Nancy Lee
A Long-Awaited Hug
Thu, 2011-03-03 12:46 — Ann-Marie Metten
Love pours down on Joy Kogawa’s cherry tree
Sometimes all you have to do is ask. Earlier this winter volunteers at Historic Joy Kogawa House asked knitters from across Vancouver to help them cheer up the dying cherry tree that stands just outside the back gate at 1450 West 64th Avenue in Vancouver.
“The 60-year-old tree was leaking sap, branches had been snapped by passing trucks—it really looked sad this winter,” said Ann-Marie Metten, executive director of the writing program that welcomes writers to live and write at the house for three months each year.
But soon the tree will be a cloud of pink blossoms and an early sign of spring. On Sunday, March 6, 2 to 3:30pm, local knit graffiti artists Leanne Prain and Mandy Moore, authors of Yarn Bombing: The Art of Knit and Crochet Graffiti (Arsenal, 2010), will cover the tree with knitted blossoms. A fire truck and fire fighters from Fire Hall No. 22 will be on hand to lift the writers into the tree so they can safely sew blossoms in place.
Knitters from across Greater Vancouver have come together to knit and crochet pink blossoms over the past two months. Knit-ins have filled the tiny living room of the 1912 bungalow that Joy Kogawa writes about in her children’s picture book, Naomi’s Tree, a story of friendship, forgiveness, remembering, and love.
A knit-in Monday night in Council Chambers at Vancouver City Hall had volunteers sitting in Councillors’ chairs as they spun pink yarn into delicate blossoms. Young knitters at Bowen Island Community School crafted beautiful blossoms under the guidance of local knitter Anne Mann, who brought friends in to help the students with their knitting.
Blossoms have arrived in packages from Oregon and California, from across Canada, and from as far away as Kingscliff, New South Wales. “The most rewarding moment was when three small children arrived at the house and lifted a branch full of blossoms from the hatchback of their mother’s car,” Metten says. The little cherry tree survived yesterday’s wind and rain, and stands planted in the front garden at the house.
It is the mother tree standing behind the house that on Sunday will show signs of the love that knitters and writers have showered upon it.
Media interviews with the knit graffiti artists are welcome before Sunday’s event. Thanks to Shaw Multicultural Channel, our media sponsor.
Sometimes all you have to do is ask. Earlier this winter volunteers at Historic Joy Kogawa House asked knitters from across Vancouver to help them cheer up the dying cherry tree that stands just outside the back gate at 1450 West 64th Avenue in Vancouver.
“The 60-year-old tree was leaking sap, branches had been snapped by passing trucks—it really looked sad this winter,” said Ann-Marie Metten, executive director of the writing program that welcomes writers to live and write at the house for three months each year.
But soon the tree will be a cloud of pink blossoms and an early sign of spring. On Sunday, March 6, 2 to 3:30pm, local knit graffiti artists Leanne Prain and Mandy Moore, authors of Yarn Bombing: The Art of Knit and Crochet Graffiti (Arsenal, 2010), will cover the tree with knitted blossoms. A fire truck and fire fighters from Fire Hall No. 22 will be on hand to lift the writers into the tree so they can safely sew blossoms in place.
Knitters from across Greater Vancouver have come together to knit and crochet pink blossoms over the past two months. Knit-ins have filled the tiny living room of the 1912 bungalow that Joy Kogawa writes about in her children’s picture book, Naomi’s Tree, a story of friendship, forgiveness, remembering, and love.
A knit-in Monday night in Council Chambers at Vancouver City Hall had volunteers sitting in Councillors’ chairs as they spun pink yarn into delicate blossoms. Young knitters at Bowen Island Community School crafted beautiful blossoms under the guidance of local knitter Anne Mann, who brought friends in to help the students with their knitting.
Blossoms have arrived in packages from Oregon and California, from across Canada, and from as far away as Kingscliff, New South Wales. “The most rewarding moment was when three small children arrived at the house and lifted a branch full of blossoms from the hatchback of their mother’s car,” Metten says. The little cherry tree survived yesterday’s wind and rain, and stands planted in the front garden at the house.
It is the mother tree standing behind the house that on Sunday will show signs of the love that knitters and writers have showered upon it.
Media interviews with the knit graffiti artists are welcome before Sunday’s event. Thanks to Shaw Multicultural Channel, our media sponsor.
Karen Connelly in Conversation
Sun, 2010-05-30 14:15 — Ann-Marie MettenDate: Monday, June 14
Time: 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Location: Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver
When Karen Connelly finds herself in Burma in the late 1990s, she is immersed in a world of students staging mass demonstrations in opposition to Burma’s dictators, revolutionaries fighting an armed insurgency against that same military regime, and refugees living in hellish limbo in Thailand. Connelly first comes to love a wounded, remarkably beautiful country, then a gifted man who has given his life to its struggle for political change. Her new novel Burmese Lessons is illuminated by the sensual language and flashes of humour that have won this author fans around the world.
Please join writer-in-residence Nancy Lee in conversation with Karen Connelly as part of our social justice reading series. To join this event, please RSVP to kogawahouse@yahoo.ca
