Created and produced by Project: Humanity, Freedom Singer is a new documentary theatre piece co-created by Khari Wendell McClelland and Project: Humanity’s Andrew Kushnir with CBC journalist Jodie Martinson. It was inspired by the journey of singer-songwriter McClelland in retracing his great-grandmother’s steps to escaping slavery in the United States.
Photo credit: Dahlia Katz
Urban Ink Presents Freedom Singer
Freedom Singer premiered on stage in Toronto in February 2017 and is now on a cross-country tour, with a stop in Vancouver this fall at the Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre.
Where: Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre (#203 162 W 1st Ave, Vancouver) When: October 7-18, 2017 Tickets:Available online now or call 604-629-VTIX (8849)
In 2015, Juno Award nominee McClelland retraced the steps of his great-great-great-grandmother Kizzy, and using contemporary styles like hip hop, funk and soul, he personalized the songs that likely accompanied her and thousands of others as they escaped US slavery. In sharing this music, Khari is brought face to face with his own “unrecorded” heritage, and the realities and myths of one of our quintessential historic narratives: the Underground Railroad.
The Detroit-born, Vancouver-based singer/songwriter talked to historians, museum curators, and descendants of slaves. His journey was recorded for a CBC documentary.
October 8th is a Pay What You Can performance (admission at the door), October 10th has ASL Interpretation and a Talkback, and October 17th is also a Talkback performance.
Win Tickets
I have a pair of tickets to give away to opening night of Freedom Singer on October 7th, here’s how you can enter to win:
Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
Click below to post an entry on Twitter
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I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Monday, October 2, 2017. Follow Urban Ink on Twitter and Facebook for more information about this production.
Events that run for longer than three days in a row are highlighted in green. This list is updated often so send in your event listing anytime – for free – and check back often to plan your week.
Inspiring greater public participation in arts, culture and heritage, Port Moody, Coquitlam, and Port Coquitlam will host over 25 free events during Culture Days, September 29th to October 1st.
Canada 150 Mural Unveiling
When: Saturday, September 30, 2017 from 12:15pm to 12:45pm
Where: The Outlet at Leigh Square
Join in the unveiling of Port Coquitlam’s Canada 150 legacy project: An 8×12-foot mural consisting of 600 tiles hand-painted by local residents at this summer’s Canada Day and Canada 150 events.
Permanently installed at the Outlet, the mural is part of the national Canada 150 Mural Mosaic public art project, which aims to create murals in 150 Canadian communities, and was made possible in part by the Government of Canada. All murals in the project have an overarching railway motif as well as local themes.
Entitled Our Journeys, Port Coquitlam’s mural features images that pay tribute to hometown hero Terry Fox, the Kwikwetlem First Nation, the area’s natural heritage and the trails enjoyed by many residents.
Photo by Lisa King
More Events in Port Coquitlam for Culture Days
Friday, September 29, 2017 11:30am to 12:00pm
Pop-Up Library Storytime
Hyde Creek Recreation Centre
Saturday, September 30, 2017 9:30am to 5:00pm
Terry Fox: Running to the Heart of Canada
PoCo Heritage @ Leigh Square (The Outlet)
Saturday, September 30, 2017 11:00am to 3:00pm
Creative Writing Workshop and PoCo Writers Drop-In Group
Leigh Square (Gathering Place)
Saturday, September 30, 2017 12:00pm to 3:00pm
Family Art Drop-In
Leigh Square (The Outlet)
Saturday, September 30, 2017 12:00pm to 4:00pm
Dictionary Project
Terry Fox Library
Saturday, September 30, 2017 12:00pm to 4:00pm
Explore the Future of Arts and Culture
Terry Fox Library Makerspace
Saturday, September 30, 2017 1:00pm to 4:00pm
Cutie Circle Ukulele Jamboree
Leigh Square (Gathering Place)
Culture Days represents the largest-ever collective public participation campaign undertaken by the arts and cultural community in Canada with over 7,500 free, hands-on, interactive activities that invite the public to create, participate and share. Miss604 is proud to be a media partner of the Tri-Cities Culture Days weekend. Stay tuned for more event listings in the coming days.
G Day For Girls is a new global social movement anchored by day-long events that celebrate and empower tween girls ages 10-12. The next one in the Vancouver area is coming up in October and will be open for over 100 girls aged 10-12 and 100 adult Champions in an intergenerational, empowering community celebration of girls as they transition from childhood into adolescence.
G Day for Girls
When: Friday, October 20, 2017 9:00am to 3:00pm Where: Ismaili Centre Burnaby, 4010 Canada Way, Burnaby, Tickets:On sale now for $50 (plus service charge) for girls and adult champions. A limited quantity of sponsored tickets are available for girls who would not otherwise be able to attend G Day for financial reasons.
Speakers include trans rights activists Michelle and Tru Wilson, Minister of Advanced Education, Skills, and Training, Hon. Melanie Mark, YWCA Metro Vancouver Culture Shift project lead Lori Boland, CEO & Co-Founder of Webnames.ca Cybele Negris, and musician & CBC Searchlight Competition winner Desiree Dawson.
G Day began in the spring of 2014 with over 500 girls and their champions attending both 2014 events in Vancouver. In 2015, G Day was met again with incredible community support and attendance in Vancouver. G Day Toronto launched in April 2015, and G Day Victoria took place in September 2015 and 2016. This year’s event is produced by the charity United Girls of the World Society, which anticipates Toronto, Whitehorse, and Calgary as future G Day host cities.
Guest post contributed and written by Jen Murtagh. All photos by Candace Meyer Photography.
I had yearned to visit Kenya from the time I was a little girl. I was obsessed with documentaries of the Serengeti and incensed by the Ethiopian famine that took the lives of so many children my own age. Those images and the idea of Africa has stuck with me most of my life and although I didn’t know when, I did know I would one day make the trip to a continent that called my name.
Jen Murtagh with Ganze School Girls
I landed in Kenya in the dark but I could feel the energy even if I couldn’t see it. Nairobi vibrates in a way that you sense the moment you step off the plane and onto the tarmac.
A chance meeting with the indomitable Lotte Davis in 2015 had brought me to Kenya. Lotte is the co-founder of Burnaby based global hair care line AG Hair, and the force and founder behind One Girl Can. A native South African, Lotte returned to Kenya many years ago and travels twice a year to oversee school projects. She mentors and connects with the girls, while running One Girl Can’s women’s leadership conference for their university scholarship recipients. Growing up as a young girl in South Africa in the age of apartheid, and witnessing the deepest levels of social injustice and gender inequality, drives Lotte’s vision to empower and educate the girls of sub-Saharan Africa in order to break the cycle of poverty.
Lotte Davis, Founder One Girl Can
Thankfully Lotte was quite open to me tagging along with her on her most recent visit to Kenya. Established in 2013, Vancouver-based One Girl Can has made considerable advancements in a relatively short period of time. The key to their growing success? Meticulous oversight, low administration and Lotte’s passionate drive to reach as many girls as possible. To date, the organization has built 6 schools, provided scholarships for 190 girls and mentored 7,000 — and their impact continues to grow exponentially.
One Girl Can believes that education is the key to alleviating poverty and their work is focused on a cycle of empowerment that begins with building and improving schools. From there, they identify girls whose parents are struggling to pay their school fees and offer them scholarships.
Girls from Ganze School
Girls on scholarship must maintain a B average, showing their commitment to their studies. Through hand-picked mentors and program managers, each girl in school will go through four different mentorship programs. They then have the opportunity to be supported through their university studies with a further scholarship and stipend for living expenses. Finally, One Girl Can provides ongoing support to the girls, helping them to find internship opportunities and preparing them for their careers.
My role on this trip was simple – try to keep up with Lotte’s fervent and impressive pace of doing as much as possible in 24 short hours and provide support in running a few leadership workshops for both their high school and university scholarship recipients.
Lotte Davis meeting with girls from Ushrika School, Kiberia
Our first day, we visited a school in the middle of the Nairobi Kiberia Slums, the biggest slum in Kenya. One million people existing in abject poverty, with no running water, sanitation and very little electricity. When you are immersed in this you do start to grasp why 64% of girls are not attending school. School fees in Kenya are close to $700 a year and with most families surviving on $1.90 a day, it’s nearly impossible. This is why One Girl Can’s work is so vital.
Over the next week we visited more areas, including Ganze School in Kilifi and Masinga School about three hours outside of Nairobi. The transformations at both of these schools thanks to One Girl Can is simply breathtaking. Classrooms, science labs, dormitories, fresh paint and new washing and bathroom facilities all paid for by generous donations. The smiles, songs and gratitude when we arrived signalled to me the profound impact the donations have made on these girls’ lives.
I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to travel to Africa and participate in a cause that is deeply woven into the fabric of my heart. As a mother of an eight year-old girl, the importance of gender equality and equal rights is paramount. Education is a fundamental key to poverty alleviation and these girls deserve just as much of a chance as my own daughter does.
Ganze School
To some, Africa might seem like a world away but I believe we all have a collective responsibility to leave this world a better place. The Dalai Lama has said “the world will be saved by the western woman” and what better place for us to share our resources and make a profound impact than in Kenya — a country where only 24% of girls make it to secondary school. We have the chance to change the lives of countless girls. Don’t you think we should take it?
My hope, with this piece, is to inspire other men and women to get a group of friends together and sponsor a girl either as a collective or individually, through One Girl Can. What a beautiful way to celebrate your friendship and pay it forward. You will receive letters from the girl you sponsor, hear about where she goes to school and learn more about her.
One donation can change a life. For more information and to view girls who currently need sponsorship, please visit: OneGirlCan.com
