Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival sees community as a mentor
The 19th annual multidisciplinary, multi-venue fest celebrates the neighbourhood through the transformative power of the arts
Larissa Healey (Pequis). Photo by David Cooper
Vancouver Moving Theatre in association with the Carnegie Community Centre and the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians presents The Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival from October 26 to November 6 at multiple venues and online
TERRY HUNTER RECALLS a quote by Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist Paul Wong when he was once asked who his mentor was: “Community is my mentor,” was his answer. Those words, shared with him by the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival’s associate artistic producer, Teresa Vandertuin, struck Hunter, resonating deeply with him and Savannah Walling, his partner in life, art, and work. Hunter and Walling are two of the visionaries behind the pioneering multidisciplinary fest. It is the flagship event of Vancouver Moving Theatre, which Hunter (Nang Gulgaa) and Walling (hl Gat’saa) founded in 1983. The two were adopted into the Haida St’langng Laanas clan clan in 2021, after their decades-long dedication to amplifying the voices of the Downtown Eastside’s Indigenous residents.
Now in its 19th year, Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival features hundreds of residents and established and emerging artists taking part in more than 100 events at dozens of venues throughout the Downtown Eastside as well as online. Hunter and Walling have called the area home for more than four decades, and they continue to be inspired and informed by it to this day. This year, the Heart of the City Festival is guided by the theme “Community Is Our Mentor”.
“This community has been a mentor to us for the last 45 years, ever since we first moved into the neighbourhood,” Hunter says in a phone interview with Stir. “The artists and the activists here—we all mentor each other in this community, and there’s tremendous learning that goes on about the various issues that we face and the life experiences that we have. So it seemed like a really appropriate theme for us, to look back and say how do we move forward and where do we find our strength?
“Strength lies within the community,” he says. “It lies within the ancestors of the community who have come before us and laid the foundation for us to put down roots. The current residents of the community are grappling with very difficult days, with homelesness and the fentanyl crisis and mental-health issues. We love this community with all its flaws and all its challenges. It is our heart and our home.”
Dovbush Dancers, Nicky Bizovie. Photo by Tallulah
In learning from and listening to the community, this year’s festival will focus on the lived wisdom and cultural practices of Downtown Eastside artists, organizations, and residents through the transformative power of the arts: music, story, poetry, theatre, ceremony, film, dance, readings, gallery exhibits, and art talks as well as history talks, history walks, forums, workshops, discussions, and more.
Among the many highlights is Wong’s Be Like Sound, a six-channel immersive sound installation being held at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden’s Hall of One Hundred Rivers courtyard (October 27 from 1 to 3 pm). The surround soundscape features multiple is designed to respond to the setting's acoustic aesthetics. Wong used the ancient Chinese Feng Shui system of the five elements—fire, earth, air, water, and metal—as a conceptual source of inspiration for considering and gathering sounds.
“The Gathering” Mural Launch is another (October 26 at 4 pm at the Carnegie Community Centre). Richard Tetrault’s 2016 triptych mural is expanding, with new panels by Tetrault, Charlene Johnny, Marissa Nahanee, and Jerry Whitehead. On display in the Carnegie Theatre throughout the 12-day festival, the artwork honours past and present DTES artists and activists as well as the Downtown Eastside’s diverse cultures and heritage.
Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey Residency—Keeping the Fires Burning runs throughout the festival. The multi-year, multi-generational project brings together Interior Salish and Coast Salish peoples with nations connected to the Fraser and Thompson Rivers, mountains, and salmon. (Read more here.)
Intangible Treasures of the Downtown Eastside (Zoom Shadow Two) is an online collection of short, evocative shadow plays created on Zoom by seven Downtown Eastside-involved artists. They share personal treasures that give them strength, from their family stories to Chinatown’s Union Laundry. (Co-produced by Runaway Moon Theatre and Vancouver Moving Theatre, the free online event takes place October 27 at 7 pm, with an option to watch at Carnegie Viewing Room [401 Main Street].)
Civic historian and heritage consultant John Atkin and cultural-culinary guide Bob Sung bring keen insight into the Downtown Eastside’s history, culture, and architecture in the Two Amigos Walking Tour (October 30 at 10 am).
Virago Nation. Photo by Virago Nation
IronFest III is a mini fest within the festival, a three-night series of music by local, national, and international musicians presented by Coastal Jazz, in association with the DTES Heart of the City Festival and Music on Main (November 3 to 5 at Ironworks). Virago Nation, performing October 27 at 8 pm at the Ironworks, is a collective of Indigenous artists who use burlesque, theatre, and spoken word to reclaim Indigenous sexuality from the toxic effects of colonization.
There are numerous other notable events, from The Prop Master’s Dream, a new fusion opera by Vancouver Cantonese Opera, to Together in Peace. The latter is a multi-act afternoon concert presented with the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians that features the Vancouver Folk Ensemble, Dovbush Dancers, Left Coast Labour Chorus, The Wheat in the Barley, and the Ukrainian Hall’s own Barvinok Choir.
The Heart of the City Festival also offers programming that focuses on pressing social issues. Light Up the Night: Conversation with Travis Lupick features the journalist sharing stories from his recent book, Light Up the Night: America’s Drug Overdose Crisis and the Drug Users Fighting for Survival (New Press, 2022), while the 8th Symposium on Reconciliation & Redress in the Arts: Stories Have Always Been Our Governance is a national dialogue on culture in Indigenous cities that considers the needs of Indigenous cultural and urban practitioners. Housing Justice with SRO Tenants is an interactive dialogue and film screening in collaboration with The Right to Remain Research Collective and filmmaker Eliot Galán in which audiences are invited to share in the vision of transitional strategies for affordable, safe, and healthy housing.
Terry Hunter (left) and Savannah Walling. Photo by David Cooper
The fest’s On Demand 2022 series, meanwhile, features a range of videos that will be available throughout the entire run, including GRASS DANCES: Healing Through Practicing Culture. Dancers Larissa Healey (Pequis) and Peter Stillwater perform alongside music by big drum singers Love Medicine in the video recorded in 2021 by Chris Randle at the Firehall Arts Centre. For Healey (pictured at top), grass dancing is a form of healing that connects them to their true self. “I make my own art music and regalia now,” Healey says in an artist statement. “I learned to powwow and dance in powwow circles now. I am also connecting to myself and two-spirit identity. I am holding myself up through sweats, beading, regalia, dancing and my relationship with the creator. You have to dance for your community, not yourself.”
“I’m really excited about the breadth this year,” Hunter says of the 2022 festival. “This community embraced us and gave us a home. We feel such a tremendous sense of responsibility toward the community to be able to bring what we have as a skillset as artists and producers to hold up the voice of this community. That gives us a tremendous sense of meaning and fulfillment.” (Stay tuned for more festival coverage in Stir.)
Sid Chow Tan. Photo by David Cooper
Remembering a Downtown Eastside icon
The Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival will also this year be remembering Sid Chow Tan, a beloved community member who was to participate in this year’s event but who recently died. Tan was an artist, activist, longtime Downtown Eastside resident, and prolific documentarian. The fest had planned to present Tan’s My Art is Activism IV, featuring selections from his archive of self-produced video journalism that highlight “Asian Canadian social movements and direct action in Chinatown and in particular redress for the Chinese head tax”. With his passing, the team has decided to place his video on the festival website, available for free on demand. (The video is among several of the fest’s On Demand 2022 offerings.)
“The Festival team and I were hit hard by Sid's sudden and unexpected passing,” Hunter says. “The loss of Sid is huge. He was an iconic larger-than-life person that had a huge impact on our community. A sociable people-person, committed activist, media producer, and dear friend to ourselves and to so many. The breadth of the documentation he created—on Chinatown and Downtown Eastside politics, social movements, arts and culture and heritage activities, people, and great stories—is unparalleled. A treasure trove for historians and an inspiration for generations to come. There was no one like him and never will be again. He lives on in our hearts and in his calls to action.”
As a great mentor, Tan seemed to embody what the fest is all about.
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