Yearly Archives: 2006

SFU Scots Chair V: Ron MacLeod update for Feb 13. Roger Emerson on Hume + BC Pipers association dinner

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SFU Scots Chair V:  Ron MacLeod update for Feb 13. 
  
Roger Emerson on Hume + BC Pipers association dinner


Greetings, a reminder re the next lecture in the series SCOTTISH 
ENLIGHTENMENT AND EMIGRATION. This series of lectures celebrate SFU's 
founding forty years on: 1965-2005.

WHAT: Roger Emerson, Professor Emeritus of History, University of 
Western Ontario, will speak on �David Hume:  Our Excellent and Never To 
Be Forgotten Friend�
WHEN: Thursday, February 16, 2006 at 8 P.M.
WHERE: SFU�s Harbour Centre, downtown Vancouver, B.C.
OTHER: All welcome.
To register for this free lecture call 604-291-5100.

Also, a message for those who enjoy good piping, good food and good 
sociability.

WHAT: The B.C. Pipers� Association is holding its Annual Dinner
WHEN: Saturday, March 11, 2006
WHERE: the Scottish Cultural Centre, 8886 Hudson, Vancouver, B.C.
COST: $35.00; seniors & youths 13-18, $32.00; under 12 years, $20.00
CONTACT: Ron Sutherland at ronald_sutherland@afu.ca, or, phone 
604-988-0479

CBC Arts: $1 million needed to save Kogawa House

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$1 million needed to save Kogawa House

Last Updated Wed, 08 Feb 2006 14:42:52 EST
CBC Arts

The campaign to save the childhood home of novelist and poet Joy Kogawa is entering its final few weeks.



Joy Kogawa outside her childhood home in Vancouver.

Last November, Vancouver City Council gave a
120-day reprieve on the demolition of the house that featured in
Kogawa's 1981 classic novel Obasan.

Arts groups and the author
herself had asked for time to raise money to buy the house, so it could
be turned into a writers' retreat. A developer wants to take it down to
make way for condominiums.

But the modest house on West 64th
St. will cost about $1 million to buy and repair, money that has to be
raised from book lovers and supporters.

The Land Conservancy
of British Columbia is spearheading a fundraising effort with the
support of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, Vancouver arts groups and
writers groups such as PEN Canada and the Writers' Union of Canada.

Kogawa's Obasan
tells the story of a Japanese Canadian family interned during the
Second World War. Kogawa and her family were removed from their
Vancouver home in 1942 and interned in the B.C. interior.

Obasan won a Governor General's award and the novel has been studied by a generation of Canadian school children.

“The
dream for it, is that these things [the internment] will not happen
again and that there are wonderful countries like Canada where
reconciliation is possible and where these things are not allowed to be
forgotten,” said Kogawa, who will speak at Vancouver's Robson Street
Chapters on Saturday.

Cultural and arts groups want the house to be spared to remind Canadians of the injustice done to Japanese Canadians.

The
proposal is to create a home for writers who have fled oppression in
their own countries and sought refuge in Canada. “And where people care
enough and writers can come and remember what has happened in their
countries as well, I mean, where writers in exile can come, and writers
of conscience can tell about what's happened in their lives. So, then
the dream would be for it [the house] to be something for everybody,
for all Canadians, for all people,” Kogawa told CBC Radio.

In
Obasan, Kogawa writes eloquently of the family life she lived in the
house. It is also featured in a children's version of the tale, Naomi's Road.

“All
the writing that I have ever done about my childhood or
Japanese-Canadians is rooted in that loss of a home and community and
life,” Kogawa said.

The city has planted a cherry tree grafted
from a tree on the Kogawa house property to commemorate the experience
of Japanese Canadians.

The stay of execution on the house runs
out at the end of March and the issue will be back before Vancouver
City Council unless money can be raised in time.

Naomi's Road / Vancouver Opera Touring Ensemble – getting ready again

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Naomi's Road / Vancouver Opera Touring Ensemble – getting ready again


Jessica, Angus,
Gina, Gene and Sam – the singers and pianist from Naomi's Road
production of the Vancouver Opera Touring Ensemble – photo Deb Martin

Gina Oh and Jessica Cheung were enthusiastic in their
greetings as I visited their last rehearsal before the Spring touring
session of Naomi's Road – the Vancouver Opera Touring Ensemble
production that is visiting BC Schools. 

“We're going to Seattle, and Lethbridge!” they exclaimed, clearly
excited at the upcoming destinations after having such wonderful
memories of their tour on Vancouver Island where they had visited such
small communities such as Uculet/Tofino and Denman Island.

I will post the interview soon…. in the next day or so.

Check out the Vancouver Opera site for upcoming performances of Naomi's Road.
http://www.vancouveropera.ca/touring/touring-whatson.html

Sunday, February 19, 2006 2:00 pm
Vancouver Opera Guild presents Naomi's Road
Vancouver Academy of Music
1270 Chestnut Street
Vancouver, BC
Admission: $20 adults, $10 children 12 and under
Tickets and Information: 604-874-4042 or 604-682-2871 ext. 5001 (Pat)

Saturday, March 4, 2006 7:00 pm
West Vancouver Memorial Library
1950 Marine Drive
West Vancouver, BC
Admission: Free
Information: website http://www.westvanlib.org/

Saturday, March 11, 2006, 7:30pm
Powell Street Festival Society presents Naomi's Road
Vancouver Japanese Language School Hall
487 Alexander Street
Vancouver, BC
Admission: $10 (general) / $8 (students, seniors) / $5 (children 12 and under)
Tickets and Information: (604) 683 8240 / www.powellstreetfestival.com

CBC Radio: Janice Wong & CHOW on “Freestyle” Radio 1 – 1:30pm

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CBC Radio:  Janice Wong & CHOW on “Freestyle” Radio 1 –
 
2:30pm EST Toronto – Friday February 10th
 

in BC – listen on the web at 3:30pm PST on the web

For Vancouverites who don't get the second half of the program via  
radio, The CBC people tell me that it is possible to listen online.

If you go to this link and then choose "Victoria", at 2.30 you can  
catch the interview.

http://www.cbc.ca/listen/index.html#


Janice Wong is hitting the CBC radio national airwaves again. 
Jance has just returned from Toronto for promotions for CHOW where I
set up a dinner for her to meet her father's cousins's family and
descendants.
She writes:


I'll
be dishing from my book “Chow” again, this time on CBC's afternoon show
called “Freestyle”, CBC Radio 1 at around 1.30 Toronto time….a
10-minute interview.

Also
coming up is a 1/2-hour interview on “Fine Print” on Rogers TV in
Toronto…I'll let you know the date and time when I receive the
schedule.

Thanks for tuning in.

Best wishes, Janice

Click here to see other articles on Janice Wong and her book CHOW
http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog?cmd=search&keywords=janice+wong+chow

Joy Kogawa & Friends – reading at Chapters on Robson, Saturday Feb 11, 2-4pm

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Joy Kogawa & Friends – reading at Chapters on Robson, Saturday Feb 11, 2-4pm

Joy Kogawa, Roy Miki, Daphne Marlatt and Ellen Crowe-Swords are reading
at Chapters Bookstore on 788 Robson Street in Downtown Vancouver.

This event is also sponsored by The Land Conservancy, www.conservancy.bc.ca who are helping to save the Kogawa House from demolition. 

Daphne Marlatt is a disinguished poet and currently writer-in-residence
for Simon Fraser University.  Roy Miki is a long time friend of
Joy, as well as being an English professor at SFU, and a leader in the
Japanese Canadian redress movement.  Ellen Crowe-Swords is also a
writer and healer, and a long time friend of Joy's.  Miki,
Crowe-Swords and Kogawa all grew up in the Japanese Canadian internment
camps, during WW2.

Asian Canadians are medal hopefuls for Canada's Olympics: Mira Leung and Emmanuel Sandhu

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Canada's 16 year old skating darling Mira Leung
is on the front cover of the Vancouver Sun's Torino 2006 supplement
today. Leung placed silver at last months Canadian Championships in
Ottawa to send her to the Torino 2006 Olympics.  Leung is born and
raised in Vancouver, and hopes to be able to compete in her hometown of
Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics.

Jeff Paterson writes in today's Georgia Straight:

Maybe the best story among the British Columbians heading for Italy
is Burnaby figure skater Mira Leung. Just 16 years old, Leung really
can’t be considered a medal contender in her first Olympic experience.
But after a second-place finish at the nationals last month in Ottawa,
she served notice to the skating world that she’ll be a force here at
home four years from now.

“The average 16-year-old might be
overwhelmed by something like this, but not Mira. I just got an e-mail
from her the other day about how excited she is at this opportunity,”
Pattenden said. “And she really needs this experience for 2010. She’s
going there [Turin] to perform and she’s hoping for a top-16 finish.”

Emmanuel Sandhu
is an outside medal chance, but he has been refining his mental
training skills over the years.  Sandhu was a potential medal
winner for the Men's Figure Skating at the Salt Lake City Olympics in
2002, but had to pull out due to an aggravated injury.  Last week,
I talked with sports psychologist David Cox, whom I studied with at
Simon Fraser University.  David is going to Turino with Sandhu,
who has been known to be inconsistent despite being Canadian Champion
in 2001, 2003, and 2004, and in 2003 he want the World's Grand Prix
Gold medal.  Sandhu has been living in Vancouver's Yaletown and
training in Burnaby, since moving from Ontario.  His ethnic
parentage is Italian and South Asian, but he says he best describes
himself as Canadian.

Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe
have been perennial also-rans on the Canadian Ice Dance team, but they
are now going to the Olympics for their very first time.  The
Vancouver skaters who train in Detroit have waited a long time to get
their Olympic shot.  I met them in 2001 during the World
Championships when Sale and Pelletier won Gold in Vancouver.  They
are a very nice couple and wonderful with the audience.  When the
planned meet and greet for Sale and Pelletier turned into a Q&A
session because of the large crowds, Wing and Lowe acted as MC's for
the evening.  I was able to ask a question about the importance of
mental training for their routine, as the TV cameras had focused on
Sale and Pelletier practicing Tai Chi movements, before their
competition.  “Good question,” said Lowe to me as he repeated the
question for the audience. “They showed that?” exclaimed Jaime Sale,
who exlained that they had been learning Tai Chi from a wonderful
master to help them focus their energies, and of couse mental training
was a very very important part of their training.

Here are some related articles

CTV
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060205/figure_skating_
060205/20060207?s_name=torino2006&no_ads=

Vancouver Sun
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=0458a077-9c84-
4710-9f97-98ee630d7cb0&k=95438

Montreal Gazette
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/sports/story.html?id=
43a9e1cb-8efb-41e6-8d06-2367c58d2931&rfp=dta