HAPA-PALOOZA FESTIVAL
SEPTEMBER 22-24, 2017
VANCOUVER, BC
Festival-At-A-Glance
- September 22nd: Hip Hapa Hooray Gala, we kick off celebrations with hapa-tizers and drinks to honour members of the Hapa community;
- September 23rd: Hapa Family Day in the Park, free, family-friendly community afternoon of music, dancing, balloon art, and face painting which welcomes all heritages and ages;
- September 24th: Hapa-palooza Festival at WORD Vancouver, a free literary event open to all, celebrating unique voices coming together!
FRIDAY, September 22nd, 2017
Hip Hapa Hooray Awards Gala
Hip Hapa Hooray: An evening of celebration to kick off our 2017 festival! Guests will enjoy delicious “hapa-tizers" and drinks, as well as live music by Desiree Dawson, CBC's 2016 Television Searchlight talent contest winner and a keynote presentation by noted performer, activist and educator Michelle La Flamme. At our awards presentation, MC'ed by Vanessa Richards, inspiring community members of mixed heritage will be recognized. This year’s recipients include the Trailblazer Award presented to Joël Watanabe (award-winning chef and restaurateur, Bao Bei and Kissa Tanto), the Innovation Award presented to Ann Marie Fleming (award-winning filmmaker, Window Horses), and the Community Builder Award presented to Wayde Compton (award-winning activist, poet and author).
The evening will also feature a visual art display, silent auction, and much more!
Thank you to Eclipse Awards for sponsoring our beautiful sustainable handcrafted awards. Also thank you to Hapa Izakaya, La Mezcaleria, The Naam, Skoah, Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre, dutil. Denim Shop and Scandinazn for contributing to our silent auction. More to be announced soon!
SATURDAY September 23rd
Hapa Family Day in the Park
1:00-4:00pm Granville Island Picnic Pavilion at 267 Old Bridge Walk, adjacent to Cat’s Social House and waterpark. Free public event!
Family Day is a Hapa-palooza Festival Favourite year after year!
Come join this vibrant family-friendly event welcoming all people from all walks of life to celebrate mixed heritage. The event includes family-friendly fun including live music, dance, comedy, balloon art, face painting, our popular photo-booth and more!
Masters of Ceremony are Koru and Timo Joseph who will also open and welcome people to unceded Coast Salish Territory.
Confirmed Artists:
Desirée Dawson, Musician, CBC Search Light Winner 2016
Jay Peachy, Family Comedy and Music
Jocelyn Pettit, Musician / Dancers
Kaya Kurz, Musician
Melanie Dawn, Facepaint Artist
Jasmine Cambon, Henna Artist
SUNDAY, September 24th, 2017
Hapa-palooza Education Day at Word Vancouver
Vancouver Public Library Central Branch, Peter Kaye and Alice MacKay Room
Hapa-palooza partners with Word Vancouver in the largest celebration of literacy and reading. Two free events will be held at VPL Central Branch co-hosted by the Hapa-palooza Festival.
11:00am Writer's Panel: "Mixed Voices Raised"
1:00pm Writing Workshop: "Feeling a Little Mixed - or - Do I have a Story to Tell You?"
Author bios here!
11:00 am Mixed Voices Raised
Perspective Point (Peter Kaye Room)
More and more, we live in a society of hybridized, mixed, or blended identities. What is it like to write and read from within or beyond the hyphen or transnational identities? What creative opportunities does hybridity present? Join authors Leanne Dunic, Mercedes Eng, and Carleigh Baker in a reading and discussion of writing in fluid identity contexts. Moderated by Hapa-palooza Festival co-founder Anna Ling Kaye.
1:00 pm Feeling a Little Mixed—or—Do I Have a Story to Tell You? with Jónína Kirton
Port of View (Alice MacKay Room)
There are gifts and challenges that come with hybrid identities. We may feel that life would have been simpler if we had only one culture or group to be responsible to. And yet we see the possibilities in the weaving. Our stories are enriched by the willingness to embrace it all. Together we will write. All persons of between welcome. Jónína Kirton, a prairie born mixed-blood Métis/Icelandic poet, just released her second collection of poetry, An Honest Woman, with Talonbooks.
YEAR-ROUND PROGRAMMING
In addition to our September Festival, we provided vibrant programming with a focus on mixed heritage throughout the year.
FREE screening at the 2017 Powell Street Festival!
Aug 5 Saturday, 1:30pm – 2:00pm, Firehall Theatre
Aug 6 Sunday, 4:30pm – 5:00pm, Firehall Theatre
Curated by Hapa-palooza co-founder and award-winning filmmaker, Jeff Chiba Stearns, Hapa-palooza is proud to co-present this year’s Mixed Flicks screening of ALMOST ASIAN at the Powell Street Festival.
Created by part Japanese and German actor, Katie Malia, Almost Asian, is a new comedy web series that follows a woman’s everyday life in Los Angeles as a half-Asian. The screening will feature specially selected episodes from Katie’s popular hit series which was recently featured on NPR. Katie, who writes, directs, and stars in Almost Asian, will be in attendance from LA for a moderated Q&A session directly following the screening, hosted by Nicole Yukiko. (40 minutes)
Award winning short film screening at the Firehall Arts Centre, co-presented with the Hapa-palooza Festival. Curated by Hapa-palooza co-founder and award-winning filmmaker, Jeff Chiba Stearns, Hapa-palooza is proud to co-present this year’s Mixed Flicks screenings of the short films, BORN WITH IT and BLASIAN NARRATIVES at the 2017 Powell Street Festival.
This program of short films looks at the mixed Japanese and Black experience both in Japan and North America. The award-winning short film, BORN WITH IT, directed by Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour, tells the story of a 6-year-old sheltered African-Japanese boy who goes on a search to find out why his skin is darker than his new Japanese classmates. BLASIAN NARRATIVES is a multi-media “Docu-Theatre” project that intimately explores the intersection and identities of mixed race Black & Asian individuals through live performances and film. 40 minutes.
May 4, 2017
Mixed Voices Raised
We kick off Hapa-palooza's 2017 programming with Mixed Voices Raised: a Moth-style evening of storytelling (true tales, no notes) with storytellers of mixed Asian heritage, sharing for about seven minutes each.
As the mixed Asian community is the featured community for Vancouver Asian Heritage Month this year, we welcome you to this special spring program.
WHERE
Alice MacKay Room in the lower level of the Vancouver Public Library
WHEN
7:00 pm, Wednesday May 4th
FREE and open to the public.
RSVP on our Facebook Event page, and please feel free to invite friends!
Artists and storytellers in this year's line-up include Zarah Martz, Tarun Nayar, Fred Wah, Melissa West Morrison, Amal Rana, and Henry Young, amongst others, all with unique and important perspectives on the theme of "Stories That Shape Us."
Thanks to our partners, the Vancouver Public Library and explorASIAN!
APRIL 19, 2017
National Canadian Film Day - Mixed Match
6:30 pm – 8:45 pm, VPL Central Branch
Free and open to the public
Join fellow Canadians across the country in celebration of our nation's cinema on National Canadian Film Day.
Mixed Match is an important human story told from the perspective of mixed race blood cancer patients who are forced to reflect on their multiracial identities and complex genetics—as they struggle with a seemingly impossible search to find bone marrow donors, and discover what role race plays in medicine.
A Q and A will follow the screening.
In partnership with the Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society, and National Canadian Film Day.