Drive-through for BBQ in Vancouver or mini donuts in Abbotsford, enjoy wine and a dinner with dad at the vineyard, or tune into National Indigenous Peoples Day programming online. There are quite a few things to do in Vancouver this weekend, both in person and online:
Things to do in Vancouver This Weekend, Father’s Day and More
The 12th annual Queer Arts Festival (“QAF”), Vancouver’s artist-run, professional, multi-disciplinary roister of queer arts, culture and history, will take place online this year from July 16 to July 26, 2020.
Queer Arts Festival WICKED
Tickets: All online events at the 2020 Queer Arts Festival are by donation to improve accessibility. QAF relies on ticket sales and donations to bring you Vancouver’s only transdisciplinary professional arts festival dedicated to showing the work of 2SLGBTQ+ artists. Now more than ever your donations are critical. Donors who give over $20 will be mailed a charitable tax receipt.
“QAF’s WICKED reimagines identity politics, exposing the implications of homonormativity as erasure. This past decade has seen the mainstreaming of gay; sexual difference wins approval so long as it is palatable, marketable, and doesn’t stray too far from bourgeois notions of taste and morality. The commodification of queer experience is inextricably linked to the pathologization of the queer body, where medical and sociological interventions adjudicate which anatomies and passions are accepted as authentic.
There’s no place like home for the Wicked Witch of the West, green by devilment and through her magical aberrance. QAF 2020 forsakes the yellow brick road that leads only to a man behind a curtain gentrifying our desires. Instead, QAF revels in the quintessentially queer traditions of scandal and excess with visual art, performance, theatre, music, dance and literary events.”
Event Highlights
Art Party! | Cinq-à-Sept Festival Opening Thursday, July 16, 5 -7:00pm QAF’s opening: Luxuriate in a cinq-à-sept afternoon delight! Come together for our Visual Art tour with curator Jonny Sopotiuk, guest artists, and a gallery of intimate friends old and new. Wonderfully Wicked…
Pride in Art Community Exhibition Thursday, July 16 – Sunday, July 26, 2020
Too Spirited | Indigenous Burlesque Friday, July 17, 7:00pm Embrace your too-muchness with bombastic burlesque brought to you by the badass babes of Virago Nation.
Rupture Probe: Queer Inquiries & Remediations | Media Art Screening Saturday, July 18, 7:00pm Recent queer shorts rupture normative notions of gender, pleasure, and activism, curated in partnership with VIVO Media Arts Centre.
Return to Sodom North | VIVO Media Art Screening Sunday, July 19, 7:00pm 90s Queer Video Out & Uncensored. Time travel with the Vancouver Queer media artists who raged back against the malignment and suppression of queer lived realities and representations of desire.
A Night of Storytelling | Literary Readings Wednesday, July 22, 7:00pm Curated by Danny Ramadan, readings by local, national, and international writers.
Underground Absolute Fiction | Speculative Theatre Thursday, July 23, 7:00pm An immersive play-meets-punk-concert, inspired by the Polish “home theatre.” Written by Anais West and co-produced by Queer Arts Festival and The Frank Theatre.
The Darlings – Photo: Sean Alistair
The Darlings, Uncensored | Drag Performance Friday, July 24, 7:00pm Experience the unexpected with genre-bending non-binary avant-drag collective, the Darlings: Continental Breakfast, PM, Rose Butch and Maiden China.
A Conversation on Queer Mentorship | Lunch Discourse Saturday, July 25, 12:00pm Hiromi Goto and Erica Isomura explore the nuances of intergenerational mentorship as queer POC writers.
This Crazy Show | Dance Performance Saturday July 25, 7:00pm & Sunday July 26, 2:00pm In his Swan Song, contemporary dance legend Noam Gagnon sashays the fine line between pain and pleasure in a fetishization of something glamorous and beautifully twisted: a monster beautified.
Glitter is Forever: Pajama Party | Closing Binge Sunday, July 26, 4:00pm til late Get your dress jammies on, grab a drink and binge-watch the entire Queer Arts Festival together. Expect surprises!
Art keeps us connected during the age of social distancing. The QAF and SUM Gallery remain steadfast in their commitment to artists amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with staff hard at work (from home) to maintain the integrity of our programming. They’ve reimagined the festival to make sure you get your Queer Art fix on from a distance.
As we have seen around Vancouver over the last few months, art has a powerful ability to be beautiful, thought-provoking, make a statement, move people, and to bring hope during an uncertain time. Art Downtown is a new summer program aimed at supporting local artists while showcasing their talents in two public locations this summer.
Art Downtown
Between June and September, artists will be presenting their work and techniques in the setting of Lot 19 (855 W Hastings Street) and Cathedral Square (566 Richards Street), downtown Vancouver.
Lot 19 Dates June 17 & 24 July 1, 8, 15, 22 & 29 August 5, 12, 19, 26 September 2 & 9
Cathedral Square Dates June 19 & 26 July 3, 10, 17, 24 & 31 August 7, 14, 21 & 28 September 4 & 11
Artists featured at the first event on June 17th at Lot 19 include:
Bita Motamedi
Elizabeth Cross
Laura Noonan
Mohammad Reza Atashzad
Stefan Rogenmoser (simplyartist)
Casey Fawsitt
At Cathedral Square on June 19th you’ll find:
Bita Motamedi
Elizabeth Cross
Mohammad Reza Atashzad
Matthew Holmstrom
The Vancouver Visual Art Foundation (“VVAF”) with the Downtown Vancouver BIA (” DVBIA”) as they work to revitalize public spaces in downtown Vancouver through their Placemaking Projects. Their aim is to bring the community together in welcoming and inspiring locations across the city.
Art Downtown wants to transform the two locations of Lot 19 and Cathedral Square into creative, inspiring and positive areas for the public to connect with art, and where artists can showcase their talent and sell their work.
Happening online on June 18th, Mental Wealth II is a seminar for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) in the creative, entertainment and hospitality industries, to de-stigmatize mental health issues while highlighting different approaches to true wellness.
Mental Wealth II: A Seminar on Mental Health in the BIPOC Community
When: Thursday, June 18, 2020 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm Where: Live on YouTube from Fortune Sound. RSVP to the Facebook event here for updates. Due to restrictions from COVID-19, they will not be opening up physical attendance to this event to the public, and encourage online participation.
Blueprint Events and Fortune Sound Club have teamed up for their second instalment of the Mental Wealth series. In light of the current worldwide movement shining a light on systemic and historic racism specifically towards black communities, they invite you to share in these stories and perspectives from BIPOC because mental health = mental wealth.
Panelists:
Betty Mulat (NuZi Collective/VBT&AF)
Dora Kamau (Bliss Your Heart)
DJ Floetic (Diced Lemons)
DJ Denise (CITR’s QueerFM)
Jacob Callender-Prasad (Black Vancouver)
Yasmin Hajian (Therapist/Healing in Colour)
and more
Hosted by Garret Louie (Founder, Fortune Sound Club) & Nate Sabine (Director of Business Development, Blueprint).
CBC is hosting a public virtual town hall on racism on June 17th hosted by CBC journalists Lien Yeung and Angela Sterritt. Joined by several expert panelists from the community, the town hall aims to address systemic racism in the workplace, the media and in day to day interactions.
CBC Virtual Town Hall on Racism
When: Wednesday, June 17, 2020 from 7:00pm to 8:30pm Where: Watch, listen and participate on CBC Radio One, Facebook, CBC Gem
Panelists include:
Manjot Bains, Writer and Former Senior Program Advisor in the Community Support, Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Initiatives program of the Department of Canadian Heritage
Annette Henry, David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education; Professor, Faculty of Education and Social Justice Institute, UBC
Parker Johnson, SFU/Elevate Inclusion Strategies
Jahmira Lovemore-White, co-founder of Black Mutual Aid B.C., organizer with Black Lives Matter
Bowinn Ma, NDP MLA for North Vancouver-Lonsdale
Jeska Slater, Skookum Lab
Adrienne Smith, trans activist and human rights lawyer
Sgt. Valerie Spicer, VPD Diversity & Indigenous Relations Unit
Kory Wilson, Executive Director of Indigenous Initiatives and Partnerships at BCIT
They want to hear from you: What’s your experience with racism? What changes do you want to see? What can you do to be anti-racist?
Share your thoughts on these topics in two ways:
1. In advance of the town hall, send your stories, questions and comments via email ([email protected]) and telephone through the The Early Edition talk-back line (604) 662-6690. A producer may reach out to you for more information so please let them know how to contact you.
2. During the Town Hall, the public are invited to submit their questions, stories and feedback by calling 1-800-825-5950 or (604) 669-3733 or commenting on Facebook Live.
A recording of the town hall will also be made available on Facebook and CBC Gem after the event.
