The SC Arts Council's spring reading series wraps up Saturday with a reading by Calgary writer, Suzette Mayr, whose stunning 2011 novel,Monoceros, aroused wide comment and praise.
Set in suburban Calgary in a Catholic high school,Monocerosdisplays with harrowing accuracy the reactions of adults and kids alike to the suicide of a homosexual teen, just a couple of months short of his graduation.
Monoceroswas long-listed for a Giller Prize, and was featured as one of the Globe's 100. The reading takes place at 8 p.m. in the Doris Crowston Gallery of the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre, corner of Trail and Medusa, in Sechelt.This is a free reading thanks to the generosity of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Arts Council.
Jump Back
On Saturday Jump Back Jack returns to the Roberts Creek Little Legion as they crank up the heat of theiroriginal rock n' roll in order to shake out the winter blues. They perform with very special guests, The Midds. Admission is $5 members,$10 guests admitted with members.
Coffeehouse
The last coffeehouse of the season at the Arts Building in Gibsons will bring spring in with style this Saturday. This coffeehouse features singer/songwriter Richard Nelson, fingerstyle guitarist andsinger/songwriter, Joe Stanton,andThe Duttons,a musical collage of many voices and instruments. Doors open at 7:30 and music begins at 8 p.m. Seating is limited so please arrive early. Admission is $10 at the door, $5 for kids 12 and under.
Bad to the Bow
Tickets are selling fast for the CD launch of The Joy of It from the local fiddling group Bad to the Bow. They're playing at the Heritage Playhouse this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for $15 are at Gaia's Fair Trade and MELOmania.
Panopticon
The Sound in Sechelt presents Panopticon on Sunday at 7 p.m.
Steve Wright is hosting the Sunshine Coast premiere of Panopticon, a film by Diego Samper, with video mixing by Jamie Griffiths and audio design by Wright.
The Panopticon was the first 24-hour prison surveillance model. This film is comprised of photographic images of prisoner art - taken inside a Columbian Panopticon-style prison before it was closed and torn down. This unique, artistic film opened the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival in 2010, and has since won an honourable mention at the Bogota Film Festival. It is currently being considered for inclusion at the 2012 United Nations Film Festival. This work will be shown with the creators in attendance for questions and conversations on the current state of big-brother style prisons and society.
The Sound is at 5536 Wharf Ave in Sechelt and admission is $10 at the door.
Dance lessons
Partly as a promotion for Harmony Hall in Gibsons, Gerry and Deborah Pageau are offering three Sunday afternoon ballroom dance lessons on May 6, 13 and 27 from 2 to 4 p.m. If you are interested in checking out the Harmony Hall events their website is www.gibsonsseniors.com.
You are welcome to come to the first class for a look/see. They are teaching these three lessons for a minimum donation of $1/person and there is also a $1/person user fee for the hall. Let them know if you plan to come by e-mailing [email protected].
GPAG
Abstract Flowers with teacher/artist Zoe Pawlak is a weekend painting class offered May 5 and 6, at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.both days.Fee is $150 for two days and one canvas is provided. You canregister by e-mail at [email protected]. Viewpoints, with Leanna Spanza's bright, vibrant paintings, continues at the GPAG until Monday,May 14 at 4 p.m.
Book winners
Pender Harbour authors and married couple Theresa Kishkan and John Pass had a wonderful surprise recently when they discovered that they were both nominated for this year's BC Book Prizes, which were established in 1985 to honour the very best in BC writing.
Kishkan's imaginative and highly original memoir, Mnemonic: A Book of Trees ($19.95, Goose Lane), is shortlisted for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, and Pass's exquisite collection of poetry, crawlspace ($18.95, Harbour Publishing), is a contender for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize.
To celebrate, The Blue Waters Book Co. will be hosting a free reading with both authors at the Pender Harbour School of Music in Madeira Park on Monday, May 7 at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call The Blue Waters Book Co. at 604-883-9006 or email [email protected]. ?
Page show
Artist Sheila Page of Sechelt will be exhibiting new work in the Gumboot Café (Roberts Creek) during the month of May. Twenty small oil paintings of objects on her windowsills will be for sale along with a dozen larger works in the exhibit titled Close to Home. Drop in and see if you recognize the Coast locations in the larger paintings. You can sneak at peek at some of the work at www.sheilapageart.com.
Super heroes
The Superhero Boy Band is not so much a band as a theatrical experience in spandex that you can enjoy in Roberts Creek on Friday, May 11.
Origins is a feature length theatrical comedy that weaves together music, dance, puppetry, multi-media, and circus arts to tell a story of love, loss, corporate power, genetic engineering, and propaganda, bashing apart the binaries of good and evil in a grueling quest to save the world. It's a production of the Superhero Boy Band, an inter-disciplinary performance project emerging from Vancouver's critically-acclaimed Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret and Fantastic Space Enterprises.Donning your own caped crusader costume for the event earns you a free drink.
Doors open at 7:30, with show at 8 p.m. A dance party follows the show. Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 in advance available atGaia's Fair Trade, MELOmania and Strait Music.
Art show
Donna Swain-McKeever has a painting from her latest abstract series, Disclosure 36x36, accepted into the Federation of Canadian Artists show,Canvas Unbound opening this month at Granville Island. View the show atwww.artists.ca.
Tuesday deadline
Send notice of your arts events to [email protected] or phone 604-886-4692 by Tuesday at 5 p.m. for Friday's newspaper. Let me know who, what, where, when, why and ticket info briefly. Because of the volume of submissions, Art Beat covers events one day to one week ahead only.
