Powell Street Festival Society Monthly Newsletter

In this Issue
Become a Lifetime Member!
Jackson Ave Marketplace Returns
Digi-Art Kids Art Workshops
PSF Sake Social
Community Events:
Researching Japanese Canadians: Critical Questions/Creative Practices
The Nikkei National Museum’s 5^thAnnual BLOOM Art Auction Fundraiser

Powell Street Festival Updates

Not yet a Powell Street Festival Lifetime Member?

For only $12 you can become a Lifetime Member of the Powell Street Festival and receive reduced ticket prices on PSF seasonal and festival events as well as two issues of our mailed PSF Newsletter each year (which includes a sneak preview of each upcoming festival as well as notification on our special events!)

Please consider being a part of the Powell Street Festival Community as we continue to celebrate and recognize the strength and diversity of Japanese Canadian arts, culture, and heritage in the Downtown Eastside!
If you would like to become a Lifetime Member today, please click HERE to print and fill out our membership form. Please mail cheques payable to 'Powell Street Festival Society' to our address:

Suite 410 -11
West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC
V6B 1H4, Canada

If you would like to support us through making a tax-deductible donation you can click HERE to donate online!
Your generous support will go far in ensuring the Powell Street Festival can continue to be a free festival, and to support local artists and the growing community that is our home, thank you!

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The Marketplace Returns and There is Still Room for Applicants!

Powell Street Festival is excited to bring back the new Marketplace for its second year in the Jackson Avenue Block! The Marketplace will be a designated commerce area offering a new type of curated shopping and display experience to the Festival. This is an excellent opportunity for businesses offering Japanese Canadian and/or Asian Canadian goods and services to reach a potential market of 15,000 festival goers. How does it work? We provide a 10 x 10 tent as well as a table and two chairs and we receive 20% commission from sales of all businesses in the Marketplace. Sponsorship opportunities are available in the Marketplace, please contact gm@powellstreetfestival.com for more information. There will also be a nearby performance area featuring the sights and sounds of some of the Downtown Eastside’s diverse musical acts as well as Japanese Canadian and Asian Canadian performers. Please contact Kristen or Janice at 604.739.9388 or send an email to market_apps@powellstreetfestival.com for more information on this exciting new merchant opportunity, or go to the website at www.powellstreetfestival.com to download an application.

Digi-Art : Workshops for Kids!

Pillow Making at Fun Fair 2012, image by Yuriko Iga

Date: Sunday, May 26^th, 2013
Time: 12:30 pm-4:00 pm
Place: Vancouver Japanese Language School, 487 Alexander Street, Vancouver
Cost: $18/ 1.5 hour class

The Powell Street Festival and the Vancouver Japanese Language School presents Digi-Art, a children and youth art workshop series curated by Kaori Kasai! Each fun-filled workshop will provide kids with a hands-on opportunity to express their creativity, develop artistic skills, and learn new techniques through the use of digital technology!
Full class descriptions (including required material and age ranges) are available at powellstreetfestival.com
To register, contact PSF (604 739 9388 or info@powellstreetfestival.com)
Classes are limited so register soon! Registration ends on Friday, May 24^th, 2013

Sake Social

Date: Saturday, June 1^st, 2013
Time: 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Place: Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, 578 Carrall Street, Vancouver

Come join us at this year’s Sake Social fundraiser! Spend a delightful summer evening learning about the smooth, cool taste of premium sake while lounging outdoors at the beautiful courtyard of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. Taste delicious sake, enjoy an array of excellent appetizers, and bid on a fabulous array of items at our silent auction while supporting your favourite Festival! More information to come on our website www.powellstreetfestival.com, please stay tuned for ticket purchasing details! And if you care to volunteer at our event, please contact us.

Community Events:

Researching Japanese Canadians: Critical Questions/Creative Practices

Hiromi Goto, Writer
Kelty McKinnon, Landscape architect
Roy Miki, Professor emeritus, SFU and Poet
Cindy Mochizuki, Artist
John Price, Associate professor, UVic
Grace Eiko Thomson, Curator, Researcher, Former Director of the Japanese Canadian National Museum and past President of the National Association of Japanese Canadians

Chaired by Kirsten Emiko McAllister (SFU)

Friday, April 5, 2013
2:00-5:00PM
Room HC 7000 (elevator access), Harbour Centre
Simon Fraser University
515 West Hastings St. Vancouver

This roundtable discussion examines the role of research has played in the formation of the post-war Japanese Canadian community. During the 1970s and 1980s, especially during the redress movement, activists, artists, writers, academics and their allies, searched archives, interviewed community members, looked through family records and libraries to retrieve the factual and imaginative worlds that the government had attempted to erase from Canada’s social body during the 1940s. This research ignited a powerful body of critical and creative activity that includes literary texts, art projects, photography, film-video, performance/dance projects, reports & academic studies, festivals, exhibitions, memoirs and collaborations with other groups — in ways that continue to define, defy and transform what constitutes Japanese Canadians today.
The roundtable includes artists, writers, academics and community-based researchers who will discuss how their critical and creative practices draw on or challenge what is understood as “research”; what’s at stake for Japanese Canadians when it comes to researching, defining & representing their experiences, art forms, writing, identities, histories and experiences. What type of knowledge is being produced about them and what type of knowledge/imagery are they and their allies, in contrast,producing?

Sponsored by the Centre for Policy Research on Culture and Communities, Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria Asian Canadian Research Group, the National Nikkei Museum and the Asian Canadian Study Society

The Nikkei National Museum’s 5^thAnnual BLOOM Art Auction Fundraiser

Cindy Mochizuki, Yuki Nezumi (Snow Mouse)
Image Courtesy of the Nikkei National Museum

The Nikkei National Museum`s 5th annual art fundraiser BLOOM presents The Kokeshi Project, an art auction featuring 100 unique kokeshi dolls custom designed by 100 artists.
Bid on a one-of-a-kind kokeshi – traditional wooden dolls first developed in the Tohoku region of Japan in the 1700s.

Thursday, April 25, 2013
7:00 – 9:30 pm
Tickets only $25 (plus tax)
Online preview April 10 – 25
Info & tickets: 604.777.7000

Featuring canapés by Butter on the Endive, cash bar, live auction, plus kokeshi animations, games, prizes and more!

MC: Margaret Gallagher

Thank you to our wonderful artists

Send us your events!

Do you have a Japanese-Canadian or Downtown Eastside community related event? Powell Street Festival Society is happy and excited to offer our community partners the opportunity to submit their own special events to our newsletter. It's our little way of saying thank you for your hard work in our community! Send us via PSF Community Event Submission Form.

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Our mailing address is: Suite 410-111 W. Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 1H4

Powell Street Festival Society

410-111 West Hastings Street

Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 1H4