ACCELERATING IMPACT SFU’S VANCITY OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 2016–2017 CREATIVE ENGAGEMENT IN: CONTENTS Message from the Director 4 ›› ARTS AND CULTURE A Year in Review 5 Capturing Our Stories 5 For a Muse of Fire 6 ›› SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE TBD Project / Living on Shared Territories 6 REDx Talks 7 Film screenings with Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Banchi Hanuse 7 ›› URBAN ISSUES Willie Thrasher and Linda Saddleback Film Screening and Concert 10 EMMA Talks 10 Libby Davies: Reflections on a Life in Politics 11 Truth and Reclamation: Teaching Squamish Language at SFU 11 Megaphone 12 Woodward’s Community Singers 12 WHO WE ARE Salish Singing and Drumming Workshops 13 Binners’ Project 13 Mash Up 14 SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement is an educational, cultural and Project Limelight 14 community-building resource that engages the public sphere, the local First Nations community and the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. 312 Main: Knowledge Mobilization Project 15 The Office supports creative engagement, knowledge mobilization and public By the Numbers 15 programming in the theme areas of arts and culture, social and environmental justice, and urban issues through public talks, dialogues, workshops, screenings, performances and community partnerships. SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement provides community educational opportunities for local residents, access to artist talks and cultural events and builds partnerships with community organizations. The Office opened in December 2010 and engages over 9,000 people per year. Working with students, faculty and community, the Office is committed to long term relationship building and creative collaborations between the university and the community, in all its diverse formations and recognizes the arts as a catalyst in social change and transformative community engagement. IMAGES: Sawagi Taiko drummers (cover), Barrio Flamenco open rehearsal at the InterUrban Gallery (right) 2 3 MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR As SFU’s Vancity Office of Community of Community Engagement reaches six and a half years, our team continues to be challenged by the complex work of community and university partnerships towards a vision of systems change. Our partners have been extraordinary to work with and the co-production of programming and projects has been a collaborative exercise from the beginning. SFU was also host to C2UExpo this past year, Canada’s largest university-community engagement conference that had over 500 participants. SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement was heavily involved in producing the Cultural and Community Mash Up, an evening of arts, culture, and community that featured many of our partners. This past year saw vital conversations and projects occur along our three theme areas of social and environmental justice, urban issues and arts and culture. Next year, we are particularly excited about the establishment of a satellite office (Knowledge Mobilization Project) in the 312 Main building. We will be part of the second floor co-working space and in preparation have had many conversations with other universities that are involved in similar projects, particularly Concordia A YEAR IN REVIEW University. We look forward to new partnerships and programming related to this project in the coming years. Highlights from SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement In the Spring 2017 semester I taught a course on social justice and community and our community partners engagement in the School for Contemporary Arts. We are now exploring opportunities to develop partnerships for community-driven research. This year, we partnered with The Tyee on an extended series regarding the fentanyl overdose Capturing Our Stories crisis, written by Jackie Wong — a long-time collaborator with the office in facilitating Over the summer we partnered with SFU graduate liberal studies student Shawk our Community Journalism partnership with Megaphone magazine. We are also Alani and the S.U.C.C.E.S.S. Moving Ahead Program to deliver a series of photography producing a documentary on the overdose crisis that will be completed in Summer workshops to young Syrian children who recently arrived to Vancouver as refugees. 2017 for classroom and public use. We are also partnered on programming related The goal was to create a storytelling space, to allow the children to take hold over to The Vienna Model exhibit on housing at the Museum of Vancouver. The dynamic the narratives that define them. interplay and integration between community partnerships, teaching and research is where the value of this office will be fully realized within the university and The project aimed at giving them the tools and information to explore the use community context. of imagery and artistic expression to tell the stories of their lives. The first two workshops covered some of the basics of photography, including framing, angles, What began as a one person office now has four dedicated staff. SFU students and lighting, exposure, subject, distance, and depth of field. After the second session, alumni Samaah Jaffer, Fiorella Pinillos and Melissa Roach have done extraordinary each of the students were provided with their own disposable film camera with 27 work this past year, as Lucia Pecnikova and Andrea Creamer have moved on to exposures, and had a two-week window to capture images of their lives. Thereafter, other positions and graduate schools respectively. As we continue programing and they reconvened for a session on art show curation. Capturing Our Stories: An strengthening our partnerships, we are developing plans for financial sustainability Exhibition of Syrian Children’s Photography opened at Interurban Art Gallery on for the office going forward. August 31 and was open to the public from September 1 to 10. Am Johal Director Highlights that are accompanied by this symbol have associated videos that can be found in our Audio and Video Gallery at sfuwoodwards.ca. IMAGE: Capturing Our Stories photography workshop 4 5 True Voice Theatre Project REDx Talks The True Voice Theatre Project’s For a Muse of Fire brought humour and heart to REDx Talks is a non-profit speaker series, curated by Cowboy Smithx alongside SFU. Staged on July 18, the story was set on the number 20 bus, inspired by lived Creative Producer Rio Mitchell, which expresses and embodies Indigenous experiences of community members of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and a little worldviews from elders, teachers, youth and allies. Our office partnered in hosting bit of Shakespeare. The script was a collaborative effort of the cast members of the the very first REDx event in BC on November 17. The series brought an impressive community theatre group which brings together residents of the DTES, “including lineup of artists, writers, educators and entrepreneurs to the unceded territory of the those who have experienced homelessness or are currently vulnerably housed.” The Coast Salish people, including Cris Derksen, Jerilynn Webster, Carol-Ann Hilton, Dana piece — exploring diversity and community issues like homelessness — was directed Claxton, Ryan McMahon, and Tłakwasikan Khelsilem. In addition to the incredible by Luisa Jojic and produced by Creativa International. speakers, the evening featured performers, and an intertribal feast of Indigenous cuisine prepared by Chef Shane Chartrand. True Voice Theatre Project is a continuing Creativa International project that Jojic heads, facilitating free, weekly community-engaged theatre workshops for youth and adults. In 2016, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement supported a series of workshops were held at the SFU Woodward’s campus in partnership with our office. Film screenings with Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Banchi Hanuse TBD Project / Living on Shared Territories A series of short films by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers The To Be Determined theatre project brought together people from the DTES and and Banchi Hanuse were screened on November SFU communities for two weeks to create a collaborative performance piece that 9. Following the screenings of Hanuse’s Cry they took to the street in early November 2016. Led by italian artists-in-residence Rock (2010), Uulx - The Scratcher (2015), and Ippolito Chiarello and Alessandra Pomarico, the group explored 2016’s DTES Heart of Tailfeathers’ Bihttoš (2014), Mavericks II, Dr. the City Festival theme, “Living On Shared Territory”, as well as what “home” meant Esther Tailfeathers: Blood Reserve (2015), to each individual. Versaearcolonion (2016), and Radio Check (2016), the filmmakers spoke about their works on a panel The TBD project was sponsored by Musagetes Foundation, Vancouver Italian Cultural moderated by Sarah Hunt. The panelists included Centre, and SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement and co-presented by Dory Nason, Raymond Boisjoly, and Tarah Hogue. SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts, Creativa International, DTES Heart of the City Festival, Super Cool Tuesdays, and Megaphone Magazine. A further theatrical collaboration between True Voice Theatre Project and SFU theatre professor Ker Wells’ third year theatre class culminated in a public performance on December 1. IMAGES: TBD final performance (above left), Coastal Wolfpack at REDx Talks (above right), Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (lower right) 6 7 Willie Thrasher and Linda Saddleback Film Screening and Concert Inuk singer-songwriter Willie Thrasher and his singing partner Linda Saddleback performed to a captivated audience at SFU on November 18. The concert was preceded by the premiere screening of The Recording of Willie Thrasher, a documentary produced by the Office and directed by Adam O. Thomas. Willie Thrasher is an Inuk singer-songwriter from Aklavik, Inuvik. At the age of five, Thrasher was taken from his family and sent to a residential school where he was isolated from and forbidden to practice his Inuvialuit culture. In the mid-1960s, he drummed for The Cordells, one of the first Inuit rock bands. One evening, a stranger recommended that the group tap into their Aboriginal roots, instead of the charts, for inspiration. This prompted Thrasher to write songs about his life, people, and the environment — as heard on his 1981 record Spirit Child.