This February, despite provincial health restrictions, is full of things to do! It’s Black History Month, there are Valentine’s Day activities online and beyond, and Family Day is February 15th. The online arts entertainment lineup is quite robust, and there are some excellent gallery and museum options to explore. Find these and more February events in Metro Vancouver listed below. This list is updated DAILY so be sure to check back often!

February Events in Metro Vancouver 2021

Extras/All Month:
The NFB’s Black History Month Film Lineup
The Arts Club Audio Plays
The Chan Centre’s Spring Dot Com Series
Places des Arts Exhibitions
Carousel Theatre Rishi & d Douen
North Van Arts: Writing for Comics
The Eraser by Kriss Munsya Art Exhibition in Downtown Vancouver
A Future for Memory: Art and Life After the Great East Japan Earthquake

Monday, February 1, 2021
Us: A Black Peoples Month Festival
The Wellness Show at Home
St Brigid’s Festival Vancouver
PuSh Festival Presents The PuSh Rally
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
Toque Tuesday
Us: A Black Peoples Month Festival
The Wellness Show at Home
Burrard Arts: Annie Briard, Sandeep Johal and Josephine Lee
St Brigid’s Festival Vancouver
PuSh Festival Presents The PuSh Rally
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Word Vancouver Free Events in February
YWCA Metro Vancouver’s Y Dance-A-Thon
Us: A Black Peoples Month Festival
The Wellness Show at Home
Burrard Arts: Annie Briard, Sandeep Johal and Josephine Lee
Indigenous History in Colour by Luke Parnell
St Brigid’s Festival Vancouver
PuSh Festival Presents The PuSh Rally
Thursday, February 4, 2021
Got Craft? Virtual Market Foodie Edition
Us: A Black Peoples Month Festival
The Wellness Show at Home
Burrard Arts: Annie Briard, Sandeep Johal and Josephine Lee
Indigenous History in Colour by Luke Parnell
St Brigid’s Festival Vancouver
PuSh Festival Presents The PuSh Rally
Friday, February 5, 2021
Got Craft? Virtual Market Foodie Edition
Us: A Black Peoples Month Festival
The Wellness Show at Home
Burrard Arts: Annie Briard, Sandeep Johal and Josephine Lee
Indigenous History in Colour by Luke Parnell
Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata
St Brigid’s Festival Vancouver
PuSh Festival Presents The PuSh Rally
Saturday, February 6, 2021
Got Craft? Virtual Market Foodie Edition
Migration, Memory, Land: A Panel Discussion
CONTACT Winter Music Festival From the Roof of BC Place
Us: A Black Peoples Month Festival
The Wellness Show at Home
Low Carb French Dinner for Two – Online Live Class
Burrard Arts: Annie Briard, Sandeep Johal and Josephine Lee
Indigenous History in Colour by Luke Parnell
Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata
St Brigid’s Festival Vancouver
Riley Park Farmers Market
PuSh Festival Presents The PuSh Rally
Sunday, February 7, 2021
Got Craft? Virtual Market Foodie Edition
BCBHAS Black History Month Events
Us: A Black Peoples Month Festival
The Wellness Show at Home
Indigenous History in Colour by Luke Parnell
Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata
St Brigid’s Festival Vancouver
Hastings Park Farmers Market

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.

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.

Online music, arts and entertainment and theatrical productions along with outdoor walks, museum visits and over 80 flavours of hot chocolate! Here are just a few things to do in Vancouver this weekend, online and beyond:

Things to do in Vancouver This Weekend

Friday, January 29, 2021
David Ward | Station 234
Graveyards and Gardens Livestream
Ring-Tailed Rascals of Stanley Park (Online)
Krystle Dos Santos – BLOOM|BURN Album Showcase
The Chan Centre’s Spring Dot Com Series
The Night Sky Family Programming from the Space Centre
PuSh Festival: The PuSh Rally
Surrey Arts Centre: A Brimful of Asha
Burrard Arts: Annie Briard, Sandeep Johal and Josephine Lee
The Eraser by Kriss Munsya Art Exhibition
Us: A Black Peoples Month Festival
Valerie Arntzen & Seema Shah: Collage Works

Fans of Canada’s largest indoor music festival, CONTACT Winter Music Festival, will experience the event from a whole new level as local artists Vanic, Tails B2B Juelz, Nostalgix, and Poni perform for fans via Twitch from the roof of BC Place.

CONTACT Winter Music Festival From the Roof of BC Place

When: Saturday, February 6, 2021 at 7:00pm
Where: Broadcast from BC Place Stadium
Stream: twitch.tv/monstercat
 
Produced by Blueprint, Live Nation Canada, Monstercat, and BC Place, this will be the first time any artists have performed from the 204ft iconic Vancouver rooftop. Fans worldwide will be able access the free-to-stream broadcast on Monstercat’s Twitch channel.
 
Specially designed CONTACT hoodies will be available for purchase, with a portion of the proceeds going to support the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. 

Since 2013, CONTACT Winter Music Festival’s has been a highly successful annual winter event at BC Place. Presented by Blueprint and Live Nation Canada, CONTACT is Canada’s largest indoor music festival hosting more than 34,000 guests annually and featuring state-of-the-art technical production, pyro, and lighting across two stages.