culture spinnin

folks, check out this video. it's a riot. (especially when all you CAN do is laugh..... .. .... . )

joinus.thetyee.ca/

in case you haven't heard of the tyee -- get acquainted. brilliant, brilliant online reporting.

town hall meeting TUESDAY, yep, June 19n :: ILLUMINARES LANTERN FESTIVAL -- yours, yo. ours.

Hello Creative Community, Movers and Shakers!
I'm sorry for the mad late notice -- but this is reeeeally important! Please see details below and join me and us at the Trout Lake Community Centre on Tuesday evening... ooh... sooo soon!

The Vancouver Community has been attending Public Dreams Society's Illuminares Lantern Procession in Trout Lake Park for 19 years now. I know many of you remember it from it's grassroots. We need to hear from you! The Public Dreams coordinating team is working hard at keeping the creative community engaged and energized and we're especially keen about honoring tradition and culture creation. Not to say we won't unveil some really wonderful new ideas.

Come and tell us what you think. We may even bribe you with hot chocolate and cookies


Trout Lake Community Centre (Victoria Dr and 15th Ave),
Tuesday June 19, 2007 7-9:30pm


Onwards and upwards! Drives of Dreams!



Love ya! Andrea

as well as you want

i've been lying with an ear closer to the ground and skin a bit thinner..
uncovering stories that are closer to the surface than i'd imagined
paying attention to -- and learning more about my friends and acquaintances lives, folks that i work with

i've learned in the past week that one lost her brother and her father within three months last year
another who is supporting her sister through a battle at the threshold
one who's father is dying
another who's sister lost her baby at childbirth
one is working through a divorce
someone's brother is handicapped, battling alchoholism

i don't mean to overwhelm, but this was all in the last week. and this is no more than usual. only, i've been sensitive to it and listening.

i am grieving for my baby cousin, 18 yrs, who is in the icu in calgary, in and out of a coma following life-threatening burns to face, neck, arms.

and i'm paying attention to how we all sypathize and connect when life and death are the skin on the surface
(and how to.. and what to.. given that we're all so much more comfortable talking about the weather.)

just encountered a terribly disheartening phrase in the globe and mail

"the corporate womb"


(not assuming all corporations are the devil.. but given the context of the article..)


eeeeh.

you're going down the rabbit hole anyways...

saturday, march 24 ... main and 3rd (casa del artista)

why not volunteer? you get in for free, only commit a couple of hours and strengthen your already vibrant network by helping put on a really fab fundraisin party. oooh! the love!

we still need 2 folks on door from 12-2am.
help always needed for set-up and tear-down. (some set up will be done on friday, some tear down on sunday)
a hand or two welcome for partying ambassadors who keep an eye out for stray cats and empties.

email me at orangeandorange@gmail.com for more details and i'll hook you up.

lovely!

andrea
on behalf of one fine fine in the house festival

for the muthah

what would it look like if no one cared and we all worked together, celebrating an explosive GDP, plenty of resource and energy to export and land to occupy regardless of who's home or habitat we chew up?

frightening, eh.... but it ain't the case, there are a lot of folks who care an awful lot.

it's overwhelming! admit you don't know! love yerself! love em bros & sisters... and the insperable life support system! hola!
_________________________________
lot's of politics. it ain't so bad.
a small, interactive way to participate in democracy:

www.letelizabethspeak.ca

send the women to the front lines! they approach with dirt under their fingernails.
click the link. send your word.
by the way... in case you hadn't heard yet... we're anticipating a vote of non confidence if the federal budget isn't passed on the 19th of march. that means... good chance of FERDERAL ELECTION THIS SPRING.

stay in the loop. we'll do some digging.

ten months.

march 5

i got up early this morning. 15 minute bike ride downtown..
courthouse.
probably only there for total of an hour.
all brief. small time.

before the crowds, soaked in rain, full of spirit, were all able to filter into the courtroom, the sentence had been spoken
10 months.
they stalled us getting into the room through metal detectors and searches.
{ i hate to use 'them' and 'us' .... but folks, i was wondering out loud when we're going to admit that we're living in a police state. }
"10 months!" we gasped "SHAME" SHAME" SHAME" we cried
i had tears. we were so choked. from the pits of our stomachs and backs of our throats. ( worsened from biking downtown behind rush hour exhaust pipes)
i knew that we couldn't yell -- we had to sing.
i turned to the folks around me, looking at the wet cheeks and pale faces of the crowd in the court house lobby. heart pounding, kind of frantic, really... and i asked them all to sing. that we should sing. YES we NEED to use our VOICES. not to shout shame from our throats, but to cry in unison and harmony.
nothing.
no answers.
no songs.
and i realize, as if i'm lacking a language to communicate between our hearts, like there should be a tongue in my chest cavity -- that we share no songs. nothing appropriate.
nothing but words to shout when we needed to be loud and to cry with one strong voice.
i turned to the first nations women. i asked them to please lead us in song.
they pulled their skin drums from bags hung on their shoulders and stood in doors between the outside and the courthouse and chanted. everyone raised their hands and their VOICES. they closed their eyes and turned their faces and palms to the spirit and sang their hearts' sadness together.

betty krawczyk, 78 year old grandmother, mother of 9 children, fighter for a humanity that doesn't poison and destroy as we do, had been sentenced to 10 months in incarceration.
i remind you that harriet nahanee, 71 year old grandmother and native elder, served a 14 day sentence for an injunction that cost her her life. in poor health she was put into a holding cell in surrey correctional and developed pneumonia.

for the land. for life.

brief. my commitment hasn't added up to much. my past experience with the issues has been limited.
but, y'all.. it's added to the catalyst a lifetime of real work.

politics and culture... observation, performance, growth, community, excitement, movement, fear, creation ... all very real. connected.
and i commit, because i have no other choice, to promote and preserve and build around it all.
for you and with you.

in?

March 2nd until the 8th -- RIO THEATRE

Ohboy! Controversy unleashed! HA!
Check these films out... You'll want to know what the buzz is all about after these things hit the big screen and shake up the grassroots.

RIO THEATRE (Broadway and Commercial)
Friday, March 2 - Thursday, March 8
7:00pm Indecent Exposure to Cars – World Naked Bike Ride, The Movie
9:15pm Five Ring Circus – The Untold Story of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games

(see below for deets...)
_____________________________________________________________________

Indecent Exposure to Cars – World Naked Bike Ride, The Movie (www.worldnakedbikeride.org/movi....htm)

I've met folks who think this is a joke. Ha! Nope…. In-the-flesh butts on bikes… And a lot of your asses on screen to prove it! Yep, this documentary was mostly filmed in Vancouver… a good chance you're in it. Heheeh. This is indeed one of the world's largest synchronized reclaim-the-streets style guerrilla demonstration to counter oil-dependancy. "Use your ass! Use less gas!" chanted in countless languages across the globe. See footage of the hoards of naked cyclists who took to the streets in Sydney, Barcelona, London, Portland, Aukland, Chicago, Brisbane, San Francisco… Click the link to see the trailer.

Rio Theatre (Broadway & Commercial)
March 2nd - 8th at 7:15pm
Matinee on Sunday, March 4th at 2pm
Advance tickets for the March 2nd premiere can be purchased from Pivot Legal Society (678 E Hastings), the Vegetarian Resource Center (2250 Commercial Drive), and Our Community bikes (3283 Main Street). Guest appearance from the bicycle dance group, the Dancebellies.
Tickets, $7.

The Five Ring Circus will be released at the same time. You'll want to see them both (details below) – The bill for both shows is $12. Yeeow! What a steal.


_______________________________________________

Five Ring Circus – The Untold Story of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games (www.TheFiveRingCircus.com)

This is pretty important stuff, folks. The seedy underbelly of the Olympic corporate and enviro-crunching, pavement-pouring, home-stealing agenda exposed and on screen. Controversy unleashed.

"Those who are genuinely concerned about Vancouver's plummeting status as Canada's most livable city should check out Conrad Schmidt's Five Ring Circus, a thoughtful documentary intended to expose Vancouver's much-vaunted day in the sun as a significant epicentre of these seismic tensions. In contradistinction to the shiny, happy PR disseminated by our government, in collusion with construction, real estate, and hospitality interests, the 2010 Olympics is already a colossal disaster, and Schmidt does a brilliant job of probing many of the most concerning contours and fault lines." (For the rest of this review, see: vancouvergo.com/Olympics20...d-schmidt/)

See interviews with mayors Derek Corrigan, Richard Walton, and Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, University of Toronto Professor Helen Lenskyj, Christopher Shaw of 2010 Watch, Sara MacIntyre of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Kim Kerr of DERA, David Eby of Pivot Legal, Betty Krawczyk and many others. Special appearances by Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, Premier Gordon Campbell and members of the Vancouver police department.

Find out what all these folks have to say about the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. Decided for yourself what Vancouver is doing to uphold the title of "The Greenest Games Ever!" What will these three weeks in 2010 do to the social, economic and environmental sustainability of our city and community? We have three years, but a lot of catching up to do.

View the trailer:
www.TheFiveRingCircus.com

The film will hit the Rio Theatre (Broadway & Commercial) on
March 2nd and run until the 8th at 9pm
Matinee on Sunday, March 4th at 4:30pm
Advance tickets for the March 2nd premiere can be purchased from Pivot Legal Society (678 E Hastings), the Vegetarian Resource Center (2250 Commercial Drive).
Director Conrad Schmidt, Pivot Lawyer David Eby and Betty Krawzcyk will be in attendance to answer questions following the March 2nd screening. This will sell event will out.
Tickets, $8.

Indecent Exposure to Cars will be playing at the same time. Again, you'll want to see them both – The bill to see the two documentaries is $12.

your environment and your mothers

Come to the Press Conference
{Thursday March 1, 2007 from 10 am-noon, Aboriginal Friendship Center 1607 East Hastings St. (at Commercial)}
Write a letter to the Editor
Give Justice Brown a word from the grassroots
Make enough noise that it will be impossible to send another one of our grandmothers, heros, friends -- Betty Krawczyk, to lock-up.
{Her sentencing will take place Monday March 5th at 9 am at the Courthouse (206-800 Smithe Street)}

______________________________________________________________________.

Harriet Nahanee, elder, warrior and supporter for the Eagleridge Bluff defenders passed away shortly after being tried and sentenced to l4 days in jail for not apologizing for her part in defending our land, our environment (Eagleridge Bluffs). The judge Madame "Justice" Brenda Brown sentenced Harriet to l4 days in lock-up despite being fully aware of Harriets frailty and health issues.

There has been an outcry from not only supporters but from the community at large and from all across the country and down into the United States.

Please post attached flyer and be sure to show your support for our elder and her supporters by attending the press conference on Thursday.

in friendship and solidarity

Kat Norris
indigenousactiongroup@yahoo.ca

PRAYERS:
Date: Tuesday, Feb 27, 2007

Time: 7:00 pm

Place: Squamish Nation Recreation Center
(foot of Capilano Road and Welch Ave, N.Van)

SERVICES:

Date: Wednesday, Feb 28, 2007

Time: 10:30 am

Place: Squamish Nation Recreational Center
(foot of Capilano Road and Welch Ave, N.Van)

Press Conference and Witnessing

Thursday March 1, 2007 from 10 am-noon

Aboriginal Friendship Center 1607 East Hastings St.
(at Commercial)

Bring Regalia, Drums, and your stories and memories of Harriet to share.

your environment and your mothers

Harriet, 71 yr old first nations elder, has passed away following the 14 day sentence she served on accounts of not appologizing to an American construction company for her actions on the frontlines of Eagleridge Bluffs. Harriet had legal rights to protest under her first nations status.
I don't have the words to express the sadness and injustice of this situation just now.. This is wrong for so many reasons. Aside from the details and events... regardless of what level you might feel involved in or touched by this situation.. we all have to understand that this is not a governing system that we support. We are all too powerful and informed to accept this treatment of our environment and our mothers.

____________________________________

I was in the court room when the judge sentenced Harriet. Harriet was a
first time offender and was not one of the coalition
organizers. The reason why she was the only one sentenced to jail time
was because she refused to apologize to the construction
company. The only other time she had been taken away by the police was
when she was taken to residential school as a young girl. --- Conrad Schmidt




________________________________________________

EAGLERIDGE PROTESTER (Harriet Nahanee) DIES_*

Some time after 7 pm on Saturday February 24, 2007, Native Elder and
Eagleridge Protester Harriet Nahanee died from pneumonia
(complicated by previously undiagnosed lung cancer) in St. Paul's
Hospital. She was 71. On January 24, 2007, despite her frail health,
Harriet was sentenced to 14 days in the Surrey Pretrial Centre, a men's
prison and a notorious hell hole for women. It is believed she
developed pneumonia during her incarceration and was admitted to St
Paul's Hospital in Vancouver a week after her release.
In a letter to Justice Brenda Brown prior to the sentencing of Ms.
Nahanee, Betty Krawcyzk urged compassion: "I am very worried about Mrs.
Harriet Nahanee. Mrs. Nahanee is not well. She has asthma and is
suffering the after effects of a recent bout of flu that has left her
very weak".(1)

On February 23, 2007, The Indigenous Action Movement held a rally and
prayer vigil for Harriet (photo's are available compliments of Isabelle
Groc at: members.shaw.ca/idoumenc/harriet/ ). Approximately
80-100 people gathered at the Supreme Court Building for a ceremonial
walk to and around St. Paul’s Hospital. A prayer vigil was held outside
Harriets’ hospital room, with drumming and the Women’s Warrior Song to
give Harriet support and strength. A large signed picture of the Larsen
Creek Wetlands at Eagleridge Bluffs (as they were) was taken up to
Harriet following the ceremony along with flowers and cards.
*Further information about Harriet Nahanee’s struggle at Eagleridge
Bluffs* can be found on at:

__

German First Nations Website
www.firstnations.de/development.htm_
www.firstnations.de/01-4-eco...ragon.htm
(1) www.firstnations.de/media/01...etter.pdf

Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
(APTN: Feb 23, 2007) www.aptn.ca/streaming