Welcome to Historic Joy Kogawa House

Award-winning novelist Katherine Govier will wait until her new novel is publishined in the spring of 2010 by HarperCollins before joining us at Kogawa house to discuss the life of Katsushika Hokusai, the Ukiyo-e artist who created The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, and his daughter Oi.

One of the most widely recognized woodblock prints of the 19th-century, The Great Wave established Hokusai’s reputation around the world. But who was Hokusai? Very little documentation remains about the life of this eccentric artist—who lived 90 years, double the life expectancy at the time—and in 93 “temporary lodgings” with his devoted daughter.

Is it possible that he created the roughly 10,000 very disparate works of art that are credited to him? Oi was a great painter in her own right but seldom signed her work. She was at his side from his mid-sixties (her mid-twenties) until his death.  Was she the “Ghost Painter”?

Govier explores this question in her ninth novel, to be published next spring by HarperCollins. Govier demonstrates Oi’s contributions to her father’s art through slides and discussion.

Please watch this website next spring for details of this postponed event.

When: 5 p.m., Friday, April 17Where: 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver

Admission by donation. Space is limited. To reserve a seat, please RSVP kogawahouse@yahoo.ca

Writer-in-residence John Asfour welcomes Judy Rebick to Historic Joy Kogawa House on Friday, April 17. Rebick is a veteran activist, former host of CBC Newsworld, chair of Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University and former publisher of www.rabble.ca. Come join us on Friday, April 17, as Judy Rebick speaks about her new book Transforming Power.

One reader commented that Transforming Power "[is] a powerful, inspiring treatise on a paradigm shift in social action that is taking place from around the world. It offers new pathways to change making that are critically needed in this time of crisis, and is an exciting window into stories of hope and possibility around the world." To attend this event, please RSVP kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.

 

Shelagh Rogers, host of "The Next Chapter" on CBC Radio, to emcee

When: 7:30 p.m., Monday, April 20

Where: Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver

Admission by donation. Space is limited. To secure a seat, please RSVP kogawahouse@yahoo.ca  

Three BC Book Prize-nominated poets—George Stanley, Nilofar Shidmehr and Daphne Marlatt—have accepted an invitation from writer-in-residence John Asfour to read at Historic Joy Kogawa House on Monday, April 20, as part of BC Book and Magazine Week. 

Asfour, a Montreal poet, is the first writer-in-residence at Kogawa House and will present poetry readings to a variety of audiences, in collaboration with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Simon Fraser University’s Writers Studio, Christianne’s Lyceum of Literature and Art and the Vancouver Public Library. 

Asfour is the author of four books of poetry in English and two in Arabic. He translated the poetry of Muhammad al-Maghut into English under the title Joy Is Not My Profession (Véhicule Press), and he selected, edited and introduced the landmark anthology When the Words Burn: An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, 1945–1987 (Cormorant Books). 

CBC Radio host Shelagh Rogers will emcee the event, which is a co-presentation of Historic Joy Kogawa House and the West Coast Book Prize Society. George Stanley (Vancouver: A Poem), Nilofar Shidmehr (Shirin and Salt Man) and Daphne Marlatt (The Given) are finalists for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. 

The event takes place the evening before National Al Purdy Day, and the League of Canadian Poets has invited all Canadian poets and lovers of Canadian poetry to host a Purdy party to raise funds for the Al Purdy A-Frame Project—Purdy’s former home on Roblin Lake, Ontario—and to create a poet-in-residence program there that is similar to the writer-in-residence program now under way in the childhood home of the author Joy Kogawa. 

This poetry reading will be held at 7:30 pm at Historic Joy Kogawa House, located at 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver. Entrance by donation. Space is limited. To secure a seat, please RSVP kogawahouse@yahoo.ca 

Writer-in-residence John Asfour welcomes novelist, playwright, and essayist Ann Diamond to read excerpts from My Cold War, stories from 1950s Montreal

 

Monday, April 6, at 7:30pm, by donation

 

Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver

 

Ann Diamond's best-known work is a long poem, A Nun's Diary (1989), which was adapted for theatre by Robert Lepage and became the subject of a National Film Board documentary, "Breaking a Leg" directed by Donald Winkler. Her first novel, Mona's Dance, was chosen by CBC as the best small press novel of 1988. In 1994, a story collection, Evil Eye, won the Hugh MacLennan Award for fiction. As an experiment, she self-published her novel Static Control after it had been accepted by DC Books and Les Editeurs XYZ.

 

Since 2002 when Diamond began work on her memoir, My Cold War, she has reincarnated as a researcher and haunter of libraries, fine-tooth-comber of documents and files, and explorer of a forbidden chapter in recent Canadian history. This ongoing project has been, in many ways, about reclaiming her own history as the daughter of a Canadian Air Force intelligence officer, who came to Quebec from Sea Island, BC, in 1943 to "hunt for Nazi spies." Learning of her father's secret activities led her inevitably into a wide-ranging study of the history of that period, some of which remains classified to this day.

 

It has also changed Diamond's relationship to the community she came from--Anglo Montreal. It was a mixed blessing to live in a city with a rich cultural tradition and a multi-layered history. By the mid-1980s, when I began publishing fiction and poetry, Montreal had wandered off the literary map of Canada. Diamond waged a personal campaign to change that, writing for the Gazette, Books in Canada, Canadian Forum, CBC, Montreal Mirror, Room of One's Own, Geist, and so on.

 

Today Diamond continues to study the history of Cold War experiments on children, a secret program that spanned the country. Her birthplace, Montreal, was the epicentre of a project that has altered our future in countless ways which need to be faced. After five years of research and writing, Diamond is pleased to shared those stories with a Vancouver audience at Kogawa house.

 

Join us on Monday, April 6, at 7:30pm at Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue in Vancouver. Admission by donation.

Historic Joy Kogawa House chooses first writer-in-residence 

Historic Joy Kogawa House is pleased to announce our first writer-in-residence, Montreal poet John Asfour. 

Upon arriving in Vancouver, Asfour said: “I am pleased to be chosen as the first writer-in-residence at Kogawa house. I’m here to learn how a community like the Japanese Canadian would turn a part of their historical suffering into something positive by establishing a place where writers can live and work. Japanese Canadians were very supportive of the community of Arab Canadians and what it had to endure after September 11.” 

Asfour is the author of four books of poetry in English and two in Arabic. He translated the poetry of Muhammad al-Maghut into English under the title Joy Is Not My Profession (Véhicule Press), and he selected, edited and introduced the landmark anthology When the Words Burn: An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, 1945–1987 (Cormorant Books). 

The majority of the writer’s time in residence will be devoted to work on a book of poems entitled Blindfold, which exposes the “rich and strange” possibilities of a life that has undergone some frightening transformation and is displaced from its element. The book is partly autobiographical—born in Lebanon, Asfour was blinded in 1958 at age 13 during the Civil War there.

The poems also explore feelings of loss, displacement and disorientation experienced by the disabled and relates them to immigrant themes that Asfour has previously addressed. Asfour suggests that the disabled often feel like foreigners in their own land, hampered by prejudice (sometimes well-meaning), communications barriers and the sense of “limited personality” that characterizes the second-language learner.   

While in Vancouver between now until the end of May, Asfour will present poetry workshops to a variety of audiences, in collaboration with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Simon Fraser University’s Writers Studio and the Vancouver Public Library. Opportunities for consultation on work in development are also available. 

Further information can be found on the website of the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society at www.kogawahouse.com and TLC, The Land Conservancy of BC, at www.conservancy.bc.ca or by calling (604) 263-6586.  

Contacts: Kogawa House Society: Ann-Marie Metten (604) 263-6586 

TLC, The Land Conservancy of BC: Tamsin Baker (604) 733-2313  

Information on Historic Joy Kogawa House Historic Joy Kogawa House is the former home of the Canadian author Joy Kogawa (born 1935). It stands as a cultural and historical reminder of the expropriation of property that all Canadians of Japanese descent experienced after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Between 2003 and 2006, a grassroots committee fundraised in a well-publicized national campaign, and with the help of The Land Conservancy of BC, a non-profit land trust, managed to purchase the house in 2006.  

Together with Joy Kogawa, the various groups decided that the wisest and best use of the property would be to establish it as a place where writers could live and work. Following the models of the writer-in-residence programs in place at the Berton House Writers’ Retreat in Dawson City, Yukon, and Roderick Haig-Brown House in Campbell River, BC, the Historic Joy Kogawa House writer-in-residence program brings well-regarded professional writers in touch with a local community of writers, readers, editors, publishers, booksellers and librarians.

While in residence, the writer works to enrich the literary community around him or her and to foster an appreciation for Canadian writing through programs that involve students, other established and emerging writers and members of the general public.

Beginning in March 2009, as a partner with TLC, the Historic Joy Kogawa Society will begin hosting writers to live and work in the house on a paid basis. Funding is provided through the Michael Audain Foundation for the Arts, the Canada Council and through donations from the general public.   

Emily Carr, Toddish McWong, James Cleland Richardson, Joy Kogawa, John Foster McCreight (BC's first Premier), King Freezy (Songhees Chief), Emery Barnes... courtesy of the Royal BC Museum.  The picture in front, of Robbie Burns' house,

Here's more pictures of Joy at the Gung Haggis dinner!

Joy Kogawa with co-hosts Toddish McWong, CBC "Vancouver at Six" news anchor Gloria Macarenko, and Metro News columnist Catherine Barr


Joy Kogawa during the live auction of the special edition bottle of Famous Grouse 37 year old blended whisky - one of 250 bottles produced for auction at Burns dinners around the world.  Craig Johnstone holding the bottle valued at $750 CDN, Gloria Macarenko and Catherine Barr.  The bottle went was HOTLY contested and went for $750.

Historic Joy Kogawa House will host a resident author between April 1 and June 30, 2010, as part of its writer-in-residence program. The aims of the residency are to foster greater appreciation for Canadian writing within the Metro Vancouver community, offer members of the community an opportunity to interact with the resident author, and to provide the space, time and resources for a Canadian author to write.

The writer-in-residence will provide advice to emerging and other writers through one-to-one consultations, seminars and school visits. This full-time position (35 hours per week) requires 25 percent of the author’s time be spent on public programs or projects, leaving 75 percent of the work week available for creative writing.

Applicants are encouraged to identify innovative ways their residency would foster an appreciation for Canadian writing and involve communities not typically exposed to Canadian literature.

Requirements
• Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada
• Minimum of one critically well-received title published professionally, including a complete work of fiction, short stories, poetry, drama, or literary non-fiction
• Professional teaching or public speaking experience
• Comfortable and willing to engage with the public one-on-one and in group settings
• Active participant in the writing community
• In the early working stage of a new writing project intended for book-length publication

Remuneration
• $2500 per month, plus free accommodation valued at $1500 per month
• Assistance available for travel expenses

Expressions of interest must include 1) a cover letter; 2) a resume with a history of literary publications, and previous experiences teaching, conducting writing programs, and facilitating workshops or other forms of public presentation; 3) contact information for three references; and 4) a 20- to 30-page sample of recent writing along with reviews of earlier works.

Once a short-list of candidates has been determined, the selection committee will request three letters of reference from each of the short-listed applicants.

Application Deadline
• Completed applications must be received by midnight (PST) on February 1, 2009
• Applications can be mailed, faxed, or e-mailed as a Word document.

Author Residency Selection Committee
c/o Ann-Marie Metten
Historic Joy Kogawa House
1450 West 64th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6P 2N4
E-mail : kogawahouse@yahoo.ca
Fax : 604.263-6581

Terms of employment are based on Canada Council guidelines.This position and length of term are subject to Canada Council funding.

 

 

On January 5, 2009, Historic Joy Kogawa House welcomed to Vancouver a young poet from Kazakhstan. Akerke Mussabekova will be hosted until the middle of May in a homestay at the home of Vancouver International Writers Festival artistic director Hal Wake as part of a cultural exchange initiated by Poet in the City in London, England, sponsored by HSBC and supported and hosted by Historic Joy Kogawa House.

Akerke is a third year-student of the Translation Department at al-Farabi Kazakh National University, the country’s largest and premier university, situated in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan. There her interests in poetry, languages and translating come together in the translation of poems from English into Kazakh. In 2007 Akerke took part in an International Congress of Students and Young Scholars and was awarded the main prize for her research on the poems of Byron as translated into Kazakh during the Soviet era.

 "I identified many mistakes in the translations," she says, "because all were translated into Russian before being translated from Russian into Kazakh." Akerke’s proficiency in English—she has studied the language since the age of seven—allowed her to review the original English poems and translate them into Kazakh with good results.

Here in Vancouver, Akerke studies literary translation as a guest of UBC’s Department of Creative Writing, where she participates Thursday afternoons in a translation workshop led by Dr. Rhea Tregebov. Throughout the week, Akerke improves her English in high-intermediate level classes in SFU’s English Language and Culture Program. Later this winter she will also participate in SFU Writing and Publishing Program courses.

The expected outcome of Akerke’s stay in Vancouver is a collection of 20 to 25 original poems, to be published in Kazakh, English and Russian, but we have asked that she also consider translating some of Canada’s best poets into Kazakh, in order to develop an audience for our literature in this faroff country.

Historic Joy Kogawa House welcomes Joy Kogawa to 1st Annual General Meeting

April 2008 - Joy Kogawa holds the Globe & Mail Story about the revealing of the $500,000 anonymous donor who helped save her childhood home from demolition, to become a literary and historic landmark and a writers-in-residence program - photo Todd Wong

It's always a special feeling walking into the Joy Kogawa House.  This is the house that a six year old future Order of Canada recipient was forced to leave when Japanese Canadians were interned during WW2.  This is the house that was saved from demolition when a dedicated few led a rally by thousands of supporters across Canada.

The first Annual General Meeting was held for the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society on Dec 11th, 2009.  It was a special meeting because writers Hiromi Goto and Caroline Addison were there to give their insight and share their experiences as the Writers in Residence for the Vancouver Public Library for 2007 and 2009.

It was more special because author Joy Kogawa was present, having just flown in from Toronto to spend time with family.

Executive director Ann-Marie Metten had brilliantly organized the evening, and it had a strong exciting buzz as wine and gourmet snacks were served.  Books by Kogawa, Goto and Addison were for sale.  Board members and guests mingled with authors and the representatives from The Land Conservancy of BC, the owners of the house.

The evening unfolded with a good in depth descriptions of what it was like to be a writer in residence for the Vancouver Public Library.  Hiromi Goto and Caroline Addison freely shared their experiences and their expectations as the Historic Joy Kogawa House now prepares for their first writer in residence program to be created with author Madeleine Thien, author of Simple Recipes and Certainty.  It is somehow fitting that it is Madeleine who is the first WIR author, as she returns to the city where she not only lived before and wrote about, but also the city where the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop first granted her the ACWW Emerging Writer's Award that was shopped to publishers and became the award winning "Simple Recipes" short story collection.  Currently I am president of Joy Kogawa House, and co-president of Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop.

During the AGM part of the evening, Ann-Marie Metten gave an update of the grants applied for and recieved and how the WIR program will unfold with Madeleine. 

The Land Conservancy of BC was proud to report that Historic Joy Kogawa House has recieved a Heritage B category from the City of Vancouver, and we can now proceed with the next steps for re-zoning and re-conditioning the house.  We hope to restore the house to what it was like when the 6 year old Joy Kogawa, her 10 year old brother Timothy and their parents were living in the house before they were sent to the BC interior to spend the next 10 year living in delapidated buildings and beet farms.

I gave a President's report that recapped events in 2008 that involved Joy Kogawa in BC, and events at Joy Kogawa House.
Here is my report:

On Feb 3rd,
Sharon Butala attended the Vancouver opera production "Voices of the Pacific Rim" with members of the Joy Kogawa House Society, and was introduced to some of the singers who had performed  the Naomi's Road opera, based on the children's novel by Joy Kogawa

Sunday Feb 24
Author Sharon Butala mesmerized the packed audience at historic Joy Kogawa House on Friday night.  The Order of Canada author talked how she helped established a writer in residence program at Wallace Stegner's childhood home in Eastend, Saskatchewan.

March 2008 - Royal BC Museum
Joy Kogawa is guest of “THE PARTY”: 150 of BC’s most interesting people

 "The Party" exhibit with some of BC's "fascinating" citizens including: (front row) founding governor James Douglas, Betty Krawcyk, Joy Kogawa, Karen Magnusson, Herb Doman; (second row): Vikram Vij, Cindy Lee, Gordon Campbell, Gordon Shrum. - photo Todd Wong

April 10 Vancouver Kids Books reading and Naomi’s Tree book launch
It was a good event for the launch of  Naomi's Tree.  So good that all the books that had been delivered in advance to Kidsbooks sold out.  When Joy performed her reading, she told the audience of children and adults that she had fallen in love with a tree.  It was a special "Friendship Tree" - a cherry blossom tree.

April 25th Kogawa House cherry tree planting + recognition of Sen. Nancy Ruth
3pm press conference, introduction of formerly anomnynous $500,000 donor (Sen. Nancy Ruth) + baby cherry tree planting
At 3:40pm, we sat inside the living room of Historic Joy Kogawa House and listened to CBC Radio One's Arts Report by Paul Grant.  Paul had interviewed Sen. Nancy Ruth, Bill Turner and Joy Kogawa for his story on how the house was saved, and how Sen. Nancy Ruth's formerly anonymous gift of $500,000 was important.  In this picture Hon. Iona Campagnolo, Sen. Nancy Ruth and Joy Kogawa.- photo Todd Wong

8pm  Music and Poetry with Joy Kogawa and Friends,
Following the music, Joy was presented with the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award from BC Bookworld Publisher Alan Twigg, Vancouver Public Library Community Programs Director Janice Douglas, and historian Jean Barman.   
Alan Twigg speaks of Joy's accomplishments         Joy Kogawa accepts the George Woodcock lifetime achievement award

This morning Joy Kogawa sent this email out to our Historic Joy Kogawa House Society
Dear Friends,
 
For a day of unalloyed happiness --
 
I have had many many wonderful days in my life -- but this one!  It was the happiest. If ever I've felt at home.... Or felt the love that underlies all...

My friend Heather Pawsey, soprano wrote:
Last night was one of the most beautiful and profound evenings of my musical life.  Heartfelt thanks to everyone behind Kogawa House.  May it continue to rise and spread its wings.

Where is Joy Kogawa in this picture? 

This is the interactive photo display in front of the Royal BC Museum, in Victoria BC,  for the "Free Spirit" exhibition celebrating the 150th Anniversary of British Columbia. 

Sep 22
Kogawa House cherry tree at Vancouver city hall is given a plaque on the 20th anniversary of the Japanese-Canadian redress.
 
"Friendship Tree" plaque at Vancouver City Hall for the "Kogawa House cherry tree" graft - photo
Ann-Marie Metten.

Thursday, December 11, 7 p.m.

1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver

Please join us at Historic Joy Kogawa House on Thursday, December 11, for wine, finger foods, and discussion with writers Hiromi Goto and Caroline Adderson about what a writer needs when living and working in residence.

This discussion will help us plan activities as we host the return to the city of Vancouver-born writer Madeleine Thien. As our inaugural writer in residence, Maddy arrives in Vancouver on March 1 for a three-month stay at Historic Joy Kogawa House. During her residency with us, 60 percent of Madeleine's time will be devoted to producing new work; the remaining 40 percent of time will be occupied by various projects within the community, including work with individual writers, a project with high school students, and an event during Asian Canadian Heritage Month in May.

Please plan to join us at the house just after 7 p.m. on Thursday, December 11. This will be our first annual general meeting since founding our society last year, and we look forward to a bit of fun as we host Caroline Adderson and Hiromi Goto as guest writers for the evening.

Please also plan to renew or take out a membership in the society.

Your RSVP would be appreciated at kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.

See you on December 11 at 7 p.m.

1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver (two blocks east of Granville Street)