Two new "Gates" were revealed in Vancouver's Chinatown on Oct 22 and Oct 29th. The first was the gift from Vancouver's sister city of Guangzhou. White marble panels set on the original chinese gate from Expo 86, in front of the Chinese Cultural Centre on Pender St. The second is a public art commission by artist Gwen Boyle, a green jade abacus, at the Keefer St. entrance to "historic" Shanghai Alley.   more »

Vancouver Heritage Foundation accepting donations for Kogawa House

A Donations page for Kogawa House has now been set up through the Vancouver Heritage Foundation.
http://www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org/Kogawa.html

A short story about the history of the house and the efforts to save it is listed

Vancouver Heritage Foundation
844 West Hastings Street Vancouver BC V6C 1C8

604-264-9642
email mail@vancouverheritagefoundation.org

Joy Kogawa House Facing Bulldozer - Press Release Oct 27, 2005


The residence at 1450 West 64th Avenue, former childhood home of author Joy Kogawa, now marked for demolition plans. - photo by Don Montgomery

- For immediate release    -

 “Joy Kogawa House Facing Bulldozer”

October 28, 2005

Only a week after writers from across Canada and around the world were celebrated at the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, the childhood home of Vancouver- born Joy Kogawa, one of Canada’s most eminent authors, is in increased danger of being bulldozed into the ground.

Gerry McGeough, Senior Heritage Planner in the City of Vancouver Planning Department, has confirmed that the current owner of Kogawa's former childhood home on 1450 West 64th Avenue has drawn up architectural plans for the redevelopment of the site including demolition of the Kogawa house. Processing a development and demolition application by the City takes less than four weeks.

McGeough will recommend to the Vancouver City Council Standing Committee on Planning and Environment on November 3 that City Council recognize the heritage value of the Marpole property and issue a 120-day demolition delay order as allowed by section 591 of the City Charter. The meeting is open to the public. The Save Kogawa House Committee, formed when the home first went up for sale in September of 2003, will also ask the Planning and Environment Committee to urge City Council to pass the 120-day demolition delay order.

The Committee has contacted professional writers organizations across Canada to support the drive to save Kogawa's childhood home as a Vancouver literary landmark and convert it into a major writers-in-residence centre for Canadian and international writers. This support from eight associations, representing several thousand professional writers, will be released shortly. For Kogawa, the 1450 West 64th Avenue property became a symbol of lost hope and happiness after she, at age six, and her family were removed from their home in 1942 as part of the forced evacuations and internment of over 20,000 Japanese-Canadians during World War II. The house is featured in the award-winning novel Obasan and the children’s story Naomi's Road, which premiered on September 30 as Vancouver Opera's second-ever commissioned original work and is now touring to 140 schools and community centres throughout B.C.

“The destruction of the Kogawa home would be a great loss of cultural heritage for Vancouver, for British Columbia, and for Canada,” Margaret Atwood declared at the Vancouver International Writers Festival on October 13. “Although Canada scored high on the recent all-nations report card, it scored low on culture, history and heritage. Why destroy more of this precious asset?”

The Save Kogawa House Committee reactivated when it was alerted on September 21st that a demolition application was expected.  Two years ago the committee tried to raise funds to buy the house and persuade the federal government to protect the cultural landmark, but became dormant when the owner made no plans for demolition at the time.  The committee seeks to preserve the Kogawa House as a Canadian and international writer’s centre, similar to the Pierre Berton House in Dawson City and the Margaret Laurence House in Neepawa, for the cultural heritage of future generations.

“There is only one literary monument erected in Vancouver for a Canadian author," says BC Bookworld publisher Alan Twigg, "It is the Pauline Johnson memorial in Stanley Park.” Johnson died in 1913.

Kogawa is the recipient of many awards including the Order of Canada in 1986. Roy Miki, Simon Fraser University Professor and 2003 Governor General's Award Winner for Poetry, has called Obasan the most important literary work of the past 30 years for understanding Canadian history.  In 2005 Obasan was selected by the Vancouver Public Library for its One Book One Vancouver program, encouraging all Vancouverites to read this single book. 

Mayor Larry Campbell and members of Vancouver City Council will plant a cutting from Joy Kogawa’s cherry tree from the childhood home featured in Obasan in the garden of City Hall November 1 to commemorate the experience of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Paul Whitney, City Librarian of the Vancouver Public Library, James Wright, General Director of Vancouver Opera, and Joy Kogawa will also participate. The public tree planting ceremony takes place in the City Hall garden, north of City Hall, 453 West 12th Avenue.

If City Council passes the demolition delay order, the Save Kogawa House Committee will raise funds to purchase the property.  The Vancouver Heritage Foundation has set up a fund to save the Kogawa house and will issue charitable receipts for donations. All donations to the Joy Kogawa house rescue receive a tax receipt for the full amount of the donation. Cheques should be made out to “Vancouver Heritage Foundation” and mailed to the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, 844 West Hastings St., Vancouver, B.C. V6C 1C8. Donors are asked to indicate on the cheque memo line: “Save Kogawa House.” Donations can also be made on-line on the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s website
http://www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org/kogawa.html
 
If the Vancouver City Council does not vote to delay demolition, the house may be demolished within weeks.  It then becomes the latest casualty of Vancouver's short-term memory in a climate where arts, history and culture are left to fend for themselves. 

To prevent demolition, the Save the Kogawa House Committee is seeking community support and volunteers in Vancouver and across Canada in its drive to convert the house into a major writers centre. The Committee is also asking supporters to email the Vancouver City Council at mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca urging Mayor Campbell and City Councillors to prevent the demolition of the Kogawa House.

 

--30--



Photo credits:

The attached Dan Toulgoet Kogawa House_1519 Vancouver Courier 9 28 05.jpg of Joy Kogawa in front of her childhood home can be used by both non-profit organizations and commercial media. The photo credit must be: “Photo-Dan Toulgoet, Vancouver Courier”.
The photographer can be contacted at 604-630 3514 or at dtoulgoet@vancourier.com
The Don Montgomery 3.jpg can be used by non-profit organizations. The photo credit must be “Photo: © 2005 Don Montgomery”. Commercial media are asked to contact Don Montgomery at 604-878 6888 or don@asiancanadian.net


For further information contact:

Ann-Marie Metten, Vancouver Co-ordinator, Save Kogawa House Committee 
604-263 6586; ametten@telus.net

Todd Wong, Vancouver Committee spokesperson
604-240-7090; toddwcan@yahoo.com
 
Anton Wagner, Committee Chair
416-863-1209; awagner@yorku.ca

Gerry McGeough, Senior Heritage Planner, Planning Department, City of  Vancouver
604-873-7091; gerry.mcgeough@vancouver.ca

Diane Switzer, Executive Director, Vancouver Heritage Foundation 604-264-9642; diane@vancouverheritagefoundation.org

Heartbeat, Dennis Law's latest action-musical is an exciting fantasia of a show combining Chinese dance, music, martial arts and gymnastics. The story presents the history of Chinese drums as seen through a sequence of dream events by a young girl named Jade. Dances from different Chinese dynasties and regions are matched with the drumming sequences. Check out my August 25th review and some more pictures   more »

Artist Gwen Boyle Unveils SUAN PHAN: the jade abacus gateway sculpture



My new friend Gwen Boyle is unveiling her latest art installation in Chinatown at the intersection of Keefer Street and historic Shanghai Alley.  I visited the site, but her jade abacus is still covered up for the Saturday unveiling. 

Gwen tells me the following:

Along a short walk, I showed my girlfriend the Shanghai Alley attractions featuring: Millenium Gate, designed by my architect cousin Joe Wai, the Han Dynasty Bell, and the 8 panels depicting Chinese Canadian History that my cousin Hayne Wai was involved with.

Below is a press release I wrote for Gwen.

October 29 Saturday 3 - 5 p.m.
Shanghai Alley, Vancouver Chinatown approximately
35 West Keefer St. between Carrall St. and Abbott St.
1/2 block West of the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden.

You are invited to the unveiling of a large jade abacus, an interactive public artwork in the form of a sculptured gate by artist Gwen Boyle. The work is entitled Suan Phan which frames a functioning abacus of carved jade beads.

The artist's purpose is to mark time past and the flow of life through historic Shanghai Alley as Chinatown enters a period of urbanization. The sculpture was commisioned by Pinnacle International with the City of Vancouver, Public Art Program.

Artist Gwen Boyle spent her childhood in Chinatown living with her mother and grandfather who was a respected jeweller and goldsmith, Dong Jam Lung. He formed traditional icons out of chinese gold and was one of only three goldsmith working in that mode in North America during the 1920's.

Gwen's 104 year old mother, Mrs. Daisy Dong will perform the unveiling. She arrived in Canada at age 6, in 1907. Meet the artists and her mother at the reception following the unveiling.



Check out a CBC Radio interview of Gwen at:
http://www.cbc.ca/artspots/html/artists/gboyle/

Other Vancouver public art by Gwen Boyle includes:

Foot Notes (1994) Fifty-seven unpolished black granite tiles with words randomly into the sidewalk.describing False Creek Basin.

Time and the Riverrewinding earth's time tape  (1998) in Lang Park, in Richmond BC.

New Currents An Ancient Stream (1994) - a cascading urban stream at the Southwest corner of Alberni and Bute St.



Here's a picture of author Joy Kogawa enjoying Gwen's installation work New Currents An Ancient Stream which features the quote from Leonardo da Vinci: "In rivers, the water you touch is the last of what has passed, and the first of that which comes; so with time present."


For information contact:
Gwen Boyle
604-506-8008
gwenboyle@telus.net

Janice Wong continues to make the rounds with her book Chow. 

Monday: City Cooks
Tuesday: Vancouver Museum

City Cooks airs on Monday morning at 9:30am and 12 Noon, as Janice tells her stories with Simi Sara.  Janice reports that Simi was great to work with.  There will be a skill testing question to win a copy of the book.  Hint, the question has something to do with Janice's father, Dennis.

I heard Janice's radio interview with Shelagh Rogers on CBC Radio's Sounds Like Canada on Friday.  It was a very warm and friendly interview, with Shelagh asking many questions about Janice's family ancestors and how they came to Canada, and how her parents settled in Prince Albert, Sasketchewan.   I particularly enjoyed hearing about Janice's first ancestor in Canada, Rev. Chan Yu Tan, who arrived in 1896, as a Methodist lay preacher for the Chinese Methodist Church (especially since he is my great-great-grandfather).

Janice also brought some chicken wings, steamed sable fish and beans with dow see (bean curd) and presented the food in a laquerware box, and Shelagh complimented Janice on the presentation, and also upon tasting the food.  Shelagh was also particularly interested in hearing the stories about how Janice's father was born premature, and his mother wrapped him up in blankets and put him in the oven to keep him warm.

Another fascinating story was how Janice had started the book as a gift for her family, after her father died.  A friend encouraged her to turn it into a book, and Whitecap Books appreciated her  creative in the book design, recognizing Janice as an accomplished and professional visual artist- Janice Wong Studio.

Janice also told stories about how her parents met in Nanaimo Chinatown, and seeing her grand-Uncle Luke Chan in Hollywood movies that her father would point out, such as "The Mysterious Mr. Wong," as well he was in movies with Clark Gable, Bela Lugosi and Katherine Hepburn.

Afterwards, Janice sent me this e-mail:
"The interview with Shelagh was fun.  She's such a warm person.  I met Philip (Ditchburn) and he mentioned your geneology connection.  I don't think the producer told Shelagh about you and me as Philip mentioned it after the interview and she was pleasantly surprised."

It was a night to wear your chinoiserie to the Vancouver Opera to celebrate the Vancouver Opera's season opener of Turandot. So many people were wearing Chinese influenced outfits as well as cheong-sams and jackets from Chinatown, that I could have mistaken myself at a Chinese New Year Dinner. I was intrigued by how an Italian opera based on a Persian fable set in Peking would play   more »

Nikkei Voice asks Japanese Canadian community for support to preserve Kogawa House


Joy Kogawa at Kogawa House, the house she left at age 6, never to return. 

Katherine Mika Fukuma, the English Editor of the Nikkei Voice, has come out strongly in favor of the effort to save the Joy Kogawa House in her October 2005 "Editor's File" column. The Nikkei Voice is the national forum for Japanese Canadians.

Katherine's editorial, "The JC community is again in need of your support," is nearly half a page long. It reads in part:

"As you may have already read in the Globe and Mail (Sept.24) or in the Vancouver Courier (Sept. 28), the house of Obasan (Joy Kogawa homestead) is currently in danger of being demolished. According to sources, the owner of the Marpole, West 64th Avenue house--in which Joy Kogawa lived until her family was relocated to Slocan Valley when she was six years old--applied to the city of Vancouver for a demolition permit in late-September.

The news came as a disappointment and a shock despite the fact that the city of Vancouver will be planting a cutting of the cherry tree from the backyard of the Marpole home on city hall grounds this fall as a way to commemorate the experience of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War.

Other joyous news for Kogawa this year included her book Obasan chosen as the Vancouver Public Library's One Book, One Vancouver selection for 2005, as well as the premiere of the Vancouver Opera's World Premiere production of the opera for young audiences and their family, Naomi's Road. The Vancouver Opera presented four public performances before the production embarks on a province-wide tour, visiting more than 140 schools and community venues throughout B.C. between October 25 and May 2006.  

Furthermore, there was discussion at the September 19, 2005 meeting of the City of Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation of the possibility of naming the new Park for Marpole (at West 72nd Avenue and Osler Street and Selkirk Street) "Joy Kogawa Park." This park will be a neighbourhood park, with a design element representing a Japanese theme to reflect the history of the area.

Now, wouldn't all these events create more than enough meaning to declare the property, or the house as a historical landmark? If it is impossible to purchase the entire property, at least the house itself should be saved, before it is too late.

The house represents more than just a literary icon's childhood home. It is packed with a historical essence of the kind of lifestyle of the prewar Japanese Canadians and may be the last of its kind. Once it is declared a historical landmark much can be done. (Of course, it shouldn't end up as just a museum!)

I surely hope that Vancouver councillors are smarter than those in Toronto...Preserve our nikkei history and heritage and help educate our future generations."



Nikkei Voice, 6 Garamound Court, Toronto, ON, M3C 1Z5
Phone: 416-386-0287
FAX: 416-386-0136
E-Mail: nikkei1@bellnetc.ca

Publisher: Frank Moritsugu
Owner: Nikkei Research and Education Project of Ontario
Circulation: 3000  Subscription: $35.00  Frequency: 10/year

Yusuke Tanaka, Japanese Editor/Advertising Manager
E-Mail: nikvoice@interlog.com

Alexis Mazurin was a youthful energetic ball of energy.  I remember him saying hi to me as bumped into each other at the steps of CBC or the Library. 

I can picture him as an amazing performer when I saw the Hot Sauce Posse in action at Asian Comedy Night, produced by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre.

It was shocking for me to learn that he had first suffered a severe heart attack while attending Burning Man in the Nevada desert, and finally made his transition after a long coma.  Alexis was 27.

No doubt, many of us will feel this is tragic at such a young age.  It is more tragic what the world will miss because of what Alexis will not be able to create.  In 1989, I almost died from a serious cancer tumor when I was 29 years old, in 1989.  Now 16 years later, I am amazed at what I have accomplished, and been able to give to the world.  What Alexis could have given our communities in the next 10 years, 20 years or 30 years.... will now be up to us.


There are some good tributes to Alexis:

CBC
http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2005/10/21/Arts/mazurin_alexis_obit_051021.html

CBC Radio 3
http://www.cbcradio3.com/alexis.html

CBCunplugged
http://cbcunplugged.blogware.com/blog/AlexisMazurinUpdates

AlexMazurin Blog
http://www.alexismazurinat.zoomshare.com/1.shtml

Hot Sauce Posse
http://www.hotsauceposse.com/

Free Performance of Naomi's Road
Vancouver Opera Touring Ensemble

Mon Oct 24th, 2005
3:30 pm
Vancouver Public Library
Central Branch, Alice Mackay Room

Admission is free and all are welcome.

This performance has come about as a result of the ongoing teacher's strike so the library apologizes for the short notice. They ask people to please pass this information on to anyone whom you think may be interested in attended, including day camp groups.

I talked with soprano Jessica Cheung, who plays Naomi,  tonight at the Vancouver Opera  reception/cast party following the openining night of Turandot.  Jessica says that the children in the schools are really recieving the opera well.

In particular, the children really respond to "the bully" scene, and when Naomi is trying to decide whether or not to give Mitzi her doll back.  Jessica reports that she is really enjoying the performances and is looking forward to taking the production to Vancouver Island next week.

For further information contact:

Barbara Edwards
Community Relations Librarian
Vancouver Public Library
programs@vpl.ca
604.331.4041

Vancouver Opera's Turandot opens up.

October 22, 25, 27, 29, November 1 & 3
All performances 7:30 pm  Queen Elizabeth Theatre

The lead singer, Audrey Stottler, performs her signature role as Princess Turandot, a role she has performed at the Forbidden City Imperial Palace in Beijing.  Puccini did research authentic Chinese melodies for his masterpiece opera, known for Nessun Dorma, one of Opera's most famous tenor arias.  But expect stereoptypical portrayals of Chinese characters such as the court administrators named "Ping", "Pang" and "Pong."

Goh Ballet and the Modern Dance Company of Guangdong perform a special 10th Anniversary celebration for the special sister province relationship between Guangdong, China and British Columbia, Canada.  Thius takes place tonight at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts.

Janice Wong visits Shelagh Rogers on Sounds Like Canada.

Here's a message from my cousin Janice Wong, author of the book CHOW, about her upcoming interview on CBC Radio's Sounds Like Canada, with host Shelagh Rogers:

"Alicia got Sounds Like Canada on board! Yay! 

If you happen to be near a radio on Friday morning at 10.30, Shelagh  

Rogers will be talking to me about "Chow." I'm actually looking  

forward to this one, though I have to do the interview at 6:30 a.m.!!  

I'm just hoping to be coherent and not too froggy at that time of the  

morning! Her producer is from Prince Albert too!


They want me to bring Chinese food into the studio at 6:30 in the 

morning...  I feel like I'm a Chinese take out delivery person, now!"

Maybe I should put them in Chinese take-out boxes, but I left

them all in my studio."

I have since suggested to Janice to tell Shelagh that since having written CHOW, that she keeps discovering new connections in both her ancestry and extended family... for instance... Her Dad's cousin in Seattle, Carole, is married to Gary Locke the former Washington State governor, and her father's cousin, Henry, had married the aunt of former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson.

"And Shelagh..."  Janice could say... "I have just discovered a relationship between you and me...  apparently we're family."

"Me!?!?!?" Shelagh might exclaim surprised, but very interested, because Shelagh's father had only told her about two years ago, that there was First Nations Cree blood in their ancestry.

"Yes, Shelagh...  you and me... are both members of Clan Gung Haggis Fat Choy!"

Paul Yee was featured at the Vancouver Writers and Readers Festival on Tuesday and Wednesday.  He will be sticking around town, as he will be launching his new book Chinatowns, published by Lorimer, at the Vancouver Museum on Oct 25th.  Janice Wong's book Chow will also be featured.

Paul's new book is a pictorial history of Chinatowns across Canada.  Paul's first illustrated history book was Saltwater City: an Illustrated History of Vancouver's Chinatown.  This book won the inaugural Vancouver City Book Award, and will be revised next spring by Douglas McIntyre.

I first met Paul in 1986, when he chaired the Saltwater City exhibition at the Chinese Cultural Centre.  This was a wonderful celebration of 100 years of Vancouver chinese history for Vancouver's Centennial.  I will look for some old pictures of Paul from the project.

20 Reasons to save Joy Kogawa's childhood home from impending demolition. The house is on 64th Avenue in Vancouver, just off Granville St. The family was removed from the house in February 1942 due to the War Measures Act. "National security" was the reason given for the internment of Japanese-Canadians, and the government of Canada sold their property and possessions without the owner's permission.   more »

Kogawa House: Can we save the house? Can we move the house?

Lots of developments happening...

Monday, we met with Vancouver Heritage Foundation, and discussed strategies to save the house, and create a way for the present owner to donate the house to the VFH.  To preserve  the house at its present location will mean a purchase price of around $700,000.  To move the house will mean $50,000 + building a $200,000 foundation later.  What is cheaper?

The owner has not been willing to sell, so trying to save the house from demolition and move it seems the best idea.  There is a proposed park that will commemorate the Japanese Canadian community at Selkirk and 72nd Ave.

To avoid the demolition of the house, we have planned to go to City Council to ask for a stay of demolition, due to the Heritage quality of the house.
Initially that would have been Oct 20 - but the demolition application has not been submitted yet.

But yesterday, the owner may have had a change of heart...  Gerry McGeough, senior planner for City of Vancouver, may have brokered a deal where the owner will delay demolition for 120 days, allowing us to raise funds to purchase the house. 

This is great news.  The house may not be destroyed yet... and it gives us time to raise monies.

Because of these latest developments, Joy will not be interviewed for CBC Radio Early Edition on Thursday morning. CBC wants to wait and see what happens next!

I join Janice Wong for CHOW book launch at West Vancouver Library Oct 18, 2005

Tuesday
October 18th
7pm - 9pm
West Vancouver Memorial Library

I will be joining Janice Wong as a panelist for the West Vancouver launch of her book, CHOW From China to Canada: Memories of Food + Family.  Jeannie Mah is unable to attend from Regina.

This will be lots of fun.  Janice and I only discovered each other about 2 months ago, when she e-mailed me and identified herself as a relative from the Rev. Chan Family.  We have enjoyed sharing our mutual love for family history, and discoveries about who we know and what stories about relatives we know.

I will be talkign about discovering Chinese restaurants on my travels throughout North America, stories about Chinese restaurants, and how I have integrated Chinese food into my Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner, aptly named.... "Gung Haggis Fat Choy!"

Earlier on Tuesday she will be taping a tv segment for CityTV's CityCooks with host Simi Sara.  I have appeared two times on the show with restauranteur/chef Joseph Lee to prepare haggis wun-tun, and lettuce wrap.

VISION VANCOUVER fundraiser for Raymond Louie & George Chow: Review - who ate what... who was there...   more »

Citytv is committed to supporting emerging and established Canadian filmmakers. Through the CineCity: Vancouver's Stories initiative we are continuing our commitment to the local film community by helping emerging visible minority and Aboriginal filmmakers produce short, dramatic films in British Columbia. These projects are supported through development, production and ultimately, Citytv will broadcast the finished productions.   more »

My friend David Wong sent me an invitation to join him attending a fundraiser dinner for Vancouver city council candidates Raymond Louie and George Chow. I first met Raymond Louie when he attended the inaugural ACWW Community Builders Dinner organized by Asian Canadian Writers Workshop.    more »

Donna Yoshitake Wuest book launch:  Coldstream: the ranch where it all began

I have actually walked through the old Coldstream Ranch lands, because my girlfriend's parents' house in Coldstream is on the edge of Kalamalka Lake Park, and we often walk in the park.

She tells me that the NDP government turned the old ranch into parkland in the late 1970's, saving it from becoming a resort complex located at Cousins Bay, on Kalamalka Lake.

Here is a message from the Japanese Canadian National Museum:

We invite you to attend the upcoming book launch for "Coldstream: The Ranch Where It All Began", and to share this information with any friends or colleagues who might be interested.

----------

The Japanese Canadian National Museum Speakers Series presents:

Coldstream: The Ranch Where It All Began
by Donna Yoshitake Wuest

Book Launch

Thursday, October 20, 2005 7:00 PM
National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre
6688 Southoaks Crescent (Kingsway & Sperling), Burnaby

The Japanese Canadian National Museum is proud to present the launch of the new publication, "Coldstream: The Ranch Where It All Began"   ($28.95. ISBN 1-55017-343-X).

Author Donna Yoshitake Wuest will share her experiences chronicling the fascinating history of Coldstream Ranch,
located on the outskirts of Vernon, BC. Wuest grew up on the ranch, which was home to a tight-knit Japanese Canadian community at the time.

In addition to stories of Japanese Canadians at Coldstream Ranch, Wuest explores the role of the ranch in the history of the British Columbia orchard and cattle industries. Join us for exciting tales of life at one of the oldest continually operating ranches in Canada.

Admission is free.

Japanese Canadian National Museum
Tel: 604-777-7000 Fax: 604-777-7001
120 – 6688 Southoaks Crescent, Burnaby, BC, V5E 4M7
E-mail: jcnm@nikkeiplace.org Web: www.jcnm.ca

Scripting Aloud is a monthly scriptreading and networking event for scriptwriters and actors that began a limited twelve-month run August 15, 2005 at "Behind the Scenes" (www.performingartsbooks.ca) performing arts bookstore and coffee shop in Vancouver.   more »

A Writers Literary Landmark and Writers-in-Residence Centre for Vancouver

The following is a message from Anton Wagner, of the Save the Kogawa Homestead Committee:

Dear Todd,

Thank you for the great article "How important is saving Kogawa House? What other literary landmarks are in Vancouver?" on the http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com website.

I totally agree with Alan Twigg's suggestion to Ann-Marie that we also focus our campaign to save Joy's former home on Margaret Atwood's recognition of Vancouver's cultural desert of literary landmarks. As Alan writes in his entry on Pauline Johnson in the BC Bookworld Author Bank, "The Pauline
Johnson memorial in Stanley Park, above Third Beach, is the only literary monument erected in Vancouver for a Canadian writer during the 20th century."

Johnson died in 1913.

Other provinces and much smaller towns have established and supported such literary landmarks and a few writers-in-residence programs:

The Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism maintains the Margaret Laurence House in Neepawa as the Manitoba Provincial Heritage Site No. 25
http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/prov/p025.html

In St. Boniface the non-profit corporation La Maison Gabrielle Roy Inc. operates the Gabrielle Roy House as a museum for the Franco-Manitoban writer with project grants from the federal, provincial and municipal governments and corporate, foundation and individual donor support. To date 105 women and 37 men have donated $1,000 each to the House.
http://www.maisongabrielleroy.mb.ca

In Eastend, Saskatchewan, the Eastend Arts Council owns and operates the Wallace Stegner House as a writer/artist's residence. Rent is $250 a month, including all utilities. The furnished house, built in 1916, contains a kitchen, dining, living room, study, two bedrooms and a bath and can accommodate two adults and one child. The house is funded in part by the Saskatchewan Heritage Foundation, the Writers' Development Trust, provincial, federal and civic government grants, and individual donations.
http://www.dinocountry.com/stegner_house.html

In Dawson City, the Yukon Arts Council and the Klondike Visitor's Association and the Dawson City Libraries Association operate the Berton House Writer's Residence Retreat. Initiated by Pierre Burton in his former boyhood home, the Writer's Residence Retreat enables professional Canadian writers to
write in the remote Northern community free of charge.

One item of great interest in your
http://users.yknet.yk.ca/dcpages/bertonhouse/story.html link is the last April 2001 item on that page, "Canada Council to support Berton House writers." It reports a grant of $100,000 from the Canada Council over a three-year period to the Berton House Writer's Retreat Society to enable four Canadian or
international writers to be in residence in the house for three months each, with a monthly fellowship of $2,000 and travel cost assistance. This would be a great precendent for us in seeking financial operating assistance from the Canada Council.

But again, no such writing centre and literary landmark exists in
Vancouver.The Federation of BC Writers operates a small writing cabin, gifted by George Fetherling, the Horsefly Manor Writers Retreat on Quesnel Lake in the Cariboo.
http://www.bcwriters.com/horsefly/

Lorna Crozier has informed us that the Haig-Brown House in Campbell River, operated by the non-profit conservation organization, the Haig-Brown Institute, has just opened its doors to writers, with Don McKay being the first writer-in-residence. http://www.haigbrowninstitute.org
 
Vancouver, one of Canada's most dynamic cities and our gateway to the East, needs a writers-in-residence centre as has been proposed for the Joy Kogawa House so that Canadian and international writers can observe and write about the unique evolving multi and intercultural society that is developing
in Canada.

Anton Wagner

How important is saving Kogawa House?  What other literary landmarks are in Vancouver?

Alan Twigg, author and publisher of BC Book World, says that Vancouver only really has one literary landmark, and that one was controversial and created under protest - the gravesite of poet Pauline Johnson. Ann-Marie Metten, was talking with the author of First Invaders: the literary origins of British Columbia and Aborginality which detail the first writings about British Columbia. 

If we can save and preserve the Kogawa Homestead, then we have the real life equivalent of the fictional Anne of Green Gables House.  http://greengables.tripod.com/locations.html
With the new Vancouver Opera creation of Naomi's Road, then we now have the West Coast equivalent of the ever popular Anne of Green Gables musical.

The Save the Kogawa Homestead Committee would like to preserve the former Kogawa House as a writer's retreat, where the house could serve as a temporary home for visiting writers, immersing themselves in multicultural Vancouver, while providing a historic landmark to the thousands of Japanese Canadians who once made up the fishing community of Marpole neighborhood, but were uprooted from their homes, branded as enemy aliens, and interened at re-location camps away from the Pacific Coast.

There are few historic houses preserved in BC.  Our history is still young, and many of our residents are immigrants with little knowledge of BC's history.

Only a small handful of the homes of Canada's greatest Canadians or writers are preserved or acknowledged.  Pierre Berton was born in a cottage in Dawson City, Yukon.  Berton spent $50,000 to buy the house to donate it to the Dawson City community where it is now a historic landmark known as Berton House.
http://users.yknet.yk.ca/dcpages/bertonhouse/story.html

Other BC homes have been turned into historic landmarks or museums.  But none that I know of are by writers, nor homes that were confiscated from Japanese Canadians during World War 2.  In addition to becoming a writers' retreat, Kogawa House would also represent the tragedy of the upheaval and internment of the Japanese-Canadian community and how we overcome our prejudices by recognizing it and turning it into an important community landmark.

Haig-Brown House Education Centre
2250 Campbell River Road,
Campbell River
B.C. V9W 4N7
http://www.britishco