Eastside Stories

Eastside Stories: The People, The Voices

Friday June 19 to Sunday June 21
Locations in the Downtown Eastside, including Carnegie Community Centre and radha yoga & eatery.
Most events are free.

Eastside Stories: The People, The Voices is a three-day community story-sharing event that gives voice – through music, films, social history walks, and personal histories – to Downtown Eastside-involved residents and their struggles, hopes and dreams.

Eastside Stories is about individuals talking – in their own words – about their experiences and ways of being in the world. These stories are not always easy to hear, nor easy to tell. They uncover hardships and defeats, but they also reveal the community’s strengths and possibilities. Loss is a profound turning point in many of these stories, as is the struggle for justice and human rights that plays a part in the process of transformation.

Eastside Stories celebrates people who manage to thrive and be decent to each other in spite of terrible obstacles. These stories remember those who have been lost and those who have re-discovered who they are. These stories honour our ancestors and heroes past and present.

Highlights include:
East End Blues and All That Jazz, Vancouver Moving Theatre’s dynamic musical tribute to the DTES’ historic black community. This production features two of Vancouver’s finest gospel and blues greats: singers Candus Churchill and Tom Pickett. Joining the artistic team is a cast of fine musicians and actor/singers: musical director/pianist Bill Costin and bass player Timothy Stacey, DTES-raised actor Chic Gibson and singer Thelma Towns-Gibson. This soul-stirring evening of gospel and blues, jazz and memories was created by Denis Simpson and Savannah Walling, with assistance from the late Mr. Leonard Gibson. East End Blues and All That Jazz commemorates the Fountain Chapel, the Harlem Nocturne, Vie’s Chicken & Steak House, and reflects on the elusive Hogan’s Alley.
June 20, 7:30pm, Carnegie Community Centre, 401 Main Street;
June 21, 7:30pm, radha yoga & eatery, 728 Main Street

Story sharing sessions at Carnegie include The Fight for Community Recognition with guests Jean Swanson and Sandy Cameron (Fri June 19, 7pm), digital stories of Everyday Heroes from writers and artists of the DTES (Sat June 20, 3pm), and Standing up for Community with Shirley Chan, Hayne Wai and Larry Wong (Sun June 21, 3pm). Special guests Brad Cran, Vancouver’s new poet laureate, and Gillian Jerome share their experiences as co-editors of the award-winning book Hope In Shadows (Sat June 20, 11am).

Eastside Stories: The People, The Voices takes place Friday June 19 to Sunday June 21, at locations in the Downtown Eastside, including Carnegie Community Centre and radha yoga & eatery. Most events are free.