{"id":37588,"date":"2021-10-08T01:38:09","date_gmt":"2021-10-08T08:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=37588"},"modified":"2021-10-14T15:11:35","modified_gmt":"2021-10-14T22:11:35","slug":"highlighting-social-goodness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2021\/10\/08\/highlighting-social-goodness\/","title":{"rendered":"Highlighting social goodness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nov. 1 online event Finding Grounds for Goodness includes the premi\u00e8re presentation\u00a0of Finding Grounds for Goodness in the Downtown Eastside, which was created\u00a0during last year\u2019s Heart of the City Festival. (photo from Jumblies Theatre)<\/em><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, which runs Oct. 27-Nov. 7, includes the screening of short videos from Jumblies Theatre and partners on the theme of \u201csocial goodness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jumblies\u2019 multi-year Grounds for Goodness project is\u00a0an artful exploration of why and how people sometimes act in good ways towards each other. As it has adapted to community-engaged art-making during pandemic times, this project has generated a varied and whimsical collection of short videos with communities and artists from around Canada.<\/p>\n

At the Nov. 1, 4 p.m., online event Finding Grounds for Goodness, hosted from Toronto by Jumblies staff,\u00a0a sampling\u00a0of these short films will be shared, including the premi\u00e8re presentation\u00a0of Finding Grounds for Goodness in the Downtown Eastside<\/em>, which was created\u00a0during last year\u2019s Heart of the City Festival with DTES creative community members and Vancouver and Toronto artists.<\/p>\n

Jewish community member Ruth Howard is the founder and artistic director of Jumblies Theatre, which makes art in everyday and extraordinary places\u00a0with, for and about the people and stories found there. The Jumblies project was originally inspired by the history about the rescue of Albanian Jews during the Second World War by Albanian Muslim people.<\/p>\n

Composer Martin van de Ven, an expert in klezmer and Jewish music, who has been involved in many Jumblies projects, told the Independent<\/em>, in an interview last year about the DTES\u2019s Grounds for Goodness, about besa<\/em>, \u201can Albanian Islamic concept about hospitality and the need to help and protect guests and those in need within and beyond your community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Albania,\u201d he explained, \u201cduring the Second World War (and Italian and then Nazi occupation), this meant that almost all Jewish people living and finding refuge in Albania were sheltered and hidden, and Albania ended up with a larger Jewish population at the end of the war than at the beginning.\u201d (See jewishindependent.ca\/highlighting-goodness<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The festival at large<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 18th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival is presented by Vancouver Moving Theatre in association with Carnegie Community Centre, the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians and a host of community partners. It will feature more than 100 events throughout the DTES and online.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s festival theme, \u201cStories We Need to Hear,\u201d resonates today as people grapple with the dramatic impact of the pandemic, ongoing displacement, the fentanyl crisis, and the reality of bigotry and systemic racism.<\/p>\n

In the words of late DTES poet Sandy Cameron, \u201cWhen we tell our stories we draw our own maps, and question the maps of the powerful. Each of us has something to tell, something to teach.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 12-day festival includes music, stories, poetry, theatre, ceremony, films, readings, forums, workshops, discussions, art talks, history talks and visual art exhibitions. The Art in the Streets program features surprise pop-up music and spoken word activities on sidewalks and small plazas throughout the historic district.<\/p>\n

A few highlights of this year\u2019s festival are We Live Here<\/em>, a large-scale outdoor project projecting hyper-speed videos of Downtown Eastside artists\u2019 artwork, produced by Radix Theatre; Honouring Our Grandmothers\u2019 Healing Journey Launch<\/em>, three days of ceremony, teachings and storytelling honouring grandmothers who traveled to the DTES (with Further We Rise Collective and Wild Salmon Caravan); and Indigenous Journeys: Solos by Three Woman<\/em>, which profiles local artists Priscillia Mays Tait (Gitxsan\/Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en), Kat Zu\u2019comulwat Norris (Lyackson First Nation) and Gunargie O\u2019Sullivan aka ga\u2019axstasalas (Kwakuilth Nation).<\/p>\n

Elder and activist Grace Eiko Thomson reads from and talks about her book Chiru Sakura (Falling Cherry Blossoms)<\/em>, which chronicles her and her mother\u2019s journey through racism, and Eiko Thomson\u2019s advocacy for the rights of Canadians of Japanese ancestry. In My Art Is Activism: Part III<\/em>, DTES resident Sid Chow Tan shares videos from his archival collection that highlight Chinese Canadian social movements and direct action in Chinatown, particularly redress for Chinese head tax and exclusion. And the ensemble Illicit Projects presents Incarcerated: Truth in Shadows<\/em>, three shadow plays dedicated to people who have faced unjust treatment in Canada\u2019s incarceration system.<\/p>\n

Other events honour various DTES performing artists and shared cultures. The festival involves professional, community, emerging and student artists, and lovers of the arts.<\/p>\n

For tickets and more information, visit heartofthecityfestival.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Courtesy Heart of the City Festival<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nov. 1 online event Finding Grounds for Goodness includes the premi\u00e8re presentation\u00a0of Finding Grounds for Goodness in the Downtown Eastside, which was created\u00a0during last year\u2019s Heart of the City Festival. (photo from Jumblies Theatre) This year\u2019s Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, which runs Oct. 27-Nov. 7, includes the screening of short videos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785,787],"tags":[6299,2466,140,6465,6873,20913,19861,3036,19862,6208],"class_list":["post-37588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","category-tv-film","tag-activism","tag-art","tag-downtown-eastside","tag-dtes","tag-film","tag-heart-of-the-city-festival","tag-jumblies","tag-music","tag-ruth-howard","tag-theatre"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}