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Meet Voyageur: 64 pieces, 6 strings, 1 Canada,
1 Guitar
July 15, 2010
The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts proudly presents
Voyageur, the Six String Nation Guitar. Built almost entirely of pieces of
Canadian history, the guitar features a piece of Pierre Trudeau’s canoe
paddle, Paul Henderson’s hockey stick, a tiny piece of Maurice “Rocket”
Richard’s first Stanley Cup ring and even a piece of the sacred Golden
Spruce of Haida Gwaii.
The history of the guitar goes back to 1995, the eve of the Quebec
Referendum, when CBC Radio host Jowi Taylor was looking for a way
to pull stories together from across the country in the spirit of national
unity. With the help of luthier George Rizsanyi, he spent 10 years
assembling 64 historically significant pieces of wood, bone and metal.
Since the guitar’s debut on Parliament Hill on Canada Day in 2006, it
has been passed from hand to hand across the country, and held and played
by over 50,000 Canadians. Jowi Taylor’s book Six String Nation (Douglas
& McIntyre, 2009), features stunning portraits by Doug Nicholson and
chronicles the conception, creation and adventures of this remarkable
instrument.
Jowi Taylor, Doug Nicholson and Voyageur will be at the Festival of
the Written Arts. Come have your photograph taken with the guitar on
Saturday, August 14 (10 am to 1 pm) and Sunday, August 15 (11 am to 1 pm
and 2 pm to 6 pm). Photos will be taken in the Rockwood Lodge, Sechelt, on
the festival site.
Jowi will share the story of the guitar at the Festival’s closing
night event (Sunday, August 15 at 7:30 pm) with CBC radio host Sheryl
MacKay and local musicians Joe Stanton and The Rakish Angles.
Tickets to this event are $15 and available by calling the Festival office
at 604-885-9631.
“In 1995, I set out to find something that would reflect us better,
more fairly, more interestingly, more uniquely—something that would be
at home wherever it was in Canada, something that could be Aboriginal and
English and French and Immigrant all at the same time, that could put
prime ministers and rebels and sculptors and hockey players and inventors
and oyster shuckers all on one stage singing different tunes and have it
sound like one voice.” (Jowi Taylor, Six String Nation, Douglas
& McIntyre, 2009)
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Summer Newsletter
FESTIVAL OF THE WRITTEN ARTS
SUMMER 2010 NEWSLETTER
Five weeks to go! It's an exciting time of the year for us as the
festival draws nearer and our plans begin to take shape. We're very
excited about the line-up of writers and ticket sales indicate that our
audience is too. All passes, with the exception of two Sunday passes, are
sold out! There are lots of single tickets available with only two events
(Lawrence Hill and Senator Larry Campbell) sold out.
You can purchase your tickets in person at the Festival office (5511
Shorncliffe Avenue in Sechelt, Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4:30 pm) or by
telephone at 604-885-9631 or 1-800-565-9631.
Six String Nation
The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts proudly presents
Voyageur, the Six String Nation Guitar. Built almost entirely of pieces of
Canadian history, the guitar features a piece of Pierre Trudeau's canoe
paddle, Paul Henderson's hockey stick, a tiny piece of Maurice
"Rocket" Richard's first Stanley Cup ring and even a piece of
the sacred Golden Spruce of Haida Gwaii.
The history of the guitar goes back to 1995, the eve of the Quebec
Referendum, when CBC Radio host Jowi Taylor was looking for a way
to pull stories together from across the country in the spirit of national
unity. With the help of luthier George Rizsanyi, he spent 10 years
assembling 64 historically significant pieces of wood, bone and metal.
Since the guitar's debut on Parliament Hill on Canada Day in 2006, it
has been passed from hand to hand across the country, held and played by
over 50,000 Canadians. Jowi Taylor's book Six String Nation
(Douglas & McIntyre, 2009), features stunning portraits by Doug
Nicholson and chronicles the conception, creation and adventures of this
remarkable instrument.
Jowi Taylor, Doug Nicholson and Voyageur will be at the Festival
of the Written Arts. You are invited to have your photograph taken with
the guitar on Saturday, August 14 (10 am to 1 pm) and Sunday, August 15
(9 am to 1 pm and 2 pm to 6 pm). Photos will be taken in the Rockwood
Lodge, Sechelt.
On Sunday evening, in the Festival Pavilion, Jowi will share the story
of the guitar at the Festival's closing night event (Sunday, August 15
at 7:30 pm) with host Sheryl MacKay and local musicians Joe
Stanton and The Rakish Angles. Tickets to this event are $15
and available by calling the Festival office at 604-885-9631.
"In 1995, I set out to find something that would reflect us
better, more fairly, more interestingly, more uniquely-something that
would be at home wherever it was in Canada, something that could be
Aboriginal and English and French and Immigrant all at the same time, that
could put prime ministers and rebels and sculptors and hockey players and
inventors and oyster shuckers all on one stage singing different tunes and
have it sound like one voice." (Jowi Taylor, Six String Nation,
Douglas & McIntyre, 2009)
Writers in the News
Ian Brown, currently eating his way across Canada (you can read
about his culinary adventures at www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/ian-brown-eats-canada),
has won the Trillium Book Award, his third major award for The Boy In
The Moon: A Father's Search for his Disabled Son.
The Sunshine Coast is so proud of Sarah Roberts! Sarah, one of
our New Voices (with Craig Boyko on Sunday, August 15 at
2:30) has won the $10,000 Danuta Gleed Award for a first collection of
short fiction. Wax Boats was published by Sunshine Coast publisher,
Caitlin Press. Not only that, we hear she's been tweeted by Margaret
Atwood!
Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes, published in the US
as Someone Knows My Name, has been included on Oprah's 2010 Summer
Reading List. This is a shot in the arm for a book that has already sold
over 400,000 copies in Canada and still sits on the Canadian Booksellers
Association's bestseller list.
Meanwhile, new books (with great reviews) from Ryan Knighton, Adam
Lewis Schroeder, Joan Thomas and Jack Hodgins were launched this
spring.
Green Initiatives
Please support our efforts to reduce waste by bringing your own water
bottles and coffee cups. Bottled water will no longer be sold on the
festival site but drinking water will be available. We will also have
snazzy stainless steel water bottles for sale.
Our food vendors will be using compostable products. All food waste,
compostable plates and cutlery, paper and cardboard will be sent to Direct
Disposal's commercial composter instead of the landfill. We will use up
our existing stock of plastic beer and wine glasses but they will be
collected separately and delivered to the recycling depot. (Next year:
compostable drinking cups all the way!) Returnable drink containers will
be collected by Habitat for Humanity. Empty wine bottles and organic
kitchen waste will go to the Sunshine Coast Association for Community
Living. Clearly labelled recycling bins will be set up throughout the
site. And, once again, the Festival program will be printed on 100% post
consumer recycled paper stock.
Festival Food Fair
Saffron Restaurant and Pierrot To Go will be joined this
year by Feastro, The Rolling Bistro. They will be serving their
delicious fare from 11 am to 7 pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The
Festival will have a booth to sell baked goods, juice and pop; Carol
Cairns will be back with freshly brewed and specialty coffee (locally
roasted, fair trade and organic) and, last but not least, our charming
bartenders will be pleased to quench your thirst with beer, wine and
cider.
Less than a handful of tickets are left for the Pebbles Restaurant
Salmon Dinner that will be served on Sunday evening at 5:30 pm.
Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the Festival office. Please note:
the dinner will be served at Pebbles Restaurant, and not on the Festival
site.
Parking
Parking can get very congested around the festival site. If you drive
and are feeling fit, please park further away and leave the spots closest
to the festival for people for whom a long trek is challenging or even
impossible. Read the street signs! There are no parking areas on some of
the neighbouring streets and you risk being towed if you park in the wrong
spot. There is limited parking available next to us at St. Hilda's
(Thursday to Saturday only) and there's a large parking lot at Chatelech
Secondary School, just up the hill behind us. Consider using public
transit. The schedule is online at www.transitbc.com/regions/sun/.
Introduce a Friend to the Festival
We will be holding "Two for One" ticket promotions for select
Festival events on the following dates and at the following
locations:
- Saturday, July 24 from 10 am to 2 pm outside the Sunshine Coast
Credit Union in Madeira Park
- Friday, July 30 from 2 pm to 6 pm at the Sunnycrest Mall in
Gibsons
- Saturday, August 7 from 10 am to 2 pm at the Trail Bay Centre in
Sechelt
Festival Board members will be there to take your order for tickets and
answer your questions about the Festival. This ticket offer will be
available for certain events and only during these promotional events.
Drop by and say hello and enter our free raffle for a Festival gift
basket.
It's Quintuplets!
Congratulations to the Rockwood Gardens raccoon, proud (and very
protective) mother of five kits. They seem to have taken up residence in
the tall cedar tree beside the Festival Pavilion. As cute as they may be,
we are seeking advice from a raccoon expert to find out if our raccoon
family can peacefully co-exist with hundreds of visitors to the gardens.
It's all in a day's work!
All for now. We look forward to seeing you August 12-15 in the Rockwood
Gardens in Sechelt.
Cheers,
Jane
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Celebration of Authors, Books and Children
Report on 2009-10 Activities
Celebration of Authors, Books and Children (CABC), a joint
initiative of the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, School
District No. 46 (Sunshine Coast), Sechelt Public Library and the Sunshine
Coast Arts Council, has wrapped up its third successful year of bringing
Canadian writers and Sunshine Coast students together.
CABC goals are:
- To present writers of diverse genres and cultures including Canada’s
First Nations
- To promote reading, writing and literacy
- To inspire, encourage and support the students’ development as
readers, writers and storytellers
- To support the curriculum and literacy goals of SD 46 and the BC
Ministry of Education
January 2010
The first phase of 2009-10 CABC programming took place during Family
Literacy Week, with writers Nicola Campbell and Ivan Coyote.
Nicola Campbell visited Gibsons and Kinnikinnick Elementary
Schools on Friday, January 29. Nicola Campbell is a writer of Interior
Salish and Métis ancestry. Both of her books, Shi-shi-etko and its
sequel Shin-chi’s Canoe, are poetic and moving accounts of life
in a residential school, written for the primary grades. Shin-chi’s
Canoe won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. Both books were
illustrated by Roberts Creek resident, Kim Lafave.
Ivan Coyote met with students from the Sunshine Coast
Alternative School in Gibsons and Sechelt on Tuesday, January 26. The
students of the Culinary Arts Program provided lunch at the Sechelt
school. Ivan Coyote was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. An
award-winning author of four collections of short stories, one novel, two
CD’s, four short films and a renowned performer, Ivan’s first love is
live storytelling, and over the last thirteen years she has become an
audience favourite at music, poetry, spoken word and writer’s festivals
from Anchorage to Amsterdam.
Spring 2010
Award-winning Canadian poet George Elliott Clarke read at
Chatelech on Friday, April 9. Clarke was brought to the Sunshine Coast for
a public reading by the Gibsons Live Poets Society, led by local poet and
teacher, Susan Telfer. CABC funded a school visit to Susan's Grade 11
English class.
Toronto-based First Nations dance-theatre company, Red Sky Performance
brought their production of Raven Stole the Sun to the Raven’s
Cry Theatre on Thursday afternoon, April 22. Students from Kinnikinnick
and Sechelt Elementary Schools as well as the Sechelt Language students
from Chatelech attended. The play is by Drew Hayden Taylor, based on a
traditional Tlingit story as recounted by Sháa Tláa Maria Williams.
CABC programming continued with Maggie deVries on May 3 and 4.
deVries is the author of a number of books for children including Tale
of a Great White Fish (about the Fraser River sturgeon) and her new
book, Fraser Bear: A Cub's Life. This book follows a black bear
cub's life from birth to his first salmon catch, uniting the cycles of
bear and salmon. Maggie visited Roberts Creek, Cedar Grove, Langdale and
Madeira Park Elementary Schools.
Finally, Brad Cran and Gillian Jerome, co-authors of Hope in
Shadows, a collection of profiles of residents of Vancouver's Downtown
Eastside, were on the Sunshine Coast on Friday, May 14. Hope in Shadows
won the Vancouver Book Award and was nominated for a BC Book Prize. Brad
and Gillian are also poets. Brad is Vancouver's Poet Laureate and
Gillian's book, Red Nest (Nightwood Editions) was recently
nominated for a BC Book Prize. Brad and Gillian visited both Chatelech and
Elphinstone Secondary Schools.
CABC reached over 1000 students this year thanks to the financial
support of:
The McLean Foundation, the Sunshine Coast Literacy Council, and the Rotary
Clubs of Sechelt and Gibsons. Doug and Deborah Proby, the managers of
Raven’s Cry Theatre, donated the use of the theatre for Raven Stole
the Sun.
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