Welcome to The Hub Nanaimo, your weekly insider guide to the best of community arts and culture. Did a friend forward this email to you? Subscribe to this newsletter.

This week has everything from a premiere of a new composition by a classical cellist to ska and punk rock shows in the hub city. 

On a no-less-exciting note, it’s also voting week for the provincial election. 

Be sure to check out Nanaimo’s guide to the B.C. election for the latest on the local candidates and ridings as well as some nuts and bolts on how and where to vote. 

You can also read our coverage of an all-candidates debate by Nanaimo-Lantzville candidates, and candidates’ responses to your questions on homelessness and social supports.

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"Good relevant content, simple easy to read format, short items that are quick to scan."

—Glen Foster, from our newsletter survey

🎵 Listen 🎤

Tuesday, Oct. 15, 7 p.m.: Open mic and jam at the Terminal Bar. Acoustic acts from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. and open jam from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Free.

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 7 p.m.: Weekly open mic night at The Vault Cafe.

Thursday, Oct. 17, 9 p.m.:  Indie-psych-folk artist Pranatricks performs with Feather Shadow and Rare Earth Magnet. Tickets cost $15. 

Thursday, Oct. 17, 6 p.m.: Glen Foster and Maggy bring their original music and dance favourites to the 256 Legion, 1630 E Wellington Rd. No cover charge.

Friday, Oct. 18, 7 p.m.: The Russell Jackson Band will bring its moody blues to The Queens. Tickets cost $25 or $20 for members of the Nanaimo Blues Society. 

Friday, Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m.: AHRF, The Shindigs and friends will play an all-ages show at The Globe Live Studio. Tickets cost $15. 

Friday, Oct. 18, 9 p.m.: Vancouver's Kneejerk will play free improv soul jazz post-punk at The Vault Cafe. Tickets cost $15.

Friday, Oct. 18, 10 p.m.: Vancouver band SkaBoom! have reunited and will get ska fans skanking at The Queen’s. Tickets cost $27.

Saturday, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m.: The Vancouver Island Symphony will play Dvořák’s cello concerto, a new composition by guest cellist and composer Sointu Aalto along with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6. Nanaimo’s youth poet laureate Paige Pierce will also perform at the Port Theatre. Tickets start at $34.  

Saturday, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m.: Nanaimo’s “bestest drag night” TheyThemTheirs will perform two shows, one at 7:30 p.m. and the second at 9:45 p.m. at The Vault Cafe. Tickets cost $20. 

Tuesday, Oct. 22, 7 p.m.:  A celebration of Andrew Lloyd Webber returns to Nanaimo for the first time since 2019 with the Music of the Night concert tour. Regular tickets cost $69, $65 for seniors and $60 for members of Indigenous communities and arts workers.

Got the inside scoop of an event you think should be shared? 

Let us know by sending Mick an email.

🎭 View 🖼️

Tuesday, Oct. 15, 7:30 p.m.: Theatre Crow’s production of As You Like It or The Land Acknowledgement will perform at the Port Theatre. Tickets cost $37, $32 for members and $20 for students.

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 6:30 p.m.: The Students for Palestine Committee is screening the documentary Investigating War Crimes in Gaza by Al Jazeera Investigations at Vancouver Island University's Building 200, room 203. Free entry, $5 for popcorn and drinks.  

Friday, Oct. 18, 10 a.m.: The Indigenous Crafting Circle welcomes Indigenous creatives aged 16+ at the Nanaimo Art Gallery. Cost is $5.  

Friday, Oct. 18, noon: A lunchtime tour of shnu’a’th, ᐊᑳᒥᕽ akâmihk, the other side at the Nanaimo Art Gallery. Tours run every Friday at noon through the run of the exhibition, which ends on Jan. 12. Tickets cost $5.

Sunday, Oct. 20, 1 p.m.: Create art inspired by Eliot White-Hill’s works at this week’s Art Lab Sunday hosted by the Nanaimo Art Gallery using archival photographs and a variety of materials. Free for members, $5 for non-members. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Tuesday, Oct. 22, 6 p.m.: Learn to create captivating portraits with easy image transfer techniques at the Nanaimo Art Gallery with Vivian-Sofia Mora. Tickets cost $55.

⛹️ Meet 🎲

Friday, Oct. 18, 11 a.m.: The City of Nanaimo will join family, friends and supporters of Lisa Marie Young, who has been missing since June 30, 2002, to dedicate a tree in her memory and in honour of all murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people at the north end of the Departure Bay waterfront walkway. 

Saturday, Oct. 19, 3 p.m.: The Vancouver Island Regional Library’s teen advisory group will meet at the Nanaimo North library branch to discuss programming for teens at the library.

🗳️ Election 2024 🗳️

Tuesday, Oct. 15, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.: Advance voting for the BC provincial election. For a list of advance voting locations by riding go to Elections BC.

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.: Advance voting for the provincial election. For a list of advance voting locations by riding go to Elections BC.

Saturday, Oct. 19, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.: Final voting day for the provincial election. To find out where to vote visit wheretovote.elections.bc.ca

See you around town,

— Mick and The Discourse team

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