This year’s theme, Love Is A Verb, speaks to the power of the action of love. It calls into remembering that to love means that we are actively engaged. That love is not passive, it is a state of being which is dynamic and powerful, full of intention and purpose. That as Alice Walker put it; anything we love can be saved. I believe that moments when we act out of love are true catalysts. They are moments that cause every moment after to be changed, because they are moments motivated by truth and passion, and it are these moments that Sista'Hood 07 will explore, in all their light, dark, complicated and whimsical manifestations. Because Sista'Hood is and always will be about change. Sista'Hood is about catalysts.
The theme is also reflective of my relationship to the festival. It reminds me that letting go is perhaps the greatest act of love. As of the end of the 2006 festival I have been transitioning from the role of Artistic and Festival Director into a more of a mentorship role as the festival Founder. When the first preparations began for Sista’Hood 2007 in April of this year, I successfully passed the torch to the extremely talented and passionate duo, Lauren Burrows and Anna Hilliar, whom have filled the roles of Artistic Director and Festival Director respectively; and to the wonderfully engaged, competent and supportive Working Arts Board of Directors.
As the festival founder I feel that this is an important step to take. I believe that in order for the festival to continue evolve in scope, relevance and distinctiveness I must make room for more perspectives. Moreover, I believe that by opening the creative potential of Artistic Director position, Sista'Hood can become a grassroots phenomenon unlike any other. A phenomenon wherein the current stories of the actively silenced and misrepresented have a sustainable, relevant and effective forum for being heard in an environment of artistic excellence and creative community engagement.
I look forward to seeing the 2007 festival come to fruition from a new perspective and I suspect it will be the most rewarding perspective of all.
Sincerely,
Rachel Flood
Founder- Working Arts Society & Sista'Hood Celebration
The Direction
The Artistic Director likes the direction things are taking for the next Sista’Hood Celebration. The theme, though provided by Working Arts Chair Vanessa Richards, seems to have been divinely sent, as evidenced by all of the co-incidental events now occurring. Really, it’s getting a bit weird.
The theme – LOVE IS A VERB. As we started talking about love, we noticed all of these other people talking about love, heard Ursula Rucker’s new song called “L.O.V.E.”, went to see Bahamadia and heard her utter the exact phrase “Love Is A Verb”, found that love was increasing all around us (!) and things are just getting started.
Everything you love about Sista’Hood is back; rapping, singing, poetry, dance, burlesque, film, discourse, good times, dancing-our- asses-off, and this year we are introducing The Remedy, a family fair and wellness event. Love and good health. Please join us.
Lauren Burrows
Artistic Director
The Events
| 1. Festival Launch: Love Is A Verb | |
| EARLY SHOW BEGINS 8:30PM !!! | Ursula Rucker 1LUV GreenTaRA DJ Ariel DeCruII B-girls Leona Suprun |
| Date: Saturday March 3rd | |
| Venue: The Red Room 398 Richards Street | |
| Price: $10 advance / $15 door | |
This year, the Sista'Hood Celebration investigates a classic theme – Love. Sista’Hood puts forth the proposition that Love Is A Verb. Not a noun-based concept, but an action. A truly powerful action.
With performances by international touring artist – and Vancouver’s “Global Baby” - GreenTaRA, the 8-member cosmic soulestra 1LUV, and Philly’s Queen of Spoken Word Poetry - the incomparable Ursula Rucker - Love Is A Verb will spread love across the spectrum of cultures and experience, and set it off for Sista’Hood in 2007.
Ursula Rucker (Philadelphia, PA) – www.ursula-rucker.com
1LUV (Vancouver, BC) - www.myspace.com/jazidup
GreenTaRA (Vancouver, BC) – www.greentaramusic.com
| Exhibition: Highly Reflective Surfaces Leona Suprun is an established web and graphic designer in Vancouver. By illustrating a short poem based on the resounding theme of this year’s festival, Love Is A Verb, this exclusive series of paintings created for The Sista’Hood Celebration highlights the acts of love that women give to the world everyday. Currrently on display for the month of March at Bump n' Grind, 916 Commercial Drive |
| 2. Sista’Hood is Stacked | |
 |
DJ Betti Ford Girl Friday DJ De Lux |
| Date: Tuesday March 6th | 9pm | |
| Venue: Celebrities Nightclub 1022 Davie Street | |
| Price: $6 | |
Stacked happens every Tuesday night at Celebrities Night Club (1022 Davie) with founding resident DJ Betti Forde and Trevor Risk playing electro, rock, new-wave and retro mash ups. Partial proceeds from this special edition of Stacked will benefit The WISH Drop-in Centre – increasing the health, safety and well-being of women working in the survival sex trade in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. www.wishvancouver.net.
| 3. International Women’s Day Celebration Presented by: Beats Without Borders and Sista’Hood | |
| Andabeat Namchi Kytami Lady Ra Nils Tarun VJ Suez | |
| Date: Thursday March 8th | 9pm | |
| Venue: Red Room 398 Richards Street | |
| Price: $12 | |
The Beats Without Borders Collective is made up of 4 established Global Groove DJs (Lady Ra, Nils, Adrian and Tarun), who spin the most diverse dance music on the planet... this collective produces high-calibre shows exposing Vancouver audiences to funked out afrobeat, sexy middle-eastern bellydance and the best of Asian underground.
www.beatswithoutborders.comNamchi
Andabeat
Kytami
| 4. Film Festival: Reel Sista’s | |
| The Beat Back Bush Workout WordLoveWorldLove Calcutta Hilton Ursula’s Matter United Nations of Hip Hop Medusa | |
| Date: Saturday March 10th | 8pm | |
| Venue: NEW! Chapel Arts 304 Dunlevy @ Hastings | |
| Price: $8 adults, $5 students/seniors | |
We are proud to present the 6th annual Reel Sista’s Film Fest with curator Jessie Kergan. A two-hour screening of short films created by or featuring women exploring Love as a Verb with a special attention to women in hip hop.
The Beat Back Bush Workout
Director - Jazzmen Lee-Johnson
Producer - Rhode Island School of Design / Brown University
18 min / USA
A captivating and satirical multimedia project that invites people to exercise their minds, bodies, and rights. Inspired by music videos and other contemporary media, the video features dance, kickboxing, yoga, jazzercise, break-dancing, Hip-Hop, animation, original spoken word and music. The video addresses a plethora of issues and policies including: education, abortion, drug policy, globalization, the war, gay rights, civil rights, and prison issues. While challenging the state of our country, the video also challenges the state of mainstream Hip-Hop by sampling from rap songs and artists largely viewed as misogynistic, and re-writing them into revolutionary songs of protest performed through the voices and bodies of Hip-Hop generation women.
WordLoveWorldLove
Producer/Director - Tony Papa
Co-produced and Created by Donna Williams
46 min
The WordLoveWorldLove Documentary creates an opportunity for children to participate in an international exchange of compassion and friendship through a currency free to all... their words. Children are empowered to use their intuition and empathy to send messages as cross-cultural healing elements to children in tsunami-stricken Sri Lanka. Through written word, hand-drawn art, and video letters, our film becomes an adventure of positive media literacy, inspiring a young generation to celebrate the power of their words as global citizens. Words work. Art works. Follow our journey as children’s messages are hand delivered by our WordLove crew to children in tsunami stricken Kalmunai, Sri Lanka, in an exchange of hope, spirit, and courage coming full circle in our film WordLoveWorldLove.
Calcutta Hilton
Director - John Sinclair / Producer - Evie Ashton
23 min / New Zealand
The sex districts of Calcutta, India aren’t a place you’d necessarily expect to find much hope. They are filled with heartbreak and hardship. “Freedom” isn’t a word you are likely to hear often. Now, a New Zealand family are helping make a difference with a business - Freeset - that employs women who have been in the sex trade, providing them with a choice that until now they haven’t been offered: a way out of prostitution. A chance to experience freedom. Calcutta Hilton delves into the story of this kiwi family and the women they work with.
Ursula’s Matter
Director/Producer - Salmon Avalanche
5 min / Canada
Ursula is a down and out woman taking refuge in a parking lot. She is a shadow of her former self. Like a fish out of water and a polar bear without a place to land, she is part of a fading Mother Earth and only able to catch glimpses of her former, fully elemental self. Her story is told through simple, surreal visual imagery and an audio track that integrates natural, urban and spoken sound bites that leave it up to the viewer to imagine what Ursula’s Matter means to them.
Medusa
Director - Joe Liska
28 min / USA
Medusa, the hip-hop queen of the underground in L.A, is the focus of this short documentary shot while she performed for a Girl Fest fundraiser in October of 2004. Liska manages to pull forth several poignant moments from this incredible performer. She speaks and performs about the roots of sexism and brings us to remember how, as human beings both female and male, we are all more alike than different. Peace starts here.
Dir. Christina Choe
Senegal | 2005 | 10mins | Color | English/French/Wolof w/ES | Documentary
Jay-Z posters adorn bedroom walls, youth sport Adidas, MCs battle on street corners. No, this is not New York or LA. This is Senegal, West Africa where MC’s talk about African debt dependency, Islam, and poverty over powerful beats. Explore the far reaches of hip hop,capitalism and the global economy.
Please note: We regret to announce that Made In Brazil will not be screened this year.
| 5. Lounge In partnership with Screaming Weenie & chrysalsis | |
| Written and performed by: Tanya Marquardt Stage Direction by: Ilena Lee Cramer Music and arrangement by: Joel DeStefano Dramaturgy by: Kris Nelson | |
| Date: Thursday March 15th | 9pm | |
| Venue: Rime Eatery 1130 Commercial Drive | |
| Price: $10 | |
Part lounge act, part David Lynch film - Lounge follows a lonely lesbian lounge singer’s search for home and true love on her last Canadian tour. Interweaving story and song, she takes her audience from a childhood in small town Canada to singing lounge in Las Vegas and a love affair with a showgirl. Both humorous and poignant Lounge features the lounge re-makings of songs from Queen, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Billy Holiday and PJ Harvey.
www.screamingweenie.com| 6. Love, Lust and Redemption: The Sista'Hood Cabaret | |
| Little Woo | Hassah Hill | Amber Dawn | Sweet Soul Burlesque | Bring Your Own | Ms Whiskey Rose | Stilettos and Strap-ons Burlesque | Your Little Pony | |
| Date: Friday March 16th 7pm 'til late | |
| Venue: W.I.S.E. Hall 1882 Adanac | |
| Price: $10 | |
A Cabaret in 3 parts: Love, Lust and Redemption will include elements of Burlesque, Theatre and Performance Art creating a compelling and interactive way to explore performance across the gender boundaries and to celebrate the body.
Curators: Rebecca Christofferson and Maya Seuss
www.littlewoo.org
www.hadassahsbizzare.com
www.sweetsoul.biz
www.myspace.com/bringyourowncabaret
www.myspace.com/mswhiskeyrose
www.stilettosandstrap-ons.com
www.myspace.com/yourlittleponyburlesque
| 7. Sista’Hood Invitational Poetry Slam | |
| Tara Hardy | Magpie Ulysses | Lisa Slater | Chrystalene Buhler | Nora Smithhisler| Sasha Langford | Tachi Jacobsen | Lilly Nickerson | Denise Jolly |Jessica Lohafer | Sue Cormier Hosted by Rachel Flood | |
| Date: Monday March 19th 8pm door,9pm show | |
| Venue: Café Deux Soleils 2095 Commercial Drive | |
| Price: $5-$10 sliding scale | |
Feature Poet - Tara Hardy - is a femme dyke working class poet who was born and raised in Michigan, but now lives, writes, and teaches in Seattle. She believes art is a tool for social change. Her poems, essays, and novel-in-progress explore issues such as gender, sexuality, social class and race. Her work brings into focus lives and experiences not often explored by mainstream artists. Her long-term goal is to begin a queer writing institute here in Seattle. To that end, she has been teaching queer writing classes for two years, and has recently quit her day job to pursue this objective.
The Vancouver Poetry Slam is Canada’s longest running Poetry Slam series, now in it’s 11th year. VPS has helped put on the 2007 Individual World Poetry Slam, the 2005 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, and the West Coast Poetry Festival. Poets of note who have emerged from our stage and moved on to wonderful things include Cass King, Andrea Thompson, Shane Koyczan, CR Avery, The Svelte Ms. Spelt, Brendan McLeod, Barbara Adler, Patrick Swan, Magpie Ulysses and many others. The slam happens the 1st, 3rd and 5th Monday of every month at Cafe Deux Soleils on Commercial Drive. It’s been our home for 6 years.
| 8. The Remedy: Meaningful Celebration as Cultural Medicine | |
| Date: Saturday March 24th 10am-4pm | |
| WISE Hall (1882 Adanac St ) | |
| Price: Free | |
Sharing skills and experiences builds awareness
Community action brings change
The Remedy is an all-ages, full-family event offering performances, ethical fashion, community wellness solutions, AND skills-building workshops. All for FREE, all for FUN, all-day community based wellness and learning through arts.
Community Building WORKSHOPS
Workshop 1: Exploring Art and Activism. -- 11 am - 12:15 pm
Art and activism, possibly the most potent mash up on the planet. Is
it possible to effectively make a difference and also make
commercially viable art? Can you truly feed yourself and your soul?
The crew at Direct Current Media (DCM) questions these boundaries
through film (4REAL series) and music (K'NAAN and Red1).
Direct Current Media www.directcurrentmedia.com
Workshop 2: Have You Heard Of TILMA? -- 1 pm - 2:15 pm
The Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement comes into effect
between BC and Alberta on April 1, 2007. Come learn how this new
agreement will impact the people and the environment. Facilitated by
the long-standing youth activist organization Check Your Head (75
minutes).
www.checkyourhead.org
Check Your Head is a youth-driven non-profit organization that provides education, resources and support for youth on issues of social, economic and environmental justice. Their work is motivated by the understanding that a healthy, just and sustainable future depends on a generation of informed, empowered and active young people.
Workshop 3: WordPlay 2:30 pm - 3:45 pm
Ever been tempted to try your hand (or voice) at Slam poetry? Come
join some of Vancouver's finest Slam and Spoken Word poets in an
interactive, fun exploration of writing and performance. Developed
for youth, this workshop offers tools for Word Play. Surprise
yourself!
Blending performance with interactive writing exercises, WordPlay brings poetry off the page. Through performance and workshops, they aim to expose and engage young people, giving them the opportunity to find their own voice. (75 minutes).
Breakdancing Workshop at 2:30 for all ages- with the fine ladies that led breakdancing workshops at the folk fest last year, DeCruII
Also at the Remedy...
Bring Your Own BagTo get your business involved in the Remedy, contact Sara or Emily at [email protected]
Sea Breeze Power Corp
MOBY - My Own Backyard
| 9. Sweet Action | |
| Yvette Narlock Ora Cogan Jess Hill Anni Rossi | |
| Date: Thursday March 29th | 9pm | |
| Venue: Rime Eatery 1130 Commercial Drive | |
| Price: $8 sliding scale | |
Emerging singer-song writers Ora Cogan, Annie Rossi (from Chicago/L.A.), Jess Hill, team up with established singer-songwriter, Yvette Narlock (Molly’s Revenge) for a night of genre-bending music at Commercial Drive’s most accessible and unique performance space & eatery, Rime.
| 10. Wrap Party: Sexy Party Time! | |
| Thunderheist Stinkmitt MasiaOne | |
| Date: Friday March 30th | 9pm | |
| Venue: The Media Club 695 Cambie Street | |
| Price: $10 | |
The exploration of the festival theme, Love Is A Verb, is brought to a climatic finale. Hot bodies expressing love physically, sweating on the dance floor, and having a very sexy party time.
With performances by "Toronto’s most recognized female emcee" Masia One, the lewd, raunchy, and wildly talented rap crew known as Stinkmitt, and Canada’s booty bass sensation Thunderheist, with Isis on the mic and Grahmzilla on the beats.
www.stinkmitt.com
www.myspace.com/ilmusik
www.thunderheist.com
www.masiaone.com
www.myspace.com/masiaone