Historic Joy Kogawa House welcomes Joy Kogawa to 1st Annual General Meeting
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 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 the president of Joy Kogawa House and co-president of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop.
During the AGM part of the evening, Ann-Marie Metten gave an update of the grants applied for and received and how the WIR program will unfold with Madeleine.
The Land Conservancy of BC was proud to report that Historic Joy Kogawa House has received 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 dilapidated 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.
On Sunday, Feb 24, Author Sharon Butala mesmerized the packed audience at Historic Joy Kogawa House on Friday night. The Order of Canada author talked about how she helped established a writer in residence program at Wallace Stegner’s childhood home in Eastend, Saskatchewan.
In March 2008, Joy Kogawa is guest of the Royal BC Museum’s “THE PARTY”: 150 of BC’s most interesting people. “The Party” exhibit with some of BC’s “fascinating” citizens including founding governor James Douglas, Betty Krawcyk, Joy Kogawa, Karen Magnusson, Herb Doman, Vikram Vij, Cindy Lee, Gordon Campbell, Gordon Shrum.
On 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.
On September 22, Kogawa House cherry tree at Vancouver city hall is given a plaque on the 20th anniversary of the Japanese-Canadian redress.