{"id":5874,"date":"2014-07-25T00:13:04","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T07:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=5874"},"modified":"2014-07-23T15:56:12","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T22:56:12","slug":"gena-perala-plays-harmony-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2014\/07\/25\/gena-perala-plays-harmony-arts\/","title":{"rendered":"Gena Perala plays Harmony Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gena Perala plays at Harmony Arts Festival on Aug. 3. (photo from Gena Perala)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCreating songs, writing music and poetry, is its own reward,\u201d said Gena Perala. The young poet and songwriter is still striving to find her niche in the Vancouver poetic community but she knows exactly who she is. \u201cI\u2019m a creative, an artist. I love words,\u201d she said in an interview with the Independent<\/em>. \u201cI started performing my poems in the Vancouver Poetry Slam but I love music, too. Sometimes, I just write music or sing but I consider myself a writer first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her artistic life began in touring carnivals. \u201cMy parents were carnies. My dad ran a bunch of games on the carnival circuit. He traveled year round, only sometimes coming home. My mom, with the kids, stayed home in White Rock during the school years and then, every summer, we would join the carnival and travel with my father. I loved it. There were people from all walks of life and all nations in the carnival. I was exposed to many cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is mostly self-taught. \u201cI took some lessons in piano, guitar and voice but, for my poetry, I read a lot. I read classics. I read lots of Russian literature.\u2026 You can\u2019t really \u2018teach\u2019 writing poetry. There is no formula. I facilitate poetry workshops in high school; have been doing it for the last few years. I\u2019m trying to show teenagers how to express themselves poetically. Of course, there is some structure, some poetic devices, but there are so many ways to write poetry. I help students to access those ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also leads poetry seminars for young offenders. \u201cA teacher who knew me from my high school poetry workshops asked me to do the same at a correctional facility for teenagers, ages 13 to 17. It\u2019s the same process, and the kids are like any other kids, they just lacked some love in their lives. During the workshops, I try to let them know that they\u2019re valuable, that their thoughts and ideas are interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, her poetry often slants towards social themes. A few years ago, she participated in a B.C. poetry competition about the importance of voting \u2013 and won it. \u201cI think it\u2019s important to vote,\u201d she said, \u201cespecially for us, women. We have only been allowed to vote for the past hundred years or so. We should exercise that right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going from writing and reciting poetry to writing and performing songs was a small and logical leap. While the activity itself is highly rewarding, however, it\u2019s not a lucrative career. \u201cI make money by waitressing,\u201d Perala said with a laugh. \u201cWith my songs and poetry, I\u2019m lucky if I break even.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lately, she has been touring, and that has helped financially. \u201cI\u2019ve had several tours recently, after I released my album Exactly Nowhere<\/em>. I performed in Toronto, New York and on the West Coast. Touring is very reassuring for me. When I tour, I\u2019m usually the feature of a concert. I sell out my discs. I connect with people. My songs resonate with them. They come to me after the shows and we talk. Once, I met a group of surfers, young guys, in California. They loved my songs. But, in Vancouver, it\u2019s hard to get exposure. It\u2019s a tough town to get shows here. It\u2019s probably the hardest challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perala keeps trying, and she is constantly learning new skills. One of the most fascinating projects for her was the making of her first music video, Living Proof<\/em>. She expounded on its creation: \u201cI hired a bunch of professionals to help me, but the vision was mine. I wanted to be floating, but to film that would be terribly expensive. The director, Blake Farber, suggested we use a fan and some scarves and ribbons. It came out very well. And I have tons of other ideas. As soon as I scrounge some money\u2026.\u201d She smiled. \u201cFortunately, my fan base is growing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Locals might see her this summer playing piano around Vancouver as part of the Keys to the Streets project. \u201cI first learned about a similar project, Street Piano, when I lived in New York,\u201d she said. \u201cThey installed 60 pianos in the streets during the summer, and anyone who wanted to play could. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I was walking down a street and, suddenly, there was a piano and a guy was playing it. I stopped and listened. Later, we talked. He was a professional pianist in the past but hadn\u2019t played for awhile; he didn\u2019t have an instrument at home. I didn\u2019t either, so I played it, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cVancouver started a similar project \u2013 put 10 pianos in the streets during July and August. I played one last year. I have a keyboard at home now, but that was a real piano. I\u2019m going to do it this year, too. You always meet people there. Some listen, others play. I love people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perala\u2019s next performance will be at the Harmony Arts Festival on Aug. 3, 3 p.m., at Millennium Park in West Vancouver (harmonyarts.ca\/gena-perala<\/a>). To learn more about Perala and her work, visit genaperala.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Olga Livshin<\/strong> is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gena Perala plays at Harmony Arts Festival on Aug. 3. (photo from Gena Perala) \u201cCreating songs, writing music and poetry, is its own reward,\u201d said Gena Perala. The young poet and songwriter is still striving to find her niche in the Vancouver poetic community but she knows exactly who she is. \u201cI\u2019m a creative, an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[788],"tags":[1684,1685],"class_list":["post-5874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-gena-perala","tag-harmony-arts-festival"],"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\/5874","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=5874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}