Our first REVERB of 2016 is a real celebration – of spring, of all things queer, and especially the launch of VIVEK SHRAYA’s poetry debut “even this page is white” from Arsenal Pulp Press!
Join us on Wednesday, May 11th at Gallery Gachet (88 E. Cordova St.) on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land. Doors at 7, show at 7:30 sharp!
The event will begin with a welcoming by Lorelei Hawkins.
***FEATURING***
CECILY NICHOLSON
Cecily Nicholson is the administrator of the artist-run centre Gallery Gachet and has worked since 2000 in the downtown eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver. She collaborates with the Joint Effort prison abolition group and is the author of Triage (2011) and From the Poplars (2014), winner of the 2015 Dorothy Livesay prize for poetry.
JENNIE DUGUAY
Jennie Duguay is a poet, writer and visual artist whose work engages the experiences of living with chronic physical and mental illness, the precarious labour of grief, and a persistent devotion to family and relationships. Jennie organizes a Community Care Collective, a radical form of community based care that centers values of service, interdependency and collaboration. She is eagerly awaiting the day she can adopt a dog.
MOLLY BILLOWS
Molly Billows is swift waters, secrets, and salal berries. Northern Coast Salish from the Homalco Nation, she was adopted-out and grew up in and around Victoria. She has been living as a visitor in Vancouver, on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations since 2011. She is a queer, mixed, urban, Indigenous feminist, a spoken word poet, and a youth worker. She hopes to weave together stories in ways that lift up her communities, and contribute to collective healing, rage, resurgence and love.
VIVEK SHRAYA
Vivek Shraya is a Toronto-based artist whose body of work includes several albums,films, and books. She is also one half of the music duo Too Attached and the Associate Editor of Heartbeats, a website that features racialized artists and stories. Her first novel, She of the Mountains, was named one of The Globe and Mail’s Best Books of 2014, and will be followed by her debut collection of poetry, “even this page is white,” out this spring. Vivek has read and performed at shows, festivals and post-secondary institutions internationally, sharing the stage with Tegan & Sara and Dragonette, and has appeared at NXNE, Word on the Street, and Yale University. Vivek is a three-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, a 2015 Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award finalist, and a 2015 recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Prize Honour of Distinction. Vivek’s first children’s picture book, The Boy& the Bindi, will be published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2016. Her book on recording artist M.I.A. will be published in 2017 by ECW Press, as part of their Pop Classics series.
Doors at 7 PM; show at 7:30 PM sharp. No one will be turned away for lack of funds!
Our merch table this time around will include copies of Vivek Shraya’s new book “even this page is white,” art, zines, and chapbooks from past readers — bring your bucks! And of course, we’ll have some amazing give-aways for you — stay tuned!
Event poster by artist-in-residence, April Alayon! Check out more of April’s work here: http://www.aprilalayon.com/
This event is partially funded by the Neighbourhood Small Grants program at Vancouver Foundation. Thank you so much for helping us put on this event!
neighbourhoodsmallgrants.ca
***A STATEMENT FROM GALLERY GACHET***
Opening May 6th join Gallery Gachet in launching an exhibition fundraiser: IN THIS TOGETHER
May 6th-June 19th: an in-house exhibition with an online auction featuring the renowned Gallery Gachet community of local, national and international artists working in diverse mediums and artistic styles. Artwork available at a range of price-points.
After twenty-one years of receiving core funding from the Provincial Ministry of Health, Gallery Gachet learned this past autumn that a shift in funding priorities and redefinition of mental healthcare for our neighbourhood was resulting in the conclusion of our contract with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. This sudden financial cut now in effect, amounts to half of the organization’s overall revenue. In the past six months our friends, community partners and networks have come forward offering various support. We are restructuring with new and hopeful possibilities ahead. Now is the time to support Gallery Gachet’s future.
An iconic and integral community hub with extensive experience as a frontline facility, Gallery Gachet is an artist-run centre located in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, Tsleil-Watuth, Musqueam and Squamish territories. Through artistic means we demystify issues related to mental health and social justice. We educate the public and strive to further the well-being of our communities. Our collectively-run exhibition and studio space empowers participants as artists and curators. Gallery Gachet also coordinates a volunteer program, mentoring artists. Featuring a range of visual arts, performance and and community-engaged programming, we involve developing artists and professionals alike in collaboration and dialogue. We consider art and culture to be necessary elements of a healthy society.
For more information or to learn more about supporting Gallery Gachet:
www.gachet.org | contact@gachet.org | 604 687 2468
***ACCESSIBILITY INFO***
ASL Interpretation Provided. Thank you to the BC Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf and Laine Le Vecque for making this possible!
We offer free on-site childcare! With cozy kid zones combined with facilitated free-range mobility, it won’t be our crew’s job to keep kids quiet or hidden from view, but rather keep ’em safe and create space for them to do their thing and participate on their terms. Toys, books, pillows, art-making, and more! No need to register, just show up! If possible though, please drop us a line at reverbqueerreadingseries@gmail.com and be sure to include your kiddo’s allergies and access needs.
There will two active listeners available if people need to check in with someone throughout the event.
For Gallery Gachet:
front door: 5 feet width
front door step: 6 inch height (but we have a ramp)
ramp: 31 inch width
washroom door: 33 inch width
toilet: 10 inch clearance on left side
14″ inch clearance in front to sink
There is an all genders washroom.
Gallery Gachet is an art gallery and as such may have some chemicals present that some maybe be sensitive to including paints, pottery glazes, or other art supplies. In order to create a space where folks with multiple chemical sensitivities can participate, please refrain from wearing perfumes, colognes or other scented products (including essential oils) and smoke far away from the entrance to the space. We do clear out the space with an air purifier prior to the event. For info on how to support folks with multiple chemical sensitivities, visit: http://www.peggymunson.com/mcs/fragrancefree.html
For a full accessibility audit of Gallery Gachet, visit: http://radicalaccessiblecommunities.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/this-audit-of-gallery-gachet-was-performed-on/
We provide snacks! Including gluten-free and vegan options, and do not sell alcohol at the event. All of our snacks are nut-free and we ask that any food you bring into the event be free of tree nuts (including coconut and pine nuts) so the space can be accessed by folks with airborne anaphylactic allergies.
We’ll have a photographer taking photos at the event — if you don’t want to be included in photos, all you need to do is grab some tape at the door and stick it on your hand or personally let the photographer know you don’t want to be photographed.
Some people get sick from the electromagnetic radiation from cell phones, wireless and electrical devices. If you’re able to completely power off your cell phones, wireless and electrical devices during the event, please do so!
If you’re attending and will need particularly comfortable seating, please let us know! We have a few comfy and large office chairs that we’re stoked to save for folks who need that kind of seating, so if that’s you, please message or email us with your name so that we can be sure you’ll be comfortable throughout the event (and please also show up early to make sure you get in the door!). If you would be made more comfortable by the addition of a cushion, please bring one with you — and if you don’t have one you can bring, let us know and we’ll do our best to rustle up something for you.
***ABOUT REVERB***
REVERB: A Queer Reading Series aims to support and showcase emerging and established LGBT2QI writers through a quarterly reading series with an anti-oppressive framework. We believe that writing is a radical act that can transform dominant narratives about whose lives and loves are important and valued, and that sharing that writing can empower, inspire and transform ourselves and our communities. We write and read on unceded Musqueam, S?wxwú7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh land, and are committed to radical inclusion in our series, recognizing that access to the world of writing, literacy, and even queerness continues to be limited. As organizers, we endeavour to create a reading series where white-identified readers are always in the minority to ensure a space that centres the voices of Indigenous, Black, mixed writers and all writers of colour. All our writers self-identify on a spectrum of queerness that centres trans* and femme experiences. All of our events are held in physically and financially accessible spaces, and with every event, we make at least one change to ensure that REVERB becomes more and more accessible. We promise to do all we can to create a safer space — bring your suggestions! Check your assumptions at the door; REVERB is a body-positive, anti-racist, anti-sexist, and hella queer- and trans-positive event.
reverbqueerreadingseries@gmail.com
reverbqueerreadingseries.weebly.com
Facebook: REVERB: A Queer Reading Series
