Category: Downtown

In an increasingly digital world, where one can download and read a book on a computer screen without ever setting foot in a library or bookstore, Word on the Street provides the perfect excuse for book lovers to come together.

The annual festival for readers and writers drew thousands to the Vancouver Public Library on Sunday. Everyone from well known British Columbian writers like Evelyn Lau and Ryan Knighton to small publishing houses and first-time novelists rubbed shoulders in the packed tents that lined the bustling plaza. Even a trio dressed as a Storm Trooper, Jawa and Boba Fett, respectively, made an appearance.

“I’ve attended this festival for years, and it just gets better,” said Keith Lim, a technical writer who also pens science fiction. Lim wore a shirt that read “Don’t Panic”, an inside joke for fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The apocalyptic comedy was the winner of the One Book, One Vancouver contest in which readers voted for the one book they believed all Vancouver residents should read.

“I think what you see here are a group of people who have always loved reading and writing, and no technology will change that,” Lim said.

The changing shape of book publishing and readership was evident from the large tent advertising the Sony Reader, a touchscreen e-book. Yet flanking either side of the Sony display were tables piled high with the stuff of bound covers, glossy images and printed pages, which festival attendees flipped through eagerly. The magazine tent was also popular this year, as Sad Mag and Poetry is Dead offered tips on how to start a ‘zine in the new era of print publishing.

“There used to be a stigma to self-publishing,” said Kaitlin Fontana, a UBC Creative Writing student and Editor of Prism magazine. “People would say, ‘If it was good, it would have been published by an official publisher.’ Now, the internet has opened everything up.”

If there was one thing the festival made clear, it was that the categories of “reader” and “writer” are not mutually exclusive.

“I’ve attended for many years, but this is my first time as an author,” said Christopher Meades, whose debut novel The Three Fates of Henrik Nordmark began as an entry in the 2007 Three-Day Novel Writing Contest.

“I live in a cubicle. I spend eleven hours a day looking at spreadsheets and doing not very exciting things. I asked myself, ‘What does it take to become unique? How can I leave a mark on the world after I’m gone?’ That’s why we write.”

The sixth annual Hip Hop For Peace festival hit the Vancouver Art Gallery Saturday, featuring performances from local and global hip hop artists with an anti-war message.

Mobilization Against War and Occupation, a Vancouver activist group with a young, student-based following, hosted the event to rally opposition against the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Politics and music collided during the show, as audience members switched between signing petitions and dancing to classic Run-DMC samples blasting out of stacked speakers.

“I’m just here for the music,” said Tommy Gao, an aspiring young rapper in oversized headphones and neon blue Adidas. When approached to donate to the activist group, Gao said, “Nah man, I’m just a poor rapper in this city.” But many of the artists made it clear that hip hop and activism are closely connected.

“Hip hop is a culture that has been successful at getting people off the streets, out of drugs and involved with a culture that goes beyond the local and allows you to participate in a movement around the world,” said El Tibo Este from headlining act Obsesión, speaking through a Spanish translator.

Obsesión hail from Cuba, a country strongly supported by the event organizers. The Cuban flag hung sideways behind the stage, and a massive spraypainted image of the “Cuban Five”, five Cuban illegal immigrants being held under suspicion of terrorism in the United States, was also prominent. “Cuba is a country that is always in revolution,” said Este. “We support removal of the blockade for the good of the people.”

The petition circulated called for the complete, immediate evacuation of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. Graffiti art with the message “Out Now” in gold and green flanked the stage on either side.

Despite the serious goals of the event, the ambiance was fun and celebratory. While First Nations radio host Kelly White led the crowd in a chant of, “When I say ‘Hip’ you say ‘Hop’, when I say ‘No’, you say ‘War'”, kids in sweatsuits practiced their spins on a makeshift breakdancing surface in front of her.

“When you talk about a hip hop festival against war, it scares people off,” said Darja Milidragovic, a local activist who immigrated to Vancouver as a child during the Bosnia-Herzegovina War. “When you switch it and talk about a hip hop festival for peace, it has a positive connotation… ‘War’ doesn’t move the masses. It demands a lot of responsibility and sacrifice. Peace is something everyone can give the time of day to.”

The 900-block of Nelson Street was shut down again Saturday as a chemical leak in an adult learning centre continued to pose a potential health risk to anyone in the area.

The block was first closed off Friday around 6 p.m., when police became concerned about the fumes from a urethane foam product used in construction underneath the Pattison High School building at 981 Nelson Street.

At 2 p.m. Saturday, fire trucks, ambulances and police cars again descended on the area and blocked the entrances on Hornby, Smithe, Helmcken and Burrard. At least two dozen police officers and firefighters guarded the location, stringing up yellow police tape and screaming at passing pedestrians who accidentally wandered into the enclosed area. The fumes could be inhaled as far as a block away, emitting an intense odour that was similar to a cleaning product.

Battalion Chief Rod MacDonald said, “There was a lot of substance pumped into the lower level as a construction technique designed to jack up a cement slab. For some reason unknown to us, there were a lot of fumes. At 6 o’ clock [Friday], we thought that we had solved the problem.”

However, a fire broke out in the lower level of the building and it had to be evacuated at midnight, MacDonald said. “We don’t know what caused the fire. We believe it may be… a spontaneous kind of combustion,” caused by the interaction between the urethane foam and an unknown substance. “We poured a lot of foam down into that pit to try and stop the fire.” At that time, officials were told by an environmental hygienist that the air pollution was not dangerous.

Earlier Saturday morning, there was only one security guard patrolling the area and there were no barriers other than a few scattered orange cones. The fumes were overpowering at the entrance of the locked building. At that time, the guard, Harpal Singh, said, “It is not serious. The school will re-open Monday.”

“Since then, we’ve received information that it may not be harmless,” MacDonald said. “So now we’re doing everything we can to reduce the risk to the people in the area.”

A large condominium skyrise towers above the school. The evacuation of residents began around 3 p.m. when firefighters wearing gas masks and oxygen tanks, and carrying axes and flashlights, entered the building. The power had been off for an hour and the businesses at the base of the tower had long since emptied.

The Vancouver Art Gallery steps on Robson and Howe are a teeming centre of life in downtown Vancouver. On any sunny afternoon, one is likely to see groups of street punks smoking pot, elderly men in suits playing chess and a variety of international vendors selling handmade art wares. Protest abounds in this location and it is frequently home to more than one demonstration a day.

On Friday afternoon, a small crowd of Latin American men and women attempted to grab the attention of this busy area with a hand-painted banner that read, “Support Hunger Strikers in Chile”. Many pedestrians simply ignored them, swatting away the pamphlet being offered and clutching their shopping bags instead. Yet, reassuringly, some accepted the leaflet and buried their faces in it while trudging through the busy Robson street foot traffic.

The protest was led by Waldo Fernandez, a Chilean immigrant who has been living in Canada for three years. He explained that the demonstration was on behalf of the over 30 indigenous Mapuche prisoners in Chile who have been on hunger strike since mid-July. The prisoners are demanding full repeal of the anti-terrorist laws under which they were sentenced. A remnant of the Pinochet dictatorship, the laws allow for lengthy detainments, restriction of defence access to evidence and masked witnesses.

Surrounded by throngs of people rushing by with their headphones in and lining up to try the newest food carts on the sidewalk, Fernandez’s persistence was impressive. “Help the Mapuche people,” he repeated to every passing pedestrian. When asked if Vancouverites were responsive to his cause, he shrugged and said, “To some extent… But the most valuable thing about Vancouver is that we are allowed to protest here.” He emphasized the importance of educating Canadians about Latin American issues, since “they receive everything from the main media.”

The Mapuche prisoners became an international news story when four Chilean opposition MPs joined the hunger strike on Thursday. BBC and Reuters have covered the issue, but it has yet to be picked up by a major Canadian news outlet. “There are so many Latin Americans here, but the main media doesn’t show it,” Fernandez said.

Fernandez lamented the lack of Canadian coverage, as he sees similarities between the Mapuche and First Nations people. His group, the Mapuche Solidarity Collective, identify their location as “Unceded Coast Salish Territory”, rather than Vancouver. “The same thing happens with the indigenous people here,” he said. “It’s about the land. The same thing happens all across America.”

For more information, visit http://mapuche.info (and use Google Translator if you don’t speak Spanish).