Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival in cooperation with Vancouver Moving Theatre, Carnegie Community Centre and radha yoga & eatery presents RESISTANCEDISPLACEMENTSURVIVALSOLIDARITY STRUGGLECOMMUNITYHUMANRIGHTSWELL-BEING NEIGHBOURHOOD STORIES QUESTIONS COMMON GROUNDSHAREDEXPERIENCEIDENTITY/HOMEKNOWLEDGE ORALHISTORY | WALKS | FILMS | MUSIC | STORYSHARING FRIDAY JUNE 19 - SUNDAY JUNE 21 2009 Carnegie Community Centre | radha yoga & eatery | DTES streets Greetings Eastside Stories: The People. The Voices. The Carnegie Com- When Savannah munity Centre Asso- and I fi rst moved June 19 to 21, 2009 ciation welcomes you. into the Downtown Having heard and Eastside in the mid Living memories of community Most events are free admission or pay- shared some of the 1970s we came inform our present and contribute what-you-can. Please consult each event stories of the DTES, across the now leg- to our future description for ticket information. my appreciation of endary book Open- others who struggle ing Doors – Carole has altered me. Understanding history; Itter and Daphne Various locations in the DTES realizing kinship; developing compas- Marlatt’s extraor- The Downtown Eastside Heart of the sion: life changing indeed. Something dinary gold mine Presented by the Downtown Eastside City Festival and the Eastside Stories else, though. Maybe it is the recognition of oral history as told by East End resi- Heart of the City Festival, in cooperation Project acknowledge and honour that that it is about we and not I. dents. Opening Doors inspired us with with Vancouver Moving Theatre, our Eastside neighbourhood lies within Come to share a story, to hear personal fi rst hand accounts of our neighbours Carnegie Community Centre and the traditional territories of the Coast views of life. Come to learn about the peo- and their families: the collective histo- radha yoga & eatery Salish people. ple, what we’ve done, the places that have ry of the East End, its struggles, hopes helped shape this community. From events and dreams. long gone by, to what we are up to now, Now, over 30 years later, we feel come to hear what we have in common. compelled to join with our commu- Matthew Matthew, President, CCCA nity to give voice to residents past and present, to hear fi rst hand their stories, “Radha” is pleased to experiences, struggles and accomplish- support Eastside Stories ments; to hear what they have done www.heartofthecityfestival.com or call 604-628-5672 and to participate in – and what they are doing today – to the arts of the Down- survive and build community. town Eastside neigh- Eastside Stories is a community bourhood. We welcome kitchen table – with elders and friends Table of contents you to this story-sharing sharing stories – around which we sit, weekend that gives listen, learn, and participate. Join in the Remembering People in Vancouver’s East End ......................................................4 voice to its residents – their struggles, conversation, ask questions, dig deep, Schedule of Events ....................................................................................................5 hopes and dreams. enquire into events or strategies taken, Telling Stories ............................................................................................................5 and contribute your own voice to the The Radha building has many stories Walks & Story Sharing ..........................................................................................6-9 gold mine of Eastside stories. embedded in its walls. It has lived here East End Blues & All That Jazz ...............................................................................10 for 100 years longer than we have and Thanks to all the organizers, the par- Films .........................................................................................................................12 holds the spirit of all the people who ticipants and community partners who have walked through its doors. have contributed with such enthusiasm From Oklahoma to the East End ...........................................................................13 We are particularly pleased to host a to Eastside Stories. Selections from Interview with Kat Norris............................................................14 performance of East End Blues and All See you around the kitchen table ev- Visual Arts ................................................................................................................15 that Jazz, a musical telling of the black eryone! Excerpts from “Confessions of a Laundryman’s Son” ..........................................16 history of the neighbourhood. Hearing Terry Hunter Living Stories ...........................................................................................................18 these stories through music is such a de- Artistic Producer, Remembering Hal ...................................................................................................20 lightful way to learn! DTES Heart of the City Festival Upcoming and Ongoing ........................................................................................21 With special thanks to Vancouver Executive Director, Credits & Thanks .....................................................................................................22 Moving Theatre and the Carnegie Cen- Vancouver Moving Theatre tre for your inspiring community work. Bibliography ............................................................................................................23 Swami Lalitananda Radha Yoga & Eatery 2 3 Remembering (and recording an oral history of) people Schedule of Events SUNDAY JUNE 21 10am – 11:30am in Vancouver’s East End FR IDAY JUNE 19 Historical Walking Tour Caught in the Middle 3:30pm – 5pm meet at Vancouver Police Museum One of the questions that was asked infections. In terms of educational op- Bruce Eriksen Heritage Walking Tour 240 E. Cordova to our elders in 1978-79 was about the portunities, the chances were limited. It meet at Carnegie front steps, 401 Main 1930s, during the Great Depression. didn’t matter how smart you were, you 11:30am – 1pm 7pm – 9pm How did they cope? We heard many might have to leave school by Grade 8 CCAP Walking Tour Story Sharing many stories of families managing, but (some even younger) in order to help Sites of Empowerment Fight for Community Recognition barely. There was no actual welfare as out your family. Not being able to read meet at Carnegie front steps, 401 Main we know it today — instead there was very well was often masked over an Carnegie 3rd floor Learning Centre a line up at a downtown depot where entire lifetime. 401 Main 1pm – 3pm you sent the strongest family member Story Sharing - Three Guys and an Alley to haul home a satchel of potatoes, Listening and learning from our elders Carnegie 3rd floor Learning Centre sometimes a satchel of turnips. Shoes is a tradition that never stops. I learned SA TURDAY JUNE 20 401 Main were handed down, as were all cloth- about resilience. I learned about the ne- 10am – 11:30am 3pm – 5pm ing as kids grew up. Every yard had a cessity of family. I was already 38 years Chinatown Walking Tour Story Sharing - Standing Up for Community vegetable garden; some had chickens old when Daphne Marlatt and I started Every Building has a Story Carnegie 3rd floor Learning Centre and ducks. Few had cars — the streetcar listening and recording old timers. I meet at Chinese Cultural Centre 401 Main (a passenger rail car) got you around felt like I was finally “growing up.” I 50 E. Pender if you could afford the fare, otherwise remember laughing a lot at the remark- 7:30pm – 9pm people walked. In Vancouver’s East End, able insight and humour I heard from 11:30am – 1pm East End Blues & All That Jazz few had telephones and those who did every one of them. Threads of Wisdom: radha yoga & eatery, 728 Main shared theirs with their neighbours. Stories of Hope in Shadows Nobody had a camera. Carole Itter Carnegie 3rd floor Learning Centre May 2009 401 Main There were mostly wood burning Telling Stories stoves. So there were woodpiles every- 1pm – 3pm We need to tell our own stories. where. And the woodstove heated the In 1979, with poet Daphne Marlatt, Story Sharing If we don’t tell our stories, houses, at least partially. More than one artist, writer and long-time Strathcona It’s a Long Story… people with power person mentioned the mold that grew resident Carole Itter compiled and Carnegie 3rd floor Learning Centre will tell our stories for us, up the bedroom walls. In most families, edited the historic collection of oral 401 Main and we won’t like what they say. the older children managed to find history, Opening Doors: Vancouver’s When we tell our stories, 3pm – 5pm we reach out to each other after school jobs, maybe delivering stuff East End, which now resides in the BC Everyday Heroes: Digital Stories and build community. by bicycle or piling wood for an elderly Provincial Archives. Carnegie 3rd floor Learning Centre We share our pain. widow. There were no adequate pen- 401 Main We share our hope. sions for seniors then. And some were We share our laughter, even carrying old wounds from World 6pm – 7:30pm and our determination. War One. Videos – Hogan’s Alley, CBC Interview When we tell our stories Because the whispers of those who Clips, Bamboula we draw our own maps, There is always the risk of idealizing an have passed on continue in the wind, Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main and we question earlier time. For certain,