gateway Theatre Outdoor Concert Series, Songs of Summer, premieres July 10, 2021. The series will reunite audiences with the joy of live performance through outdoor concerts at the Gateway Theatre Grove, an open patch of grass just in front of this Richmond venue.

Gateway Theatre Outdoor Concert Series

When: July 10, August 14, and September 11, 2021 from 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Where: Gateway Theatre, 6500 Gilbert Road, Richmond
Tickets: Available for $20 online

An artist to watch in both music and theatre, multi-talented artist Amanda Sum will serenade audiences with a live rendition of her debut album this July, followed by a set of musical theatre classics by loyal Gateway collaborators Tiana Jung and Jason Sakaki this August. The series will close with performing arts powerhouses Steffanie Davis and Krystle Dos Santos in September, performing an upbeat set of contemporary funk and soul.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their own blankets, lawn chairs, non-alcoholic beverages and snacks. Each group of concert-goers will have a marked-out “bubble” to call their own while enjoying an evening rich in summer, sun, and song.

Lineup

Saturday, July 10, 2021 – Amanda Sum
An artist to watch in the worlds of music and theatre, Amanda Sum joins us for a live rendition of her debut album. Featuring contemplative lyrics and soulful harmonies, Amanda’s folk-pop stylings pair perfectly with a summer breeze.

Saturday, August 14, 2021 – Tiana Jung and Jason Sakaki
Singing together since 2013, Jason and Tiana’s duets are as harmonious as their friendship. Performing well-known musical theatre numbers, this dynamic duo will get you in the swing of summer.

Saturday, September 11, 2021 – Krystle Dos Santos and Steffanie Davis
Performing arts powerhouses Krystle Dos Santos and Steffanie Davis grace our stage for this final concert. Delivering an upbeat set of contemporary funk and soul, the effervescent pair will give the season a joyful send off.

For more information follow Gateway Theatre on Facebook.

Brunch may just be the best meal of the day. Want eggs? Sure! Burgers? Why not? You can pick from the best of both breakfast and lunch menus, combined with a relaxing weekend ritual amped up by coffee and conversation.  So, where’s your favourite place to brunch in Coquitlam? Share your pictures on social tagging #ExploreCoquitlam to recommend your go-to. And if you’re stuck for ideas, here are some to try:

Must-Try Brunch Spots in Coquitlam

Brunch is their Specialty

Jimmy’s Place: Nothing beats rolling out of bed and making your way for a hearty brunch that will set you up for the day. This North Road eatery calls itself a “breakfast and café restaurant,” which means they have just the type of meals your mouth craves on a lazy weekend. Take out or dine-in service only.

Kook’s Cooks: This place takes brunch seriously. Their menu features your must-have items, from omelettes, frittata or breakfast burritos to burgers, grilled cheese and kids’ menu items. They call themselves the “neighbourhood brunch restaurant” and you’ll find them in Austin Heights. Patio service available.

Morning Tide Eatery: How about Bennys, breakfast bowls and even breakfast pasta? The menu here is fantastic, not to mention their amazing selection of smoothies. They’re located on Schoolhouse, in Coquitlam’s entertainment district, surrounded by great shopping. Take out or dine-in service only.