PERFORMERS
Featured poet:
Bonnie Quan Symons has been a poet for 35+ years, and last year she joined us at the Robert Burns statue in Stanley Park to read a poem by Burns. She has been featured at LiterASIAN and Word Vancouver, and has written many chapbooks and been published in many organizations. She is active in the Vancouver poetry community and is a member of the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop, Pandora’s Collective and Writers International Network (WIN) Canada.
Featured welcome and author:
Larry Grant is a Musqueam Elder with Chinese heritage on his father’s side, who grew up both on the Musqueam Reserve and in Vancouver Chinatown. He gave our Indigenous welcome and land acknowledgment at the 2014 Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner. Larry has written a memoir with Scott Steedman titled “Reconciling: A Lifelong Struggle to Belong.”
Featured Filmmaker
Sarah Ling is a cultural and historical researcher, activist and curator. “All My Father’s Relations” is about Larry Grant and his 3 siblings travelling to China in 2013 to visit the ancestral village their father left in 1920 and meet relatives they never knew they had. The film won “Best Canadian Feature” at its premiere at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival.
Featured Bagpipers
Allan McMordie (a co-founder of the JP Fell Pipe Band, and often seen or heard in the news as a manager for North Shore Rescue), and Caroline Ng (who first joined the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team, then the JP Fell Pipe Band)
Featured Musicians:
Gung Haggis Fat Choy House Band is a group of author friends who also play musical instruments.
Chris Wong – jazz writer, Journey to the Bandstand
Sean Gunn – poet
Ann Marie Fleming – graphic novelist/filmmaker, Window Horse, Can I Get a Witness
Leith Davis – SFU Prof of English and Director of Centre for Scottish Studies at SFU, Robert Burns and Transatlantic Culture
Jill Barber – children’s author/singer
Music is For Everyone, Metaphora, Chances, Holly Jolly Christmas Album
Black Bear Rebels Celtic Ceilidh Ensemble
+ unannounced surprises!
. . . including Toddish McWong’s presentation of photos from his 2009 visit to Scotland – featuring the Robert Burns Birthplace Cottage and Museum and his 2025 trip to my own ancestral area of Guandong province, to Kaiping, China.