asian-canadian
Kogawa House - open house event - Sept 17, photos on flickr.com
Tue, 2006-09-19 22:38 — Todd WongOpen House event at Joy Kogawa House, September 17th.
photographs posted on Flickr.com
Kogawa House Time Line
Uploaded on 19 September 2006
By gunghaggisdr...
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Joy Kogawa
Uploaded on 19 September 2006
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house, open, joy, 2006 | Jessica with .... |
 | Catherine and the cherry tree |
 | Tamsin Baker and Catherine |
 | and the best news is!! |
 | Harry Aoki |
 | The rain can't hold us back |
 | Todd Wong and Jessica Cheung |
some of the guests watch the performance
Uploaded on 19 September 2006
By gunghaggisdr...
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Joy and the cherry tree
Uploaded on 19 September 2006
By gunghaggisdr...
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The First Open House at Kogawa House
Mon, 2006-09-18 22:55 — Todd WongKogawa House
The open house event at Joy Kogawa House went very well. Many many people came to see the house, and to meet Joy Kogawa, buy copies of her books and have Joy sign them. The Land Conservancy of BC did a wonderful job setting up displays about the history of the house, and the time line events about the Save Kogawa House campaign.
It has been great for the Kogawa House committee to work with Heather Skydt and Tamsin Baker of TLC. Members of our Kogawa House committee also attended to help host and volunteer: Ann-Marie Metten, David Kogawa, Richard Hopkins, Jenni Kato, Joan Young, Sabine Harper and myself.
As people walked up to the house, the first thing they saw was that the white picket fence was decorated with pictures and events highlighting the timeline to save the house from demolition, starting from when the house was built in 1942, and when Joy's family moved into the house.
A tent was set up in the front yard, attended by TLC volunteers Jon and Janet, who gave people an information sheet about the house, and recieved donations for the restoration of the house. TLC also had another display with newsclippins and pictures from events during the Save Kogawa House campaign.
Volunteers greeted people as they entered the house, and other volunteers stood throughout the house to help explain stories of different rooms, as well as historic family items such as toy cars belonging to Joy's brother Timothy, a calligraphy set used by Joy's father, and wooden crates used by the family as they moved from the internment camp in Slocan, BC, to Coaldale, Alberta.
And everybody wanted to say hello to Joy Kogawa.
There was a man who used to play with Joy as a child, before she moved away - Ralph told me that his older brother was in one of the pictures on display that featured Joy and her brother Timothy as children in 1940. There was a woman who brought pictures of the house, during the 1940's when her grandparents lived there, after her family moved away. Both Joy and this woman were very moved by this meeting.
There was a woman Daisy Kong, who had taken pictures of Joy at the Order of BC ceremony earlier this year in June, because Daisy's brother Dr. Wallace Chung also recieved the Order of BC along with Joy, in Victoria. Daisy was amazed when I told her that Dr. Wallace's wife Dr. Madeline Chung was the doctor who delivered me as a baby.
Garry Geddes, current writer in residence at Vancouver Public Library, arrived to give Joy a hug.
Attending the event was also Jen Kato, on our Kogawa House committee, and Jeff Chiba Stearns, who just won the Best Animated Short for the Canadian Awards for Electronic Arts and Animation.
People bought Joy's books and asked her to sign them. My friend Gail Thomson helped manage the booksales. Gail is a librarian at Fraserview Branch in Vancouver, where Joy came to speak during the One Book One Vancouver program.
We surprised Joy with a special musical performance: Jessica Cheung (who played the role of Naomi in the Naomi's Road Opera) sang "The Farewell Song" from the Opera, I accompanied on accordion, Harry Aoki on double bass, and Harry's friend Misako Watanabe on accoustic guitar. Joy was moved to tears.
After the event, we had birthday cake to celebrate David Kogawa's birthday. David is one of our wonderful Kogawa House committee members, and Joy's ex-husband and good friend.
Obasan - "100 Most Important Canadian books ever written" listed by Literary Review of Canada
Sun, 2005-11-20 13:26 — Todd WongJoy Kogawa's 1981 novel Obasan is one of "100 most important Canadian books ever written" according to a Literary Review of Canada November 17th press release.
Books are listed in order of publicatiion, beginning in 1545 with"Account of the Second Voyage of Navigation 1535 and 1536" by Jaques Cartier. Jane Jacob's "A Dark Age Ahead is the newest entry from 2004"
Obasan is one of eleven books published in the 1980's and the first one by an Asian-Canadian author. Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" (1995) and Wayson Choy's "Jade Peony" (1995), are the only other novels listed by Asian-Canadian or South Asian-Canadian authors.
