Welcome to Historic Joy Kogawa House

Joy Kogawa House committee

to receive Vancouver Heritage

Award of Honour


A young Joy Kogawa with brother Tim standing beside their childhood home in Marpole prior to 1942 - photo courtesy of Joy Kogawa

On February 19th, at Coastal Church, the City of Vancouver Heritage Awards will give the Heritage Award of Honour jointly to Joy Kogawa House Committee and The Land Conservancy of BC.

Joy Kogawa House was the childhood home of award winning author Joy Kogawa, which she was forced to leave in 1942, at age six, when Japanese-Canadians were "evacuated" from the BC Coast and sent to internment camps during World War 2.  The Canadian government subsequently confiscated all their remaining property and auctioned it off, supposedly to help pay for the cost of internment.

She and her mother always dreamed of returning to the house, but their family was sent to live in Alberta as part of the Japanese Canadian dispersal program, in an effort to keep Japanese Canadians from returning to the Coast, and trying to reclaim their confiscated property.

Obasan (1981), is the award winning book that is a fictional memoir about the internment of the Japanese-Canadians.  It is considered one of Canada's most important 100 books ever written according to the  Literary Review of Canada.  It is the second most studied book in Canadian schools and universities.

I am one of the committee members for the Joy Kogawa House committee along with Ann-Marie Metten, David Kogawa, Anton Wagner, Ellen Crowe-Swords, Richard Hopkins, Jen Kato, Joan Young and Sabina Harpe.  We have all put in incredible hours of volunteer work to help realize this project.

It was only 17 short months ago, when Ann-Marie Metten contacted me for help when she learned that a demolition inquiry for 1450 West 64th Ave. was being made.  In the months to come, we would be asked why it was important to save the childhood home of author Joy Kogawa.  We would also be told that there was little chance to save it.

The 3rd week of September 2005, was a roller coaster for Joy Kogawa.  She learned of the demolition plans in the same week that saw: 1) excerpts from the Naomi's Road opera performed at Vancouver Arts Awards; 2) she received the Community Builder's Award from Asian Canadian Writer's Workshop; and 3) the final event of One Book One Vancouver "Obasan" program where she gave a reading at Word On The Street book and magazine festival.

In December 2005, The Land Conservancy of BC stepped in to become a joint partner in our project to save the house.  They became the chief fundraiser and eventually purchased the house in full in May 2006.


Joy with Richmond elementary students who wanted to save Kogawa House - photo Joan Young

We are ecstatic and honoured to receive the Award of Honour, for projects demonstrating an outstanding contribution to heritage conservation.

Nominations were accepted for:

• Restoration, rehabilitation, adaptive re-use or continued maintenance of a heritage building, a significant interior of a heritage building, or characteristic features of a heritage building;
• Use of innovative engineering techniques or restoration/conservation methods in upgrading a heritage building which may include seismic upgrading;
• Preservation of a heritage landscape;
• Heritage advocacy of a group or individual in the preservation of a heritage site or increasing public awareness of heritage issues;
• Publication, education or exhibit that promotes heritage conservation;
• Efforts in community or neighbourhood revitalization.

Click here to see past Heritage Award winners

Joy Kogawa listed in The Toronto Star's "Essential Book List" 

For Canada Day, the Toronto Star examined what is considered essentially Canadian.  They chose judges in all culture categories, who had a few months to compile the top 10 most significant and essential Canadian works.  Guess what made the top 10 in books?!

Here’s a link:
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151665788269&call_pageid=1150797693198&col=1150797693190

Obasan (1981)
Joy Kogawa

It's not often a piece of fiction gets read aloud in the House of Commons, but such was the case with Obasan. The novel played a crucial role in the Japanese-Canadian redress settlement. A blend of fiction and documentary fact, Kogawa's lyrical and moving novel sheds light on the Canadian government's racist policies toward Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Centred on the protagonist Naomi, a third-generation Japanese Canadian, the novel interweaves past and present as it traces her struggle to unravel the veil of secrecy behind her mother's mysterious absence during wartime. A fiercely nationalistic novel, Obasan nonetheless demands that we take a closer look at the myth of the multicultural nation, and at citizenship and belonging in Canada.

Kogawa House deadline to raise money to save house is now August 2006

It's been an awesome journey along the campaign to save Joy Kogawa's childhood home from the wrecker's ball, and turn it into a writers' centre and historical and literary landmark for Canada.

Even though The Land Conservancy has decided to purchase the home by exercising their option worked out with the owner, we are still a ways from completely saving it. 

So far $230,000 has been raised and pledged, but an additional $470,000 is needed complete the $700,000 purchase price.

I am working on a fundraiser event for May, and for the summer.  Please call me or Nancy Tiffin at TLC, if you have any ideas, or major donors.  See Nancy's letter from the TLC below

Dear Friends and Supporters,

 

The Land Conservancy of BC has decided to exercise its option to purchase the Historic Joy Kogawa House and take out a short term mortgage to save it from demolition (see press release below).  But we only have until August 2006 to raise the balance of the money needed to purchase the property in order to prevent TLC from carrying a long term mortgage on this property.  This buys us a bit more time to work towards the goal of preserving this important symbol of Canda's cultural heritage in perpetuity.

Our goal of $1.25M as follows:

Land and House Purchase $700,000
Restoration of Property    $200,000
Endowment                    $300,000    to offset costs of maintaining a writers-in-residence program
Cost of Fundraising          $50,000

To date we have raised $235,000 from over 500 people in donations and pledges. 

This is still a time sensitive campaign.  We have until August 31, 2006 to ensure the preservation of this property in perpetuity.  Your gifts and your ability to connect us to others who may be intertested in giving is essential to our success.  I am confident that with your help we can reach our goal of making this an educational site and a retreat for writers of conscience.  If you or someone you know has yet to donate or pledge to this important campaign, please take a moment to go to The Land Conservancy's website at www.conservancy.bc.ca and make your donation or pledge today.  You can also print the attached pledge/donation form off and give it to others.

There are silk threads of hope healing and reconcilation running through this campaign and we've been inspired by the commitment and interest from people all over Canada, throughout the States and from parts of Europe and Asia.  It's exciting to see the world become your neighbour and join together in this great cause.  We are a significant step closer to preserving this important symbol of Canada's cultural heritage in perpetuity, which is important to us as individuals and as a society.  It's a symbol that will carry with it the importance of our past, and even more importantly, provide a reminder for generations to come of the multiculturalism and interculturalism that provide the backbone to our culture and makes us proud to be called Canadian.

Thank you for your interest in and support of our campaign.

Sincerely,

Nancy 
Nancy Tiffin
Development Officer - Major Gifts
 
TLC The Land Conservancy of British Columbia
5655 Sperling Ave, Burnaby, BC   CANADA  V5E 2T2
 
CELL: (250) 213-6278    TEL: (604) 733-2313    FAX: (604) 299-5054
ntiffin@conservancy.bc.ca             www.conservancy.bc.ca

Media Watch for Joy Kogawa House

weekend of April 28 to 30.

Busy Busy day for Joy Kogawa and the Save Kogawa House Committee and The Land Conservancy.

Joy Kogawa and Bill Turner took a 7am ferry from Victoria to Vancouver, following the jam-packed reading at Chapters bookstore last night.  They went over to CTV and CBC television studios for interviews.

Kevin Griffin of the Vancouver Sun, phoned looking for Joy for a quick comment.  He said the story will be running in Saturday's Vancouver Sun.

Check out CBC Radio One 690AM in Vancouver. 
Sheryl Mackay, host of "North By Northwest" may have Joy Kogawa on air shortly after 7am.
Sheryl was one of our special guest readers at the April 25th "Joy of Canadian Words" at Christ Church Cathedral.

Joy will be attending the BC Book Prizes Gala on Saturday Night
http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/events06.htm

Joy sent me this message today:

"In haste – on this miraculous day – got to go make supper for grandkids"

Heather Skydt of The Land Conservancy wrote:

TLC Joins Community Efforts to Save Joy Kogawa's Childhood Home

 

December 2, 2005

VANCOUVER, BC – Community efforts to save Joy Kogawa’s childhood home from the wrecking ball moved into a new phase today as The Land Conservancy of British Columbia (TLC) has agreed to lead the campaign to acquire the house and secure its protection.

"The Kogawa house is a very important part of British Columbia’s heritage," said TLC’s Executive Director Bill Turner, "and we are determined to see it protected.  As of today, we have only 118 days to raise the funds needed to achieve this.  We will need to raise $1.25 million to ensure the future of this site, and we’ll be getting to work immediately."

The Kogawa house is located in the Marpole neighbourhood of Vancouver, and was the childhood home of noted Canadian author Joy Kogawa.  She and her family were removed from the home in 1942 as part of the Government’s policy of internment of Canadians of Japanese ancestry during World War II." Kogawa’s celebrated novel Obasan is a powerful and heart-rending story of that internment and features the house prominently as part of her childhood recollections.  It has been listed by the Literary Review of Canada as one of the 100 most important Canadian books ever written.

Inspired by the Save Kogawa House Committee, many community groups such as the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, Heritage Vancouver and the Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture and other cultural organizations like the Writers’ Union of Canada and the Federation of BC Writers have come together to support the protection of Kogawa House.  On November 3 they were able to convince the City of Vancouver to delay a demolition permit on the house for 120 days (effective November 30) to give the community time to raise the funds to buy it.  This followed the symbolic planting at City Hall of a graft from the cherry tree at Kogawa House, as Mayor Larry Campbell proclaimed Obasan Cherry Tree Day on November 1.

"I am so touched by the way the community has rallied to protect this house that holds such symbolic importance for me – and for so many others," said Joy Kogawa.  "I just wonder when I'm going to wake up from this dream of miracles."

Committee spokesperson Ann-Marie Metten said "We are delighted that The Land Conservancy is taking on this project.  As British Columbia’s National Trust they have the expertise to know what needs to be done and the ability to do it.  They have a great record of success in similar projects around the Province and we all believe that by working together we will be successful here too."

TLC’s Turner said that the fundraising campaign is underway.  "We are calling on everyone who has been moved by Joy Kogawa’s writing to contribute to saving the house.  Your contribution will not only recognize and honour Joy’s accomplishments but will also provide the opportunity for a writers-in-residence program that will enable a new generation of writers to be inspired by her work.  We are also calling on everyone who has been touched by Canada’s past treatment of communities such as the Japanese-Canadian community.  This house will stand as a symbol of the wrongs that were committed in the past, but also as a symbol of what a community can achieve when it pulls together."

Donations can be made to The Land Conservancy through our website at

www.conservancy.bc.ca, or by calling our Lower Mainland Office at (604) 733-2312 or our Head Office in Victoria at (250) 479-8053.

 

Contacts:		For TLC		Bill Turner		(250) 213-1090
				Tamsin Baker		(604) 722-2313
		For the Save Kogawa House Committee
				Anne-Marie Metten		(604) 263-6586
				Todd Wong		(604) 240-7090
				Anton Wagner		(416) 863-1209

 

A Writers Literary Landmark and Writers-in-Residence Centre for Vancouver

The following is a message from Anton Wagner, of the Save the Kogawa Homestead Committee:

Dear Todd,

Thank you for the great article "How important is saving Kogawa House? What other literary landmarks are in Vancouver?" on the http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com website.

I totally agree with Alan Twigg's suggestion to Ann-Marie that we also focus our campaign to save Joy's former home on Margaret Atwood's recognition of Vancouver's cultural desert of literary landmarks. As Alan writes in his entry on Pauline Johnson in the BC Bookworld Author Bank, "The Pauline
Johnson memorial in Stanley Park, above Third Beach, is the only literary monument erected in Vancouver for a Canadian writer during the 20th century."

Johnson died in 1913.

Other provinces and much smaller towns have established and supported such literary landmarks and a few writers-in-residence programs:

The Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism maintains the Margaret Laurence House in Neepawa as the Manitoba Provincial Heritage Site No. 25
http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/prov/p025.html

In St. Boniface the non-profit corporation La Maison Gabrielle Roy Inc. operates the Gabrielle Roy House as a museum for the Franco-Manitoban writer with project grants from the federal, provincial and municipal governments and corporate, foundation and individual donor support. To date 105 women and 37 men have donated $1,000 each to the House.
http://www.maisongabrielleroy.mb.ca

In Eastend, Saskatchewan, the Eastend Arts Council owns and operates the Wallace Stegner House as a writer/artist's residence. Rent is $250 a month, including all utilities. The furnished house, built in 1916, contains a kitchen, dining, living room, study, two bedrooms and a bath and can accommodate two adults and one child. The house is funded in part by the Saskatchewan Heritage Foundation, the Writers' Development Trust, provincial, federal and civic government grants, and individual donations.
http://www.dinocountry.com/stegner_house.html

In Dawson City, the Yukon Arts Council and the Klondike Visitor's Association and the Dawson City Libraries Association operate the Berton House Writer's Residence Retreat. Initiated by Pierre Burton in his former boyhood home, the Writer's Residence Retreat enables professional Canadian writers to
write in the remote Northern community free of charge.

One item of great interest in your
http://users.yknet.yk.ca/dcpages/bertonhouse/story.html link is the last April 2001 item on that page, "Canada Council to support Berton House writers." It reports a grant of $100,000 from the Canada Council over a three-year period to the Berton House Writer's Retreat Society to enable four Canadian or
international writers to be in residence in the house for three months each, with a monthly fellowship of $2,000 and travel cost assistance. This would be a great precendent for us in seeking financial operating assistance from the Canada Council.

But again, no such writing centre and literary landmark exists in
Vancouver.The Federation of BC Writers operates a small writing cabin, gifted by George Fetherling, the Horsefly Manor Writers Retreat on Quesnel Lake in the Cariboo.
http://www.bcwriters.com/horsefly/

Lorna Crozier has informed us that the Haig-Brown House in Campbell River, operated by the non-profit conservation organization, the Haig-Brown Institute, has just opened its doors to writers, with Don McKay being the first writer-in-residence. http://www.haigbrowninstitute.org
 
Vancouver, one of Canada's most dynamic cities and our gateway to the East, needs a writers-in-residence centre as has been proposed for the Joy Kogawa House so that Canadian and international writers can observe and write about the unique evolving multi and intercultural society that is developing
in Canada.

Anton Wagner

How important is saving Kogawa House?  What other literary landmarks are in Vancouver?

Alan Twigg, author and publisher of BC Book World, says that Vancouver only really has one literary landmark, and that one was controversial and created under protest - the gravesite of poet Pauline Johnson. Ann-Marie Metten, was talking with the author of First Invaders: the literary origins of British Columbia and Aborginality which detail the first writings about British Columbia. 

If we can save and preserve the Kogawa Homestead, then we have the real life equivalent of the fictional Anne of Green Gables House.  http://greengables.tripod.com/locations.html
With the new Vancouver Opera creation of Naomi's Road, then we now have the West Coast equivalent of the ever popular Anne of Green Gables musical.

The Save the Kogawa Homestead Committee would like to preserve the former Kogawa House as a writer's retreat, where the house could serve as a temporary home for visiting writers, immersing themselves in multicultural Vancouver, while providing a historic landmark to the thousands of Japanese Canadians who once made up the fishing community of Marpole neighborhood, but were uprooted from their homes, branded as enemy aliens, and interened at re-location camps away from the Pacific Coast.

There are few historic houses preserved in BC.  Our history is still young, and many of our residents are immigrants with little knowledge of BC's history.

Only a small handful of the homes of Canada's greatest Canadians or writers are preserved or acknowledged.  Pierre Berton was born in a cottage in Dawson City, Yukon.  Berton spent $50,000 to buy the house to donate it to the Dawson City community where it is now a historic landmark known as Berton House.
http://users.yknet.yk.ca/dcpages/bertonhouse/story.html

Other BC homes have been turned into historic landmarks or museums.  But none that I know of are by writers, nor homes that were confiscated from Japanese Canadians during World War 2.  In addition to becoming a writers' retreat, Kogawa House would also represent the tragedy of the upheaval and internment of the Japanese-Canadian community and how we overcome our prejudices by recognizing it and turning it into an important community landmark.

Haig-Brown House Education Centre
2250 Campbell River Road,
Campbell River
B.C. V9W 4N7
http://www.britishcolumbia.com/attractions/?id=67

Rodde House Preservation Society
1415 Barclay Street
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada
V6G 1J6
(604) 684-7040
http://www.roeddehouse.org/

Emily Carr House
207 Government Street
Victoria
B.C. V8V 2K3
Telephone: (250) 383-5843
Fax: (250) 356-7796
http://www.britishcolumbia.com/attractions/?id=63

Irving House
302 Royal Avenue,
New Westminster
(604) 521-7656
URL: http://www.city.new-westminster.bc.ca/cityhall/museum/
http://www.discovervancouver.com/articles/irving-house.asp

Writing associations across Canada support preservation of Kogawa House



OUR VISION FOR KOGAWA HOUSE


The Save Kogawa House Committee believes it can preserve that heritage by purchasing the property from its current owner and converting the home into a writers-in-residence centre. Ten writers associations representing several thousand writers have endorsed our proposal and would select members from their organizations to reside in the house for a period of approximately one month each.

This is their vision of the house as well:

Brian Brett, Chair of the Writers Union of Canada:

“The Writers’ Union of Canada, representing over 1,500 professional writers,  supports the effort to save Joy Kogawa’s childhood home on 1450 West 64th Avenue in Vancouver from demolition, and would like to encourage its conversion into a major writers centre for Canadian and international writers.

Vancouver would greatly benefit by designating the Joy Kogawa House as a literary landmark and establishing it as a writers-in-residence centre in which Canadian writers and writers from abroad could write first hand about our complex and evolving multi- and inter-cultural society and how different values and traditions can peacefully interact.”
 
Brian Busby, President of the Federation of BC Writers:

“The house at 1450 West 64th Avenue which Joy Kogawa and her family were forced to leave during the relocation of Japanese Canadians is the central image of her famous novel Obasan, one of Canada’s best-loved works of fiction. The many groups now coming together to save it (whether at its present address or at another location) is one of the strongest yet most diverse such alliances we have ever seen rally round a cause. The emerging consensus favours employing the house as a new cultural centre that would highlight the contributions of Vancouver artists from all backgrounds—not as a shrine but rather as a working place and as a place for work to be seen. This vision includes having the facility in operation well before the 2010 Olympic Games.”

Amela Simic, Executive Director of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, representing over 500 members:

“Playwrights Guild of Canada members add their support to the Kogawa Homestead Committee in their struggle to preserve the house and turn it into a writers' centre. We think that it would be a grave mistake to allow the demolition of Joy Kogawa's home, which is an important landmark for Canadian culture and Canadian history in general. A vibrant writers' centre would put Vancouver on the map along with other cultural centres, like Mexico City with its beautiful Casa del Escritor or Dublin with its Irish Writers' Centre.”

Rosemary Patterson, President of the Vancouver Branch of the Canadian Authors Association:

“The members of the Canadian Authors Association, Vancouver Branch, would like to add their support to the Joy Kogawa House Committee in their efforts to prevent the demolition of Joy Kogawa’s former family home and save it for a writers’ centre as a permanent Olympics benefit for Vancouver and all of Canada.”

Gordon Graham, President of the Periodical Writers Association of Canada:

“The Periodical Writers Association of Canada was founded in 1976 and currently represents more than 550 freelance writers across Canada.  (PWAC) would like to offer its support to the proposal to develop Joy Kogawa’s home into a writers’ centre.  Writers’ centres and retreats, such as the Pierre Burton House in the Yukon, have proved to be extremely valuable to writers, which directly contributes to the further development of Canadian writing. This in turn reinforces our national cultural resources and hence our ability to promote ourselves internationally at events such as the Olympics.”

Mary Ellen Csamer, President of the League of Canadian Poets:

“The League of Canadian Poets, representing over 730 professional poets across Canada, supports the effort to save Joy Kogawa's childhood home on 1450 West 64th  Avenue in Vancouver from demolition, and would like to encourage its conversion into a major writers centre for Canadian and international writers.

Just as Emily Carr’s home in Victoria and Pierre Berton’s in the Yukon provide a unique sense of the physical space that helped to define those artists, so this building forms an important part of our collective cultural imagination. To create a writers’ centre would be an appropriate and timely action, which would draw national and international writers to the West Coast for cultural stimulation and peaceful retreat.”

Constance Rooke, President of PEN Canada:

“PEN Canada supports with immense enthusiasm the idea of turning Kogawa House into a writers’ centre, and of making this venture a central piece of legacy of the [Olympic] games. Certainly, we would make extensive use of this resource. We would use it, for PEN Canada’s allotted time, to house writers-in-exile, brave men and women who have fled oppression in their own countries and sought refuge in Canada. We work very hard to find short-term positions for these writers in universities and libraries and so on, all across Canada, in order to help them find their feet in a new country, and accommodation is always a big part of the challenge we face. You have an opportunity here to do something of historical importance: a chance to turn threatened destruction into a very public gesture of preservation, reparation, and new life.”

Jim Wong-Chu, Executive Director of the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop:

“Joy Kogawa is a pioneer for Asian Canadian literature, and we recognized her with the 2005 ACWW Community Builders Award. Joy’s works and legacy brings us closer together as Canadians, learning to overcome our challenges and diversity. It is important to save Kogawa House as both a literary and historical landmark. Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop supports the preservation of Kogawa House, and the creation of a writing centre.”     

Alma Lee, Founding Artistic Director, and Hal Wake, Incoming Artistic Director, of the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival:

“We understand the historical and cultural significance of this house as part of Vancouver’s literary heritage and believe that all efforts should be made to save it from the wrecker’s ball.”

Sylvia McNicoll, President of the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers:

On behalf of the members of CANSCAIP I would like to offer our recommendation and support that Joy Kogawa’s house be saved from demolition and be converted to a writer’s retreat.”

Joan Andersen, Chair of the Vancouver Public Library Board:

VPL was honoured to declare Obasan as this year’s One Book One Vancouver. The community’s positive response to both the book and Joy has been most gratifying. Joy has spoken of the importance for her of her first Vancouver home in public meetings and in the media throughout the summer. The VPL Board understands the symbolic importance of this modest house in the history of Vancouver, British Columbia and Canada as well as its significance in Canada’s literary heritage. The Vancouver Public Library Board supports in principle the campaign to delay the demolition of the house with the hope of saving it and converting it to a public use.”

James Wright, General Director, Vancouver Opera:

“Please accept this letter as support in principle from Vancouver Opera to help exercise a ‘stay of demolition’ of Joy Kogawa’s childhood home in Vancouver. We were honoured and delighted to receive Joy’s permission to adapt Naomi’s Road into an opera for young people, which is currently touring in schools across the province.  In its premiere four-performance run at the Norman Rothstein Theatre, before audiences composed mostly of adults, it was a huge hit. We at Vancouver Opera appreciate the historical and cultural significance of this house and believe that all efforts should be made to save it from the wrecker’s ball.”

Tamsin Baker, Lower Mainland Regional Manager of The Land Conservancy:

“TLC would like to express our support towards the efforts to secure the site and building in perpetuity.  TLC is a provincial land trust working to protect BC's places of natural and cultural heritage.  There are many benefits for the community that come from the conservation and long-term management of important heritage places. TLC would be willing to possibly provide support to the community in securing the Kogawa home if the extension to delay the demolition of the house is granted.”

Henry Kojima, President of the National Association of Japanese Canadians:

“The National Association of Japanese Canadians strongly supports the retention of the Kogawa House.  The proposed international writer-in-residence centre in Kogawa House would, indeed, be an appropriate acknowledgement of our nation’s past, as well as be a fitting tribute to the importance of Canada’s multi-cultural society today. We respectfully urge Council to order a temporary protection of the property for 120 days in order that sources of funding can be pursued to purchase the home.”

Fred Yada, President of the National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre:

“To the Japanese Canadian community and to Canada, Joy's stories have captured an important aspect of Canadian history, her contribution has enriched Canadian literature, and she has told a story of many of our people with dignity and grace. Most importantly, through her, Canadians have gained awareness and
appreciation for harmony, acceptance, understanding and cultural exchange. We believe that her work, and that a centre dedicated for writing, will be a legacy for all Canadians, today and for the future.”

The Save Kogawa House Committee thanks the current owner of the 1450 West 64th Avenue property for giving us the opportunity to mobilize this extensive local and Canada-wide support to raise the funds and purchase the house as a writers centre.

For immediate release

November 3, 2005

120 days given to Kogawa House, as demolition timeline extended

This afternoon Vancouver City Council voted unanimously to grant an unprecedented 120-day delay of demolition for 1450 West 64th Avenue, the childhood home of author Joy Kogawa.

The present home owner bought the house in 2003, unaware that the Save Kogawa Homestead committee was trying to raise funds to turn the house into a writers’ retreat. The owner has now decided to demolish and rebuild on the site, prompting the now renamed Save Kogawa House committee to action, soliciting support from writing and arts organizations across the country.

Gerry McGeough, senior heritage planner in the Vancouver City Planning Department, was instrumental in bringing the motion before city council. He stated that the 1915 house could be registered as Class A heritage because of its cultural value and local and national prominence.

Todd Wong and Ann-Marie Metten led the committee’s presentation to council, with additional presentations from Diane Switzer of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, Heather Redfern of the Alliance for Arts and Culture, and Marion Quednau of the Writers’ Union of Canada, demonstrating the wide local and national support across Canada to preserve the house,

Kogawa, received the Order of Canada in 1986 and her novel Obasan is school curriculum across Canada and studied around the world. The novel was also chosen as the Vancouver Public Library’s One Book One Vancouver selection for 2005. An operatic adaptation of the children’s story, Naomi’s Road, is now touring BC schools with the Vancouver Opera in the Schools program.

Joy Kogawa arrived via car and ferry from a performance of Naomi’s Road in Ucuelet, BC, just in time to read from her novel Obasan. Kogawa had only left City Hall on Tuesday, November 1st, which had been proclaimed “Obasan Cherry Tree Day”, as a graft from the cherry tree from Kogawa’s childhood home was planted at City Hall.

Council was so moved by the presentation that Councillor Raymond Louie immediately challenged other councillors to pull out their wallets and match his $100 donation. Councillor Ellen Woodsworth wrote an equivalent cheque and said council would challenge other city councils to match their donations as well. At the end of the meeting, the committee walked out of council chambers $540 richer.

An estimated $750,000 is needed to purchase the house from the owner at “fair market value.” McGeough has been mediating with the house owner and the Save Kogawa House committee, and the 120-day delay will give the committee time to fundraise this amount.

Charitable donations can be made online through the Vancouver Heritage Foundation website at http://www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org/Kogawa.html.

To celebrate this milestone in the Save Kogawa House campaign, a performance of the opera Naomi’s Road by the Vancouver Opera Touring Ensemble will be presented free to the public on November 12 at 2 pm. It will take place in the Alice MacKay Room of the Vancouver Public Library downtown. Special guest musician is Harry Aoki, who was interned at age 20.


For further information contact:

www.kogawa.homestead.com

www.kogawahouse.com

www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/OneBookOneVancouverJoyKogawasObasan


Ann-Marie Metten, Save Kogawa House Committee Vancouver Coordinator
604-263-6586; ametten@telus.net

Todd Wong, Vancouver Committee spokesperson
604-240-7090; toddwcan@yahoo.com
 
Anton Wagner, Committee Chair
416-863-1209; awagner@yorku.ca

Gerry McGeough, Senior Heritage Planner, Planning
Department, City of Vancouver
604-873-7091; gerry.mcgeough@vancouver.ca

Diane Switzer, Executive Director, Vancouver Heritage Foundation
604-264-9642; diane@vancouverheritagefoundation.org