NAVIGATORVANCOUVER ISLAND UNIVERSITY STUDENT PRESS

Vol 46No 12

New gender neutral bathrooms throughout campus are helping to create a safer environment for students who identify outside the gender binary.

Internationally renowned spoken word artist, poet, and author Shane Koyczan is unlike anything youll find crossing over into the mainstream right now.

Making art out of climbing or circus, taking it to another level, and sharing the experience holds a place for beauty.

FREE

MAR. 11 MAR. 24

GENDER NEUTRAL BATHROOMS SHANE KOYCZAN: WORD, SPOKEN

FLYING CIRCUS: YOUTH PRESENTS PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP

6 12 14

THE NAVIGATOR No 1202 CONTENTS

Contents

04Editorials

08Salacious stories uncovered at Nanaimo Museum exhibit

14Flying Circus: Nanaimo youth presents aerial and circus dance

19Clippers one win away from advancing to Island final

Mens basketball captures Provincial gold

05Thomas Mulcair visits Nanaimo

Chemainus Secondary students and alumni work together to carve a traditional canoe

09Shane Koyczan ticket giveaway

The long commute: Homesickness

16In the flow zone with Karina Strong

2014 questions with Mariners Ashley Van Acken and Megan Roselund

Womens volleyball rallies for Provincial gold

06Proposed law could give ICBC right to refuse licenses due to unpaid debt

Gender neutral bathrooms now available on campus

10Museum news: Coastal waters teem with herring

Natural world shines under Thoreaus lens

17Virtuoso pianist comes to Port Theatre

21Buccaneers crowned by Glacier Kings

Mens volleyball captures Provincial bronze

Womens basketball captures bronze, prepares for Nationals

07Humans of VIU is connecting students

First annual Festival Nanaimo coming in March

VIUs Amazing Race

11Museum news: Sights from the herring spawn

18Teaching Canadian Literature Arts & Humanities Colloquium Talk

Album review: I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty

22Odds and EndsComics

12Shane Koyczan: word, spoken

NEWS

FEATURES

ARTS

SPORTS

THE NAVIGATORNo 12 LETTERS 03

Letters

Stephanie BrownJessie DeebleShanon FenskeJennifer GarceauAlexis Deighton HarrisonBrian HillJohn HillArlen HogarthBrian KingzettAnthony LabonteJames MacKinnonIan McAllisterAlyssa MortonChantelle Spicer

To submit, visit or email .

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Leah Myers Editor-in-Chief

Rio TrenamanArt Director

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Social Media ManagerEnsures Facebook and Twitter are constantly being updated and finds related work and media from other presses to retweet and connect with; works with web editor to make sure related new media is being included with the articles (links, related videos); plays an avid role in connecting The Navigator with student paper resources, such as Canadian University Press (CUP), Canadian Writers Association (CWA), and Free Media; and is proficient in Wordpress administration, Google Analytics, and other tracking mechanisms to calculate ROI of advertisement budget.

Online ReporterResponsible for making sure content is frequently going up online so we can have timely, relevant news content going up as it happens; reports, edits, and uploads stories from Nanaimos community and VIU campus as they break; stories will be short and succinct and can cover any subject (news, sports, arts, and features); and has basic editing and Wordpress skills to copy edit and upload their own stories.

Associate Editor Assumes editorial responsibility for the features section (six pages); writes one editorial per issue; takes on the responsibilities of the managing editor when required; participates in copy editing for all sections and helps enter editorial changes on production weekend; participates in layout and assembly during production week; and calculates and presents an expense report to the business manager or bookkeeper detailing contributor payments for each issue.

News EditorAssumes editorial responsibility for the news section (four pages); arranges for contributions, seeks out stories on campus that are timely and relevant to the student population of VIU, and edits submissions; monitors the editorial process for the news section and approves pages; gives approved pages to managing editor for final review; and participates in copy editing for all sections and helps enter editorial changes on production weekend.

Arts & Entertainment EditorAssumes editorial responsibility for the A&E section (five pages); arranges for contributions, writes reviews and features, and edits A&E submissions; monitors the editorial process for the A&E section and approves pages; gives approved pages to managing editor for final review; participates in copy editing for all sections and helps enter editorial changes on production weekend; and maintains the events calendar.

Sports Editor Assumes responsibility for the sports section (three pages); arranges for contributions, writes content for section, and edits submissions; and participates in copy editing for all sections and helps enter editorial changes on production weekend.

Production Manager Oversees the process of organizing the paper for production; in case of illness of either the managing editor or the associate editor, the production editor fills in; schedules, co-ordinates, and tracks copy through the editorial and proofing process; using the Chicago Manual of Style, the Canadian Press Style Book, and CP Caps and Spelling as a guide, the production manager prepares editorial style sheets that outline house preferences regarding numbering, punctuation, spelling, and other text elements; and works with copy editors to edit contributors work during production week.

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THE NAVIGATOR No 1204 EDITORIALS

Editorials

License, registration, and student loan status, please

Cultural culture of entitlement

Today is your graduation day: its June, the seagulls are squawking, and the sun is shining. Beautiful British Colum-bia has blessed you with good weather, great people, and a $50k debt for your Bachelors Degree, fitted with the highest interest rate in Canada. And now? A new law proposed by your provincial government that promises to whip your lazy ass into shape by revoking your driving privileges should you fail to pay back your student debt in a timely manner. First off, lets not forget that driving is, of course, a priv-ilege. And if youre a woman, you should really be grateful you live in a country that lends you a license at all. Also, regardless of how many job postings list Must have a valid drivers license, ensuring your potential employer that you have a valid bus pass certainly should do the trick. Have you ever taken a bus in Nanaimo? If youre lucky, you

can arrive at your destination hours earlier than you need to, with plenty of time to catch up on your readings. Youre definitely as literate as you claim to be on your resume. So what are you so scared of, $50k under, BA graduate? Dont be worried about that limited job market or steady unemployment rate; with your education, youve gained enough personal skills to blow your 18-year-old competition out of the water during that barista interview. And if you dont have an extra $300 left after your $10.25 an hour, 40 hour work week, try cutting grocery costs by only eating canned beans. The best thing to remember when youre struggling to make ends meet is that you made a commitment to your government, and that your yearning for a higher education is purely a selfish pursuit, not one that is at all essential to become a contributing member of society. So really, if youre struggling to make student loan pay-ments, you should be punished and treated like a criminal. Youre basically in the same category as the other law-break-ers who are eligible to have their drivers licenses revoked: dead-beat dads who arent paying their child support, poach-ers, and dumpers. Our esteemed Finance Minister, Mike de Jong, claims the proposed law will simply prosecute all those wealthy graduates who are maliciously ignoring their debt (from the Vancouver Sun): For folks that graduate and get a job

wouldnt have otherwise. Make no mistakethe work of non-profits is important, especially in the cultural sector, where for-profit ventures are the exception, not the rule. I know first-hand how difficult it can be to keep the wheels on when you rely on volunteerson the good will and skills of unpaid volunteersfor the bulk of your operations. However, by their very existence, do cultural organizations qualify for handouts? Requesting grant money involves the filing of reports, detailed budgets, and financial statements. The City needs to know that last years grant funding provid-ed programming, not a cruise to Cabo. Governed and operated largely by volunteers, things can change a lot from year to year, so its important to go through the process annually. Is the paperwork a pain? Yes, but its free moneyyouve gotta work for it. And just because an organizations intentions earned it a grant the previous year, theres no guarantee that they delivered, or that their plans for the coming year are necessarily worthy of support. Its all got to be backed up on paper with numbers and things. And if an organization cant pull itself together enough to meet the application require-ments, to submit a complete grant application by the deadline, theyre out of the running. This isnt rocket sciencewere all adultsand if they cant manage to construct a reasonably clear budget and fill in all of the

and are working and decide they just dont want to take their obligation to repay their student loan seriously, this would be a mechanism to remind them, on a fairly regular basis, they need to honour that obligation, said de Jong. Hear that, all you 20-somethings, riding around in your BMWs, neglecting to pay back your debt? Mr. de Jong is on to you! In BC, you can commit almost any traffic violation and buy your way out of it if you have enough money, yet the government is proposing a law to take away licenses from struggling graduates, for reasons that have absolutely noth-ing to do with their ability to drive, and everything to do with how much income theyre bringing in. Seems logical, though. If people dont have enough sense to be well-done by, how can we trust them on our roads? Regarding the proposal, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students BC, Zachary Crispin, argued that if ICBC takes away peoples drivers licenses because theyre having a hard time paying back their student loan, theyre going to lose their job and default even more. But, you know, I disagree with thatinstead of looking at the exorbitant cost of tuition as the root problem, we should just accept the reality: most kids graduating these days are lazy, entitled, and they deserve the consequences that come along with the right, er, privilege of education.

blanks on the forms, why on earth would they be trusted with a wad of taxpayers money? Ive heard stories about applications that grant committees receive: incomplete, coffee-stained, held together by chew-ing gum, missing attachments, with a budget scrawled on the back of a beer coaster. (I exaggerate, but its not as far from the truth as you might think.) And these organizations continued to receive funding because, well, they always had. In 2013, Council recognized that something was wrong. After reviewing the process and funding criteria, they determined that the program needed to work more strategically and that grants needed to be attached to tangible returns. Policies to this end come into effect with the 2016 funding cycle, and the city has promised clear communication with organizations so it will be a smooth transition. These are new developments, so its hard to know how the new process will look, but in the spirit of cautious optimism, lets say that it will look better. That sense of entitlement will melt away. Organizations will be forced to operate profes-sionally, demonstrate theyre getting excellent value for our tax dollars, and meeting their objectives to put some sort of good back into this world (or community, anyway). Theyll need to work for it because theres no guarantee it will be there next time they put their hand out. As a taxpayer, I can live with that.

Leah MyersEditor-in-chiefThe Navigator

When I wrote about the whole Empire Days fiasco last issue, I touched on the Citys Cultural Grant Program and the relationship that some organizations have with this type of funding. In the case of the Nanaimo Empire Days Celebration Society (NEDCS), there was much lighting of hair on fire and beating of chests when the City declined the opportunity to dole out the free money that the society was accustomed to receiving. Since the City provided funding year after year, wasnt it reasonable to expect that the trough would remain full indefinitely? No, it was not. Theres a deeply ingrained culture of entitlement around cultural grant funding in this city. Ive worked for non-profit societies, and many do wonder-ful thingsthey enrich our communities, provide services and supports, and produce events and celebrations that we

Alexandria Stuart Associate EditorThe Navigator

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THE NAVIGATORNo 12 NEWS 05

News

Federal NDP leader Thomas Mul-cair spoke about his platform at Nanaimos Coast Bastion Hotel on March 3. My only priority is to get rid of Stephen Harpers conservatives and replace them with our progressives, Mulcair said. I could make Stephen Harper turn beet red in 35 seconds. Mulcairs points of focus include strengthening jobs and the econ-omy, supporting small business-es, promoting social programs, encouraging youth engagement, and ensuring environmentally friendly strategies. Without a social license, noth-ing gets built, he said. According to Mulcair, the NDP

are the only ones standing up to Bill C-51. Liberals are against it but will vote for it, he stated. Mulcair stated the NDP believes Canadians deserve to have both a strong economy, as well as a healthy environment. The NDPs proposed plans include increasing environmen-tal assessments and supporting small businesses. 80 percent of new jobs are creat-ed by small and medium business-es, which he said gives initiative to support them, Mulcair said. The tax rate would be lowered from 11 to nine percent for small and medium businesses. The NDP will fight tooth and

Thomas Mulcair visits Nanaimo

Chemainus Secondary students and alumni work together to carve a traditional canoe

nail to determine a system where the size of a familys income doesnt determine whether they have health care, Mulcair said. Mulcair stated he would aim to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Mulcair also claimed the NDP will address the poor conditions on First Nations reserves and further promote equality. When asked about the NDPs stance on medical marijuana, Mulcair said the NDP will rely on evidence-based decision-making. He stated the use of marijuana is a personal choice by an adult and that it would be decriminalized. Mulcair said the NDP will tack-

Master Carver John Marston has dedicated the next three and a half months to carving a traditional Coast Salish canoe at Chemainus Secondary. The Chemainus alumni is doing his part to help bring awareness to the students about the cultural diversity in their community. Marston has been working towards this project since last year and has been discussing it with Katherine Reid, the now-retired Aboriginal Education teacher for the northern families at the school, and George Seymour, a Cultural Teaching Assistant for the northern families in the district. They proposed the idea of doing a traditional Coast Salish carving where the students could participate hands-on and learn about the Coast Salish culture. The concept for the piece was tossed back and forth a few times before settling on the canoe. The process started with a blessing ceremony that was performed on a red cedar log by members of the local nations: Stzuminus, Penelakut, Halalt, and Quwutsun. The canoe is a large part of the Coast Salish culture, Mar-ston said. Its what their ancestors used for transportation and how they fished.

le the issue of student debt and encourage young people to vote. When young people stay home, the right wing wins and democracy loses, he said. Mulcair concluded by quoting former NDP leader Jack Layton: Never let them tell you what cant be done, he said. The VIU Political Society present-ed Mulcair with a letter of recom-mendations put together by club members and other students who were polled on what they believe would make a great Prime Minister. The list was as follows: Wewouldliketoseeyourgovern-ment oppose C-51 so students dont feel afraid of future consequences

Marston hopes the project will bring a group of people to work towards the same goal. Observation is open to the community, as well as students and staff at the school. Its a vessel for unity, said Marston. The school is located on the borders of three Coast Salish nations, and Marston hopes to not only share his passion for carving with the school, but to peak the students interest in their communitys cultural diversity. Its not about carving; its about my relationship with the students, the students relationship with the school and the schools relationship with the community, said Marston. Marston works at the secondary school every Wednesday from 8:30 am-2 pm but, come March, he is hoping to be there more. March is also when the students will be able to work hands-on with the project. Right now its a lot of observing and question-asking, Curriculum Coordinator for Aboriginal Education Dan Norman said. The first four days of work, Marston had to use a chainsaw; he has been roughing out the shape, but they are hoping that very soon the students will be able to start helping.

while participating in lawful protest. Wewouldliketoseepollingstations at universities to make it easier to vote. WewouldliketoseetheNDPreduce child poverty in BC. Wewouldliketoseeeducationreform; Political Science should be taught at an early age from an unbiased source. Wewouldliketoseeanempha-sis on helping university grads with job placement. Wewouldliketoseestricterbanking and corporate regulation to lessen the inequality in our coun-try. Without this, our determina-tion and belief in the system just isnt there.

An art teacher, Craig Miller, said students can watch and apply what they learn to their own work, and be able to ask questions as they go. Right now he has the students working on drawing out their own paddle and mask designs on paper using the tra-ditional Coast Salish designs and patterns. Its amazing to see all the ways the students can take the traditional style and give it a modern twist, said Miller. You can even see where the students that are visiting our school from the international programs have taken different aspects from their own cultures and applied them to their pieces. We all have to paddle together, and everyone needs their own, said Miller. He hopes to get his art classes working on carving their own paddles when its time for student participation. Norman said the Laughing Bear Canoe will be in Marstons care once finished, though the school and students will have access to it. Hes hoping that there will be a launching cere-mony where the students will be able to take the canoe out, either at the Kinsman Park, or Fuller Lake in Chemainus. The canoe is scheduled to be finished in May 2015.

THE NAVIGATOR

CONTRIBUTOR

NATALIE GATES

JESSIE DEEBLE

Thomas Mulcair speaks to the public about strenghtening the economy, jobs, and Thomas Mulcair speaks to the public about strengthening the economy, jobs, and the environment. Natalie Gates

THE NAVIGATOR No 1206 NEWS

New gender neutral bathrooms throughout campus are helping create a safer environment for students who identify outside the gender binary. When asked how sie* felt with the change, one student replied with Ecstatic. That is something I was fighting in my high school the entire time I was there, says Emily Falder, a VIU student who identifies sierself as non-binary. Ive been mentioning it to staff for a while. Signage for the 22 single occupant bathrooms was unveiled on Monday after being pushed forward by the Positive Space committee at VIU. The change was instantly noticed, and feedback was largely positive. Some wondered why the change was needed, and Falder was all too willing to explain. A majority of bathrooms are gendered male or female. There are a number of students, like myself, who are non-bi-nary, who dont feel comfortable using either bathroom. There are also trans students who feel uncomfortable going into the bathroom they identify with because they face a lot of discrimination. And they dont want to go into the washroom they dont identify with because theyre misgendering them-selves. Speaking from experience, that does not feel good. With a little over one percent of BCs population identify-

ing themselves as transgender, it is an issue that is coming more and more to light in the province. Recently, students at Simon Fraser University staged a protest regarding gendered bathrooms and the lack of gender neutral options available on campus. Here at VIU, it was the Positive Space group that saw the idea of gender neutral bathrooms through. A couple years ago, there was a discussion in the realms of the Positive Space committee about the need for safe spaces for students who do not fit or place themselves in the gender binary, Positive Space steering committee member Kelly Muir said. On Monday, March 2, this was realized, and the signs were installed. A couple days later, it was brought to members attention that printed signs had been added to some of the bathrooms around campus, claiming Women only. Michael Olson, also a steering committee member of Positive Space, feels it was a lack of communication. Everyone (within Positive Space) saw this as a good idea; it all made sense to us, he said, What we recognize is that we missed the education piece with staff, community members, and students on what this change means, what it indicates and why. In hindsight, we see that not everyone knows what that sign means or why its there. Both Olson and Muir stressed that it was only if the infor-

mation was presented but gendering signs still went up that it was an issue of individuals being bigots. If students feel this is happening, they are advised to contact Katrin Roth von Szepesbla of The Human Rights and Respectful Workplace. There, students can file a report of discrimination. But Olson hopes that after information is presented to the general pub-lic, the gender neutral bathrooms will be accepted and more steps can be taken to making VIU an inclusive environment. People, be it staff or student, come from all sorts of differ-ent backgrounds and experiences, said Olson, We are not just men and women identified people, and we are working towards making that change. It was a big day when those signs went up, and that feeling of them being recognized, adds Muir. And we want this to keep going in that positive direction. When asked what they wanted to see next, both Muir and Olson, along with Emily Falder, say they want to see if some multi-stalled bathrooms can become gender neutral. Its a big deal, says Falder. Most dont think it is, but it is important to some people.

*Sie/sier/sierself are pronouns used to identify instead of assumed gender pronouns (such as she/her/herself).

Alyssa Morton

CONTRIBUTORALYSSA MORTON

This week, the BC government proposed a law, working with ICBC to help gather outstanding student debts. A press release on the govern-ments website states, Bill 13, Finance Statutes Amendment Act, includes amendments to the Finan-cial Administration Act that would expand the ability of ICBC to refuse to issue a drivers licence, vehicle licence, or number plates to a per-son who has defaulted on debts owed to the government. There is $185 million of student loans left unpaid, according to the Finance Minister, Mike de Jong. This proposed law, he says, can help them collect $3 million a year.

De Jong claims that the pro-posed law is a mechanism for those students who opted not to repay their loans, and as a way to promote following through with the obligation of a student debt. If the law passes, students will be given a chance to explain their reason for not covering their loan payments before they are denied the renewal or issue of a new license. Students, current or former, reacted towards the idea of losing their license due to unpaid debts. I think it sucks, Meg Anderson said. A former VIU Creative Writ-ing student, Anderson has applied for repayment assistance every six

Proposed law could give ICBC right to refuse licenses due to unpaid debt

THE NAVIGATORMOLLY BARRIEAU

months since attending due to a disability that makes her unable to work. Taking someones ability to earn income is no way to get them to pay back their student loan. Anderson said, There are other ways to get the money without being so drastic. Anderson, who went to Malaspi-na from 2003-05, doesnt believe the BC government can penalize us for going to university. BC is the only Canadian province with one insurance company to have a monopoly on all BC residents. ICBC already has the power to refuse license renewal if the res-ident has not paid off Translink fines, bridge tolls, or traffic tickets.

Gender neutral bathrooms now available on campus

Students Vivian Horne (left) and Emily Falder stand by one of the gender neutral bathrooms on campus.

THE NAVIGATORNo 12 NEWS 07

The Humans of VIU administrator, Max Conrad, says he wants students at VIU to feel more connected. VIU is a commuter campus, and a lot of people think we dont know our everyday students very well, Conrad said. It helps make the campus friendlier. Inspired by the popular Humans of New York blog, Humans of VIUs Facebook page features photos of students with quotes that aim to tell their own personal stories.Conrad believes the founder of Humans of New York would be pleased to see the many follower pages that have been created. Its so applicable in so many

ways and places, Conrad said. The page is still growing and some people, unfamiliar with Humans of New York, still see it as a brand new concept, Conrad said. Sometimes it can be difficult to strike up conversations with ran-dom people. But I try to keep it light-hearted, Conrad said. Conrad wants the page to grow so more people will be familiar with it. He hopes it will act as a conversation starter when people recognize somebody who was fea-tured on the page. Each post is increasingly pop-ular, Conrad said. With just over 300 likes, he hopes to reach 500 likes this semester.

Conrad is in his fourth year of Digital Media Studies and Busi-ness and is a student ambassa-dor, so he meets many different students. He started the page in January with the help of a joint initiative between the Communi-cation and Marketing Office. Featured students are often asked about their goals; when asked about his own, Conrad said he wants to work in media produc-tion, communications, or market-ing. Interacting with people really interests me, he said. While Conrad will be graduating at the end of the semester, he hopes the page will be able to grow and continue for a long time.

Humans of VIU is connecting studentsTHE NAVIGATORNATALIE GATES

Students will be participating in VIUs third annual Amazing Race March 28. Based on the popular compet-itive reality show, VIUs Amazing Race is one of the biggest events held by Campus Recreation. In past years, the course has had bungee jumping, rock

climbing, and stand up paddle boarding, said Shane Hyde from the gymnasium and student activities department. This year, there are some even bigger events planned, all of which are a surprise. Its going to be even more excit-ing, said Hyde.

VIUs Amazing Race

There will also be various prizes awarded to winning teams. There is space for about 12 teams of five and, while the sign up is close to full, Hyde said there is space for additional students is a strong pos-sibility if they sign up by March 13. The cost is $100 per team and the turnout has been very strong.

Its by far the most exciting event of the year, said Hyde. Hyde tried planning an Amaz-ing Race at VIU about nine years ago but was unable to get it coor-dinated. Now, he and the rest of the department have found it to be very successful. Sponsored by Thrifty Foods,

the student activities depart-ment works with students from the Recreation and Tourism Management program to put on the event. The race will take place March 28 from 10 am to about 4 pm, and spectators are welcome if they can keep up.

THE NAVIGATORNATALIE GATES

Administrator of Humans of VIU, Max Conrad.Natalie Gates

Courtesy VIU Campus Rec Facebook pageContestants from last years Amazing Race.

Nanaimo locals and visitors cel-ebrate all the city has to offer during the month of March with Festival Nanaimo. Put on by the Vancouver Island Symphony in partnership with organizations such as Tourism Nanaimo, the Downtown Nanai-mo Business Improvement Asso-ciation, and the Chamber of Commerce, this is the first year of Festival Nanaimo. The festival includes concerts, theatre, arts and crafts, culinary treats, sport-ing events and tournaments, workshops, the Nanaimo Boat Show, recreational activities, golf specials, a rock and roll

music camp, a Pirate Fest Fun Day, an Irish street party, and more. The idea was to create a festi-val in March because theres lots of things going on in the arts, executive director of the Van-couver Island Symphony Margot Holmes said. Its March break for kids and people are looking for things to do. The Festival has created some new events, and will also be promoting existing events, that including VIUs basketball championship and other sporting events. New events include musical performances; and Pirate Fest, a pirate-themed event targeted

at families on March 28. We wanted to tie things together for people that come to visit Nanai-mo, and for people that live here, said Holmes. The majority of events require tickets, which can be purchased separately, or as a Festival Pass for $108. Free events include the Irish Rovers Street Party on March 17 and the Dance on the Plaza on March 28. For a full list of events and their details, as well as to purchase tick-ets, go to . Hopefully people will support it, Holmes said. We want to do it again next year.

First annual Festival Nanaimo coming in MarchTHE NAVIGATORNATALIE GATES

Courtesy of

THE NAVIGATORFEATURES 08

Features

No 12

Entrance to Red Lights & Roulette exhibit. Shanon Fenske

Red Lights and Roulette at the Nanaimo Museum has all the ele-ments of a good crime novel: sex, gambling, corruption, and murder. We uncovered stories that could inspire screenplays, said Interpretation Curator Aimee Greenaway in her February 11 speech at the museum. Focusing from the 1890s to the 1920s, the exhibit displays a side of Nanai-mo that is sparsely documented, and largely forgotten. Nanaimos historic red light dis-trict occupied a stretch of Fraser St., an area that looks quite different today, she says. A portion of Fraser St. still exists. The narrow lane leaves the five-point intersection of Wallace St. and Fitzwilliam St. in the Old City Quarter and runs down a steep hill to meet the Terminal Ave. highway. Before it was Terminal Ave., Fraser

CONTRIBUTORSHANON FENSKE

St. continued along a mud flat until it intersected with Comox Rd. There were multiple brothels along Fraser St., Greenaway says, including The Star, a high-end house of ill-repute so infamous that police didnt note its street address in their reports. The exhibit infographics state that between 30 to 40 women prob-ably worked in the industry at any one time. The ladies catered pri-marily to unmarried loggers and miners, and later to predeployed World War I soldiers as well. According to census reports on display, brothel owners were usually older women while their employees were typically between 19 and 20 years old. Greenaway credits the Nanai-mo Archives for assistance with research. Others, including five museums outside of Nanaimo, were also invaluable. It took a lot of work to uncover the real lives of these women as they usually claimed to be dressmakers to cen-sus officials. The exhibit tells the stories of several of the ownersmadamsincluding one who was murdered in Kimberly in 1934. Another mad-am died of tuberculosis in 1895.

The young son she left behind grew up in an orphanage before turning to a life of crime. Other characters include an ambi-tious reverend who spied on police officers who visited the brothels, an officer who was fired a decade later when he was caught engaged in a lewd act, and a doctor who voiced his concerns that most of the oper-ations in Nanaimo were being con-ducted on women suffering from sexually transmitted diseases. Visually, the exhibit includes womens personal effects and undergarments from the era. Old photographs, postcards, census reports, and maps are also on dis-play as well as items related to gam-bling and early justice. There is only one known picture of the red light district, Greenaway says. The museum hopes that the awareness generated by the exhib-it will uncover other images from personal collections. Red Lights and Roulette is at the Nanaimo Museum, 100 Museum Way downtown, until May 1. The museum is open Monday to Friday from 10 am to 5 pm, and admis-sion is $1.75 for students and $2 for adults. For more information, visit .

Early French postcard.Nanaimo Museum House of ill-fame exhibit infographic. Nanaimo Museum

Image detail from infographic Gambling, Sex Trade, and Minors. Nanaimo Museum

Salacious stories uncovered at Nanaimo Museum exhibit

The only known photo of Nanaimos Red Light District superimposed over an early map of the city.

Nanaimo Museum

THE NAVIGATOR 09 FEATURESNo 12

As a follow up to the culture shock I seem to have con-quered, another aspect of the long commute has emerged: homesickness. Its like theyre teammates in a relay race; just when culture shock is finished, it hands off the baton to homesickness. I honestly believed that I wouldnt get homesick. Then I spent two days in bed staring at the ceiling and repeat-ing, I hate this place. A slight exaggeration, but you get the point. For me, homesickness felt like being back in grade school when I felt alone, misunderstood, and awkward. When it hit, I suddenly felt completely alone and removed from all that was familiar. I felt misunderstood because no one else appeared to be going through it, and awkward because I just couldnt get the hang of living in this country. During the first month I was still planning trips, eating and drinking everything that seemed edible, and meeting new people. Then, month two rolled around and I realized there were papers due, developing a lucky routine that involved a par-ticular Starbucks on the left side of the street. In between

CONTRIBUTORSTEPHANIE BROWN

The long commute: Homesickness

washing my sheets for the first time and receiving my first letter from home, I realized this was my home right now. It was terrifying. I had never experienced homesickness before, but I am glad I did; it was an awful feeling, but I realized how much I loved the place I was missing. Even the most stoic student will get homesick if youre gone anywhere from half to a full year. Prepare to miss home and have a few bad days. Accept the homesickness. What to do? That acceptance is the first step. After that there is treatment. For me, the best treatment was to keep busy and find unique things that were great in my new country that dont exist at home. I focused on making new friends and taking epic pictures. The more I looked at it and thought about all the positive and cool things Id done, the better time I had while I did even more amazing things. Homesickness is a part of travel. Unfortunately it comes with the territoryits in our nature to compare things to each other. So when things went wrong, even Nanaimo seemed way better than it did before. But its just another part of the experienceone that passes.

Shane Koyczan Ticket Giveaway

In Issue 10 of The Navigator we invited readers to submit their poems for a chance to see Shane Koyczan perform at The Port Theatre on March 25. We also promised to print the winners work. Here it is.

by Philip Gordon

for breakfast this morning i had abstract cheesecake.dont just skim over that line; stop for a second.think about it.what would abstract cheesecake look like?does it mean abstract like jackson pollock?or abstract like the way someone on their cell phone isnt really paying attention to the person making their sand-wich at subway?a good trick for poetry is you can tell people to think about something and theyll have to think about it.even if they try really hard not to.butterflies, you could say. autumn sunsets. maybe one of their parents died, or something. (if they did, sorry).you can even make them think about how words fit together kind of like colours in a big spinning wheel. the way the last syllable in butterflies kind of rhymes with died (and with rhymes, sort of).

that is to say that poetry is the act of making people think about things.why do we have bigger words for it than that?why do we stop on a street-corner where someone has written the words be love and imagine that what were reading is anything other than poetry?the cool thing about poetry is that it comes out of you sometimes like dr pepper out of a recently shaken two-li-tre bottle.fsssht.

at this point in the poem theres a possibility youre get-ting bored.you might be wondering when the poem will end.if the poem is in a book, you might be looking at the bot-tom of the page to see if it ends there.you might have given up and be preparing to throw the book away.if youre listening to someone read the poem, you might be falling asleep, or thinking about other things, like your dog, or having sex with one of your teachers from high school.

i would say that those things are poetry too but its harder to explain why.

maybe you picked this poem up in a book at your local bookstore, or in a pile of used books that are covered in dust and bright orange price stickers, or on the side of the road where it was left by someone who was experiencing life too quickly to stop and think about butterflies. maybe you will read this poem and it will intrigue you enough to read the poems next to it.if thats true, ill feel like ive wasted my chance to say something meaningful.by this point im ramping up the anticipation for the last line of the poem so much that i have no idea what could possibly be enough of a revelation to write down.if i say something deliberately vague, people might mis-take what i write for genius, and i will win fans and influ-ence academic literary circles and maybe win an award.if i say something simple or banal, i will be obviously trying to circumvent the demand to be insightful, and people who have a string of counter-culture in them and listened to the punk music when they were young will possibly like my poem.i may be asked to read this poem at a big ceremony where the validity of my creative work is recognized.this could be the poem that catapults me to stratospheric levels of acclaim.im running out of steam.id better think of something to end the poem with.

two days ago i went to victoria with my mom and we went to the museum and learned about vikings and then we went to the bug zoo and bought a t-shirt that said save the bugs and a lollipop with a scorpion in it and then we went book shopping and had dinner at a place called fat-burger and drove back to nanaimo in the dark and talked about how the rain hitting the pavement in pure darkness was more gentle than at dusk or any other time and even-tually we got home and i got out of the big truck my mom drives (which is a dodge ram which she has always want-ed) and hugged her for a really long time and she said bye i love you and i said i love you too drive safe and then she drove away and i think thats poetry too.

[poem in which the first line of the poem is also the title of the poem]

by Ciro Di Ruocco

A nine year old opens the door.

Eyes weepy and red. My heart drops.

A nightmare unfolds.

Please wake up. Pinch skin. Wake up!

Body is calm and adrenaline kicks in.

My heroine takes the boy.

Dial 9-1-1! she exclaimed.

Not another friend lost.

Six souls lay to rest on Valentines

night.

12 parents forever changed.

The loss of life.

Angry at the disease.

Tears running down my cheeks.

Dropping to my knees.

Cherish those you love.

Hold them tight.

I miss my friend.

Loss and love on Valentines night.

Cupids Sorrow

THE NAVIGATORFEATURES 10 No 12

Natural world shines under

Thoreaus lens

CONTRIBUTORCHANTELLE SPICER

Since Thoreaus publication of Walden in 1854, a subversive movement has rippled through the generations based on humanitys inherit connection to the land. Finding roots in the 1960s movement, the back-to-the-land mentality has continued into todays culture where it is flourishing 161 years later. Even this morning, awakening to a glowing sunrise (Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me) I found myself once again contemplating the incredible impact this book and ideology continues to have on my own life, and the lives of many people around me. After attending a bustling Seedy Sunday on March 1, it dawned on me how vital and vibrant the community of Nanaimo is in terms of homesteading, gardening, and other forms of food and community sustainability. The philosophy of reconnecting with the natural rhythms of nature, finding a true sense of self and purpose through the lands around you, and the simplicity of life are sentiments which are easily found in this communityall of which find their roots in popular society through the writings of Thoreau and other writers who have followed him. In the early 1850s, during the heart of the American Industrial Revolution, Thoreau went out into the woods and farmlands surrounding Walden Pond to livein his words, deliberatelyfor two years, two months, and two days. He would shrug off the modern society of his time to explore what he had concluded were the essential facts of life: spiritual discovery, self-reliance, and simplicity, as well as nature and humanitys place in it. He completed his time in the woods with meditative walks, the cultivation of bean fields, and periods of writing and drawing, from which he created Walden. Its reception at the time of publication was lackluster, taking five years to sell five thousand copies. It went on to become a classic piece of literature and totem of the back-to-nature mindset. In todays society we are, like Thoreau, experiencing our own experiment. The changes in climate we are now expe-riencing are unprecedented, our technological progress seems to have no finishing line, many of our valued social networks appear online, and our possessions seem, at the same time, to be both treasured and disposable. Where this will take us is unknown. Many people are becoming more interested in looking back to move forward though. Sustainability has become the goal in all walks of life, from business people to activists, and a reconnection to the land at the heart of many of these movements. Japanese businesses are encouraging their employees to partake in Shinrin-yoku, or forest-bathing. This creates a calming neu-ro-physical effect, changing the nervous system by enjoying the presence of trees. Therapeutic gardening is now being used in hospice residencies, outpatient cancer centres, and other healthcare environments. People all over the world are awakening to the importance of nature for our mental,

spiritual, and physical well-being, which all echoes back to the convictions of Thoreau. We can continue to learn and apply the things he discov-ered in todays modern world. In his time, he saw his beloved Virginian landscape stripped of its forests for farmland and expanding human habitation, he saw his neighbours turning away from their traditional ways to technological advances, and he saw a loss in personal revelation under the influence of a blooming industrialized society. Sound familiar? Rather than becoming embittered to this situation, he turned to himself and nature to heal. Some of his teachings we can apply to our own contemporary lives are: Participatinginthecultivationofourownfoodbygrow-ing a garden (even in containers), volunteering with local farm co-operatives, shopping at local farmers markets, or looking into raising your own backyard chickens. Takingtimetotrulyenjoythenaturethatsurroundsus. Check out from daily schedules and obligations to go for a walk or bird watching, or try meditation and yoga in a natural environment. Tryturningoffyourphoneandsteppingawayfromthecomputer for a whole day and see where your true self lies in life outside of technology. Rediscover old interests or try out new ones. Simplifyyourlifebypurgingclosetsandpossessions,complaining less, learning to say no to some things so you can truly say yes to those you really want to do, and spending time with people you genuinely enjoy being with. Writingajournal,poetry,anddrawingareskillsthatencourage the brain to examine our daily lives and find a better understanding of our actions and ourselves. Findingacommunityoflike-mindedpeoplethatcanhelp encourage us along a path that, if outside of societal norms, can be difficult. A connection to the lands around us through recreation, art, gardening, or even picnicking are incredibly important to a healthy individual and community. Wendell Berry, who also wrote extensively on the topic of identity through the landscape, expressed that A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each others lives. This idea of community support extends to the land itself as a member, creating a cyclic relationship where the more one appreciates the beauty of our natural world, the more desirous we are of properly caring for it. Try some of these things out for yourself. You never know how they can improve your life or where they may take you. As Thoreau said, I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Museum news: Coastal waters teem with herringAs you read this, one of the oceans great feeding frenzies is occurring just off our shores. Eventually, it will extend up the entire BC coast. The annual spawn of the Pacific herring, which brings millions of fish to near-coastal waters to lay their eggs on substrates such as Bull Kelp or eelgrass, is the stimu-lant for an astounding accumula-tion of wildlife that gathers around the breeding grounds to gorge on the herring roe (eggs). In many parts of the BC coast, the spawn represents the first large feeding event of the year, and the fats and nutrients that are gained by this feed bring benefits all the way up the trophic ladder to the largest of marine and terrestrial predators. While the spawn occurs at differ-ent times on different parts of the coast, around the southern Salish Sea the first few weeks of March are the best time to watch the action.

In late February, an excursion of students and staff from VIUs field research station at Deep Bay set out to watch the spawn. The Baynes Sound/Deep Bay area has long been known as a herring hotspot, attracting wildlife viewers and fisherman alike, but is also the site of a considerable amount of marine research. Marine ecology, shellfish aquaculture, and engage-ment with coastal communities are just a few important topics that people at the field station are work-ing on. VIUs Brian Kingzette and the rest of the Deep Bay crew gen-erously supplied their time and vessel for this viewing opportunity. Neck Point Park, just off Ham-mond Bay Rd., provides an excel-lent viewing spot. On the right day, clouds of white milt that cover the surface of the ocean are often visi-ble from the shoreline as the males fertilize the females eggs. The sec-

CONTRIBUTORJAMES MACKINNON

ondary effects of the spawn will remain for weeks as huge amounts of wildlife close in on the shorelines to feed on the recently laid eggs. Gulls, ducks, and birds of prey circle overhead; seals and sea lions jockey amongst each other for the prime feeding zones; and Orcas watch. It is one of the most diverse and pro-ductive feeding affairs of the year. For more information on the springtime Pacific herring spawn, and to see samples of much of the marine life found around Vancou-ver Island, visit the Museum of Natural History, run and curated by students and faculty from var-ious sciences departments. The museum is open to students and the public on Mondays from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm, Tuesdays 1:30 to 2:30 pm, and Thursdays 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. More information is available on their Facebook page and at .

People all over the world are awakening to the importance of nature for our mental, spiritual, and physical well-being, which all echoes back to the convictions of Thoreau.

THE NAVIGATOR

6. Herring school.

7. Juvenile and adult bald eagles gather and feed.

8. A transient orca breaches.

9. Stellar sea lions basking on the rocky shore.

11 FEATURESNo 12

1. VIU research vessel, the RV Chetlo.

2. Herring being trapped in a purse seine.

3. Herring spawn on the BC coast.

4. The pacific herring. 5. Herring roe.

Museum news: Sights from the herring spawn

AS NUMBERED

2 3

1

4

5

6 7

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Brian Kingzett

Brian Kingzett

Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Ian McAllister

Pacific Wild

Brian Kingzett

Brian Kingzett

Brian Kingzett

While the spawn occurs at different times on different parts of the coast, around the southern Salish Sea, the first few weeks of March are the best time to watch the action.

and educate teens, parents, and teachers with its website and iPad app, and has over 14 million views. Shane Koyczans subjects are raw and deeply human. Hes an artist that engages completely, guts-on-the-floor, holding nothing back from his audience. In return, they give back, rip their hearts out and slap them on their sleeves for all to see. His themes are universalyoung love, high school hell, familyyet personal enough that everyone feels like hes talking to them, about them. Thats Koyczans gift as a storytellerhe connects with the listener as if theyre the only other one in the room. Shane Koyczans work in spoken word happens to be getting the most ink at this point in his careerhes finally enjoying some hard-won successbut hes always compelled

to explore a variety of projects and mediums. I write every-thing. Im working on a screenplay, I just finished a short film, I write short stories. I write all kinds of stuff, he says. And sometimes his work fuses all of these things. When Im thinking about music for a piece, I think in terms of the cinematic. Its like an emotional lubricant. He has cultivated relationships with talented musicians, trusted collaborators who work like any band does: a sheet of words, an idea, a stray melody, and everyones contributions weave themselves into a composition. Working with his full band, The Long Story Short, adds another layer to the time he spends on the road. I love playing with the band, the back and forth. Theyre great

Theres a birthmark, like a blob of peanut butter has fallen ker-splat, on the top of my right foot by my big toe. When we were children, my cousins called it my dirty spot. Theyd scrub and scrub it when we were in the bath. To this day, whenever I think about my birthmark its like it begins pulsingI feel it thereand I hear the words that I am dirty. Alexandria

To This Day:

Confessions

When I was in grade six, we moved and finally got Internet. My friends and I all made websites. Someone signed on pretending to be me and wrote on my friends webpage that she was only popular because she hung out with us, and something about her sweatpants, then signed my name. It was horrific, I was scapegoated, and everyone honestly thought I was capable of saying those things. I lost my group of friends because they wouldnt believe I didnt do it. That night I listened to David Gray's This Years Love and Fix You by Coldplay on repeat. To this day, it still sucks to hear those songs. Molly

When I was growing up, kids told me I had fun-ny-looking toes. To this day, Im uncomfortable wearing sandals or any shoe that shows my toes (even though theres nothing wrong with them). Leah

Commanding. The figure, in any other context or on the street, would probably be seen as unassuming, just another guy waiting for the bus. But onstage, alone under a single spotlight, his quiet form draws all the energy from the room. Compelling. The audience cant take their eyes off him. He draws that energy in, and he speaks. Poets rarely hit the mainstream, and the term pop cul-ture is one youll seldom find in a discussion of poetry. But the spoken word genre smashes those norms. Underscored by music or beats, spoken word poetry becomes song-like, but transcends what is commonly regarded as a song. Internationally renowned spoken word artist, poet, and author Shane Koyczan is unlike anything youll find crossing over into the mainstream right now (inasmuch as anything involving poetry can really cross oversad but true). His words always had the power to captivate an audience, once there was one. His poetry stands beautifully on its own, riding the rhythmic tones of his voice, but set to music, his words venture beyond poetry and become something elsenot quite songs, something new. When audiences were unwilling to leave the house for a poetry reading, Koyczan tried something different. Adding music to what I do was necessary to have people come and at least check it out, he says. And it worked. A few years ago he played at coffee houses; today its soft-seat theatres. As his career grew in this new territory, he saw the potential. I want the Junos to have to make a category for this, he says. The world took notice when Koyczan tumbled onto the international stage in Vancouver at the 2010 Winter Olym-pic Games opening ceremonies. It was a lot of work and very stressful, but I was happy to give spoken word a spot on a much larger stage. I gave people a reference point for spoken word. His performance of We Are More earned the applause of the planet. The. Entire. Planet. Then, in 2013, his anti-bullying project, To This Day, went viral. Bullying is a very isolating experience. Its all based on fear. But if you can see that there are other people going through it, theres a little bit of comfort. Canada was rocked by some particularly tragic teen bullying-related suicides in 2012 and 2013. I feel very fortunate that piece happened when it happened. It was something that people really needed to hear. To This Day continues to support

THE NAVIGATORALEXANDRIA STUART

Shane Koyczan: word, spoken

Koyczan looks for-ward to coming back to Nanaimos Port Theatre Wednesday, March 25.

people, I enjoy touring with them. Being on the road with friends is much nicer than [the isolation of] a solo tour. I love both shows equallydoing a solo show, holding an audiencebut its lonely going back to your room at the end of the night. As the Silence Is A Song I Know All The Words To tour crosses Canada this spring, The Long Story Short will be at home finishing an album in the studio. Koyczan is celebrated in many circles, does good work that changes peoples livessaves livesbut hes not immune to his own deep feelings. He speaks openly of his challeng-es growing up, experiences with bullying and violence in school, and mental health. Depression sneaks up on you. Like paying rent to a really shitty landlord and you never know when theyre going to show up to collect, he says. He likens it to something thats waiting in the wings, like The Nothing in The Neverending Story. Like any artist, he also struggles with self-doubt. I wonder if my creativity will run out one day? How long can I do this? How can I even have a career doing this? But he does. And the part of his work that really puts a shine in his voice is the marriage of words, music, and images. His videos extend beyond the world of fast-cut, four-min-ute marketing packages. Reviewing the body of work on his YouTube channel is like attending a short film festival; these are seven-minute masterpieces, each telling a story in com-pelling, often heart-wrenching prose, mixed with a variety of filmmaking techniques. Through this lens, his poems are screenplays, and hes the omniscient narrator. Koyczans latest album, Silence Is A Song I Know All The Words To, accompanied by Cayne McKenzie and Hannah Epperson, was released digitally last August. Its designed as a companion piece to the book of the same name. The graphic novel and the album play really well together, he says. And theyve gone on to spawn some beautiful pieces of short cinema that blur, scrub out, and redefine our beliefs about what music videos can be. The latest release, Heaven, Or Whatever, (7:37) is a piece of live action film scored by Koyczans words and a selection of musical collaborators; its an homage to, and attempt to understand, his grandfather. Ideally, Id love to make a video for each piece on the album and have them stitched togeth-er to make a feature film. There would be a different visual

aesthetic for each piece. The video for Troll, dedicated to those who have lost friends or family through online abuse, takes a different approach visually, featuring the artwork of graphic novel illustrator Gareth Gaudin. Koyczans recent collection of poetry, A Bruise On Light, also fits seamlessly with the work on Silence Is A Song I Know All The Words To. In spite of warm receptions and two satisfying years on the road, depression continued to lurk in the corners for Koy-czan. It's been a challenge to feel happy about my achieve-ments while dark clouds appear constantly on the horizon, he says. Nevertheless, writing has been a source of great comfort, and helps me to occasionally pan small pieces of gold from these streams of consciousness. A Bruise On Light is a collection of stone and gold, impurity and shine. While Koyczan defines success as having a warm, safe place to live and good food to eatand he is very grateful for his successhe isnt living on easy street. The realities of being an artist in the online age make it hard to earn a living. It isnt easy to sell CDs and digital downloads, but its still expensive to make an album, he says, And I still have to pay my musicians. Even if I dont sell anything, they still need to be paid. Part of the struggle, he believes, comes from the nations failure to put real value on art. In Cana-da, we mourn our artists; we dont celebrate them like they

do in other parts of the world. He jokes that artists should just be paid to make art because it makes the world a bet-ter place. But hes only half joking. Artists go into labour to create these pieces, which is something thats hard to attach worth to, to value the effort it takes. Under the reali-ties of the economy and the industry, Artists are in a really precarious positionhow do we continue? Like others, hes grappling with making a living from his art in the new market economy. Online work and social media are important pieces of that, but theyre time-consuming, and they dont, in and of themselves, actually pay. Koyczan maintains a strong online presence at , on Facebook at ShaneKoyczanPoetry, Twitter @Koyczan, and Instagram at shane_koyczan. Touring is one income stream that has served him well. Its also a venue to get books and CDs into the hands of his fans without losing a cut of the profits to a middle man. Taking Silence Is A Song I Know All The Words To on the road this spring is a welcome opportunity to share the material and reconnect with his fans across Canada. Shane Koyczan visits the Port Theatre in Nanaimo on March 25. Tickets are available by phone at 250-754-8550, from the box office at 125 Front St, or online at .

If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.Shane Koyczan, Blueprint for a Breakthrough

There will be bad days. Be calm. Loosen your grip, opening each palm slowly now. Let go.

Shane Koyczan, Instructions For A Bad Day

Courtesy of Killbeat Music

Courtesy of Killbeat Music

THE NAVIGATORARTS 14

Arts

No 12

THE NAVIGATORDENISA KRAUS

Flying Circus: Nanaimo youth presents aerial and circus dance

Crimson Coast Dance Society and The Body Talk program present The Flying Circusa week-long aerial and circus dance workshop during the SD68 spring break between Monday, March 23 and Friday, March 27 at the Romper Room Climbing Centre. The event will round off with a gala performance on the Saturday night. Organized by the Crimson Coasts Body Talk Cru, the skill development workshop brings two established performance companies. Aerosia Aerial will introduce the students and audi-ences to aerial dance, and Vesta Fire will teach the many aspects of circus performance. The show on the last evening will be woven in a very circus-y kind of way and a fantasy theme, Crim-son Coasts founder and artistic director Holly Bright says. The Body Talk Cru is formed by a group of teens working under Brights guidance. The program started in 2003 when Bright, see-ing the lack of youth involved in the local dance events, reached out to the community and recruited a group of teenagers to organize their own events according to their taste and preferences. The teens want to do their own thing. They didnt want to dance with their little siblings, or mom and dad, Bright explains the rea-son why the workshop is divided into two groups: adults and chil-dren, and teenagers. Most of the current Cru members have stayed with the program for four years. They come in when theyre 13 or 14, and they inevitably stay until

they finish high school, Bright says. Once youre in, you become a family member. Originally calling themselves The Council Of Cool, but even-tually changing their title to Cru, the team presented workshop sug-gestions to Bright who facilitated the platform and guided them through the process. Her aim, how-ever, was to give the teens as free a hand as possible to teach them independence and responsibility. When they told me what theyd like, I said this is crazy. But you guys do it. Im going to make it pos-sible for you to do whatever you want to do, she recalls the begin-nings of the process, which grad-ually became a mentorship in arts administration and event planning. Its kind of a job the society looks for the wiser, older adults to do, Cru member Chantel, 16, says. Then you see these teens coming in, making posters, and getting money for programs. I really enjoy that. The skills she has gained are not normally portrayed every day in the teenage environment. Indi-vidual tasks involve selecting the genres and artists, making post-ers, marketing and communicat-ing with the media, and wrapping up the event at the end, all the while attending the dance classes they organized. They always pick hip hop. From the very start, all they want is hip hop, Bright says. Were a con-temporary dance company, and I love hip hop, because I know thats what interests them. But this also has to work for us, our sponsors, and people who support us.

The solution she offered was choosing two dance genres: one can be anything the group wants, the other should be cultural or unusual. Over the years theyve picked hip hop and African dance, hip hop and salsa, hip hop and First Nations dance, and one year they had capoeira and flamenco. Last year, they picked hip hop and swingit was nice to bring in something broader; a lot of peo-ple in Nanaimo like that. The Cru chose aerial and circus because, as Chantel says,its some-thing way out of the box. We did hip hop almost every year, so we wanted something completely different. Emma, 17, agrees: You can go anywhere for a hip hop camp, but

where do you get aerial dance and learn how to dance with lights and fire? There had been an interest in bringing aerial dance into the program for several years. The Cru selected Aerosia, a Vancou-ver-based company, whose mem-bers are established mountain climbers and dance artists who work with silks and climbing harnesses. Crimson Coast has worked with the company in the pastorganizing their show at the Port Theatre, where the artists danced down the outside walls of the building in 2005. The content consideration is different from aerial dancers who perform in circus settings.

For Aerosia, its not so much about spectacle as it is about mak-ing art,Bright says. Their dance is very magical and has some depth to it. When theyre dancing down the side of a building, they usually start really high at the top, then theyre jumping and doing back flips, running backwards, taking off, and soaring sideways. They make it seem gravity-less; it feels like a dream state. For the circus portion of the workshop, Cru selected Vesta Fire, who specialize in stilt perfor-mances and also fire spinning with hoops, but will offer easier options for students during the workshop. Vestas founder Karina Strong and her partner-in-dance Kat perform

All masks are created by Cru members. Denisa Kraus

Chantel and Rose of Cru pose during a mask and costume rehearsal. Denisa Kraus

THE NAVIGATOR 15 ARTSNo 12

and teach circus classes around town. (Read more about Vesta in the following interview on page 16) Jessina, 16, says the wow factor of these two genres will possibly bring a big crowd. Theres a lot of people in the hip hop community, but you never real-ly hear of rock climbers, she says. It will be intimidating because its heights, firesomething out of the usualbut also its intriguing and youll want to try it. Bright meets with Cru for week-ly business and creation meet-ings to check on the progress and see what the team or the produc-tion requires. She helped hire sound and lighting technicians, costumers and dramaturge to work with Cru on the develop-ment of the piece. This is the first time weve ever done this, she says. The program is always changing because we always get feedback from the team, and we try to do what they want us to do. As they evolve, we evolve. The Body Talk brings anoth-er change into the schedule this year. It is the first time the Cru have become producers as much as organizers, and create their own play instead of adapting a well-known work. In each of the sev-en scenes, the Cru members will perform as multiple characters. Most importantly, all decisions and creative steps come from the group as a whole. The whole point of Body Talk is that there is no real leader, Felix, 16, says. Everybody is equal,

makes their own part of the play, and have their own scenes theyve created. Some of us are more dominant than others and have more specific ideas of how details should play out. But in the end, everybody is in charge. Felix joined the Cru last year and says he hopes to use his cre-ative skills to help put the perfor-mance together. I look forward to the play more than the workshop, because I get to show people a piece of my ideas. I work very much based on that. Rose, 16, on the other hand, is excited about the workshop. Our performance will be really fun, but I mean, aerial and circus, man! Hanging off the ropes at the Romper Room and hula hooping with those LED lights! Each workshop class can take up to 24 students and is based on developing individual skill levels. You can enter it from many different levels and life expe-riences, Bright explains the popularity of aerial and circus dance genres. As long as youre physical, strong, and healthy, you can do it. You dont have to have done it since you were seven years old and trained every day. Contemporary or ballet dancers know nothing but that art form if they intend to be successfulits an entire life commitment for thembut you can enter these genres at any point in life or skill level. All you have to do for aerial is be a climber. And dont get me wrong, these people have really developed their skill, but every-

one can enjoy their own experi-ence up to their level. Participation in Body Talk may be a life changing experience for all parties involved. Some of the Cru members even decided to take a different career or education path, such as switching to the Theatre program at VIU. Emma says she wants to work in performing arts, but would have never realized what her passion was without Body Talk. If I werent here, Id be at the spring hockey camp, she says. I have an athletic background in the family, and if Id never found Body Talk, Id be doing hockey and not focusing on my career. And I feel that without that real insight the Body Talk has given me, I wouldnt be able to say hey, I know what to do. Lets do it. Its about following your pas-sion in life, Bright says. You have to do what your heart is calling you to do, and if it doesnt work out, go until you cant take one more step. Then you can let that go. But if you never take that choice, youll never know. Aside from the practical experi-ence, the Cru also get their volunteer hours for high school, gain employ-ment skills, and receive reference letters and a honorarium of $200. Meeting new people and having this contact list on the resume is always good, adds Jessina, who enjoys doing the backstage man-agement and the graphic design portion of the work. For Felix, it is an opportunity to meet and work with people he

With the experience from Body Talk, Emma, 17, has decided to pursue a career in performing arts.

Denisa Kraus

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In Crypt Code, Magdalene, the superior of a liberal, partly lesbian order of Sisters believes this missing book of the bible could deter the Vatican as it tries to evict the order from its thirteenth century monastery in Frances Languedoc region. The Sisters have seized control from the German Abbott Egon Kreuz, who remains based in a castle a few hundred feet away. A temporary court order separates the two sides as each tries to infiltrate the other. Both know of the legend that some written material extremely damaging to the Vatican is hidden in the monastery.

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would normally never meet. I learned that you can be a part of something bigger that people can accept, and that they will listen to you,he says. You dont have many places like that. Workshop participants, on the other hand, usually leave with a new experience, having pushed their boundaries and stepped out of their comfort zone. Creativity, movement, and art can be shared in many ways with lots of different kinds of people you would never normally choose, Bright says. It broadens horizons and its fun. The world

is challenging or scary at times. Making art out of climbing or circus, taking it to another level, and sharing the experience holds a place for beauty. For me, thats the value the arts. The Body Talk workshops are open to the public and will be held at the Romper Room Climbing Cen-tre between March 23 and 27. Teen classes will take place from 11 am-2 pm, all-ages from 5:30 - 8:30 pm. The final performance will take place on Saturday, March 28 at 7:30 pm. Tickets and workshop passes along with price information is available at .

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Its not competitive in any way. We start with where the stu-dent is. With poi, [performance equipment] for example, its about just being able to spin it next to you without hitting yourself. Were encouraging and supporting each other in our classes to celebrate our successes. Because, in circus, it never gets easierthe tricks just get more complicated. The feeling of struggling is always there, trying to make the object youre manipulating to go where you want it to go. Its not about what you do, but about the feeling that you can do it. What we teach children is that its a journey between not being able to do something, the perseverance to stick with it, and the success when you can do it. Thats the essence of why I do what I do.

Do you still hit yourself with poi?All the time. Because Im learning more and more compli-cated patterns and work with partners now.

How has Vesta developed over the five years it has been in business?I have a really strong team that works for me. And Im still learning. My technical level of prop manipulation and performing is different now than five years ago. Ive got much better, but its not the skill levelits the way its delivered to the audience, how we teach and interact while were teaching. And theres the whole world running a businessmarketing and strategic planning are my main challenges. Im very happy with the shows were producing now. Were always doing better and bigger shows, and were always doing more things and making our routines more complicated. My performers dont usually have a dance background, so were working with choreographers who

show us different ways to think about movement on stage and how to move our bodies instead of just working with the props.

What background do your performers come from?Theyre all so different. All of them are pretty young, though. Kat, whos doing the Body Talk program with me, started off in the company as a juggler. But he has a background in chemistry. Hes very science-minded, like a mathematicianvery analytical; not a dancer. But crazy, amazingly good at breaking down a movement and explaining how it works.

How do you help and inspire people through circus?Its about supporting kids to find their passion and surround themselves with positive people who do the same. The best way to do that is by modeling how you live and what it is that were doing. I wouldnt be doing this if I didnt have an amazing team to do it with. I love working with the youth. Were funded by Artstarts,

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If you attend a festival on Vancouver Island this summer and see a figure stilt-walking in a spectacular costume, chances are youve encountered a member of the Vesta Entertain-ment circus crew. And in Nanaimo, where the community of spinners and circus performers is only beginning to build a profile, Vesta owner and ring mistress Karina Strongs presence makes up for the lack of strength in numbers. Even her civilian outfits include leather corsets and hypnotizing contact lenses, the colour of which she chooses depend-ing on the day and the clothes she wears. She will hug a stranger with the same sincerity as a dear friend, explaining that thats how we do it in circus. Strong originally imagined herself as a social worker. She worked for government organizations for 10 years, but the experience with the bureaucratic system left her craving another way to make a difference in peoples lives. Circus and performance has been Strongs hobby for a decade. She occasionally experimented with amateur per-formance and sang at festivals until she eventually started her own full time entertainment business. Named after the Roman goddess of fire and hearth, the Vesta Entertainment group now performs at numerous festivals and large events, making the list of the Vancouver Island Music Festival in Courtenay, Victoria International Busking Festival, and Van-couver Island Exposition, among many others. Although the bulk of the companys work is within the local Island scene, the company occasionally ventures out to international tours in Asia and the US. The other spectrum of Vestas activities centres around classes and workshops, such as the Flying Circus which will take place from March 23-28. Strong talked to The Navigator about the upcoming workshop and shared her views on joy, inspiration, and perseverance.

What can we imagine under the term circus?Theres a lot of history to the term circus, and its very subjective. People tend to think of elephants and tigers, the ringmaster and clownsthats circus to them. Other people think of aerial: tight rope walking, silks, that type of thing. But what we do and teach in the circus community is flow arts, which is dancing with props, and prop manipulation. Basically doing stuff with things.

What does circus mean to you?Its a way for me to interact with people and children and to bring joy, play, and laughter. Because of my history in social work and child protection, Im a strong believer in play therapy and how healing laughter can be. Having a business based around entertainment and teaching allows me to do that important work that drives me.

What can flow arts and circus offer to people who have other interests or a different drive in life?

a not-for-profit education organizations, to visit and teach in schools as artists-in-residence. We also team up with the police-based drug prevention team to work on DARE, which is a show for schools.

Your daughter, who is 11, also performs with you.She stilts and has started hula hooping, and shell perform depending on the show.

If she decided she wants to do what you do for a living, what advice would you give her?Do what youre passionate about, what resonates through your soul. Its specific to this field and to life. We all struggle through life trying to find something that makes us happy. It makes me happy to inspire and help people. For her, that might be something different.

What are your performances like?Which type of performance are you asking about? Fire show? Stilting? Theyre all different. The fire shows are definitely the ones that give you the rock star feeling. We do these six people fire shows with propane canons and pyrotech-nics. Theyre so much fun! We also do variety show acts and theyre pre-packaged story shows with a theme. But the fire shows really awe people. I like stilting because its more interactive and we talk to people and Im very social so I love being able to talk to kids and play with them.

How do you make yourself approachable to theyoungest audiences?My favourite part of the fire show is after, when you talk to the kids and they bring you cards to sign. Thats my oppor-

tunity to connect, and thank them for clapping and supporting us during the show. Its important for me to make them feel important.

Is it any different from working with adults?No. Its not different at all. The skills we teach are sometimes more advanced, but the basis is still the same. Adults are ok, but teenagers can be hard some-times. They dont want to appear foolish in front of their friends. They may pick up a hula hoop, try it once, and when it falls down, theyre out. They wont try it again because of the fear of judgement. So thats something we really work with them onthat nothing comes easy.

The Flying Circus is designed by and around teenagers. How will you accom-modate their interests and challenges? The type of choreography Im planning with them is not individual. Itll be all about partnering and working together as a group to make shapes with hula hoops, so its not competitive.

The concept of Body Talk is to bring two dance genres, present them in a workshop, and then fuse them into one hybrid genre in the final performance. What are you planning for the joint show with Aerosia?Were working on choreographing one or two group poi pieces based on what we will teach in the workshop. The group pieces are very different and for all skill levels. Then Kat and I will demonstrate some advanced techniques. And in the finale, well perform with fire.

The Flying Circus workshop will take place during the spring break week between Monday, March 23 and Friday, March 29. To register and/or buy tickets for the high flying performance finale on Saturday, March 28, contact or . Vestas current drop-in classes take place every Sunday at Nanaimo Gymnastic Centre withtwo up to six people per class. Children practice from 10-11 am ($15) and teens and adults are 11 am - 12:30 pm ($20). For more information, visit .

THE NAVIGATORDENISA KRAUS

No 12

In the flow zone with Karina Strong

The Ring Mistress, Katrina Strong. Artez

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began her studies, although she didnt take to it as I did. I liked to practice and I insisted on les-sons. My mother and father werent initially encouraging of this seri-ousness. You know, every parent worries about their kids making a living. I think they also suspected that after a year of scales I would get sick of it and wouldnt want to continue. I really struggled to convince them that this is what I knew I had to do.

What kind of impact did your music teacher, school, or broader communi-ty have on this early ambition?In my childhood, I tried a number of different teachers who taught privately, not in a Conservatory or something similar. I found these teachers lacked rigour and it never really worked for me. I dont think I truly had my first piano lesson until age 15, when I began to work with Yvonne Hubert at cole de musique Vincent-dIndy. She was an expert in the turn of the century of French composers, who had won acclaim while studying at the Paris Conservatoire with Gabriel Faur. Her tutelage made a tremendous difference for me.

And yourself, did you begin teaching early on?About one year after the Tchaikovsky [competition]. Up until then, I was fully occupied with touring, but as it wound down I took an assistantship at Juilliard. However, it wasnt long before I found myself too busy with con-certizing to continue seeing stu-dents. I really only had time in the summers, when my schedule had a

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On Sunday, March 15, Nanaimo will have the rare opportunity to welcome world class pianist Andr Laplante. Widely regarded as one of Canadas best, the Qubcois virtu-oso will appear at the Port Theatre in solo concert. A pianist of global repute, Laplan-te is the recipient of international attention after winning prizes at the Geneva and Sydney International Piano Competitions; his capture of the silver medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Mos-cow remains a bright moment in Canadian music history. Laplante recently talked with the represen-tative of Nanaimo Conservatory of Music about his approach to teach-ing, his fondness of heart music, and the riveting charm of his latest favourite film The Imitation Game.

Youve said in previous interviews that you already planned to play music professionally from a very young age. Were your parents sup-portive of you?I started when I was about six years old, a year after my older sister

slightly slower pacejust slightly. I still only do it part time today. Ive had offers from big institutions, but they require me to teach full time, so I turned them all down. The Conservatoire de musique et dart dramatique du Qubec allows me to take a small selection of stu-dents, so I am very happy in my capacity there. Dont get me wrong: I enjoy teaching, but playing must come first for now.

With teaching in Montreal and giving master classes in places like Vermont, you constantly encounter emerging pianists. What are some of the chang-es in young professionals that youve noticed since your own debut?The current tendency is that young people suffer from a strange per-fectionism. They want to be very effective, very efficient, and they want to play the really big stuff. Students also feel a lot of pressure to succeed at a very young age. I think everyone has a pace a