The ThunderBlogs

Wood shavings lightly gathered on the concrete floor around Luke Parnell’s feet on Tuesday as he carved a small wood figure with its hands wrapped around its knees. A cool breeze entered the room through a partially opened bay door. Outside three words illuminated in red: Aboriginal Gathering Place.

The gathering place recently opened and is part of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design on Granville Island.

Parnell, who is half Haida and half Nisga’a, said it was his second day using the space. Parnell is taking a Master of Applied Arts at Emily Carr. He worked in a small studio space at the back of the open space gathering spot.

Brenda Crabtree, aboriginal program manager at Emily Carr, said boxes and furniture were moved into the space a couple of weeks ago and the official opening has yet to take place.

Crabtree, a member of the Spuzzum Band, said studies done by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development found Aboriginal students often feel isolated in post-secondary settings and students who had a designated space to go to felt a better sense of belonging.

“We were looking at sort of a holistic perspective of what would enable us to increase our recruitment retention and completion rates for Aboriginal learners and we have certainly found that having even the smallest of spaces to provide a sense of cultural community for them makes a huge difference,” said Crabtree.

Crabtree said although measurable things such as enrolment and graduation numbers for Aboriginal students are looked at frequently, immesurables need to be looked at such as self-esteem and feeling safe. She said this space was funded by a grant from the Ministry of Advanced Education.

Black sofas and chairs formed a circle at the end of the gathering place that overlooks False Creek. Beige drums served as coffee tables. Crabtree said she made them and they’re pow-wow drums. A small table that looked like a piece of a cedar tree trunk rested next to a low red chair with rounded edges.

Large windows filled the space with sunlight.

A small computer lab and a couple of offices used one side of the space.

Crabtree said there will be school and community events held in the space, but the space is meant to be primarily for Aboriginal students.

Parnell said he’ll continue to use the space.

“There’s a masters studio but you’re not allowed to carve wood in it. Anything else I’ll do up there, but any wood carving I’ll do down here.”

Vancouver Police Department’s marine unit recovered a body from False Creek on Tuesday afternoon around 2 p.m.

The body is of an adult male, according to a police media release.

The body was found in the water behind Emily Carr University of Art and Design on Granville Island. The university’s new Aboriginal Gathering Place directly faces the area where the body was found. Pier 32 is also nearby.

According to the media release, “At this early stage it is unknown if foul play is involved and an autopsy will be needed to confirm the identity and cause of death.”

“Police were called shortly before noon after someone near Pier 32 saw what they believed was a body floating in the water,” according to the release.

Sunlight lingered on Granville Island as a member of the police department’s marine unit made their way into the waters of False Creek wearing a dark wetsuit. Before walking behind the university, the day looked relatively normal: Vancouver International Fringe Festival signs brightened the streets, folks rushed off to the market, and chit-chat flowed.

Around four people watched the water behind large windows inside the Aboriginal Gathering Place. Approximately eight to 10 people stood close together outside the gathering place while looking out toward a few docked boats. Some people watched the scene from a building overlooking the area.

When looking down at the water from behind the university, the police boat was in the water to the left of the docked boats.

Photos were taken around these boats. People who seemed to be collecting information about the body gathered on the dock. Eventually the police boat moved around to the back of the docked boats.

The body was brought out of the water from behind these boats. There appeared to be a dark suit on the body. People on the police boat then gathered around the body.

Around 2:30 p.m. on Johnston Street, which runs in front of the university, groups of people weren’t loudly discussing the finding.

A group of single mothers shared their struggles with poverty and housing as new immigrants to Canada Friday at Rhizome, a local café at the intersection of Kingsway and Broadway that serves pay-what-you-can lentil soup.

The event was part of a project called Breakthrough, led by the Vancouver Status of Women, an organization that seeks to empower women who self-identify as low-income, of colour or of indigenous background in downtown Vancouver. The women who took part and spoke at this event wanted to let other single mothers struggling know there is support within the community.

The audience gathered around the small stage marked by a square rug and a microphone at the back of the café. Many who attended the event were visible minorities. Among them were Muslim women who wore traditional hijabs of different colours, cheerful children there to support their mothers – one child was dressed in a spiderman costume, as well as aboriginal women and men from the Haida and Cree nations.

“Motherhood is an act of defiance in the midst of chaos,” said Gabriela Reynosa, one of the women who participated in Breakthrough. “Women have to fight together to survive. It’s about how all the bad stuff can make us so much stronger.”

The women talked about how they struggled with language barriers, racism and poverty when they first arrived in Canada. Those who spoke felt liberated to be able to share their stories.

“I am grateful for this night, this is part of my healing,” said Rahat Chaudhry, who immigrated to Canada from Pakistan over ten years ago.

Despite having made progress since their arrival, the struggle continues. Downtown Vancouver has seen widespread gentrification and densification. Tall upscale condo buildings are being built all along Kingsway and are slowly replacing housing more suitable for families. Many members of the audience expressed discontent with these changes in the neighbourhood and associated them with increased housing costs. One man claimed he had recently become homeless due to rental hikes in a nearby area.

The event ended with an open discussion among the audience about housing in Vancouver. Many expressed concerns with the long wait-times for social housing and the limited options available that are often restricted to specific neighbourhoods in Vancouver.

“There should be social housing available and integrated in all the neighbourhoods, including the upscale ones like Yaletown or the West-End,” said Nancy Cameron, a community program manager at YWCA Vancouver. “Women and families who have low incomes should be given the opportunity to live in a community that allows easy access to public schools and facilities, and shouldn’t be made to live in neighbourhoods that lack basic amenities.”

In spite of the sombre closing discussion, many left the gathering feeling supported by others in the community and empowered by their own voices.

Four old men of East Indian origin sat leisurely on a bench Wednesday evening outside a two simple structures surrounded by a large patch of green that make up the oldest school in Vancouver, which is facing potential closure in 2011. Behind them is a large signpost detailing the history of the school and how it has supported the community since its establishment in 1896.

Sir Guy Carleton Community Elementary is at the corner of Kingsway and Joyce in Vancouver’s historical Collingwood neighbourhood. The school serves a culturally diverse neighbourhood of largely immigrant families. This diversity is reflected by the various local stores and restaurants with non-English signage, like a cafe called “Thuong Dang Danh Tra.” There are also small cinemas, like “Raja Cinema”, dotted along Kingsway that screen films in Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Hindi, and Punjabi.

Despite the cultural differences displayed by the neighbours strolling down Kingsway and the various storefronts, the school appears to act as a unifying force. The freshly cut grass around the school and student artwork posted along the fence demonstrate how important this school is to the community. Furthermore, a large signpost  as well as to Vancouver’s heritage. It is unclear why this community might be losing their school.

In discussion of the school’s possible closure, the men sitting outside the school revealed that this is not the only elementary school in the neighbourhood under threat of closure – it is among three that serve the communities living around Kingsway. They said the Vancouver School Board announced their potential closure due to budget shortfalls and because the land could be used for better investments.

They said many of the families living in the area are unsettled by the Board’s decision, and have organized rallies and petitions in protest. A demonstration held on Monday outside the school gathered over 100 protestors from the community.

The Carleton school has long been part of the neighbourhood’s history. The neighbourhood is fearful of what would happen when the children have to integrate into schools in other communities. Furthermore, if all three schools in the area close, it is unclear whether nearby schools – which are widespread – would be able to absorb the sudden influx of schoolchildren currently enrolled at the three schools.

The final decision regarding the closure of the schools is pending, but the community is prepared to fight for their right to keep them.

A man with a cell phone taped to his face.  Booooooom’s 10^th project begins:  Small Victories.

The guidelines are simple:

1.     Take a million photos.

2.     Select your best work (3 photos max, only one will be shown)

3.     Get  4” x 6” prints made (full bleed, no borders)

4.     Clearly write your name and email on the back of each photo

5.     Put the photo (s) in an envelope and mail to…

BOOOOOOOM!

… is an unassuming art blog, created and maintained by Jeff Hamada – Emily Carr graduate and proud Vancouverite.  The site is the most visited art blog online, according to the National Post, attracting over 2.3 million pageviews each month.  Curated by Hamada, the site has become a massive catalogue of Art! Design! Film! Music! Photos! and Junk!

Through special Projects! Hamada transcends the digital confines of his blog and redefines artistic boundaries.   He is a young man with ideas, optimism and integrity.

small victories

195 E 26^th Ave, Vancouver

Runs September 14^th-26^th

The digital world has collided with the physical world and Jeff Hamada has found himself in two places at once: redefining the boundaries of the art world and greeting friends at the Little Mountain Gallery.

Portrait.  Landscape.  Portrait, portrait, portrait.  4” x 6” photos from around the world scattered across the walls.  A gathering of friends, artists, enthusiasts, miscellaneous.  Finger-pointing-curiosity.

The exhibit is a forced embrace between amateur and professional .  “Democratized art,” as one man describes it.  A crowd has formed outside the gallery.   Free entry.  No purchases allowed.  Take a complimentary pin on your way out.

Earlier this year Hamada managed to squeeze the exhibit into a suitcase and took it to Hong Kong.  Booooooom goes global!  The local has become global and the global has become local.  Wrap your head around that one.

The traffic signals cycle through the usual colours as some shuffle about on the sidewalks and others wander the street.  As the sun makes its nightly exit, the dynamic of the streets drastically changes. The world shifts from a placid gloom to a frightening, raucous nightlife.

Two police officers exchange disconcerting looks with passersby who don’t fit the usual caricature of a resident of the Downtown Eastside. The officers proceed to question bystanders moving past them and offer strong words of caution.

“I wouldn’t want your camera to be stolen. But more importantly, I wouldn’t want you to get hurt,” the officer said.

The warning from the police is hardly necessary as expletives and threats fly around the tense environment.

As the police question where I am from and what I am doing in the area, an escalated argument is heard and they rush off, but not before cautioning me once more about the neighborhood.  As the officers race toward the altercation, a car screeches to a halt a few feet away, barely missing an oblivious pedestrian who responded with a silent one-finger salute to the driver and continued diagonally across the intersection.

The incident did not phase the police as they continued toward the altercation. As they passed through the intersection, two elderly women of Asian decent sat on their lawn chairs on the sidewalk and offered colourful advice.

“**** you!” they said and then giggled.  It was unclear if it was at the police, the driver or the pedestrian.

As dusk crept away and darkness entered the streets, people rested on benches in a small park at the adjacent corner of the intersection and found the street lights to the area were all being shut off.  The park goers seemed undisturbed and undaunted by the sudden absence of electricity, but the question as to why the lights were extinguished was the first that leapt into my mind.

The scene just around the corner of Cambie Street presented a even more vivid example of striking economic disparity than the incidents I had just witnessed. The contrast between the decrepit inner city neighborhood plagued by drug addiction and homelessness offered a strange and disturbing juxtaposition to Cambie’s bustling restaurant district replete with fine dining and upper-middle class patrons.

The heels of Lucia Misch’s brown cowboy boots clicked against the concrete floor as she walked across the Bike Kitchen Tuesday evening. “It’s been a busy day today,” said Misch.

Several customers inspected bikes hanging from metal piping attached to the ceiling. Two workers circled a bicycle held by a silver stand and debated their diagnosis. The co-op board members sat on couches in the back corner and held their meeting. Everyone was busy. It was organized chaos to the tune of an employee’s iPod on shuffle.

At 6 p.m. the store closed to the general public and volunteers arrived for the weekly Purple and Yellow Work Party. Volunteer night co-ordinator, Arthur Krumins, said that it is the second longest running program of the Bike Co-op. Employees teach volunteers how to repair and maintain a community fleet of bikes. Volunteers earn a key to the bikes stationed around campus after investing six hours to learning bicycle mechanics.

Krumins greeted the new volunteers with smiles and introductions while some regulars began setting bikes up on the stands. Others checked the Volunteer to do List scrawled in green marker on a whiteboard. The first item read: “Eat at least 20g of fibre a day.” The joke hinted at the congenial atmosphere.

An employee separated the volunteers into small groups, assigned each a stand and the work began. The teamwork was clear. Volunteers passed tools to one another and employees exchanged oily-handed high fives with their students. “You wanna make sure it’s straight,” said vice president Kieran O’Neill to his two co-workers and they discussed how to fix the problem.

It was Roger Woo’s second week attending. “It’s refreshing not to just sit there… all day and learn from lectures,” he said, referring to the hands-on approach in the workshop.

A teaching environment that offers practical experience is part of the Bike Kitchen’s vision. “It’s about wanting to create a community of people who are interdependent and self sufficient,” said Misch.

A 12-year-old boy who rode his blue BMX to the party and worked on one of the bikes embodied that description. It is his local bicycle shop and he has attended the volunteer nights for a year. He learned how to fix his own bike from the mechanics here, but his favourite part is the free pizza.

There’s no signpost stating “Welcome to UTown@UBC,” but the growing community is easy to recognize. Wander far enough southeast at UBC, past the music blaring frat houses and student buzzing residences, past the cold, sterile-looking Health Sciences buildings, and there are post-card worthy neighourhoods made up of elegant condos, tree-lined bike paths, immaculately trimmed hedges and kids, lots of kids.

“I never knew how many kids lived on UBC,” said Saangeeta Lalli, a volunteer at the Annual Barn Raising event that took place on Saturday at the Old Barn Community Centre in the heart of UTown@UBC.

The centre, built in 2007, is neither old, nor a barn. Its name and design were inspired by an old barn that existed in the same spot in 1920, when UBC’s land was being cleared by Clydesdale horses. Today it is home to the University Neighborhood Association in charge of running the community.

Families were out enjoying the festivities on the grassy park outside the centre, despite ominous sprinkles of light rain. Sights of baby-strapped and stroller-pushing parents looking relaxed, of colorful balloons and face-painted children were everywhere. Joyful fiddle harmonies from the Celtic Folk band Blackthorn provided a fanciful backdrop as kids played and parents socialized between lining up for the BBQ, riding the horse-pulled-carriage, and checking out information booths. The event, like the community, seemed to be all about the kids.

“I moved to UBC for my son, who goes to Lord Byng,” said Rocio Escalona who works for the UNA.

Meanwhile, Tim Fijal, who runs Little Mountain Campus Academy located in the UBC Village, said that many Korean and Chinese parents like to expose their children to the university environment hoping for an “osmosis-like affect on their intelligence.” Fijal’s literacy tutoring programs are popular among Korean and Chinese families who make up a significant portion of the residents in UTown.

So how much of a connection is there between these communities and the rest of UBC? The student-run booths showed the UNA connecting with pockets of the student body that can help fulfill their stated mission of providing a “sustainable residential community.” These included the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and Sprouts, which delivers local organic produce to UBC residents by bicycle.

Beneath a leafy canopy, a single table, draped in a red plastic tablecloth, plays host to stacks of ripe produce in vibrant splashes of orange, red, purple and yellow.

Mismatched baskets holding farm-fresh fruits and veggies jostle for space, as residents stroll to and from the Kitsilano Pocket Market, filling up bags with potatoes, peppers and plums.

Rising high above the pocket market at 2325 West Seventh Ave is the Kitsilano Neighbourhood House. Twin windows, featuring panels of coloured glass in earthy shades of blue, green and yellow, peer out of the building’s stately brown brick facade. Wood-paneled doors framed by a carved, dark-wood arch invite community members up the stairs and inside.

Today, however, the focus was outside, on the Kitsilano Pocket Market’s last day operating at Kits House, one of its two homes.

Spring Gillard, one of the market’s organizers, said it all started because of a study conducted in 2007 by Vancouver Coastal Health that found malnutrition was a serious problem on the Westside, especially for low-income seniors.

“We actually discovered some seniors going hungry because there’s no grocery [stores],” she said.

At the market’s other location, on South Granville, Gillard said the only grocery store in the area sold high-end gourmet products, but skimped on the basics.

“The idea of a pocket market is it’s smaller, you can key into really targeted centres,” she said.

Ron Wolfson is a local senior and a regular customer at the pocket market. For today’s market, he rode his scooter to Kits House, his dog Sasha in tow.

Wolfson said he likes the market because it offers a good selection of organic produce at fair prices. He compared it to a farmers market held every Sunday in Kitsilano, which he said is less affordable for him.

Though it has been popular, with approximately 50 people attending each one, the market’s future is uncertain. Organizers have to evaluate the project and determine if there’s a way to create a sustainable business model, said Gillard.

“We’re trying to pay farmers a fair price, but we’re also trying to make it affordable,” she said. “We’re walking a very fine line.”

The project piloted last summer with two test markets. This summer, organizers held 12.

There will be one more market at the South Granville Seniors’ Centre this Friday from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m., officially wrapping up the season.

A young girl in yellow rain boots was dragging a dead fish by its tail. She seemed peculiarly out of place until a toddler caught up to her, carrying the same load.

The children’s parents were close behind, energetically swinging their own bags with fish. Their family venture had either an educational – a sign next to them read Wild Salmon Don’t Do Drugs – or an environmentalist purpose. The bottom half of the sign urged Just Say No to Farmed Salmon.

The sign, damp from the rain, was swinging next to a line of fishing boats at Fisherman’s Wharf in Steveston Village where a troupe of beaming fisherman exhibited their latest catch for a Sunday morning crowd. The boat decks heaved with sablefish, cod and every imaginable species of salmon. Up on the pier, people barely glanced at the tanks with crabs as they rushed toward the boats. The fishing season delivered a record salmon harvest in British Columbia and many Vancouverites wanted the chance to transform their own piece of history into grilled perfection.

Raincoat-clad customers hovered on the swaying dock and relentlessly poked each other with umbrellas. It was possible to tell how long each of them stood in line by how strongly their clothes smelled of fish and how enviously they eyed the other buyers’ bulging plastic bags.

“15 dollar, very good,” called a woman from a small fishing boat. She shoved one fish toward the crowd to emphasize the offer.

The sight of the majestic silver carcass drew sighs of appreciation from the audience. Several eager bystanders stepped forward to claim the fish.

Around the corner, an agile young man was negotiating with a woman in pink capri pants. The sign on his boat announced that he had run out of sockeye salmon and was now selling cod. People tripped over their rain boots as they ran from his boat in panic.

The sight of the man they encountered as they turned to the west dock did little to ease their anxiety. This was not an amateur customer. He had camouflaged himself in rainproof khaki wear and brought along a large storage container that now teemed with sea urchins and shrimp.

Lineups for fresh salmon remained steady throughout the day despite the relentless rain. Another line was forming several blocks away as people, some still holding their fish, waited to order defrosted beef patties at McDonalds.