POWELL STREET FESTIVAL 2007 IN REVIEW(expanded from original article in the September issue of The Bulletin magazine)By Miko Hoffman

It’s hard to believe: another festival season, come and gone -- and an-other festival just over the horizon! It feels like forever ago since last year’s festival, but since we haven’t produced a paper newsletter since before the festival, here’s a quick re-cap on the events that you hopefully all were able to attend! The sixth annual Spatial Poetics was another hit, taking place on July 7 at VIVO Media Arts. Yet another truly diverse performance-video event, we premiered new work by a fantastic roster of artists, including Lydia Kwa, Jason Sims, Yuriko Iga, Noel Macul, Rafael Tsuchida, Lyndsay Sung, Tricia Collins and Cindy Mochizuki. New to this year was our first ever film series, Kibatsu Cinema, which was a huge success! Held the weekend prior to the Festival, the screenings were nearly sold out three of the four nights, and it was a wonderful experience partnering with the folks at the Pacific Cinematheque. Hopefully we can present another film series in the near future. As for festival weekend, it was as busy and fun as ever! We were fortunate to have been blessed with great weather, truly talented artists and performers, and a fantastic crowd over the weekend. The takoyaki line-ups seemed longer than ever before (is that possible?), and the programming was diverse and well received. Our guest artist from Japan, Koichi Makigami, wowed the audience with an evening con-cert at the Chapel, a new venue we’re happy to be working with. The very popular visual arts exhibition, Between What’s Said and Unsaid, was also at a new venue for us, the Helen Pitt Gallery. Alia Nakashima did a fantastic job of curating the show. As usual, all of these events couldn’t have happened without the support of our dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers, as well as our partners, sponsors, and funders. Many, many thanks to our incredibly hardworking summer staff: Production Coordinator, Lyndsay Sung; Volunteer Coordinator, Maria Aoki, and our summer intern, Junichi Suyama.

Winter 2008Volume 14 Number 1

w w w . p o w e l l s t r e e t f e s t i v a l . c o m e m a i l : m i k o @ d k a m . c a

The PSF Programming Committee is currently

accepting proposals for programming for our 2008

and 2009 festivals and event seasons. If you are interested in participating in any artistic discipline, we want to hear from you! Application forms are now available online at www.powellstreetfestival.com for our 2008 festival (August 2-3) or by requesting one from miko@dkam.ca. The deadline for applications is March 3. We are also developing programming for our 2009 Festival, which may seem like an eternity away, but our grant applications are due this spring for next year’s festival. If you have a project or per-formance that you would like to propose to us for next year, please contact us!

Call f

or

Programming

The crowd enjoying the 2007 PSF Sumo Tournament. Photo: Aki Mimoto

Powell Street Festival is

HIRING!Please see job posting

insert for details.

H H

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Board of DirectorsPresident John Yamazaki

Vice-President Hitomi Nunotanitreasurer Angus MacLean

secretary Catherine Newsteaddirectors

Nina Inaoka Lee, Kamara Kroeker, Alia Nakashima, Darren Okabe

Programming CommitteeMiko Hoffman

Yuriko IgaJim Inkster

Alia NakashimaKathy ShimizuMichael SpeierLyndsay Sung

Advocacy CommitteePeter Li

Angus MacLeanRika MoorhouseJohn Yamazaki

StaffGeneral ManaGer/

ProGraMMinG directorMiko Hoffman

neWsletter desiGnBarb Yamazaki

2007 l 2008

SOCIETY NEWS

BOARD RETREATThe PSF board and staff had our annual retreat on January 12-13th at the Up the Creek Backpackers B&B in Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast. Despite the cold air outside, we had a toasty, cozy meeting space and we accomplished a lot! We strat-egized short and long-term plans, fundraising initiatives, and got to know each other a bit better. The big topics at hand related to another transitional phase we’re going through (our General Manager is leaving us -- see job postings!) and a long-term goal of setting up our own facility on Powell Street.

RELOCATION 2008 COMMITTEE REPORTThe Festival’s Relocation Committee has accomplished a lot since this time last year! We have been approved by the Park Board to use Woodland Park as our site this year and are working away at finalizing the details. We are confident that this years’ festival will be really exciting, providing the usual high quality entertainment, food, crafts and activities in a fresh, new environment. We will be contacting festival participants (ven-dors, display folk, performers) in the near future to inform everyone of site plans.

OPPENHEIMER REDEVELOPMENT PLANSWe are also on the Redevelopment Committee of Oppenheimer Park and we are happy to report to you that the process is moving smoothly. The lead architect on the project, Jeff Cutler of space2place design, has some very interesting ideas for the park, which will hopefully result in a more inviting and safe atmosphere for everyone. The architects and Park Board staff have also made it very clear that they intend to com-memorate the Japanese Canadian history of the park in the new plans, and also that they will work with our site crew to ensure that the new park is functional for PSF and other special events.

UPCOMING EVENTSThe Society’s first events this year will be in May during explorAsian, in celebration of Asian Heritage Month. We are also pleased to be a community sponsor of Voices of the Pacific Rim, a Vancouver Opera presentation on February 3 at the Vancouver Playhouse; and of a special screening of Spirited Away as part of the Cinema Sunday series at the Pacific Cinematheque on February 10. Our first Society event is called Merge, an exhibition by the artist collective Frozen – Melt, comprising HiDe Ebina, Naoko Takenouchi and Miyuki Shinkai, three BC-based artists working in ceramics and glass. The exhibition opens on May 3, 4-6pm at the Numen Gallery in Yaletown.

Keep your eyes peeled for details on our other summer events:• Tiny Lines for Smaller Movements group exhibition (June) • 7th Annual Spatial Poetics (July)• and much, much more!

And of course, if you haven’t already, please mark your calendars for our 32nd festival which takes place on August 2-3rd at WOODLAND PARK. For more information, contact Miko at miko@dkam.ca Our summer newsletter, which will be distributed in June, will contain full details on our summer events and plans.

The PSF Society’s AGM will be held at 8:00pm on Tuesday, February 19th at Tonari Gumi (511 East Broadway). Katari Taiko’s AGM will precede ours at 7:30pm and we encourage all of you to attend both! This is a great opportunity to reconnect with the fun PSF folk for an evening, and learn about our plans for the coming year. And of course, there will be refreshments!

Vancouver Opera presents Voices of the Pacific RimSunday, February 3, 2008, 7:30pmVancouver Playhouse, Hamilton & Dunsmuir StreetVoices of the Pacific Rim celebrates opera and honours the Chinese, Japanese and Korean communities of Vancouver with presen-tations of familiar opera selections as well as touching traditional songs from China, Japan and Korea. Featured artists are Jessica Cheung, Sam Chung, Gina Oh and Gene Wu. Powell Street Festival Society is pleased to be a community sponsor of this Vancouver Opera pre-sentation.

Pacific Cinematheque presents Spirited Away, as part of Cinema Sunday: A Film Program for Families – All Ages!Sunday, February 10, 2008, 1:00pmPacific Cinémathèque’s Education Department is proud to launch Cinema Sunday, a new afternoon film program for children and their families. The first film chosen for this ongo-ing film series is Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki’s wonderful Spirited Away, a magical tale that follows the remarkable adventures of Chihiro, a ten year old girl who, along with her mother and father, stumbles upon a world inhabited by gods, monsters and other Japanese spirits.

Vancouver Japanese Language School & Japanese Hall SPRING EVENTS487 Alexander Street (at Jackson Street), (604) 254 2551

Community Hinamatsuri (Doll Festival)Saturday, February 23rd, 12 PM - 3 PMCome and experience various aspects of Japanese culture, including a magnificent display of traditional dolls, tea tast-ing, children’s games, music, kimono wearing, and seasonal refreshments. A fun and informational event for the whole family. Free admission.

Spring Food BazaarSunday, March 2nd, 12 PM - 3 PMA very popular food extravaganza for lovers of Japanese food. Delicious and affordable roll, inari & temaki sushi, udon, teriyaki chicken, takoyaki, manju, assorted dessert bar and much, much more. Come early so you don’t miss out on the full range of offerings. Other attractions include Cuban dance & music, Kids’ Games Corner, silent auction, and plentiful

door prizes. Bazaar tickets purchased before March 1st can be entered for door prizes.

2008 VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL

From March 4-29, the 2008 Van-couver International Dance Festival features local, national, and interna-tional dance companies in mainstage, cabaret and late-night performances.

Mainstage artists at the Roundhouse Community Centre include Ana Arroyo from Spain (March 4-5); Toronto Dance Theatre (March 6-8); Gaetan Gingras,

Kaha:wi Dance, and Raven Spirit Dance; (March 11-12); Rita Cioffi (March 13-15) and Fabrice Ramalingom from France; and EDAM (March 18-22), Co. ERASGA, (March 25-26), and Kokoro Dance (March 27-29). Around town: Joe Ink at the Scotiabank Dance Centre (March 14-18), Margie Gillis at Centennial Theatre (March 14-15), and Kaeja d’Dance at the Norman Rothstein (March 19-20). 604.662.4966 or www.vidf.ca.

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Festival faves, Kokoro Dance, at PSF 2007. Photo: John Greenaway

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR 2007 DONORS:(January-December, in alphabetical order)

Anonymous l Arnold & Sadie Arai l Hideko Arai l Yoshio Arai l Grace Arai l Kenneth & Nobu Ellis l Susan Gratton l Fumiko & Tod Greenaway l Judith Growe (In Memory of Edmund Yeung) l Masami Hanashiro l Mr. & Mrs. Mitsuo & Emmie Hayashi l Mickey Hayashi l Wakako Iga (In Memory of Edmund Yeung) l Beverly Inouye l Masa Ito l Diane Ka-dota (In Memory of Edmund Yeung) l David Kitamura l May Komiyama l Kamara Kroeker (In Memory of Edmund Yeung) l Bernard & Elsie Mochizuki l Cindy Mochizuki l Mary Nakashima l Jenna Newman (In Memory of Edmund Yeung) l Nishikawa-ryu Dance Group l Hitomi Nunotani l Kimiko Oseki l Noriko Otaki l John Philip & Reiko Richardson l Mel Roth l Yuko Shibata l Kathy Shimizu (In Memory of Edmund Yeung) l Reiko Tagami (In Memory of Edmund Yeung) l Ka-zuko Takahashi

The Powell Street Festival gratefully acknowledges the finan-cial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Depart-ment of Canadian Heritage, the BC Arts Council, the City of Vancouver through the Office of Cultural Affairs, Bulletin Magazine.

Po w e l l S t r e e t Fe s t i v a l S o c i e t y 4 7 5 A l e x a n d e r S t r e e t Va n c o u v e r, B C V 6 A 1 C 6 t e l : 6 0 4 . 7 3 9 . 9 3 8 8 f a x : 6 0 4 . 7 3 9 . 9 3 0 8

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