Harry Aoki presents First Friday Forum
7:30pm - 9:30pm
Friday, March 04, 2005
Nikkei Heritage Centre  
Kingsway and Sperling,
Burnaby

Harry Aoki & Guests perform a blend of musical, 
cultural and intellectual fusion and forum.  
The theme is in support of Chinese Canadian Redress. 
Update on the campaign by Sid Tan, representative 
of the Chinese Canadian National Council’s campaign 
for Head Tax redress. 

This March 4th show features The Running Dog Lackeys.  
Expect Sean Gunn to perform and sing his song 
“Head Tax Blues” featured in the Karen Cho film 
“In the Shadow of Gold Mountain.

I think this will be especially poignant, as Harry 
himself was interned during WW2 as a Canadian born 
of Japanese heritage, as his family’s home was 
confiscated and they were shipped out of Vancouver.  
Harry loves ethno-fusion music and how cultures share 
and evolve.  He created an album titled Haida Dawn, and 
was a music coordinator for the Edmonton Commonwealth Games.
  
This concert is suitable for all ages.
Admission is free -  Donations are appreciated.

Come see my poetic friends Fiona Tinwei Lam and Kuldip Gill face-off in a poetry slam against other poets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PLAYING HARD*
CBC RADIO ANNOUNCES THE FOURTH ANNUAL NATIONAL POETRY FACE-OFF EVENT IN VANCOUVER
FEBRUARY 21 AT 8 PM AT CAFÉ DEUX SOLEILS

Poetic punches will fly during CBC Radio's fourth annual POETRY FACE-OFF.
This popular Canada-wide competition brings together 65 primed poets in 13 cities stretching from Vancouver to St. John's.

From January to March, five poets in each locale will face off before a
live audience and deliver their words on this year's theme –
“Play”.  The  poets are commissioned by CBC producers to
reflect local voices.  At each poetry event, the spectators vote
for a favourite, and the winner goes on to compete in the national
final on CBC Radio.

Vancouver's finest poets go word-to-word  Monday  February 21
at 8 pm at the Café Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive.  
Margaret Gallagher of CBC Radio's The Early Edition hosts as
poets  Barbara Adler,  Fiona Tinwei
Lam, Kuldip Gill, C.R. Avery and Ms. Spelt present their work. 
The audience chooses the winner.  Admission is $5 and is part of
the regular Monday night Vancouver poetry slam with slam master Graham
Olds.  The Face-Off will
be broadcast February 26 on CBC Radio One's North by Northwest between
8:30 and 9 am.

April is National Poetry Month, so the final round of this poetic
competition will air April 4 to 7 on CBC Radio One's The
Roundup.   Listeners across the country will have a chance to
hear all of the 13 finalists
and then vote for their favourite performance by calling a
toll-free  telephone number (to be announced) or by logging onto
our website. The grand  champion will be announced on April 14 on
The Roundup.

CBC TV's Artspots will create short films of poems by some of the regional winners.

From its inception four years ago, CBC Radio's POETRY FACE-OFF has been
a cross-country event. This year, face-offs are being held in
Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto,
Montreal,
Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, St. John's and Yellowknife.

Listeners are invited to visit www.cbc.ca/poetryfaceoff for detailed
information about each of the local poetry face-offs. The site will
include interviews with participants as the events unfold.

-30-

For further information, contact:
Joan Athey, CBC Communications
604-662-6605    joan_athey@cbc.ca

Joy Kogawa's Obasan is the perfect nomination choice for One Book One Vancouver 2005 program at VPL

Wayson Choy's “Jade Peony” was the introductory choice for the
inaugural One Book One Vancouver program by the Vancouver Public
Library in 2002.  OBOV was an exciting book club for the entire
city.  Based on similar programs in other cities, library patrons
were all invited to read “Jade Peony” and programs featuring Wayson
Choy and related issues and authors were created such as “Dim Sum with
Wayson Choy”, a film showing of “Unfolding the Butterfuly” – a
documentary about Wayson, readings by noted Chinese-Canadian authors
Paul Yee, SKY Lee and Jim Wong Chu, walking tours in Vancouver's
Chinatown where the book was set.  I was a member of the inaugural
committee that helped develop programming.

For 2005, I have nominated Joy Kogawa's Obasan, because I believe it
is the best choice for a book “All Vancouverites should read.”

Joy
is a novelist born and raised in Vancouver that has recieved the
Order of Canada and had November 7th pronounced “National Joy Kogawa
Day.” And Obasan is widely considered to be one of Canada's most
important and influential works ever created.

I present to you 20 reasons that create a “ready-made” One Book One Vancouver program – that no other possible choice can touch.

1.
“Obasan, a novel that I believe is the most important literary work of
the past 30 years for understanding Canadian history.  – Roy Miki
– SFU University Professor and 2003 Governor General's Award Winner for
Poetry.

2. 11th most influential novel – named by Quill & Quire.

3. Partially set in Vancouver.

4. Vancouver born and raised author.

5. Joy named Order of Canada in 1986.

6.
Obasan is studied in universities and colleges – It is this important
that literary critiques about the book itself are published.

7. “An old jewel” – forgotten by many readers, unknown to many people – definitely a book Vancouverites MUST read!!!

8.
Vancouver Opera is doing a touring production of “Naomi's Road” – her
children's story to debut in September/October – perfect for Word on
the Street cross-over.

9. New edition of Naomi's Road is re-published set for book launch in May 2005.

10. Movement to save the Kogawa Homestead http://kogawa.homestead.com/

11. Book is historically relevant as it helped to launch and support the Japanese redress movement.

12. Timely with growing support of Chinese head-tax redress movement.

13.
Vancouver Opera just did Madama Butterfly and created a whole list of
Japanese Community events and links that VPL could tap into. kind of a
“One Book One Opera” type program.

14. Asian Heritage Month
coincides with One Book One Vancouver launch and Central Library's 10th
Anniversary celebrations.  Ideal cross-over for Joy Kogawa
appearances.

15. Strong Asian-Canadian and Japanese Canadian
community festivals and events already in place to support it eg. Asian
Heritage Month, and Powell Street Festival.

16. Asian Canadian
Writers' Workshop will be doing a Community Builder's dinner to honour
Joy Kogawa (post-poned since November 2004 -possibly reset for May).

17. Lots of Japanese-Canadian authors to support a related author program eg. Roy Miki, Hiromi Goto, Harry Aoki, David Suzuki

18.
Obasan is available in paperback and easily accessible to millions
of readers throughout Vancouver, Canada and the world.

19. Nikkei Heritage Centre and Museum – Vancouver Museum possible tie-ins.

20. Joy will be accessible to Vancouver based programs, as she will be featured by Vancouver Opera and other programs. 

Please consider Joy Kogawa's Obasan for OBOV 2005.
Contact Vancouver Public Library at www.vpl.ca

Send a letter to
Jane White
One Book One Vancouver Committee
Vancouver Public Library
350 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 6B1