The Sunshine Coast Arts Council’s Literary Readings Series will launch its 2023 season with a reading by Ted Chamberlin.
J. Edward (Ted) Chamberlin is a renowned author and lecturer, whose landmark study, If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? Finding Common Ground, brings together Chamberlin’s two remarkable careers — as a distinguished professor of comparative literature and as an international consultant on Indigenous land claims, advising First Nations communities and governments in Canada, the United States, Australia and South Africa.
In his latest book, Storylines: How Words Shape Our World (forthcoming from Douglas and McIntyre), Chamberlin extends our grasp of that common ground by explaining how our understanding of the world, whether expressed in the oral history of the First Nations or in the written documents of Europeans, is ultimately rooted in stories.
An accomplished storyteller himself, Ted lives in Halfmoon Bay with his wife Lorna Goodison, former Poet Laureate of Jamaica.
The reading will be at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 28 at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt. Admission is by donation.
Authors and students connect for Family Literacy Week
Award-winning author Monique Gray Smith, debut author and elementary school teacher Kuljinder Kaur Brar, and bestselling novelist and illustrator Kevin Sylvester are just a few of the writers who have been Zooming into Sunshine Coast schools and classrooms during Family Literacy Week (Jan. 22 to 29) to share their books, stories and insights about writing and storytelling.
The authors will interact with more than 50 classes and hundreds of students over the course of the week.
The literacy program was organized by Celebration of Authors, Books and Community (CABC), a joint initiative of School District 46 and the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts.
This year, students are also being treated to virtual visits with Faith Erin Hicks, a Vancouver graphic novelist who co-authored a New York Times bestseller, and Teoni Spathelfer, a member of the Heiltsuk Nation from Coastal B.C. who is a previous resident of the Sunshine Coast. Spathelfer will be reading from Abalone Woman, the newest book in her Little Wolf series for children.
Tanya Lloyd Kyi — a writer who has published more than 30 books about science and pop culture — will be presenting with her daughter, Julia Kyi, a student and activist. Together they co-authored Better Connected, an inspiring book about how social media can be used in positive ways.
Leona Prince and Gabrielle Prince, both writers from the Lake Babine Nation, will also share stories and lessons from their book Be a Good Ancestor, which has been nominated for a 2023 Forest of Reading Blue Spruce Award.
Mug up at Sechelt coffee house
The coffee house series first presented by the Coast Cultural Alliance in 2003 will return on Friday, Feb. 3. Now co-partnered with the Sunshine Coast Arts Council, the event takes place at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt.
The coffee house will include singer-songwriter Catherine MacNeil accompanied by Rae Armour for the opening set.
Next up is a newly-formed band, Them Ordinary Things, with some of the Coast’s favourites: Mark Lebelle, guitar/vocals; Kaia Nielsen; bass/vocals; Simon Paradis, guitar/vocals and Paul Dwyer, drums/vocals.
After the break, the event will feature the KJB Jazz Trio with Ken Grunenberg, sax; John Parker-Toulson, bass and Budge Schachte on guitar.
Refreshments will be available. Tickets are $15 at the door or through eventbrite.ca.
For more information contact [email protected] or [email protected].
Vivaldi seeks vocalists
The Vivaldi Gloria, an eminent choral masterwork, will be presented this spring by the Coast Messiah Choir and Orchestra in partnership with Suncoast Phoenix Community Choir.
Rehearsals start on Feb. 2 and continue each Thursday evening from 6 to 7 p.m. at Living Faith Lutheran Church in Davis Bay.
Performances will be held on Friday, April 29 in the evening and Saturday, April 30 in the afternoon.
“It is a wonderful opportunity for singers to perform this very accessible work with the orchestra, and is very exciting!” said rehearsal conductor Sara Douglas. Sarah Poon will helm the choir and orchestra for performances.
The cost to participate is $70 per singer for the season. Singers may choose to borrow or purchase copies of the Gloria.
To ask questions or to enlist, vocalists should contact Sara Douglas at [email protected].
