Canadian Writers Call on Government to Save the House

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  February 27, 2006

Canadian Writers Call on Federal Government to Save Historic Joy Kogawa House

TORONTO – Canada’s leading writers’ organizations are appealing to the federal government for an emergency grant of $350,000 to save the historic Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver from demolition. The writers’ groups want to convert Kogawa’s childhood home into a writers-in-residence centre and historic house recalling the forced evacuations and internments of 22,000 Japanese Canadians during World War II.

The $350,000 grant from the federal government would represent half the cost of purchasing Kogawa’s childhood home and would match an equal amount being raised from the private sector by The Land Conservancy of BC www.conservancy.bc.ca

The Save Joy Kogawa House Committee submitted the $350,000 grant request to Bev Oda, Department of Canadian Heritage Minister, on February 15 and is contacting all the four major political parties for their support. The Committee was founded in September of 2003 when the Kogawa House first came up for sale. Last fall, the new owner of the property notified the Vancouver City Planning Department that she intended to demolish the home and build a larger dwelling.

But in November twenty writers, heritage and other cultural organizations successfully lobbied Vancouver City Council to pass a four-month demolition delay order to allow the raising of funds to purchase the house. That protection expires March 31 and there is little the City can do to prevent demolition after that date. Supporters of the Joy Kogawa House hope to meet with Bev Oda before the house is destroyed.

Born in Vancouver in 1935, Kogawa lived in the West 64th Avenue home until she and her family were interned in the Slocan Valley in the interior of BC in 1942. The loss of her childhood home and the dispersal of the Japanese Canadian community until their civil rights were restored in 1949 inspired Kogawa’s best-known novel, Obasan, and its sequel about the Japanese Canadian redress movement, Emily Kato.

The organizations supporting the call for emergency government assistance to convert Kogawa House into a writers’ centre include the Writers Union of Canada, the Federation of BC Writers, the Playwrights Guild of Canada, the League of Canadian Poets, the Writers’ Trust of Canada, PEN Canada, the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture, the Canadian Authors Association, the Professional Writers Association of Canada, the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers, and the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop.

“The Vancouver Writers Festival recognizes the historical and cultural significance of this house as part of Vancouver’s literary heritage,” stated its Artistic Director, Hal Wake. “What is most remarkable are the efforts of the Save Joy Kogawa House Committee to ensure that the house will not become just a monument, but will be a centre of important activity for writers and the community. We hope this important initiative receives the support of our government.”

Brian Brett, Chair of the Writers Union of Canada, stated on behalf of the Union’s 1,500 professional writers, “Vancouver would greatly benefit by establishing the Joy Kogawa House as a writers-in-residence centre in which Canadians and writers from abroad could write first hand about our evolving multi- and inter-cultural society and how different values and traditions can peacefully interact.”

Brian Busby, President of Federation of BC Writers, declared that the Federation endorsed the appeal for emergency funding from the federal government for the Kogawa House “without reservation.” “The many groups now coming together to save the House is one of the strongest and most diverse such alliances we have ever seen rally round a cause.”

Amela Simic, Executive Director of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, representing over 500 members, stated “Playwrights Guild of Canada members add their support to the 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.”

Mary Ellen Csamer, President of the League of Canadian Poets, noted on behalf of the League’s 730 professional poets across Canada “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.”

Constance Rooke, President of PEN Canada, stated “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. While helping these writers find their feet in a new country, accommodation is always a big part of the challenge we face.”

Joan Eyolfson Cadham, National President, The Canadian Authors Association, added, “‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’.” “The quotation belongs to George Santayana (1863-1952) but the message belongs to us all. The Joy Kogawa House is a reminder of a dark part of Canadian history. It is also our connection to an indomitable spirit and powerful Canadian writer. Saving and restoring the house should be a challenge embraced by all Canadians.”

Heather Redfern, Executive Director of the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture, declared “The Joy Kogawa House is the perfect symbol of how we can peacefully change societies by telling our stories through artistic practice. The Kogawa House is about all of us and our desire to embrace the cultural diversity in our city with grace, dignity, and joy.”

The writers’ organizations will announce their support for the $350,000 emergency grant from the federal government at a public reading by Joy Kogawa at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto, March 9, at 5 pm. Kogawa will read from her novel about the Japanese Canadian redress movement, Emily Kato, published by Penguin Canada. Admission is free. The Church of the Holy Trinity is located at 10 Trinity Square, besides the Eaton Centre.

Donations to Save Historic Joy Kogawa House can be made to The Land Conservancy at www.conservancy.bc.ca or (604) 733-2313.

For photographs and interviews with Joy Kogawa, contact:

Save Joy Kogawa House Committee:  www.kogawahouse.com
Anton Wagner, Secretary; (416) 863-1209; fax: 416-863 9973; awagner@yorku.ca
201 Sherbourne St., Suite 2306, Toronto, ON M5A 3X2
Ann-Marie Metten, 604-263 6586; ametten@telus.net
Todd Wong, 604-987 7124; gunghaggis@yahoo.ca

The Writers’ Trust of Canada
www.writerstrust.com
Don Oravec, Executive Director: doravec@writerstrust.com
90 Richmond Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, ON M5C 1P1
416-504 8222, ext. 244; fax: 416-504 9090

The Canadian Authors Association
www.canauthors.org
Joan Eyolfson Cadham, National President: jcadh@sasktel.net
Anthony Dalton, Vancouver Branch President: daltona@dccnet.com
Bernice Lever, BC Regional Vice-President: blever2@hotmail.com
Ben Antao, President, CAA Toronto Branch: ben.antao@rogers.com

The Professional Writers Association of Canada
www.pwac.ca
Gordon Graham, President: g.gordon@sympatico.ca
John Degen, Executive Director: jdegen@pwac.ca
PWAC National Office, 215 Spadina Avenue, Suite 123, Toronto, ON M5T 2C7
416-504 1645; fax: 416-913 2327

The Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture www.allianceforarts.com
Heather Redfern, Executive Director: hredfern@allianceforarts.com
Suite 100 – 938 Howe Street Vancouver, BC  V6Z 1N9
604.681.3535 ext. 209
Fax: 604-681-7848

The Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers
www.canscaip.org
Gillian Chan, President: Gillian.chan@sympatico.ca
Lena Coakley, CANSCAIP National Office: office@canscaip.org
104-40 Orchard View Blvd., Toronto, ON M4R 1B9; 416-515 1559

The Asian Canadian Writers Workshop
www.asiancanadianwriters.ca
Jim Wong-Chu, Executive Director: jwongchu@shaw.ca
P.O. Box 74174, Hillcrest R.P.O., Vancouver, B.C. V5V 5C8
604-322 6616