UBCO Visiting Author Series Presents poet/writer Michael V. Smith and poet/author Hannah Calder at the Okanagan Library – Kelowna Branch through the Bodies of Knowledge Summer Writing Intensive

Date: 14 July, 2016
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Kelowna Branch of the Okanagan Regional Library, 1380 Ellis St., V1Y 2A2

Everyone is welcome to this exciting Visiting Authors reading series event, presented by the UBCO Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, in conjunction with the Bodies of Knowledge Summer Writing Intensive.

Hannah Calder is the author of two novels, More House (2009) and Piranesi’s Figures (2016), both published by New Star Books. Her poetry and fiction have also appeared in various journals, including West Coast Line and The Capilano Review. She lives in Vernon, B.C., where she teaches English Literature and Creative Writing at Okanagan College.

Michael V. Smith is a multi-talented force of nature: a novelist, poet, improv comic, filmmaker, drag queen, performance artist, and occasional clown, teaching in creative writing in the interdisciplinary program of the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBC Okanagan. His latest book, My Body Is Yours (2015 Arsenal Pulp) is a memoir about breaking out of gender norms and breaking free of a hurtful past.
Also reading this evening are the students of UBC Okanagan’s creative writing summer intensive course, Bodies of Knowledge.

The Bodies of Knowledge contemporary disability studies and literary criticism research intensive runs for two weeks at in July at UBCO is chaired by Assistant Professor and author/poet Matt Rader, creative writing faculty at UBCO and is important as it features visiting artists and academics from a wide range of research/artistic practices.

This is a free event. Doors open at 5:30 pm. Reading commences at 6:00 pm.

For more information about this event, please contact:

Clayton McCann, Research Assistant, UBCO FCCS, bwgreview@gmail.com

Peter Morin and Ayumi Goto guideing participants through a performative introduction to bodies in spaces

After a highly successful first week, the O k’inādās Residency and Summer Indigenous Intensive are in full swing.

The Indigenous Summer Intensive, coordinated by the Creative Studies Department, in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, features a core group of senior artists who will be developing new work addressing issues related to the ongoing complex responses to reconciliation, and art-making practices as a radical methodology for decolonization and Indigenizing contemporary theoretical discourse and art praxis.

Everyone is invited to attend discussions, events, and openings! We have compiled a short list of some of what’s coming up next week so that anyone who is interested and able to attend can plan ahead.

Tuesday, July 12

Eyes Closed Blind Field Shuttle
Carmen Papalia, Social Practice artist based in Vancouver, will be leading ‘Eyes Closed Blind Field Shuttle’ through downtown Kelowna. Participants are asked to meet at 9am at the Rotary Centre for the Arts.

Wednesday, July 13

Round table discussion, UNC Theatre (UBCO Campus) at noon.
Guests Adrian Stimson, David Khang, Lori Blondeau, Carmen Papalia, and Michelle Jacques will be joining us for the second of the weekly Round Table discussion series.

Last week’s highly successful talk grew out of a consideration of the notion of The Body, a body, or bodies (ours, collective, national, personal) in relation to artists’ creative practice and as a site of resistance and resiliency.

Building on last week’s panel discussion we thought we would continue the theme this week by asking our current panel to discuss how The Body might be seen as an expression of Territory and Sovereignty?”

Thursday, July 14

Aboriginal and Traditional Ecological Knowledge Keeper Richard Armstrong will lead us in welcome and in discussion of the Okanagan-Similkameen – unceded territory of the Syilx people. Please join us at noon by the Stone Circle by the pond, on campus, near Platypus House.

Friday, July 15

Double opening at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art. 7-9pm
Farheen Haq: Being Home and Shannon Lester: Of Goddesses and Mothers

Kelowna Art Gallery, 7pm Opening – Deborah Koenker: Grapes and Tortillas (solo show on Mexican seasonal agricultural workers in the Okanagan).

We hope you can join us at some (or all) of the above events. It looks to be an exciting second week of the the O k’inādās Residency and Summer Indigenous Art Intensive Program.

Click HERE for a list of other upcoming disucssions or for more information visit www.rmooc.ca

The Indigenous Summer Intensive, coordinated by the Creative Studies Department, in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, is being held on campus from July 4th until August 15th. The program features a core group of senior artists: Rebecca Belmore, Lori Blondeau, David Garneau, and Adrian Stimson, and includes upward of 20 visiting studio artists in residence. These artists will be developing new work addressing issues related to the ongoing complex responses to reconciliation, and art-making practices as a radical methodology for decolonization and Indigenizing contemporary theoretical discourse and art praxis.

Alongside the intensive residency, FCCS is offering numerous courses in visual art, creative writing, and performance. All of these courses will run in conjunction with the Indigenous Summer Intensive with varying degrees of crossover between them.

During the Summer Indigenous Intensive, a series of exciting discussions with writers, artists, curators and performers taking part in the O k’inādās Complicated Reconciliations Art Residency, will be held each Wednesday, starting July 6th and continuing to August 10.

WHAT: O k’inādās Round Table Discussions
WHEN: 12 noon – 2 PM every Wednesday from July 6-August 10
WHERE: The University Theatre (ADM026), 3333 University Way, Kelowna
FREE: Open to all community and university members

Wed. July 6:
Rodrigo Hernandez-Gomez, David Garneau, Rebecca Belmore, Jordan Scott, Cecily Nicholson

Wed. July 13:
David Khang, Adrian Stimson, Lori Blondeau, Carmen Papalia, Michelle Jacques

Wed. July 20:
Kevin Ei-ichi deForest , Mark Igloliorte, Mimi Gellman, Haruko Okano, Osvaldo Yero, Raymond Boisjoly

Wed. July 27:
Olivia Whetung, Tania Williard, Tannis Nielson, Cathy Mattes, Charles Campbell, Elizabeth LaPensée

Wed. August 3:
Srimoyee Mitra, Michelle LaValle, Evan Lee, Jackson 2bears, Aaron Franks , Leah Decter,

Wed. August 10:
Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Millie Chen, Julie Okot Bitek, Warren Cariou, Annie Ross, Camille Turner

This project is supported by a Canada Council reconciliation grant, the McConnell Foundation, and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan campus.

UBC’s Public Art Pollinator Pasture Project will be running a series of events at the Kelowna Art Gallery this summer in conjunction with the gallery show, For All is For Yourself. The opening reception for the show is on Saturday, July 9 from 2 -4 PM.

Cameron Cartier installing For All is For Yourself

The Gallery exhibition For All is For Yourself aims to raise interest and awareness of the plight of native pollinators in British Columbia (and across the country). This collaborative artwork was produced with the support of over 100 individuals across Kelowna, Richmond and Vancouver who assisted in creating the hand-made seed paper that was transformed into the 10,000 bumblebees on the gallery walls. Each bee holds the potential to produce a mini “pollinator pasture” and is a poetic representation of two living earthworks that are developing in Richmond and Kelowna. The show will be up in the Front Space of the Kelowna Art Gallery from June 20 – October 9th 2016.

Dr. Cameron Cartiere, the artist and researcher who created For All is For Yourself will be giving an artist talk on Friday, July 8 7 – 8:30 PM. Dr. Cartiere, who is from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, will talk about the development of the installation, the Richmond and Kelowna Bee Pastures, and how these can contribute to helping our wild bee populations. People are invited to pre-register.

All events are free admission and take place at the Kelowna Art Gallery, 1315 Water St, Kelowna.

Other events this summer include:

Thursday, July 21: Claudette and Eian Lamont Talk 7- 8:30PM
Claudette and her husband, Eian, will share their vast knowledge and experience of over 50 years of beekeeping in the Okanagan. She will share photographs, discuss honeybees, the land and the changing climate they have experienced farming on one site for many years together. Please pre-register at: claudettelamont.eventbrite.ca

Sunday, August 21: Bees Live Here- Family Sunday Event at the KAG, 1 – 4 PM
Did you know many bees actually live in the ground? And that healthy garden homes for bees save some special requirements? Let’s make some special signs to mark where we find bee homes in our yards and to let our neighbours and friends know we have Bee Friendly Gardens.

Contact ecoartokanagan@gmail.com for more information or Nancy Holmes at nancy.holmes@ubc.ca .
SPEAKER BIOS:

Dr. Cameron Cartiere is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Culture + Community at Emily Carr University of Art & Design. She is a practitioner, writer and researcher specializing in public art, curatorial practice, urban renewal, sculpture and sculpture parks. She is the author of RE/Placing Public Art, co-editor of The Practice of Public Art, and co-author of the Manifesto of Possibilities: Commissioning Public Art in the Urban Environment. Her current book (with Martin Zebracki, University of Leeds, UK) is The Everyday Practice of Public Art: Art, Space, and Social Inclusion. Her new SSHRC-funded research, “Public art pollinator pastures: new models of creative community engagement for sustainable environmental impact” is based in Richmond and Kelowna in conjunction with Nancy Holmes of UBC Okanagan. Richmond city partners include the Sustainability Unit, Public Art and Parks departments. Kelowna city partners include the Public Art and Parks departments. The Richmond Pollinator Pasture is located in Bridgeport Industrial Park. The Kelowna Pollinator Pasture is located in Brent’s Grist Mill.

Claudette and Eain Lamont have been beekeepers for nearly 50 years. With 50 – 60 hives, pollination was their main business; honey came second. Eain came to the Okanagan Mission with his family in 1947. His father, John Lamont, planted the first dwarf apple orchard in the Okanagan. Eain studied insects and science at UBC. While in Germany in 1964, he met the Nobel Prize winner Von Frisch who discovered the waggle dance. The Lamont Apiary is located on Westside Road, just before the Lake Okanagan Resort. Eain and his mother, an artist and first curator of the Kelowna Art Gallery, bought the property in 1957.

Mathieu Aubin, photo taken by Alex Drake

Ph.D. student from FCCS chosen to attend prestigious summer program at Cornell University

Mathieu Aubin, a Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, is one of a select group of advanced graduate students chosen to attend the prestigious School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University for six weeks this summer.

Aubin came to UBC Okanagan after attending TeMIC, held in the summer of 2013 and 2014 on this campus, and notes that the smaller campus feel, the top notch research at this university, and the idea of working with Dr. Karis Shearer, compelled him to apply for the Ph.D. program in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies, starting in 2014.

The summer institute at Cornell University is a six-week intensive program in which faculty members and graduate students from around the world, working in literature and related social sciences, will explore recent developments in critical theory. Aubin will be working alongside leading scholars and theorists, such as Homi Bhabha, Marjorie Levinson, and Timothy Murray.

“This is an important stepping stone in my career and an amazing opportunity to work with some of the leading scholars in this field who have inspired some of my work.” says Aubin.

Top institutions in the U.S. have internal competitions to choose a student to put forward for the program at Cornell. In Aubin’s case, he applied directly, producing a proposal demonstrating why he wanted to be there, his research areas, and what he would bring to the School. Aubin is one of only a few scholars attending from Canada.

Dr. Margaret Reeves, IGS Program Coordinator for FCCS, says that “we are enormously proud of Mathieu Aubin’s accomplishments this year. He will no doubt do us proud at Cornell.”

photo by Darren Hull

Aubin has been a very active and engaged student over the past two years that he has been at UBC Okanagan. He was recently a recipient of the Provost’s Teaching Award; won a Kent Haworth Archival Research Fellowship from York University; assisted in the teaching of a Canadian Literature course with Dr. Shearer; worked as a graduate writing assistant in the Centre for Scholarly Communications; was part of the organizing committee of the 2015 Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference on this campus; was the graduate student representative on the FCCS Graduate Programs and Planning Committee for 2016; hosted the Wonderment of bill bissett in October of 2015; and participated in the Human Library event this past winter.

Aubin’s research focusses on the intersection between Vancouver avant-garde poetry from the 1960s to 1980s, by poets such as bill bissett and Daphne Marlatt, and Vancouver’s lesbian and gay liberation movement. He is looking at the development of queer “counterpublics” (adapting Michael Warner’s term) through the production and circulation of texts that depict non-normative forms of sexuality.

Aubin will be participating in Renata Salecl’s seminar “The Right to Ignorance: Psychoanalysis and Secrets in Times of Surveillance,” which will help him to develop the theoretical framework for his dissertation.

For more information on the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University, visit: blogs.cornell.edu/sctcu/files/2013/08/SCT_Brochure2016.e-view-1c22jsl.pdf

Alyssa Penner, Student Reader at the 2016 Graduation Ceremony

The Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies graduating class of 2016 celebrated their achievements last week during Convocation at UBC’s Okanagan Campus. After years of hard work and dedication, sixty-two students graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, twenty-five students graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and thirteen Masters and PhD students completed their degree.

“All of us in FCCS are proud of the students who walked across the stage at this year’s graduation ceremony,” says FCCS Associate Dean, Dr. Marianne Legault.

Alyssa Penner, graduating with a BA with a major in French and Spanish, was chosen as this year’s Student Reader. At the ceremony, she shared a heartfelt and insightful speech with the students from this year’s graduating class.

“Being chosen as the Student Reader at my graduation ceremony was an incredible honour. After working so hard to earn my Bachelor of Arts degree, graduation was already an exciting event, and the opportunity to speak on behalf of the graduates made the day even more memorable,” says Alyssa.

This was a great opportunity for Alyssa to reflect on her time as a student, and to offer some words of advice and encouragement to her peers. Along with being asked to be the student speaker at graduation, Alyssa was also honoured by receiving the French Essay prize at the end of the semester.

“Moments like these remind me that all of the effort that I have put into my education does not go unnoticed, and I am sure that other students feel the same way! I am so glad to have been a student at UBCO, and I would not hesitate to recommend my school to other people interested in learning something new!” notes Alyssa.

FCCS Graduation Reception, June 9, 2016

After the ceremony, a reception was held in the Creative and Critical Studies building for all of the FCCS graduates and their guests to continue the celebrations of the day. Dr. Robert Eggleston, Dean pro tem addressed the attendees wishing the graduates great success as they embark on their next stages of life.

FCCS is also pleased to recognize the achievements of the following graduating or continuing students who received awards for their outstanding academic performance over this year:

• Samantha Baldwin, BA, Kelly Curtis Memorial Scholarship
• Jordan Bennett, MFA, DVC Purchase Award
• Julia Cave, BA, FCCS Cultural Studies Scholarship
• Ada Cheng, BA, FCCS Spanish Scholarship
• Jia Chen, BFA, DVC Purchase Award
• Brandon Dobroskay, BFA, FCCS Dean’s Office Purchase Award
• Sarah Ellis, BFA, Murry Johnson Memorial Award in Visual Arts
• Shannon England, BFA, Visual Arts Course Union Award
• Tyler Fey, BA in Creative Writing
• Esther-Gabrielle Roy-Cloutier, BFA, UBC Okanagan Visual Arts Award
• Jill Janvier, BFA, Frances Harris Prize in Visual Arts
• Christine Karow, BA in Art History and Visual Culture, FCCS Art History and Visual Culture Scholarship
• Tristan Knoll, BA, German Canadian Harmonie Club Prize in German Studies
• Boaz Kwok, BFA, DVC Purchase Award
• Patricia Leinemann, BFA, Elinor Yandel Memorial Award in Fine Arts
• Amy Malbeuf, MFA, Wilden Creativity Award
• Lauren Marshall, BA in Creative Writing, Creative Writing Prize
• Colby McLean Lincoln, BFA, Visual Arts Course Union Award
• Dustin Mellus, BFA, Craig Hall Visual Arts Scholarship in Printmaking
• Victoria Moore, BFA, Norma and Jack Aitken Prize in Visual Arts
• Paisley Newburn, BC, FCCS French and Spanish Scholarship
• Charlotte Nelson, BFA, Asper Family Scholarship
• Lauren Nixon, BA, FCCS French Scholarship
• Alyssa Penner, BA in French and Spanish, FCCS French Essay Prize
• Jamie Roodzant, BFA, Visual Arts Course Union Award
• Ryan Roman, BFA, DVC Purchase Award
• Sage Sidley, BFA, Doug Biden Scholarship in Visual Arts
• Laureta Stevenson, BFA, Asper Family Scholarship
• Leah Afler, BA, FCCS English Scholarship
• Maranda Wilson, BA in English, Dr. Shelley Martin Memorial Scholarship
• Shangning Zhu, BFA, FCCS Interdisciplinary Performance Scholarship

The Public Art Pollinator Pasture Project at UBC and the UBC/ Okanagan Regional Library’s “Pollinizing Sessions” will focus on events that give “how-to” advice and experience about creating pollinator-friendly habitats in the month of May.

The public is invited to attend Lori Weidenhammer’s launch of her new book, Victory Gardens for Bees: A DIY Guide to Saving the Bees (Douglas & McIntyre) www.douglas-mcintyre.com/book/victory-gardens-for-bees on Thursday, May 26, at the downtown Kelowna branch of the Okanagan Regional Library, 1380 Ellis St. Kelowna from 7 pm – 8:30 pm. Lori Weidenhammer will be giving a talk “Women Who Run with the Bees:  Artists Inspired by Bees and Artist-Led Conservation Projects” and her new book will be for sale.

Lori Weidenhammer is a Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist and gardener.  She has just published a bookVictory Gardens for Bees is buzzing with DIY projects that will help readers provide homes and food for precious pollinators. For the past seven years Lori has been exploring the persona Madame Beespeaker at venues across the country, sharing the tradition of “telling the bees.” She also regularly appears as the Queen Bee at schools and community events. As an artist and educator Weidenhammer works with students of all ages on identifying native plants, eating locally, gardening for pollinators and guerrilla gardening.

Admission is free but people are encouraged to pre-register at  www.eventbrite.ca/e/lori-weidenhammer-author-and-artist-women-who-run-with-the-bees-artists-inspired-by-bees-and-artist-tickets-20131030454

The second event will occur on the weekend of May 28- 29^th when a group of volunteers will help the Pollinator Pasture team create four test patches on the Pollinator Pasture site at the Brent’s Grist Mill in Kelowna.  If you are interested in volunteering to help make these test sites and to learn four different ways to prepare highly disturbed soil for planting, contact ecoartokanagan@gmail.com to sign up for a morning’s work.

The Public Art Pollinator Pasture is a joint project between UBC Okanagan and Emily Carr University who have teamed up for a three-year partnership project with the City of Kelowna and the City Richmond to create community and public art projects around bees.  Find out more information by contacting Nancy Holmes at 250-764-9666.