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On the weekend, I went to a community event at the Nanaimo Art Gallery for a new exhibit on Nanaimo’s Chinatowns. 

The gallery was packed with artists and people from the community coming together to celebrate a part of Nanaimo’s cultural history that is gone, but not forgotten.

The exhibition, curated by Imogene Lim and Jesse Birch, pulls together a rich mix of archival photos with contemporary works that are in conversation with one another. And the pieces exhibited turned the gallery into a bustling hive of activity.

I was able to speak with Lim and Birch about the exhibition and the deep history of Chinese-Canadians in Nanaimo. You can read my story below, and I would encourage you to see the collection for yourself. 

Thank you for reading,

Mick Sweetman

Art exhibition shines a light on Nanaimo’s Chinatowns

Bleached by the Sun on display at the Nanaimo Art Gallery until March 22.

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🔎 Watch for 🔍

Saturday, Jan. 31, 6 p.m.: The Nanaimo Clippers will take on the Coquitlam Express at its Pride Night. Tickets cost $22 or $12 for children between the ages of six and 12. Use the code PRIDEC to get a seat in the dedicated Pride Zone or PRIDE to get the Pride pricing of $15.  

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

Let us know by sending Mick an email.

🎵 Listen 🎤

Thursday, Jan. 29, 6:30 p.m.: Portal Magazine’s Portfolio reading series features Rebecca Campbell, “writer of weird stories and climate change fiction” and VIU students at The Vault Café. Admission is free.

Friday, Jan. 30, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.: Trans comedians Patti Savard and Ava Val will perform Double Trouble: An evening of trans femme comedy at The Vault Café. Tickets cost $20. 

Friday, Jan. 30, 7 p.m.: Pianist and composer Sarah M. Wood will play at Minnoz Restaurant and Lounge. 

Friday, Jan. 30, 7:30 p.m.: Musicians Caroline Planté, Itamar Erez, Jamie Dupuis and Jocelyn Gould will perform for International Guitar Night at the Port Theatre. Tickets cost $60 or $35 for students.

Friday, Jan. 30, 8:30 p.m.: A candlelight concert featuring Vivaldi's Four Seasons will be held at St. Paul’s Anglican Church. Tickets cost $45.

Saturday, Jan. 31, 6 p.m.: The Kelby MacNayr Quintet feat. Phil Dwyer will play at The Queen's. Tickets cost $35 dollars, $30 for students.

Saturday, Jan. 31, 6 p.m.: Vogue Villains, Summer’s Brother, Posh Coat and Fish will play an all-ages show at The Globe Live Studio. Tickets cost $15.

Saturday, Jan. 31, 7 p.m.: The New Westerners will play a night of creep folk, psych and surf rock at The Vault Café. Tickets cost $10.

Saturday, Jan. 31, 7:30 p.m.: Tony Turner will hold an album release party at Unitarian Hall. Tickets cost $33.40.

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 7 p.m.: Neil Surkan, poet laureate of Nanaimo, will host a curated evening of poetry by community poets in the Piper’s Lagoon Lobby of the Vancouver Island Conference Centre. Admission is free.

🎭 View 🖼️

Friday, Jan. 30, 5 p.m.: A fundraising pub night will be held at the Nova Gallery on Gabriola Island. 

Sunday, Feb. 1, 1 p.m and 7 p.m.: The Nanaimo International Film Screening Society will  show Urchin, in the Vancouver Island Conference Centre’s Shaw Auditorium. “The film follows a teenage runaway navigating the rough edges of London, caught between moments of freedom and the harsh realities of survival.” Tickets cost $15 or $10 for youth under 25. 

Sunday, Feb. 1, 2 p.m.: The Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival will be held at The Port Theatre. Tickets cost $25. 

Sunday, Feb. 1, 4 p.m.: The Nanaimo International Film Screening Society will show Liyana in the Vancouver Island Conference Centre’s Shaw Auditorium. The documentary film follows a group of Swazi orphans as they construct a narrative based on their own experiences. Tickets cost $15 or $10 for youth under 25. 

Monday, Feb. 2, 6:30 p.m.: An opening reception for Happy Amarkah’s exhibit Rhythm and Remembrance will be held at the Malaspina Theatre in celebration of Black History Month. Hosted by Paul DB Watkins who will bring “a deep rhythmic soul to this celebration.” 

Tuesday, Feb. 3, 6:30 p.m.: Club Native will be screened at the Nanaimo Art Gallery as part of its Unsettling the Lens Indigenous Film Series. “Club Native follows Tracey Deer, who grew up on the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake with two very firm but unspoken rules drummed into her by the collective force of the community. These rules were very simple and they carried severe repercussions: 1) Do not marry a white person 2) Do not have a child with a white person.” Admission is free but registration is recommended due to limited seating. 

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 6 p.m.: The documentary Israelism will be screened at Vancouver Island University’s Building 200, Room 203 by the Muslim Women's Club. The film follows two young American Jews, raised to unconditionally love Israel, who join a movement to battle the old guard to redefine Judaism’s relationship with Israel. Admission is free.

⛹️ Meet 🎲

Thursday, Jan. 29, 6 p.m.: The Readers Choice Book Club will meet at 6 p.m. at the Firehouse Grill. 

Friday, Jan. 30, noon: Learn Hul'q'umi'num' with Jane Alcorn (Penelakut) and Stephanie Hohn as they provide an hour of introductory Hul'q'umi'num' language and story in the Vancouver Island University Library’s Madrona Room (322). Registration is required.  

Friday, Jan. 30, 6 p.m.: The VIU Mariners volleyball teams take on the Douglas College Royals in the VIU Gym. Women's game at 6 p.m. and men's game at 8 p.m. Admission is free for VIU students. 

Saturday, Jan. 31, 1 p.m.: The VIU Mariners volleyball teams take on the Douglas College Royals in the VIU Gym. Women's game at 1 p.m. and men's game at 3 p.m. Before the women's game, the Mariners will recognize its 2016 women's volleyball national champion team. Before the men's game, VIU will award the tenth annual Ryan Thibault Memorial Award. Admission is free for VIU students.

Saturday, Jan. 31, 6:30 p.m.: Intermediate level west coast swing workshops and social dancing at Sara Raymond’s Studio. Tickets cost $40 for the workshop and social dance or $10 for the dance only. To register email admin@srdanceacademy.ca.

Saturday, Jan. 31, 7:15 p.m.: The VIU Mariners hockey team plays the UVIC Vikes at the Nanaimo Ice Centre. Tickets cost $12 or $7 with student ID. 

Sunday, Feb. 1, 1 p.m.: The Serauxmen Service Club will hold a charity poker tournament at the Nanaimo Yacht Club. The buy in is $100. 

Sunday, Feb. 1, 1 p.m.: Join former journalist and debut novelist Heather Ramsay and poet Tina Biello for an afternoon of stories and poetry at the Nanaimo Harbourfront Library. 

Sunday, Feb. 1, 1 p.m.: Create your own artist trading cards at the Nanaimo Art Gallery’s Art Lab Sunday. Free for gallery members, $5 for non-members. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 3:30 p.m.: Teens from 12 to 17 years of age can drop in to the Nanaimo Art Gallery on Wednesdays “to make art in a relaxed, fun environment.” $5 per drop in, $45 for a 10-visit punch card or $150 for an annual pass.

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 5 p.m.: This month’s Philosophy Café features Vancouver Island University social work professor Finn Meyer Cook leading a discussion on Climate, Power and Responsibility at the Nanaimo Harbourfront Library.

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