CCWOC

May 10, 2012

Speaking Volumes 2012

“SPEAKING VOLUMES” – CELEBRATES 33 YEARS OF PUBLISHING with award-winning writers Dora Dueck and J.R. Léveillé. Dora Dueck received the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award in 2011 for her novel This Hidden Thing. J.R. Léveillé won the “On the Same Page” book contest for his novel The Setting Lake Sun/Le soleil du lac qui se couche and was awarded the Manitoba Arts Council’s 2012 Manitoba Artist Award of Distinction.

“SPEAKING VOLUMES” is held annually to raise funds for Prairie Fire’s work practicum program, through which every year we welcome students into our office for hands-on internships that run anywhere from two weeks to seven months. By supporting “SPEAKING VOLUMES” you are helping us create the foundation for tomorrow’s publishing professionals. The evening starts with cocktails and voyageur-style hatchet throwing at 6 pm followed by a fabulous dinner and culminates with readings by our special guests. This event also features an amazing collection of Rainbow and Silent Auction prizes, including the work of renowned artists Aganetha Dyck and Cliff Eyland. You’ll also meet this year’s wonderfully talented practicum student, Bronwyn Jerrett Enns.

“SPEAKING VOLUMES” will be held at Fort Gibraltar, 866 rue St. Joseph in old St. Boniface. Tickets are $65 (a tax receipt will be issued for a portion of the ticket price). Cocktails start at 6 pm, diner at 7 pm and readings at 8 pm. Tickets are available through McNally Robinson Booksellers, from Prairie Fire’s board members, and from Prairie Fire Press at 423-100 Arthur Street.

For more information about Speaking Volumes 2012, please visit http://www.prairiefire.ca/

May 8, 2012

100th Anniversary of Titanic

On April 14, 1912, the Titanic struck the fatal iceberg. A century later, people stop to remember the tragedy, and also recall interesting stories linked to Canada and even Winnipeg. On this video, the Head of the Archives & Special Collections of the University of Manitoba talks about of the headlines published by The Winnipeg Tribune in 1912 after the sink of the Titanic, and about the families from Winnipeg victimized by the accident.

To know more about the Archives & Special Collections of the University of Manitoba, please visit http://www.youtube.com/user/umarchives?feature=watch

May 1, 2012

The 7th Annual Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival

The 7th Annual Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival: Storytelling on the Path to Peace

The Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival features regional, national, and international tellers, and encompasses a School Program, Peace-building Workshops, and Public Events.

The goals of the Festival are:

To nurture the art of storytelling in Winnipeg;

To promote youth voice as a critical skill for global citizenship; and

To promote the use of story-based approaches for peacemaking;

The School Program provides students of all grade levels, K–12, with StoryShows (performances), StoryShops (workshops that promote student voice), PeaceShops (student forums on peace, human rights, and global citizenship), and Storytelling for Humanity (storytellers whose personal narratives demonstrate the role of peace, conflict, and human rights in their lived experience).

For more info about the WISF 2012, please visit: http://umanitoba.ca/storytelling/

April 26, 2012

The Seed Catalogue Radio Play

"No Trees Around the House" © 2004 wood engraving by Jim Westergard

We are currently working in a project with Karen Clavelle to put together a radio play for the autobiographical long poem Seed Catalogue by the Canadian prairie poet Robert Kroetsch. First published in the 1970s, Seed Catalogue is the seminal work of poetry that first gave voice to the long root in Prairie writings of the metaphor of the seed catalogue. The poem explores the actual world of history transformed into the mythical world of poetry, where what we remember about the past may be more real than history tells us. We will keep posting information about this project in future blog entries. Stay tuned.

April 18, 2012

Back in 2010...

Searching for some stuff on YouTube we came across this interview Ignatius Mabasa gave to the University of Manitoba's channel on YouTube. In this video, Ignatius tells one of the stories he recorded at CCWOC. Enjoy it.

April 12, 2012

Lake of the Prairies - A Story of Belonging

Article from The Bukowski Agency

Just over the Montana border is Eastend, Saskatchewan, home of Wallace Stegner. Warren Cariou's story begins 400 miles north of there, in a town located in a part of Saskatchewan that does not exist in popular imagination: a treed province of rocks, water, and muskeg. Removed from prairie traditions, Meadow Lake is enclosed in the ethos of the north, where there is magic in a story and fiction is worth much more than fact.

Grounded in the fertile soil of Meadow Lake are two historical traditions —- Native and settler. Cariou's maternal grandparents were European immigrants. Their stories lived alongside Native legends in Cariou's boyhood imagination and as he dug for arrowheads, spear points, and stone hammers, he stumbled upon evidence of centuries of Cree setlement in the area. But the tragic history of how these traditions came to share the same home would remain hidden from Cariou until much later. In the schoolyard and on the street corners he witnessed the discrimination, distrust, anger, and fear directed at the town's Cree and Metis populations — prejudices he absorbed as his own.

As an adult Cariou has been forced to confront the politics of race in Meadow Lake on a number of occasions — some horrific, others surprising. He learned that Clayton Matchee, a rambunctious Native boy with whom he had gone to school, had been taught to hate so profoundly that he could be involved in a torture and murder that would shock the world. And then Cariou discovered secrets that his family had kept hidden for generations, secrets that would alter forever his sense of identity and belonging in Meadow Lake.

To see the original article and read reviews about Lake of the Prairies, please visit the Bukowski Agency

April 5, 2012

The Universal Logo for Human Rights II

March 27, 2012

The Universal Logo for Human Rights

The documentary ‘What are Human Rights?’ is moving forward. While much effort is placed on contacting interviewee, programming meeting time and places, preparing questions, and hauling heavy video equipment, there are also many details at the editing stage. On the search of elements for the documentary, we came across the universal logo for human rights.

Nearly everybody knows that a heart symbolizes love and a dove means peace - but what about human rights? There are 7 billion people living on this planet, all of them are carriers of human rights – and yet we have no way of transcending all borders to communicate this universal bond.

The initiative “A Logo for Human Rights” has now filled this gap! As a universal symbol, the Human Rights Logo can help to draw attention to human rights violations and give a voice to those fighting for their rights.

A logo is easily recognizable and helps people to identify with human rights. A logo carries its message across all language borders, fast and without words – given today’s information-overload on TV and through the internet, this is more important than ever. The Human Rights Logo and any related material can now be used by everyone at no cost for the promotion and protection of human rights.

To know more about the logo, please visit http://www.humanrightslogo.net

March 20, 2012

Warren Cariou on CBC Manitoba Scene

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Article by Warren Cariou for CBC Manitoba Scene on February 3, 2012

Centuries of Aboriginal stories find home in Manitoban anthology

For me, stories have always been about community. They link people together in a shared experience, and they often teach us how to see things from different perspectives.

In Aboriginal traditions, stories are the keeping-places of each community's knowledge, the source of collective wisdom. In today's complex world, stories take many different forms than they did in earlier generations, but I firmly believe they perform the same functions in our communities: they teach us how to be who we are, and they help us to understand our world.

The works collected in Manitowapow are perfect examples of this.

They are vivid, compelling, sometimes hilarious, often poignant, and always infused with a sense of commitment to the land and to community. I hope the book will open many people's eyes to the richness of our Aboriginal cultures here in Manitoba, and I hope it will help to strengthen those communities as well.

The book is a celebration of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Métis, Dene, Sioux and Inuit people of this place, who have persevered through many terrible obstacles in order to tell their stories, to show the world who they are. "We are here," these stories say. "We will always be here."

I am not originally from Manitoba, so for me the process of working on Manitowapow has been a way of learning more about this place and its people. Together with my co-editor Niigaanwewidam and our team of student researchers at the University of Manitoba, we made many discoveries.

We learned about writers and stories that had been unjustly forgotten. We re-read work by some of our favourite writers and saw their words in a new way. Bringing all of these stories together in one book has been a powerful, moving experience for me. I have gained a new appreciation for this place and for the rich diversity of people who reside here. It has made me realize that I am at home here too. I have been welcomed by the stories.

To read the original article, please visit this link

March 14, 2012

Aqua Books is moving!

On August 11, 2011, Kelly Hughes announced that Aqua Books would be closing its doors forever. A groundswell of public support followed, and they have spent the intervening months working on just the right plan. A new non-profit called Winnipeg's Cultural City Hall Inc. was eventually set up, to take over operations and help usher in the next phase of Aqua Books' existence. After weeks of negotiations, meetings, and paperwork, the wait is over. The sale of 274 Garry Street is being finalized, and in April 2012, the New Aqua Books will be rocking its new space at 123 Princess Street. This leaner version of Winnipeg's Cultural City Hall will feature a larger theatre, workshop space, books, full bar, and food service. More details will be released in the weeks to come. Stay tuned.

For more information about Aqua Books, please visit http://www.aquabooks.ca/

March 13, 2012

Series of lectures by Stephen Lewis

March 8, 2012

CCWOC Documentary: What are Human Rights?

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is envisioned to be a national and international destination, a centre of learning where Canadians and people from around the world can engage in discussion and commit to taking action against hate and oppression. With construction completion projected for 2012, the physical home of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights promises to be an inspiring international landmark, drawing visitors from around the globe. The museum is a $351 million project created in partnership between the Government of Canada, the Province of Manitoba, the City of Winnipeg, The Forks North Portage Partnership and the private sector.

After the announcement of the Museum for Human Rights coming to Winnipeg, CCWOC decided to work on a documentary about the public perception of human rights. Featuring interviews with general public and human-rights experts, the film is on the making. Below you can have a taste of what is coming up. Enjoy...

March 6, 2012

Coffee Break Series: Extra! Extra!

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March 1, 2012

Coffee Break Series: Interactive Media and Performance (IMP) Labs

Hello Everyone,

Two post ago we talked about CFI (Canada Foundation for Innovation) and some interesting connections that could be made through their website. Yves Melanson (CFI) introduced us to some sort of similar work done with aboriginal communities by Dr. Charity Marsh (Canada Research Chair in Interactive Media and Performance at the University of Regina). While still spurring creativity in the aboriginal context, Marsh takes it into a different direction and makes use of her expertise in Music to connect aboriginal youth's traditional culture with their current experience through Hip-Hop. Marsh is the director of the Interactive Media and Performance (IMP) Labs, where students are taught, among other things, hip-hop turntable scratching, electronic beat-making, and music production. Marsh also launched a community-outreach program in which aboriginal students in grades 10 and 11 at an inner-city high school spent two mornings a week in the labs writing hip-hop rhyming lyrics, and learning how to record and edit music. The students also studied graffiti art and breakdancing and, to improve the latter, took fitness classes at a nearby gym one morning a week.

The common ground between CCWOC and IMP Labs is the focus on storytelling, which can have several facets and expression formats. Regardless of the form it takes, whether music, written literature, visual arts, or oral narratives, aboriginal storytelling is finding contemporary ways to convey old traditions and experiences to new generations. The video below shows an interview with Charity Marsh and a bit of the work she does with Hip-Hop storytellers. Check it out.

To know more about Charity Marsh and IMP lab, please visit the links above.

February 28, 2012

Coffee Break Series: The power of digital storytelling

In this short video, Daniel Meadows talks about the drive behind his career as a photographer/documentarist, and how digital storytelling can bring regular people to the center of the stage.

• For more info about Daniel Meadows, pleas e visit www.http://photobus.co.uk/

February 23, 2012

Canadian Foundation for Innovation

This week (Feb. 21st), the Centre received Yves Melanson, coordinator of media relations from CFI - Canada Foundation for Innovation. It was a pleasure to receive one of our partners and supporters in our facilities, and to talk about what we do and the projects currently going on at CCWOC. Moreover, it was exciting to see CFI’s effort to reach out and interact with their partners.

The CFI has put together a new website featuring a number of communication tools such as blog, Twitter, YouTube channel, and Facebook. These tools are meant not only to be a resource for information about the research CFI supports, but also to strengthen the relationship between CFI and researchers, and to create a community of researchers across Canada. Yves toured us around some of these tools and showed interesting projects that relate to our work here at the Centre, about which we will talk in future posts. For now, we leave you with one of the videos available from CFI's YouTube channel.

For more information about CFI, please visit www.innovation.ca

February 21, 2012

Manitowapow Launch Event

Hello all,

Here are some pictures of the Manitowapow launch event. Thanks to all the (150!) people who attended the launch that evening. You made that day a memorable one for contributors, editors, and for the Centre. All photos by Aaron Pierre.

Contributing authors and special guests

Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair welcoming all to the Forks

Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair with co-editor Warren Cariou (background)

Wab Kinew kicking off the night with an honour song

Co-editor Warren Cariou thanks everyone for coming and supporting the book

Contributors Ryan McMahon and Rosanna Deerchild

Contributors Wab Kinew and David McLeod

Contributors Doris Young and Gregory Scofield

At the Highwater Press table

February 16, 2012

Dream and Flesh: Spain, African America, and the Atlantic Imaginary

February 14, 2012

Coffee Break Series: Digital Storytelling

Hello guys,

It amazes me that although people have, more than ever, access to multimedia devices and software, the quality or variety of what we see online is not exactly creative. In most cases, people limit themselves to copy or reproduce what is already there. Rather than creativity, popularity or laughter is the driving factor for posting multimedia content on the web.

As opposed to the emptiness seen on much of today’s online multimedia content, digital storytelling has purpose, structure, and direction. In this clip, Dr. Daniel Meadows – lecturer in photography and participatory media at Cardiff University – talks a bit about the features of digital storytelling. Make sure to check his website for resources and more on storytelling.

• For more info about Daniel Meadows, pleas e visit www.http://photobus.co.uk/

February 9, 2012

Film screening at The Forks

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