![[Photos of the Powell Street Festival]](../../images/p-festival.jpg)
2007 Powell Street Festival
Play/Playful
Saturday, August 4th & Sunday, August 5th, 2007
Download the 2007 Festival schedule (pdf) by clicking here.
poster by Lynda Nakashima
Some highlights of the 31st annual Powell Street Festival included: new work by festival favourites Kokoro Dance; Theatre performance of Skim, written and directed by Mariko Tamaki (Toronto) and performed by Julie Tamiko Manning (Montreal); Visual Arts group exhibit, Between what’s said and unsaid group exhibit, featuring artists from Canada, USA and Japan; public sculpture exhibition by 3rd generation Nikkei artist Michael Tora Speier entitled Broken Only at Sky: a Magnification of 20th Century Japanese Diaspora & Community Journey; music performances by Yuji Nakajima, Keiko Devaux, and special guest from Japan Koichi Makigami; the usual exciting array of taiko by Katari Taiko, Sawagi Taiko, Chibi Taiko, Yuaikai Ryukyu Taiko, and new to this year, Jodaiko, a superstar group led by taiko master from California Tiffany Tamaribuchi; and the annual YUGO Hip Hop Fusion event.
We are also presented, for the first time, a Japanese film festival Kibatsu Cinema in partnership with the Pacific Cinematheque, as a lead-up event to festival weekend.
The Festival Theme
Play/playful: experimentation, risk taking, fall and recover, process, children, fun, social engagement, imagination, creativity, opposite of finished or complete, opposite of “work”, curiosity, light-hearted, opposite of serious
The 2007 Powell Street Festival’s theme was Play, a celebration of artistic creativity and possibilities and an exciting and inspirational follow-up to 2006, the Powell Street Festival’s 30th anniversary year that focused more on history and community. Programming explored all facets of this concept from play as recreation or amusement, such as children’s play, to an aesthetic tradition of play that is grounded in an intent toward artistic discovery. The tie that binds various forms of play was a commitment to curiosity and creativity. Artistic process, innovative forms of audience development and engagement, providing more space for children’s and youth events, and integrating children and youth into adult-dominated areas of the festival was prioritized.
Since its culturally reclaiming inception, Powell Street Festival has continued to flourish as a veritable hothouse of dialogues, social inquiries, remembered traditions, artistic fusions and urban contrasts. New and old stories and experiences span generations and have come together here for more than three decades. It is a place of not ideal, but real, community activity, creative invention and intervention, social investigation and rediscovered history. PSF has always been committed to openly creative processes that leave room for further exploration and larger definitions of us as (hyphenated) Canadians.
The Venues
For the 2007 Festival, events took place at:
Oppenheimer Park
400 Powell Street, between Jackson Avenue and Dunlevy Avenue
Firehall Arts Centre
http://www.firehallartscentre.ca/
280 East Cordova
Vancouver Japanese Language School
http://www.vjls-jh.com/en/
487 Alexander Street
Vancouver Buddhist Church
220 Jackson Avenue
Video In
http://www.videoinstudios.com/
1965 Main Street
Chapel Arts Centre
http://www.chapelarts.com/
304 Dunlevy
2007 Other Festival Events
Spatial Poetics VI
Saturday, July 7th, 8pm
VIVO, 1965 Main Street
Admission $10/8 at the door
Sixth annual evening of collaborative and experimental performance and video by Asian Canadian artists, featuring premieres of new work by Yuriko Iga and Noel Macul, Lydia Kwa and Jason Sims, Lyndsay Sung and Rafael Tsuchida, and more! Plus, videos curated by Lyndsay Sung. Read more&8230;
Kibatsu Cinema: eccentricity, popular culture and contemporary Japanese film
July 26–29
Pacific Cinémathèque, 1131 Howe Street
For full schedule and pricing: www.cinematheque.bc.ca
(Must be a Cinémathèque member or a Powell Street Festival Society member and 18 years of age or older)
The Powell Street Festival Society and Pacific Cinémathèque are pleased to present Kibatsu Cinema, a four-day celebration of the odd and the eccentric in Japanese pop culture and contemporary Japanese film. Read more&8230;
JODAIKO concert (as part of Pride In Art)
Wednesday, August 1 at 7 pm
Roundhouse Community Centre
Tickets $20 at various outlets
www.tttaiko.com
See this all-female superstar taiko group, led by taiko master from California, Tiffany Tamaribuchi! Their show last year sold out, so get your tickets early.
Koichi Makigami (Tokyo, Japan) evening concert
with special guest Keiko Devaux (Montreal)
Saturday, August 4 at 8 pm
The Chapel, 304 Dunlevy Avenue
Admission: $12 at the door
PSF presents an evening of experimental music by avantgarde mastermind from Japan, Koichi Makigami. Read more&8230;
Between What’s Said and Unsaid exhibition
August 4–17 (opening Friday, August 3 at 7 pm)
Artist talk, Saturday, August 4th
Helen Pitt Gallery, 102–148 Alexander Street
An exhibition of drawings by a younger generation of Nikkei (Japanese descent) artists from Canada, USA, and Japan, featuring Cindy Mochizuki, Madoka Hara, Jillian Tamaki, R. Kikuo Johnson and Kaori Kasai.Curated by Alia Nakashima. Read more&8230;
IN CONJUNCTION WITH PSF:
Redress Express exhibition
August 3 to September 21
Centre A, 2 West Hastings Street
www.centrea.org
The Redress Express project consists of a symposium, exhibition and publication. It serves to critically mark several significant anniversaries. The year 2007 marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire on March 25, 1807; the 100th anniversary of the 1907 Vancouver Anti-Asian Riots; the 60th anniversary of the 1947 Canadian Citizenship Act; the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Canadian Immigration Act; and the 10th anniversary of the 1997 return of Hong Kong from British rule to the People’s Republic of China. The exhibition Redress Express: Chinese Restaurants and the Head Tax Issue in Canadian Art, features recent works by Gu Xiong, Shelly Low, Ho Tam, Karen Tam, and Kira Wu.
PSF BASEBALL GAME
August 6th, 11:00am
Oppenheimer Park
Come take part in a fun slow-pitch ballgame, a tribute to the Asahi at Oppenheimer Park, the team’s home “Powell Street Grounds.” Fans and friends are welcome!
For more information about any of these events, please contact Miko at miko at dkam.ca
2007 COMMUNITY EVENTS by Festival Partners
Summer Institute on Book Arts Exhibition
(featuring work by Marlene Yuen)
June 28 – July 29
(Opening reception June 28th from 6–8 pm)
Emily Carr Institute, Concourse Gallery
1399 Johnston Street
An exploration of intent and perception through form, text and material, featuring books by local artists and writers, including Marlene Yuen, whose pieces in this show are sponsored by The Powell Street Festival Society.
Chinatown Arts & Cultural Festival
Saturdays in July starting July 7
Free Admission
Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park Courtyard
578 Carrall St
www.vancouverchinesegarden.com
Art and culture enrich the heart of historic Chinatown! Enjoy four colourful and diverse cultural showcases on July 7, 14, 21, and 28 in order to further enhance Chinatown’s role as the host of arts and cultural events in the City, promote the diversity of art forms, and strengthen neighborhood collaborations. Opening day (July 7, 11am–5pm) features performances by Chinese, Korean and Japanese performers (Nishikawa-Ryu Japanese Dance Group and Yuaikai Ryukyu Taiko), the latter of which were programmed by Powell Street Festival Society!
Pacific Cinémathèque presents Kurosawa
1131 Howe Street
www.cinematheque.bc.ca | 604.688.film.
Tickets: $9.50 Adult single bill, 11.50 Adult double bill, $8
seniors/student single bill, $10 senior/student double bill
Annual $3 membership required.
Pacific Cinémathèque presents Four Essential Japanese Films as part of the ongoing 50 Years of Janus Films exhibition: Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (July 2 & 4), one of international cinema’s undisputed masterworks; Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan (July 8 & 9), a sumptuous, highly stylized quartet of Japanese ghost stories; and playing together in one amazing double bill (July 11–13): Yasujiro Ozu’s eternally splendid Tokyo Story and Kon Ichikawa’s visually sumptuous The Makioka Sisters. All films in Japanese with English subtitles.
19th Annual Vancouver Queer Film Festival
Sunday, August 19, 7 pm
Emily Carr Institute
For more info: www.outonscreen.com
The Powell Street Festival Society will join the 19th annual Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF) in co-presenting Riots to Astronauts: The Anniversaries of Change Project, curated by Vancouver media artist and community activist Karin Lee, and Su-Anne Yeo, a doctoral student interested in Asian Canadian issues and diasporic film. The VQFF will present a powerful program by eight queer media artists of colour exploring displacement, family, language, race, and sexuality in commemoration of the centennial of the Vancouver race riots.
Dirty Laundry excavates the historical representation of outlaw sexualities in 19th century Chinese Canada through the story of a young man on a train trip across the Rockies. Interviews with high school students give context to recent histories of immigration in Refugee Class of 2000, while Salty Wet explores interpretations of queer Cantonese and English slang. A playful treatment of the Asian experience in North America, The Yellow Pages roams from past to present, from Chinese railway workers to the 1997 Hong Kong takeover.
Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF)
VAFF Singer/Songwriter Challenge
Entry deadline: August 17th
The VAFF Asian singer/songwriter/band event with ARC 2 INTERTAINMENT is now officially launched! The contest steps, rules and regulations are at http://www.youtube.com/group/vaffmusic. You have until July 16, 2007 to post a video of you performing original music onto the VAFFmusic YouTube Group, where YouTube voters will have a chance to pick their favourite three entries. VAFF also presents the Mighty Asian Moviemaking Marathon! Offering $5,000 in cash prizes, the MAMM3 action takes place August 20th to 30th, 2007. Put a team together and make a 10-minute film in 10 days!