Download February 2011 - Vancouver Moving Theatre

February 2011 Various locations in the Downtown Eastside
TABLE OF CONTENTS
We welcome your letters:
Schedule of Events........................................... 3
Vancouver Moving Theatre
East End Blues & All That Jazz.......................... 4
Chinatown Postal Outlet Box 88270
Spirit Rising Community Events..................... 14
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6A 4A5
Other Black History Events in the DTES.......... 22
Legendary People & Memorial Projects.......... 24
[email protected]
Historical Chronology ................................... 26
604-628-5672
Spirit Rising Credits & Thanks........................ 32
www.vancouvermovingtheatre.com
www.heartofthecityfestival.com
Appearing on the front cover: Thelma Gibson
Vancouver Moving Theatre acknowledges and honours that our
Cover Photo: Ken Tabata
community lies within the traditional unceded territory of the
Design: Big Wave Design
Coast Salish People.
Proudly presented by Vancouver Moving Theatre in association with the Centre of Integration for African Immigrants
Spirit Rising 2011
Schedule of Events
Friday February 18
8pm East End Blues & All That Jazz
Firehall Arts Centre, 280 East Cordova
My mother raised me to feel as
good as anyone. I’m very proud of
being an East Ender.
Saturday February 19
12pm, 1pm Alaaeldin Abdalla & friends, Home Ground
Oppenheimer Park, 488 Powell
Leonard Gibson
8pm East End Blues & All That Jazz
Firehall Arts Centre, 280 East Cordova
There's nothing in this world that
you can't do if you put your mind
and your heart to it and believe
what you do.
Sunday February 20
1pm, 2:15pm Deetstreet Carnegie Coalition
starts at DNC Street Market, Pigeon Park, Carrall & Hastings
Ernie King
In the 1960s, the City of Vancouver planned to raze Strathcona homes
Can beats can’t any day.
and replace them with high rise housing projects and build an 8-lane
Leona Risby
freeway to Burrard Inlet – wiping out all of today’s Strathcona, Chinatown, Gastown and Waterfront: When we heard the city’s plans for the
We are strong
When we stand in solidarity
With those who have fought
For human rights for over
one hundred years.
Memory is the mother of
community.
neighbourhood, we were horrified. We just screamed. They intended to
put high rises all over here, just like in the West End. But the people
that lived here - We just took up a petition. We got thousands and thousands of names and we stopped them! All kinds of people got involved.
Because WE were satisfied with our neighbourhood. I’ve lived here for
35 years and would not want to live anywhere else. No, nobody wanted
to move out of here. It was just like a village. That’s the way it was.
Sandy Cameron
from One Hundred Years of Struggle
Dorothy Nealy (Opening Doors)
Whatever the occasion, whatever
the hardships, there was the music.
Denis Simpson
2pm East End Blues & All That Jazz
Firehall Arts Centre, 280 East Cordova
5:30pm Deetstreet Carnegie Coalition, Home Ground Lantern Procession
Oppenheimer Park, 488 Powell
Friday February 25
7:30pm – 9:30pm Songs to Stir Your Soul: An evening with Dalannah and Michelle
Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main
Saturday February 26
10am – 12pm Remembering Hogan’s Alley History Walk
meet in front of Heatley Block, 696 East Hastings
1pm – 3pm Music Tribute to Black History Month
Oppenheimer Park, 488 Powell
6pm – 10pm Documentaries in tribute to Black History Month
Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main
Sunday February 27
10am – 12pm The Tour of Nothing: The Freeway That Never Was History Walk
meet at SE corner of Main & Union
1pm, 2:15pm Deetstreet Carnegie Coalition,
starts at DNC Street Market Pigeon Park, Carrall & Hastings
2:30pm Homesteaders Celebration
Hastings Community Centre, 3096 East Hastings. Advance sales only.
4pm – 5:30pm East to East: Reading, Writing, and Editing Hogan's Alley and the Downtown Eastside
Top photo: Doreen Lawson, Country Club
Inn, 473 - 475 Powell.
Bottom photo: Fountain Chapel Choir,
including Leona Risby, Nora Hendrix, Mattie
May King and Eleanor Collins.
Hogan’s Alley Café, 789 Gore
7pm – 9pm Three Guys and an Alley: Films and conversation about growing up around Hogan’s Alley
Hogan’s Alley Café, 789 Gore
Photos courtesy Thelma Gibson.
2 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 3
East End Blues & All That Jazz
A WELCOME FROM DENIS SIMPSON
What an enlightening journey this has been—on a personal
as well as an historic level—to delve into the history of the
black community in Vancouver and the East End. Stories and
songs of times gone by help us celebrate the past, live in the
present and look to the future. They also teach how we can
come together as a community—despite our seeming differences —to nurture compassion, understanding and respect;
and, to effect positive change.
Denis Simpson
Co-Writer and Director (2006, 2009)
REMEMBERING DENIS SIMPSON AND LEONARD GIBSON
We have lost many people dear to our family since the first
production of East End Blues and All That Jazz. My father
passed away during the week of the first performances. I made
a connection at that time with Len Gibson, the original narrator and contributor to the show. He thought it remarkable
that I continued performing during such a difficult time. The
show must go on. Soon after, my lovely wife, Jennifer and
I became friends with Len, including attending an evening
honouring him at a West Coast Tap Dance event at the
Shadbolt Centre in Burnaby. On that occasion, elderly Len
did the splits down to the floor on stage in a tap jam that
brought the house down in laughter and applause. We also
found a new friend in his sister Thelma who is performing
tonight. Sadly, Len passed not long after we met him. Last
fall, one of the original creators of East End Blues, the great
showman Denis Simpson, passed away suddenly. Denis not
only gave me a lot of work, he became a good friend. He
visited our home the day Jennifer was in labour with our
child and joined in on the excitement. I didn’t realize until
after he was gone that he made hundreds of people feel like
they were his good friend too. He was a special man. Not only
did we simply love Len and Denis, they were contributors to
the continuing history of the arts community in Vancouver.
The songs and performances tonight are a living example of
that same history. I am privileged to be a part of it.
Bill Costin
EE Blues – title page
Vancouver Moving Theatre in association with
the Centre of Integration for African Immigrants
MESSAGE FROM THE
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
When I first immigrated to Canada from
the United States over 40 years ago, my
father-in-law (and jazz musician) Donald Hunter invited Terry and myself to
supper at the legendary Vie’s Chicken
and Steak House (209 Union Street). Its
southern style cooking and cheery hospitality reminded me of my childhood
home and cultural roots in Oklahoma.
It reminded me of what I loved about
my southern heritage (and the racism I
hated). But I didn’t realize that Vie’s was
the last vestige of what had been—for
over 60 years—Vancouver’s only black
residential and business community.
Eight years later I moved into the
Downtown Eastside. Here I discovered
the book Opening Doors, a wonderful
treasure house of oral history that opened
doors into the memories and cultures of
my East End home. I was inspired and
haunted by the life stories and wisdom
of black residents Dorothy Nealy, Rosa
Pryor, Leona Risby, Austin Phillips Jr.,
and Nora Hendrix. While I was learning
about the depth and breadth of the historic black community, its presence was
vanishing: Vie’s restaurant closed and the
Fountain Chapel—heart and spirit of the
black community—was sold to another
congregation.
Over the years, I’ve been blessed with
friendships with some of Vancouver’s
extraordinary black performers – artists
such as Ralph Cole and Denis Simpson
4 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
—whose triple-threat artistry as singers, actors and dancers—inspired Terry
and myself. These friendships led our
company and festival to regularly program gospel, blues and jazz performed
by artists we admired. Ralph (our son’s
godfather) introduced me to Denis
over 20 years ago when he came to
Vancouver to perform Ain’t Misbehavin’.
After Ralph’s death, Denis and I used
to get together to share memories of
our friend and his on-going presence
in our lives, and share personal challenges and hopes. Denis’s support for
our company—as interdisciplinary and
community-engaged artists—meant so
much to us.
I soon discovered that uncovering
the history of African-Canadian presence in Vancouver’s East End was just as
important to Denis as it was to myself.
So Vancouver Moving Theatre commissioned Denis to dig out more of the community’s music and stories. This process
led to our wonderful collaboration with
the legendary dance choreographer Mr.
Leonard Gibson to share in the writing
of East End Blues & All That Jazz. It also
led to friendship with the superb artists
of the Gibson family, descendents of
Leona Risby (their mom) and Austin
Phillips Jr. (their uncle) whose stories
were told in Opening Doors.
Leonard Gibson’s work ethic was an
inspiring challenge: he believed that
you worked on something until you
got it right—and he was determined to
make sure that we “got it right.” He was
demanding of his dance students and
he was demanding of his collaborators.
(We’ve done our best Len. Any mistakes
are our own.) It was vitally important to
Mr. Gibson that Vancouver remembers
the vitality and contributions of the
East End’s black community and its artists. Leonard and Denis both believed
in a world without barriers and that art
is a way to create that unity.
I simply loved collaborating with
Denis – he was so much fun and inspiration, and brought so much grace,
love and light with his presence. He
was enormously talented, enormously
humble, and enormously generous
—generous to every voice. We were
looking forward to more projects with
Denis down the road. But the wheel of
life had other plans.
I feel so grateful and blessed to have
the opportunity to work with the Mr.
Leonard Gibson and with Denis Simpson. Their light will always be with us.
Denis was planning this remount
of East End Blues in honour of Black
History Month—which he intended to
direct—when he passed away unexpectedly. The cast decided to go ahead with
this project, guided by the directorial
vision he left. All of us feel we have a
responsibility to complete the creative
journey we began with Denis, honouring the heritage and presence of the
East End’s historic black community.
Savannah Walling
and the Firehall Arts Centre
proudly presents
A musical tribute to the East End’s historic Black community
inspired by stories from residents, past and present, of the Downtown Eastside
Written by Denis Simpson and Savannah Walling assisted by Mr. Leonard Gibson
with contributions by Chic Gibson and Thelma Gibson
February 18-20, 2011
Friday, February 18 8pm
Saturday, February 19 8pm
Sunday, February 20 2pm
Firehall Arts Centre
280 East Cordova
Vancouver BC, CANADA
Top: East End Blues & All That Jazz, 2009, Carnegie Community Centre. Bill Costin, Timothy Stacey, Thelma Gibson. Photo Ken Tabata.
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 5
East End Blues & All That Jazz
CREDITS
LIST OF SONGS
1.
Overture – Pennies from Heaven, Then You’ve Never Been Blue, Dinah
2.
Kansas City Here I Come
Jerry Leiber and Mike Soller
3.
Memories of You Eubie Blake and Andy Razaf
4.
There Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens A. Cramer, J. Whitney
5.
Down by the Riverside
Traditional
6.
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime E.Y. Harburg and Jay Gorney
7.
God Bless the Child
Billy Holiday and Arthur Herzog
8.
Couldn’t Keep it to Myself Traditional
9.
Black and White Rag (Instrumental)
Jelly Roll Morton
10. Is You is My Baby Louis Jordan, Billy Austin
11. Five Guys Named Mo L. Jordan, J. Bresler, L. Wynn
12. Purple Haze
Jimi Hendrix
13. Respect Otis Redding
14. Tea for Two (Instrumental)
Melody by Vincent Youmans
15. Medley
Don’t Get Around That Much Anymore
Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn
I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)
D.Ellington, Paul F. Webster
Take the A Train
D.Ellington. Bob Russell
16. Saturday Night Fish Fry L. Jordan, E. Walsh, Al Carters
17. Minnie the Moocher Cab Calloway
18. Then You’ve Never Been Blue
d Fiorito, S. Lewis, J. Young, F. Langford
19. Standing in the Need of Prayer
Traditional
20. Black and Blue ((Instrumental)
Fats Waller
21. A Change is Gonna Come
Sam Cooke
22. Medley
This Little Light of Mine
Traditional
So Much to Shout About
Robert Blair
Co-Writers
Denis Simpson and Savannah Walling
Assisted by Mr. Leonard Gibson
with contributions by Chic and Thelma Gibson
Original Direction
Denis Simpson
Master of Ceremonies Chic Gibson
Lead Singers Candus Churchill and Tom Pickett
Guest Singers
Thelma Gibson and Dalannah Gail Bowen
Musical Director/Pianist Bill Costin
Bass Player Timothy Stacey
Artistic Director
Savannah Walling
Producer
Terry Hunter
Production Coordinator
Galia Goodwin
Sound Engineer
Andy Smith
Lighting Designer and Operator
Lauchlin Johnston
Publicist
Jodi Smith (JLS Entertainment)
Designer
John Endo Greenaway
Video Documentation
Sid Chow Tan
Photography
Ken Tabata
FIREHALL ARTS CENTRE
Executive Producer
Donna Spencer
General Manager
Amy Burns
Technical Director
Jamie Burns
23. It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got that Swing D. Ellington, Irving Mills
24. Finale – Then You’ve Never Blue, Watermelon Man, Green Onions
Mr. Leonard Gibson tap danced to Tea for Two as a child.
Standing in the Need of Prayer, Down by the Riverside and This
Little Light of Mine were sung at the Fountain Chapel at Prior
and Jackson. Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens, Saturday
Night Fish Fry, Five Guys Named Mo and Watermelon Man
were played at Harlem Nocturne (343 E. Hastings). Austin
Phillips (Leona Risby’s brother) sang Is You or Is You Ain’t My
Baby, Minnie the Moocher, Brother Can You Spare a Dime, and
Then You’ve Never Been Blue. The Gibson family sang Duke
Ellington’s songs. Their friend, singer Eleanor Collins, sang
God Bless the Child. Jimi Hendrix, grandchild of the Gibson’s
good friend and next door neighbour Nora Hendrix, wrote
and sang Purple Haze.
6 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
East End Blues also incorporates short excerpts from
pre-recorded interviews with Leona Risby and Dorothy
Nealy and music performed by Austin Phillips, Jr. from
verbatim transcripts of interviews done by Daphne Marlatt
and Carole Itter for the oral history book Opening Doors:
Vancouver’s East End.
East End Blues & All That Jazz has been made possible with the generous support of our partners:
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 7
East End Blues & All That Jazz – Artist Bios
DALANNAH GAIL BOWEN
guest singer
Sixty-five year old Dalannah Gail Bowen is of African-Canadian/Cherokee
descent. She is a blues/jazz vocalist,
poet, playwright, community activist
and founding Creative Director of the
Downtown Eastside Centre for the
Arts. Dalannah’s critically acclaimed
CD Mama’s Got The Blues was chosen
as one of the top 50 blues releases in
North America for 2008. Dalannah
is now at work on a new CD—The
Spirit Within—and is preparing for her
show, Songs of Mahalia Jackson, with
back-up vocals by The Sojourners, at
St. Andrew’s Wesley Church in April.
Dalannah is grateful to be part of this
wonderful show and to work with the
cast and Terry and Savannah.
CANDUS CHURCHILL singer
Candus Churchill was born into a musical family in Louisville Kentucky. She
was heavily influenced by her grandfather who taught music, her father’s
jazz collection, and her brother’s R&B
group, New Birth. Candus arrived in
Vancouver in 1980 and has performed
across Canada, the US and Japan.
Candus has been featured in many
TV, film and theatre productions, and
is a founding member of The Gospel
Experience which she helped maintain
for over 20 years.
“I am so honoured to be a part of the
ongoing work of my dear friend Denis
Simpson. His glorious spirit lives on.”
8 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
BILL COSTIN
musical director and pianist
Bill's musical career has taken him
from Florida to the Yukon and back,
playing for cruise ship companies,
tourism destinations, theatre venues,
concerts, corporate events, house parties, bars, and saloons. He has spent
many hours studying classical and
jazz piano. A selection of Vancouver
theatre productions he has worked
on: Thoroughly Modern Millie, 39 and
Ticking, Billy Bishop Goes to War, Little
Shop of Horrors, and Forever Plaid.
GALIA GOODWIN
production coordinator
Galia is happy to be joining Vancouver
Moving Theatre for this production.
Over the last eighteen years Galia has
stage managed for many Vancouver
performing arts companies, including
All In This Together—the Shadows Project
(2005-07), and A Downtown Eastside
Romeo and Juliet (2008), a tragic-comic
theatre production that shed light on
homelessness from a Downtown Eastside perspective. Terry is a co-recipient
of the 2009 City of Vancouver Mayor’s
Award (Community Art) and the 2008
British Columbia Community Achievement Award.
Theatre these days: after just completing a workshop presentation of High
Flying Bird, and now appearing in East
End Blues & All That Jazz, Tom will soon
be seen in the upcoming Vancouver
Moving Theatre concert We Are The
People (April 2011). The opportunity
to honour and be a part of the late
Denis Simpson's creative passions is
a blessing.
LAUCHLIN JOHNSTON
lighting designer
Lauchlin is a Vancouver-based designer
holding a BFA in theatrical design and
production from UBC. He is very happy to have played a part in the ongoing
creation of High Flying Bird and is glad
to be back working with Vancouver
Moving Theatre after assisting with
the technical side of The Shadows Project
(2007). Lauchlin recently completed
the set design for My Name Is Asher
Lev at Pacific Theatre, and now looks
forward to designing lights for East End
Blues at the Firehall and lighting for the
world premier production of Burning In
at Richmond’s Gateway Theatre.
DENIS SIMPSON cowriter
Born in Jamaica, Denis Simpson was a
multi-talented artist—an actor, singer,
dancer, writer, director and Master of
Ceremonies. He debuted on Broadway
in Jesus Christ Superstar, performed in
the original Toronto production of
Hair, was a long-time host of the children’s television series Polka Dot Door
and an original member of the singing
group The Nylons. He appeared in television series, hosted a cooking show
the Arts Club Theatre, Bard on the
Beach, The Holy Body Tattoo, Modern
Baroque Opera, as well as touring with
Axis Theatre's The Number 14 throughout Canada and to the US, Europe,
Israel and Japan. Recent corporate
special events work took her to Florida,
San Diego, Malta, and the LiveCity in
Yaletown for the Olympics. Her most
notable accomplishment however, is
being mother to Sébastien (age 5) and
Zoé (age 3).
TERRY HUNTER producer
Mr. Hunter is Co-founder/Executive
Director of Vancouver Moving Theatre
and Artistic Producer of the Downtown
Eastside Heart of the City Festival. Mr.
Hunter has also produced numerous
innovative productions that give voice
to the residents of the Downtown Eastside. Highlights include The Downtown
Eastside Community Play (2003), We’re
TOM PICKETT singer
Tom came to acting from the high tech
industry years ago and doesn't tweet
and barely Facebooks. Tom was last
seen with Vancouver Moving Theatre
as Bob Cratchet in Bah! Humbug! A
Christmas Carol at SFU Woodward’s.
Most recently Tom was part of The
Push Festival in Boca Del Lupo’s La
Marea, a production conceived by
Mariano Pensotti (Buenos Aires). Tom’s
staying close to Vancouver Moving
on Channel M and was the “Live Eye
Guy” for Citytv Vancouver’s Breakfast
Television. He received many awards,
including a Dora Award for Ain’t Misbehavin’ and a Jessie Award for his one
man show Denis Anyone? Denis was a
member of the BC Entertainment Hall
of Fame, was active in charitable work
—in particular with HIV/AIDS organizations—and generously hosted many
local events. Denis was in the midst
of working on a number of creative
projects just before he died. He had recently finished his last play, STRUCK!,
a play about his recovery from a stroke
a few years ago; performed in the Arts
Club Theatre production of Buddy: The
Buddy Holly Story; just finished lyrics for
the new musical High Flying Bird; and
was working on a one man show about
James Baldwin.
ANDY SMITH sound engineer
Formerly from the UK, Andy’s operated
sound for 25 plus years for theatre, festivals, Theatre in Education programs,
concerts, music conferences, jazz
summer schools and touring shows.
Since moving to Canada in 2005 Andy
has worked in the audio industry for
festivals and shows, including the
Vancouver Jazz Festival, Vancouver
Folk Festival, Talking Stick, Sisterhood,
Downtown Eastside Heart of the City
and the Moon Festivals. He also works
as a live sound mixer, most recently
with the Sojourners, Roy Forbes, and
The Fugitives. He owns and operates
Vancouver Live Sound (525 Seymour
Street) and provides location touring
services, most recently with Turning
Point Ensemble.
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 9
TIMOTHY STACEY bass player
Tim is an accomplished and versatile
freelance bassist who has carved a
niche for himself in the local music scene. He’s played and recorded
with numerous orchestral ensembles,
musical theatre productions and jazz
groups. For the last four years, Tim has
taught acoustic and electric bass at the
Langley Community Music School.
His contributions to Vancouver theatre include: Herringbone, Bruce: The
Musical, Cookin’ at the Cookery, and
Forever Plaid (as Uncle Chester). Tim’s
also played with the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra, Vancouver Island
Symphony, Victoria Symphony, Ballet
BC, Hagood Hardy, Dame Vera Lynn,
Dal Richards, Miles Black, Michael
Buble and Michael Kaeshammer.
SAVANNAH WALLING
co-writer/artistic director
A theatre artist and writer trained in
dance, mime and music, Downtown
Eastside resident Savannah Walling is
Artistic Director of Vancouver Moving Theatre (with whom she’s created over 50 productions); Associate
Artistic Director of the Downtown
Eastside Heart of the City Festival
and singer with the Barvinok Ukrainian Choir. Savannah researches,
writes/co-writes and oversees multilayered original productions that
interweave localized content, accessible storytelling, spectacle, and/or
live music. Highlights include Bah!
Humbug!, The Minotaur Dreams, We’re
All In This Together, The Downtown
Eastside Community Play and Tales
from the Ramayana. Most recently
Savannah has been co-writing, with
Donna Spencer, Bill Costin and the
late Denis Simpson, the new musical High Flying Bird. Savannah is a
co-recipient of the 2009 City of Vancouver Mayor’s Award (Community
Art) and the 2008 British Columbia
Community Achievement Award.
A MUSICAL FAMILY
“I’m from a show business family. I grew up in the Downtown
Eastside and was familiar with, knew or was related to some
of the people that will be mentioned tonight. There was always
music, old blues, jazz and spirituals in our home. At our family
reunion and picnics everyone HAD to sing, dance or play an
instrument. My grandfather played banjo and sang and taught
everyone to sing parts. My brother Len was born dancing and did
so all his life, he taught us all. The East End was full of talented
artists. My Dad was a great blue grass guitarist and taught all
of my uncles how to play. My uncle Austin Phillips was a local
balladeer. Mom sang all the time. McLean Playgrounds used to
have dances in the summer at which we would all help.” Chic
Gibson
CHIC GIBSON master of ceremonies
Chic Gibson has been in the entertainment business for most of his life as a
dancer, actor and singer, performing in
nightclubs, theatre, television, and on
the silver screen where he played the
Mayor of Philadelphia in Shooter. Chic
has opened the doors for many: he was
the first black to work for BCE (later
BC Hydro); a Board member of Fraser
Valley University; and the first black
to join the Vancouver Chapter Junior
Chamber of Commerce where he was
VP and PR Director. He co-chaired the
first Abbotsford Air Show; produced
the first multicultural Easter Parade;
and served as VP of the television and
film actors union UBCP/ACTRA where,
after many years of union service as
Chair of the Members Benefit Trust,
he received the Life Member Award.
Chic, Thelma and Leonard Gibson grew up in the Downtown Eastside where they attended Strathcona School. Leonard choreographed the show routines he and his siblings
performed at their parents’ restaurant and at night clubs like
Mandarin Gardens Supper Club and Harlem Nocturne. All
three siblings grew up to be accomplished artists, performing with the Lenny Gibson Dancers, in most of Vancouver’s
nightclubs, as well as Theatre Under the Stars and at CBC
Television, where they performed in Bamboula, the first
live TV show produced in Vancouver. Their brother Sy
Risby sang with the legendary Night Train Revue. All three
have been honoured with awards for their contributions
to the black community and for their achievements in the
performing arts.
LEONARD GIBSON co-writer
The late Mr. Leonard Gibson began to
perform professionally on local stages
at age five as a tap dance phenomenon. By the age of ten he was touring
with groups such as Blackstone the
Magician and the Eddie Cantor Show.
He became the first black dancer in
Canada to train in classical ballet
before traveling to New York to study
dance with Katherine Dunham under
scholarship. He created Bamboula—the
first CBC musical variety television
series produced in Vancouver program
with an interracial cast. His career led
him to dance, choreograph and teach
across North America and Europe. Mr.
Gibson was awarded the 2000 Harry
Jerome Award for Lifetime Achievement and the 2006 Sam Payne Lifetime
Achievement Award.
THELMA GIBSON guest singer
Born in Athabasca Landing, Alberta,
Thelma is an actor, singer, dancer,
choreographer and instructor in AfroCuban dance. She has toured internationally and worked in nightclubs in
Canada, Europe and the West Indies.
She was part of the Canadian contingent that attended the 2nd World
Festival of Arts and Culture in Lagos,
Nigeria. Thelma has been honoured as
one of ten distinguished women who
won a special award from the Black
Cultural Society for her contributions
to the Black community. Thelma’s
motto: There’s no such word as can’t.
Bottom left photo: Leonard Gibson. Courtesy Leonard Gibson.
Bottom right photo: Thelma Gibson, Harlem Nocturne 343 E. Hastings. Courtesy Thelma Gibson.
10 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 11
East End Blues & All That Jazz
A Very Special Thanks
Thank you Denis Simpson—you were
a pillar of inspiration and support
from start to finish, ferreting out the
community’s historic music numbers
and historical sign posts, interviewing
old timers and their friends, co-writing
and directing the project. Thank you
Bill Costin, for all your arrangements,
knowledge of the musical styles and
good humoured support. Thank you
Terry Hunter, for your contributions
throughout—from concept to promotion and production.
Thank you, Mr. Leonard Gibson, Chic
Gibson, Thelma Gibson and Judith
Maxie, for making sure we worked on
our script over and over until—to the
best of our ability—we “got it right”:
“Truth is so important. I’ve done so many
interviews and it’s been done so wrong.”
Mr. Leonard Gibson
Thank you Denis and Donna Spencer,
for the wonderful conversations that
began three years ago—a confluence
of energies, ideas and strategies to
unearth and share the black heritage
that’s such a rich part of the Downtown Eastside. These conversations
led to projects ranging from a reading
of Joy Russell’s Hogan’s Alley (2005 BC
Buds Spring Arts Fair in conjunction
with the Firehall Arts Centre) to creation and development of High-Flying
Bird, a new musical in development
by Bill Costin, Donna Spencer, myself
and the late Denis Simpson—recently
co-produced in a workshop presentation with the Firehall Arts Centre
and scheduled to premiere as a coproduction in February 2012. Along
the way, Vancouver Moving Theatre
and Denis decided to create a concert
of music and memories inspired by
the East End’s historic black community—and this became East End Blues
& All That Jazz.
12 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
A big thanks to historians, former
residents and colleagues who have
generously shared their memories or
their research over the years: John
Atkin, Randy Clark, Wayde Compton, Lovena Fox, Leonard Gibson,
Chic Gibson, Thelma Gibson, James
Johnstone, Marcella King, Terry Klein,
Judith Maxie, Portland Al, Joy Russell,
Lani Russwurm and Donna Spencer.
Rose Reuben transcribed many of the
interviews. Candus Churchill and Tom
Pickett helped with locating lyrics.
Chic Gibson shared taped interviews
of Dorothy Nealy, Austin Phillips, and
Leona Risby. Thelma Gibson and Chic
shared family photographs.
A big thanks to our community supporters for the project’s development
over the years including the Carnegie Community Centre (venues for
outreach programming, rehearsals
and performances); radha yoga &
eatery (space for performances); the
Downtown Eastside Heart of the City
Festival (programming support); the
Association of United Ukrainian Canadians (loans of music stands); the
Firehall Arts Centre (space for scriptdevelopment, planning and rehearsals
and loaned stools and music stands
for the performers); and University of
British Columbia Theatre Department
(loans of stools and carpets).
The project also owes a big debt to
the sources listed in the bibliography
on the inside back cover of the program guide—and most of all to the
extraordinary treasure Opening Doors:
Vancouver’s East End, compiled and
edited by Daphne Marlatt and Carole
Itter (Sound Heritage, v. VIII, Nos.
1&2)—source of most of the quotes
by former residents Dorothy Nealy,
Austin Phillips Jr. and Leona Risby.
It has been an honour and privilege to
work with you all.
In the black community, we
Savannah Walling
Artistic Director
Vancouver Moving Theatre
songs, freedom songs and glory
Black BC has never been a single
monolithic population . . .
nor has it ceased to shift and
transform today . . .
it has always been a population
and history always in flux.
Wayde Compton
Bluesprint: An Anthology of Black British Columbian Literature and Orature
sang sorrow songs and social
songs and we most of all sang
the blues.
East End Blues & All That Jazz
Leonard Gibson in the spotlight. Photo courtesy Thelma Gibson.
East End Blues & All That Jazz, June 20, 2009, Carnegie Community Centre.
Chic Gibson, Candus Churchill and Tom Pickett. Photo Ken Tabata.
East End Blues & All That Jazz, June 21, 2009, radha yoga & eatery. Denis Simpson & cast. Photo Ken Tabata.
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 13
Friday February 25
Saturday February 26
Remembering Hogan’s Alley
a history walk with James Johnstone
10am-12pm
Come for a two-hour walk back in time
and trace the history of Vancouver’s
East End pioneer Black community. See
houses and buildings with connections
to early black settlers and two houses
with a Jimi Hendrix connection. Highlights include the African Methodist
Episcopal Fountain Chapel and the site
of Vancouver's most notorious shootout. James is a house history researcher
who has done in-depth studies of over
800 Vancouver houses, 250 of which
are in the East End.
Songs To Stir Your Soul:
An evening with Dalannah and Michelle
7:30pm – 9:30pm
Join us in the Carnegie Theatre for an intimate evening of
music for the spirit with two beloved performers from the
neighbourhood.
Well-known vocalist Dalannah Gail Bowen kicks off the
evening with her trademark soul-stirring interpretations
of songs from the black experience. A great opportunity
to hear great music with a great singer accompanied by
Grammy-nominated keyboardist Michael Creber.
Michelle Richard
Then take in award-winning Michelle Richard in an intimate presentation of favourite blues tunes along with a
selection of her new compositions. Michelle will also share
stories about her heritage in Bermuda and Eastern Canada,
where she derives much inspiration for her songs. With Steve Charles on guitars and Connie Andersen on harmonicas.
Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main. Free
REFLECTION Black in Vancouver
In the late 1970s I moved to Vancouver, as I had wanted
to sing more and felt that Vancouver was the place to be. I
thought that I had reached the mecca as there were clubs
everywhere. Jablu, Danny Bathseda’s, the Classical Joint,
Oil Can Harry’s, The Cave and Gary Taylor’s were just a few
of the places where music was going strong every night of
the week.
One night a group of us decided to go to a club down on
Hornby close to The Cave. We had heard that it was a great
dance club and we wanted to see for ourselves.
I was the lightest in regard to skin color and most eager to
get us in line. I was at the top of the stairwell before the
rest of the group finally caught up.
I had been talking to the bouncer at the door who was very
cordial and we were laughing about some comment from
the conversation.
Dalannah Gail Bowen
As soon as my companions caught up to me, his tone and
attitude changed. He, in fact, told us that there was an
hour wait and that it would probably be better to go to
another club. I didn’t catch on right away but the others
in my group did. I wanted to stay and call the police but
my friends advised against it.
Meet in front of the Heatley Block
696 E. Hastings
Pay what you can for local residents;
$10 for non-residents
Music Tribute to Black History
Month
1pm-3pm
A great afternoon of song, rhythm and
community, with a variety of performers and performance styles. Khari Wendell McClelland, Dawn Pemberton,
Patti Powell and Holly Eccleston pay
tribute to black history month by singing songs from the African American
tradition; DTES resident and community member Corinthian Clark rocks
the sky with her passionate voice; and
musician Alaaeldin Abdalla, voice and
Oud, performs compositions rooted in
traditional songs from Sudan and basic
North East African rhythms.
Dawn Pemberton
Corinthian Clark
Patti Powell
Khari Wendell McClelland
Oppenheimer Park Activities
Centre, 488 Powell. Free
Over time this element has mellowed and we carry on with
our lives in a day to day fashion.
The concern of many is that those opinions and attitudes
(racism) are still carried by many. The danger is that it is
unspoken, waiting for another chance and opportunity
to rear its head in all its ugliness. Racism is taught and we
would do well to continue to counter and discredit its existence with information and education regarding cultural
similarities/likeness rather than the differences.
Dalannah Gail Bowen
Alaaeldin Abdalla
14 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
Hogan’s Alley, 1958. City of Vancouver Archives Bu P508.53. Photo A.L.Yates
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 15
Saturday February 26
Saturday February 26
Documentaries in tribute to Black History Month
6pm-10pm
In cooperation with Humanities 101, the Saturday evening documentaries at
Carnegie are presented in recognition of Black History Month. The following
films feature the many contributions made by Canadians of black ancestry.
Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main. Free
6pm • Joe
directed by Jill Haras
(2002 NFB 8min51s)
Seraphim "Joe" Fortes, born in the
West Indies, became one of Vancouver's most beloved citizens. For more
than thirty years, Joe Fortes swam in
English Bay. At first a self-appointed
lifeguard, Joe became so famous that
the City of Vancouver rewarded him
with a salary for doing what he loved
best. He taught thousands of people to
swim and saved over a hundred lives.
Although there were some who did
not respect him because of his skin
colour, Joe changed attitudes through
his determination and kindness. Using
a colourful blend of music, poetry, cutout and computer animation, this film
celebrates a remarkable person and a
hero who was part of the early history
of Vancouver.
FILM
Still photo, Joe, NFB.
Still photo, Remember Africville, NFB.
6:12pm • Remember Africville
directed by Shelagh Mackenzie
(1991 NFB 35min)
Africville, a small black settlement, lay
within the city limits of Halifax, Nova
Scotia. In the 1960s the families who
lived there were uprooted and their
homes demolished in the name of
urban renewal and integration. More
than twenty years later, the site of
the community of Africville is a stark,
under-utilized park. Former residents,
their descendants and some of the
decision-makers, speak out and with
the help of archival photographs and
films tell the story of that painful
relocation.
16 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
6:50pm • Jeni LeGon – Living in a Great Big Way
directed by Grant Greschuk (1999 NFB 49min28s)
Meet Jeni LeGon—a talented and passionate dancer who became the first
Black woman to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio.
A warm and vibrant storyteller, she
reflects on her 82 years of life, sharing
her dreams and struggles. Jeni grew up
in Chicago where she taught herself to
dance, gathering her early audiences on
the sidewalks that were her stage. She
became a solo dancer in the Count Basie
Still photos, Jeni LeGon, NFB.
Chorus Line and set her sights for Hollywood. There she landed a role with
Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, followed by
over a dozen other films. But with all
her talent Jeni LeGon could not break
through the colour barrier of a segregated Hollywood. In the late 1960s,
Jeni made Vancouver her home and
became a teacher and choreographer.
This is her story.
8pm • Hardwood
directed by Hubert Davis
(2004 NFB 29min20s)
Hardwood is a personal journey by director Hubert Davis, the son of former
Harlem Globetrotter Mel Davis, who
explores how his father's decisions affected his life and those of his extended
family. Elegantly structured into three
chapters entitled "love," "recollection"
and "redemption," Davis uses personal
interviews, archival footage and home
movies to delve into his father's past
in the hope of finding a new direction
for his own. At its core, Hardwood is
about the power of redemption and
the healing of the bonds between
fathers and sons.
8:30pm • Seeking Salvation
directed by Phillip Daniels
(2005 Travesty Productions 90min)
An emotional and intellectual epic
spanning four centuries, Seeking Salvation is a celebration of the Black
Church and its deep history in Canada.
Stunning coverage from inside the nation's most hallowed Black Churches
and soul-lifting gospel music collide
with compelling stories from clerics,
historians, poets and musicians to
create a rich tapestry of individuals
and communities from Nova Scotia
to British Columbia. With Tonya Lee
Williams (The Young and the Restless),
Maurice Dean Wint (Cube), and literary
master George Elliott Clarke, Seeking
Salvation holds high the victory of
spirituality over racism while honouring the legacy of peoples who survived
against impossible odds.
Still photo, Hardwood. Coach Mel Davis on the basketball court. Photo Nicole Gurney, NFB.
Still photo, Seeking Salvation. Reverend Wallace Smith exhorts the faithful. Photo Travesty Productions.
For a city that young, we should be very interested in keeping
what little bits of history we can have, but it’s almost the
opposite: people are quick to erase and forget about it. Put up a
new building and knock down an old one. I think it’s a dangerous
trend. We should try and find a way to understand the city.
Wayde Compton (Ubyssey, Nov. 25, 2010)
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 17
Sunday February 27
One thing I should tell you
is that I try to get along with
everyone. I don’t hate anyone.
I don’t even hate the people
who treated my people badly.
I just overlook them, because
I know that they’ll wake up to
themselves some day.
Nora Hendrix
Georgia Viaduct construction.
Courtesy City of Vancouver Archives,
CVA 216 - 1.23, Campbell’s Studio.
The Tour of Nothing:
The Freeway That Never Was
a history walk with John Atkin
10am-12pm
Did you know that the Georgia Overpass is part of the Vancouver freeway
system that local residents and activists brought to a grinding halt? When
driving east over the overpass have you
ever looked straight ahead and realized that—if successful—this planned
freeway would have wiped out hundreds of homes along Union and Prior
Streets—including the now beloved
Benny's and Union Markets? John Atkin, Strathcona resident, historian and
author of Strathcona: Vancouver's First
Neighbourhood, will lead us on a tour of
what's been lost (Hogan's Alley), what
wasn't built (the freeway), and the
consequences for the neighbourhood.
Joining the walk is special guest Elwin
Xie, whose family home and parents’
business was destroyed by the ‘freeway
that never was.’ We will top it off at
the newly-opened Hogan’s Alley Café.
Meet at the SE corner
of Main & Union
Pay what you can for local residents;
$10 for non-residents
18 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
DEETSTREET CARNEGIE COALITION Music in the Streets
1pm & 2:15pm
In partnership with the DNC Street Market we are pleased to present the
Deetstreet Carnegie Coalition, an upbeat jazz based street band made up of
local DTES involved musicians mentoring with Vancouver based professional
musicians. Trombonist Brad Muirhead is the band leader.
Its rainy season so be prepared: grab your hat, snap on your rain coat, and
put on your dancin’ rain boots ‘cause this hot music will get your mojo
root force a movin’!
Sunday February 27
East to East: Reading, Writing, and Editing Hogan’s Alley and the Downtown Eastside, a dialogue between Wayde Compton and Elee Kraljii Gardiner
4pm-5:30pm
A conversation between Wayde Compton and Elee Kraljii Gardiner on the links
between Hogan’s Alley in the mid-20th century and the Downtown Eastside
today. Reference will be made to the writing, reading, and representation that
has emerged—often against the expected odds—from these turbulent urban
sites. Visuals to support dialogue; open discussion to follow.
Elee Kraljii Gardiner directs the Thursdays Writing Collective in the Downtown
Eastside which has been called “the biggest, boldest, and by far the most vital conspiracy of writers operating in Vancouver at present.” She is the editor and publisher
of four Thursdays chapbook anthologies and the coeditor of an anthology of
creative writing rising from the DTES, recently accepted by Arsenal Pulp Press
for publication in Fall 2011. A frequent collaborator, she leads workshops on
creativity and social writing. Her writing appears in Canadian and US publications
and is forthcoming in Spanish translation. www.thursdayswritingcollective.ca
Wayde Compton is a Vancouver writer whose books include After Canaan: Essays
on Race, Writing, and Region; Performance Bond; Bluesprint: Black British Columbian
Literature; and Orature and 49th Parallel Psalm. He and Jason de Couto perform
turntable-based sound poetry as the duo The Contact Zone Crew. Compton is
also a co-founding member of the Hogan’s Alley Memorial Project, an organization dedicated to preserving the public memory of Vancouver’s original black
community, and is one of the publishers of Commodore Books. Wayde teaches
English composition and literature at Emily Carr University of Art and Design,
and Coquitlam College.
Elee Kraljii Gardiner
Hogan’s Alley Café, 789 Gore. Free
Wayde Compton
Starts at the DNC Street Market, Pigeon Park
Carrall & Hastings
The Music in the Streets program of the Spirit Rising Festival is made possible
with the support of the Community Arts Council of Vancouver’s Creative
Pathways program. This program of community engaged arts based projects
is taking place in the greater Downtown Eastside (Victory Square, Gastown,
Chinatown, DTES/Oppenheimer and Strathcona) between June 2010 and
February 2011. The numerous projects of this program are produced by lead
DTES organizations and DTES involved artists and musicians.
The purposes of the Creative Pathways program are to bring arts activity
to the streets of the community where it is accessible by local people; and
provide opportunities for local DTES involved musicians to train and perform with professional musicians.
Creative Pathways is funded by the City of Vancouver Great Beginnings
Program, Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, Legacies Now, BC Arts
Council and the Vancouver Foundation. For more information contact
Creative Pathways Program Coordinator Sita Kumar at [email protected] or visit
www.cacv.ca.
Jo-ann Howard on Sax. Carnegie Street Band,
2010 DTES Heart of the City Festival.
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 19
Sunday February 27
Sunday February 27
THE HOMESTEADERS
One hundred years ago one thousand
black men, women, and children
traveled north from Oklahoma to build
new lives in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
A number of the families were related
and had been members of the same
church congregation in Oklahoma.
Prior to the American Civil War, over
thirty Indian Nations—many forcibly relocated from the south-eastern
states—were crammed into Indian Territory (Oklahoma’s name before statehood). The American Civil War was
bitterly contested between the diverse
Indian Nations in the territory, some
of whom owned slaves, some of whom
provided a refuge for escaped slaves –
and all of whom were bitter over broken treaties. Following the Civil War,
the Indian Nations were forced to give
up their communal lands in exchange
for individual property allotments,
lands were opened up for settlement,
and slaves were freed. All-black towns
emerged when former slaves settled
together for mutual protection and
economic support. African Americans
created over 50 all-black towns in the
territory; nowhere else in the United
States did so many African Americans
come together to create and govern
their own communities. The discovery of oil and the move to statehood
unleashed increasingly repressive
racial laws and a series of brutal attacks. According to Leonard Gibson,
his grandfather “had to rush one night
and move the family out because of the
oil … the Blacks [and Indians] were being
raided and robbed… [he] took the family
and moved them all north.”
The Phillips family newly arrived in Athabasca Landing, Alberta, circa 1911.
Photo courtesy Thelma Gibson.
THE HOMESTEADERS CELEBRATION – Let’s Get Together
Lunch, History, Music and Performances
Sunday, February 27, 2:30pm
Hasting Community Centre, 3096 E. Hastings
No door sales. Tickets available in advance only. Call 604-255-1469.
“Our grandparents came to Canada in
1910-1911 from Oklahoma. My grandmother was pregnant with my mother who
was born in Edmonton, Alberta 1911. It
was a rugged trip, they travelled by foot,
covered wagon and cattle car. They came
as homesteaders. The Canadian government promised land at $1 per acre. There
are many descendents of those brave
homesteaders living in Vancouver and
for the last thirteen years we have been
Three Guys and an Alley: Films
and conversation about growing
up around Hogan’s Alley
7pm-9pm
Hogan’s Alley was a local nickname for
an alley that many say ran between
Union and Prior streets from Main to
Jackson. During the 1940s and 50s, the
muddy alley passed behind backyard
gardens, stables, homes and businesses
owned by Italian, Chinese and black
entrepreneurs. With the construction
of the Georgia Viaduct in the 1970s
the main 200 block was destroyed.
Join three men who lived in or around
the Hogan’s Alley neighbourhood as
youngsters: Randy Clark who worked
at his grandma Vie’s Chicken and Steak
House (209 Union) before growing
up to become a Vancouver educator;
Elwin Xie, performer and technician,
whose family home and laundry in
the 200 block of Union Street backed
onto Hogan’s Alley; and actor Chic
Gibson, who played in the alley and is
the son of Leona and Sylvester Risby,
proprietors of the Country Club eatery. Moderater: singer Khari Wendell
McClelland.
Elwin Xie
We will screen four short videos highlighting some moments in time:
getting together to celebrate our forefathers
who bravely made that change, giving
us the opportunity to live in Canada.”
Thelma Gibson-Towns
Chic Gibson
Thelma Gibson-Towns, director of the
Afro-Jazz Drum and Dance Ensemble,
taught dancing and drumming for
years at the Hastings East Community
Centre.
I think people lose sight of the fact that the diversity of our society is not
something that has just occurred in the last few years, but it’s been a factor
in the life of Vancouver and the province from the beginning.
Geoff Meggs, Vancouver City Councillor (Ubyssey, Nov. 25, 2010)
Randy Clark
20 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
• Terry David Mulligan interviews
Jimi Hendrix and his band-mates Noel
Redding and Mitch Mitchell as they’re
getting ready to make their Vancouver
debut at the Pacific Coliseum in September 1968. In this short clip Jimi
talks about going to school at Dawson
Annex, the good old days, family and
his grandmother Nora Hendrix. (1968
CBC 2min7s)
• Hogan’s Alley a video directed by
Andrea Fatona and Cornelia Wyngaarden that documents the previously
unrecorded history of Vancouver’s
black community between 1930 and
the late 1960s, specifically Hogan’s
Alley. The film examines the lives of
three black women: Thelma Gibson,
an African-Caribbean dance teacher
who recalls the era with nostalgia;
Pearl (Hendrix) Brown, a well known
local jazz singer who speaks about
working in the chicken houses flanking Hogan’s Alley; and Leah Curtis, a
lesbian in her mid-forties, whose history as an abused child is interconnected
with her experience as a child worker
in the gambling houses of Papa White.
The video investigates the identities of
these women, as well as the identities
of a disappeared community. (1994
Video In 32min)
• Shortly after Jimi Hendrix’s death
in September 1970, Jack Webster interviewed Jimi’s grandmother Nora
Hendrix, an East End resident, former
dancer, and one of the founders of the
Fountain Chapel at Jackson and Prior.
She had a close relationship with Jimi,
who for a time stayed with her while
attending grade one at Dawson Annex
in Vancouver's West End. Jimi and his
father, Al Hendrix, regularly drove up
from Seattle to visit Nora. (1970 CBC
3min56s)
• A Digital Story: Three Men and
an Alley was recorded by the DTES
Heart of the City Festival at Eastside
Stories in the Carnegie Learning
Centre and documented by Projections. The piece, moderated by Denis
Simpson, gives a short introduction
to the evening’s conversation with
Randy Clark, Chic Gibson, Elwin Xie.
(2009 10min)
Hogan’s Alley Café, 789 Gore. Free
Pearl Brown. Photo courtesy Thelma Gibson.
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 21
other BLACK HISTORY EVENTS IN THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE
February 6 and 13, 7pm - 10pm
Rooted: A Celebration of Black History
Caribbean food, dance, music and more
The Inaugural Show of Rooted Theatre Productions
In loving memory of co-founding member Denis Simpson
Calabash Bistro, 428 Carrall
Information 604-568-5882
Join urban ink and its associates in celebrating Black
Heritage Month demonstrating the intercultural
landscape and spirit of BC!
February 20, 1pm - 4pm
Talk Back: Connecting Through Arts and Conversation
Presented by the National Congress of Black Women Foundation
Panellists and Performers: Henry Daniels, Shauntay Grant,
Selwyn Jacob, Marion Landers, Judith Maxie, Chancz Perry,
Albert Smith
SlamFête weekend Feb 25-27 will invigorate your senses,
challenge your perceptions and shift your body into high
gear as you witness the seamless meeting of worlds.
Djavad Mowfaghian Word Art Centre (2nd floor)
149 W. Hastings, enter via Cordova St. Courtyard
By donation. Information 604-605-0124
February 25, 7:30pm
Friday night we’ll experience the intersection between
theatre and hip hop in the reading of Omari Newton’s
Sal Capone: The Lamentable Tragedy Of. Sonics provided by
two-time DMC champion DJ Mana will liven the house.
By donation at door.
February 23, 9pm – 2am
Shaolin Soul: Foundations of Wu
Scruff Mouth
A Black History Month Tribute to Music and Music-making
Features a “Soul Train Dance Off” competition and DJ Lady
Lane, DJ SHE, Marlon J. English
February 26, 8pm
Saturday night’s roof raising CrossRoads Slam! returns for
its third year drawing on our revolutionary performers as
they join forces with DJ Mana to highlight the black roots
and intercultural evolution of hip hop and spoken word.
$20 Adult; $10 student
February 27, 10am – 5pm
Sunday’s Bold Skool youth workshop and showcase will
provoke and promote expression and dialogue within the
complex issues of cultural diversity and minoritization.
DJing; B-Boying, MCing, Beat Boxing—you can try it all in
the morning; Bold Skool afternoon prepares you to perform
in a showcase. Lunch included. $10
All events take place at Ironworks Studio
235 Alexander Street (at Main).
Tickets are available at the door only.
For more details: www.urbanink.ca
or visit urban ink productions on Facebook.
Fortune Sound Club, 147 E. Pender
$8 in advance/$12 (50% of proceed to be donated to Templeton
Secondary School’s Music Program)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=124079870992325
Hip Hop Culture
On February 25th, 26th, and 27th 2011, urban ink is hosting
SlamFête, involving three events that will, in different ways,
open up spaces to witness and participate in the meeting of
hip-hop culture with the theatrical form, and this city’s youth.
Performers at Eat This, 2010
I felt really good living here, because you never
heard (name calling) except through some outsider
coming here…You felt sort of protected at home
here, cause you brushed by every nationality every
day of the week.
Dorothy Nealy (Opening Doors)
I’ve never had too much in life, but everything that
I got I earned and I earned it the hard way and I
pinched pennies.
Leona Risby
22 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
DTES Heart of the City Festival
WHERE CHANGE HAPPENS
Sunday February 13, 2011
Ray-Cam Community Centre, 920 E. Hastings
Produced by VANBC
Spirit Rising is pleased to support Where Change Happens, a
community youth-based and family friendly mini-festival
at Ray-Cam Community Centre. This all day event features
forums, speakers, music, workshops and entertainment focused on issues of importance to our community: education,
children and family, political apathy, women’s issues, homelessness and housing, arts and culture and the environment.
A key objective of the Spirit Festival—and of Vancouver Moving Theatre—is to support local artists and provide mentoring
opportunities for our local youth. As such we are very pleased
to partner with Rupinder Sidhu and Where Change Happens to
support the performances of local and emerging hip hop and
spoken word artists, and musician Khari Wendell McClelland
and his band The Hastings. We are also pleased to collaborate with Khari to provide spoken word/music workshops
for youth from the Ray-Cam neighbourhood. Participants
will also attend urban ink’s Bold Skool youth workshop on
Sunday February 27, and develop their work further to post
on the Ray-Cam youth driven music website.
Historically, it has been culturally marginalized youth who
have driven the hip hop movement (spoken word, break
dancing, graffiti art, DJ’ing); today, and in Vancouver, this
affinity remains relevant. Cultural diversity can be considered
a characteristic of youth in Vancouver today, and within that
population, many connect with hip hop (old and new) as a
form of art that is provocative, empowering, and relevant.
Theatre, on the other hand, has a foggier connection with
many of our city’s youth. Omari Newton, urban ink Artistic
Associate, is hoping to make a difference in that landscape
with his new play, Sal Capone: The Lamentable Tragedy Of. A
play written for and about youth, Sal Capone draws on the
tenets of hip-hop culture to deal with the complex relationship between culturally minoritized youth and the police.
It is a commentary on mainstream media and the struggles,
gripes and fears of a youth culture that looks to hip hop
artists for expression, common values, and belonging. The
play will be presented during SlamFête as a staged reading,
followed by a facilitated discussion amongst youth, artists
and the general public.
Sal Capone continues its dialogue with Vancouver youth
during Bold Skool, a day-long hip hop workshop run by
hip hop artists and urban ink associates. Tapping into the
ideas and identities of participating youth, Bold Skool will
involve experimenting with the various elements of hip hop
and devising hip hop performances for a final Slam. The
ideas, conflicts, and events brought forward in Sal Capone
will be taken up and made personal as the youth create
their own narratives.
The importance and relevance of this work with youth becomes clear when we read the local headlines; when we witness the stereotyping and whitewashing of issues of youth
and diversity in public policy and media. The challenge of
this work is in engaging youth with forms of expression,
modes of dialogue, and spaces of learning that are meaningful, relevant, and in touch with their own contemporary
cultures (sounds, discourses, images, economies). urban
ink hopes to step into these provocative spaces, to explore
and to learn with Vancouver’s youth, and to provoke and
promote expression and dialogue within the complex issues
of cultural diversity and minoritization.
Mia Perry, PhD
For more information please visit www.urbanink.ca,
or call Amita Daniels 604.692.0085
Mia Perry is an education and outreach associate of urban ink
productions and a recent doctoral graduate of the University of
British Columbia. Mia works in and between research, practice,
and teaching of theatre and performance studies with a particular
focus on bridging contemporary theatre practices with drama and
theatre in diverse educational and community contexts.
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 23
Commemoration and Memorial Projects
LEGENDARY PEOPLE AND PLACES
JOSEPHINE AND PHILLIP SULLIVAN
Ever since the 1870s, black residents
have been an important part of the
East End community. It all began
when American immigrants Josephine
Sullivan and her husband Phillip, a
piano player, opened a tiny restaurant
and general store in what is known
today as Gastown. Their son Arthur
Sullivan built the Sullivan block on
Cordova Street near Abbott.
ROSA PRYOR
Rosa Pryor established and operated
Pryor’s Chicken Inn between 1917 and
1959 at 278 E. Keefer Street. It was the
city’s first and longest-running southern fried chicken house.
Rosa Pryor. Photo Opening Doors.
PATRICIA CAFÉ
403 E. Hastings Street
In 1919 George Paris and Willy Bowman opened the Patricia Café with a
jazz band featuring Oscar Holden and
the famous Jelly Roll Morton. During
the golden years of jazz from 19191921 the Patricia Hotel was the home
for Vancouver’s Black entertainers.
COUNTRY CLUB INN
473-475 E. Powell Street
The third of the southern style eateries,
all known by the name Country Club,
was opened by entrepreneurs Sylvester
and Leona Risby in 1951. “We got a
write up in the paper—the only night club
in town that when they’re not doing any
work, they sing spirituals!” Leona Risby
(Opening Doors)
MANDARIN GARDENS SUPPER CLUB
98 E. Pender Street
The Mandarin Gardens Supper Club
opened in 1936 with hot jazz and black
musicians like Count Basie and Duke Ellington. The club hired local performers
like Leonard, Thelma and Chic Gibson.
“The only spot drawing a crowd that wants
its music hot.”
24 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
Hogan’s Alley/East End Historic
Marker Project
Phillip Sullivan. City of Vancouver Archives Port P858
Josephine Sullivan. City of Vancouver Archives Port P467.3, photo James Hogg
HARLEM NOCTURNE
343 E. Hastings Street
Trombonist Ernie King and his wife
Marcella opened the Harlem Nocturne
in 1957. Together they ran the only
Black-owned nightclub in the city—
famous for its live bands, rhythm and
blues and the murals Ernie painted on
the walls. Leonard Gibson staged floor
shows for the Nocturne and introduced the Limbo. “See this restaurant?
I just purchased it. Now we’ll never have
to worry about somebody firing us again.
We got our own club.” Ernie King, (Jazz
Street Vancouver: The History of Vancouver Jazz)
BEACON THEATRE
20 W. Hastings Street
From 1934-1945 the Beacon Theatre,
also known as the second Pantages
Theatre, was where all the big touring
jazz bands played.
FOUNTAIN CHAPEL AFRICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 322 Jackson Street
The Foutain Chapel was the spiritual
heart and hub of the Black community. Nora Hendrix, Jimi Hendrix’s
grandmother, was a moving force in
the founding of the church.
VIE’S CHICKEN AND STEAK HOUSE
209 Union Street
Vie’s Chicken and Steak House was
established by Vie and Robert Moore
circa 1948-50. “It felt just like sitting in
her home to have dinner. After one visit,
she knew your name. It didn’t matter if
you had a little money or a lot of money
or where you were from, she had a ‘listening ear and a giving heart’ and everyone
was treated with respect.” Randy Clark.
The building was demolished in 1981
and turned into a parking lot for Puccini’s and the Punjab restaurant.
Ellen Clark, left, with her mother Vie Moore, right, with friend at Vie’s. Randy Clark family collection.
The Community Arts Council of Vancouver through its
Creative Pathways Project is working on several unique and
distinct initiatives to acknowledge and mark events and communities in the East End/Strathcona. One of these markers
will honour the contributions of the East End’s historic Black
community. Researcher Esther Rausenberg is connecting with
people who were a part of this community; had a connection
in the East End through relatives and friends; and/ or, visited
the many chicken eateries and clubs in the area. Esther is
interested in your thoughts on how to best commemorate
the black community in the East End and any individuals
you think should be approached for their advice and input.
Very few photos of this historic community are archived, so
any family or neighbourhood shots are of interest.
To follow up please contact Esther Rausenberg
at [email protected]
THE HOGAN’S ALLEY MEMORIAL
PROJECT – Memorializing Vancouver’s
Historic Black Neighbourhood and the
wider Vancouver black community
The Hogan’s Alley Memorial Project—a grassroots cultural
organization formed in 2002—is dedicated to keeping the
black history of Vancouver alive and part of the present.
‘Hogan’s Alley’ was the local unofficial name for an alley
that ran for a few blocks between Union and Prior streets
during the first six decades of the twentieth century. While
this area was always ethnically diverse, a number of black
families, black businesses, and the city’s only black church
—the African Methodist Episcopal Fountain Chapel at
Jackson and Prior—were located here. This area was the first
and last neighbourhood in Vancouver with a substantial
concentrated black population. Today the block or so that
is left of the alley bears no permanent commemoration or
plaque that there was ever a black presence here. Nevertheless, the building that was the Fountain Chapel still stands
and serves as private residence.
For further information visit
www.hogansalleyproject.blogspot.com
or contact Wayde Compton at [email protected]
Jimi Hendrix Shrine and Museum – Jimi Hendrix look-alike.
Photo courtesy Wayde Compton.
Jimi Hendrix Shrine and Museum
796 Main Street (Chinatown – located Behind
Creekside Student Residence)
Open from June to September,
Monday – Saturday, 1pm – 5pm
On a visit to Seattle’s Experience Music Project, Vincent
Fodera saw a postcard addressed to 207 Union Street, written
by Jimi Hendrix to his grandmother Nora Hendrix. This was
the address of the side door of a rooming house that Fodera
now owns, and which today goes by the name Creekside
Student Residence (this side door is now bricked up).
When Fodera returned to Vancouver he did some research, talked to old neighbours, and discovered that a
small brick building at the back of the property was located
next to the legendary Vie’s Chicken and Steak House where
Nora Hendrix, Jimi’s grandmother, sometimes worked.
Nora recalls the “magnificent pan fried, steaks and biscuits
that seemed to have been baked in heaven . . . Vie was a great
person and I loved working for her, washing the dishes and
making the salads.” (Nora Hendrix, interviewed by Denny
Boyd, Vancouver Sun, Nov. 20, 1982). Nora used to babysit
Jimi on his visits to Vancouver. Neighbours remember a
shy, quiet child who played on the sidewalk at Union and
Main, while his aunt in the nearby rooming house kept an
eye on him.
Today Fodera has lovingly restored the tiny brick building
to its 1940s heritage look and has painted it red, purple and
orange. Inside is a small museum featuring a few old photos
and memorabilia of Jimi Hendrix and the neighbourhood.
For further Information contact 604.669.0377 or
[email protected]
Hogan’s Alley Memorial Project. Photo courtesy Wayde Compton.
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 25
Historical Chronology of Black Immigration and the East End’s Black Community
1604
Mathieu de Costa, a black navigator
and translator, is employed as an interpreter by Samuel de Champlain in
the Nova Scotia area.
1628
First sale of a black slave in Canada.
1760
Up to 3,600 men and women are slaves
in Canada.
1783-84
British Loyalists displaced from the
newly independent USA bring 2,000
slaves to Canada.
1793
Upper Canada’s Abolition Act frees
any slave who comes to Ontario and
all children born in slavery by age 25.
1819
Canada’s Attorney General declares that
residence in Canada makes blacks free.
1858
After California passes increasingly
repressive racial laws, 800 blacks accept an invitation from Governor
James Douglas to travel north. Most
settle in Victoria or Saltspring Island.
Soon there are 1,000 black people out
of 10,000 settlers and there are accounts of growing racial prejudice in
churches, theatres and public houses.
1820
Canada’s public schools are segregated
in one province after another.
1833
An Imperial Act of Parliament abolishes slavery in Great Britain and all
its colonies.
1850
24-30,000 blacks live in Canada – most
have arrived via the “underground
railroad”, a network of secret routes
from the United States.
1851
James Douglas, son of a Scottish
planter and a “free coloured woman”,
is Governor of Vancouver Island. He
passes for white; his wife Amelia is of
Aboriginal ancestry.
1864
Soon after the US civil war ends, over
half of BC’s black population returns
to USA.
Sir James Douglas.
BC Archives Collection A-01229.
African Methodist Foundation Chapel Church picnic circa summer 1935. Photo courtesy Chic Gibson & Family
1871
Fewer than 500 black people live in BC.
1870s
Phillip and Josephine Sullivan open
a tiny restaurant and general store
in Gastown. Their sons clear much
of the Gastown site and make up the
town’s first band. Josephine initiates
Methodist services. Their son Arthur, a
popular MC, is also the town’s leading
musician and organist at the St. James
Anglican Church; he’s married to a
Caucasian woman.
1871
John Sullivan Deas establishes a
salmon cannery business, providing
cans to the Hastings Mill at the foot
of Dunlevy Street before setting up a
big cannery on Deas Island.
1885
Seraphim ‘Joe’ Fortes arrives in Gastown from the West Indies via Liverpool. He opens a shoeshine stand and
works as a porter and bartender at the
Sunnyside Hotel on Maple Tree Square.
The former competitive swimmer
eventually becomes Vancouver’s first
official lifeguard, teaching hundreds
of children how to swim.
ca. 1886
Arthur and Charles Sullivan sign the
petition for incorporation of the City
of Vancouver. Shortly after incorporation, Arthur’s store is destroyed in
the fire that burns down the city. He
establishes a new building (the Sullivan Block) and builds a house (231
E. Cordova).
1895 R.F. Outcault’s comic strip series Hogan’s Alley, commonly known as the
Yellow Kid, represents a rowdy New
York City working class neighborhood.
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 27
1910
The birth of Hogan’s Alley, a strip eight
feet wide running from Park Lane to
Jackson Ave. between Union and Prior;
its residents are Black, East Asian, Italian, Anglo and Chinese. For forty years
this multicultural mini-neighborhood
has a reputation for great music and
cooking, as well as gambling, drinking
and prostitution.
in a dazzling checked suit.
1911 After she’s stranded in Seattle as a
dancer with a Chicago traveling revue,
Nora Hendrix and her husband James
travel to Vancouver looking for work.
Traveling from Oklahoma by wagon
train, Leona Risby’s family settles in
Athabasca, Alberta. Her mother is
Cherokee and her dad is black.
1917 or 1918
Rosa Pryor arrives from Iowa via Seattle
during the great flu epidemic. Without
a dime, she establishes Pryor’s Chicken
Inn (278 Keefer St), Vancouver’s first
and longest running southern fried
chicken house.
1912
Chief of Police Malcolm Maclennan is
shot and killed at an apartment above
a grocery store on 522 E. Georgia during a gun battle with Robert Tait. The
black US ex-soldier, drug addict and
police informer was living with Frankie
Russell, a white street worker and addict
abandoned by her husband. When the
landlord tried to collect three months
rent from Frankie—who’d been on a rentstrike until her leaky roof got fixed—the
confrontation escalated into a gun battle
between Tait and the police. On his way
to buy candy at the store, eight-year-old
Georgie Robb is killed by a stray bullet.
After the Canadian Pacific Railway
station is built on reclaimed False
Creek land, BC’s black population
clusters around the train station. 90%
are employed by the railroad, most as
sleeping car porters – one of the few
jobs available due to racial segregation.
Railway porters emerge as leaders of
the black community.
Nora Hendrix and the black community raise money with bazaars and
suppers to purchase their own church.
The Fountain Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church (323 Jackson St)
becomes the spiritual and social heart
of the black community and an important center for organizing fund-raising
dinners. At its height, the church has
300 parishioners.
1920s
The Monte Carlo opens with live jazz
in the post office basement (NE corner
of Hastings and Main), advertising “we
put the corn in the cornet and the
slides and moans in the trombone.”
The Fountain Chapel choir of 50 singers tours local churches and performs
at the Avenue Theatre (711 Main St).
The term ‘Hogan’s Alley’ begins to appear
and its location is often debated. Some
say it’s the alley behind Puccini’s (now
radha yoga and eatery) in 700 block of
Main Street; most say it’s the alley between the 200 block of Union and Prior.
1921
City Directory lists Harry Hogan,
singer, at 406 Union Street.
1929
The great Depression begins. Mattie
May King arrives from Alberta, part
of a new wave of black families from
the Canadian prairies fleeing drought
and grasshoppers and looking for jobs.
1915
Railroad porters organize the Porter
Mutual Benefit Association to provide
social benefits for porters and their
families.
1916 Prohibition of alcohol in BC
28 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
1920
Prohibition ends. Jelly Roll Morton
takes a band into the Regent Hotel,
who “did a Hell of a lot of business and
other places started bringing hot men
in.” CN Porters apply to become members of the Canadian Brotherhood of
Railroad Employees. Their application
is rejected because they’re black.
1922-23
When railroad porter Fred Deal is
charged with murdering a police constable, the congregation of the Fountain Chapel organizes against racial
bigotry; as a result, the case is retried
and the verdict reduced from death to
life in prison.
1914
The black community of Vancouver
numbers around 300 people. The Negro Christian Alliance forms to fight
discrimination and holds Emancipation Day events.
1917
Boxing trainer George Paris organizes a jazz band for the Patricia Hotel
(Jackson and Hastings) which opens its
own cabaret, the 300 seat Patricia Cafe.
Here, at the end of a four block stretch
with over 10 big theatres with 10,000
seats, the jazz age begins in Vancouver.
George runs the police department
gym and is Canada’s first identifiable
jazz musician – a bold skinny drummer
ment, buying whiskey from a Chinese
laundry man.
Patricia Hotel. Painting Pamela Marie.
1919
Will Bowman takes over the Patricia
Cafe (Patricia Hotel) and brings in
an eight piece jazz band with Oscar
Holden, Jelly Roll Morton and Ada
Brick-top Smith. The club has a rough
clientele of Swedish lumberjacks. Ada
establishes a speakeasy in her apart-
1930s
Vancouver is the wealthiest city in Canada, but hungry men are dying, camped
out at the shut down Hastings Saw Mill.
25% of the population can’t find work,
and 15% are on relief. For several years
Rosa Pryor and Chaney Belle organize
a minstrel show, raising funds for the
needy. Nora Hendrix is one of the ‘end
men’ in the minstrel show.
The Venice Cafe, a converted brothel
on Main Street, hosts jazz bands. When
local 145 of the American Federation
of Musicians prohibits American dance
bands from performing anywhere in
Vancouver except on theatrical stages,
hot black bands appear at the Beacon
Theatre (20 W. Hastings).
Planning to get rid of Hogan’s Alley, the City of Vancouver declares
the area from Dunlevy to Clark an
industrial zone. Mortgages or home
improvements are not permitted; the
neighbourhood begins to deteriorate.
1932
Leona Risby arrives from Athabasca
Landing, Alberta, with her husband
Jim Gibson and children Leonard and
Thelma. Five year old Len earns his first
wages tap dancing at the Elks Club.
1935
Leona’s brother Austin Phillips Jr. arrives
from Alberta. The Mandarin Gardens
Supper Club (98 E. Pender St) opens with
hot jazz and black musicians like Count
Basie and Duke Ellington. The club is soon
followed by other Chinatown cabarets.
1936
Nora Hendrix and her children move
into the neighbourhood (827 E. Georgia),
next door to the Gibson family (826 E.
Georgia). Al Hendrix and his sister Pat get
their pictures on the front page of the Vancouver Sun, dancing the jitterbug to Duke
Ellington’s music. Ten year old Leonard
Gibson is going on tours with Blackstone
the Magician and Eddie Cantor.
1938
A riot starts in Hogan’s Alley when
three carloads of college students come
‘slumming’ and one girl gets ‘stuck on
a coloured fellow.’ Eighteen are beat
up when black people put out a call.
Eleanor Collins arrives from Alberta.
Fourteen year old Ernie King leaves
school for a job with a manufacturer.
The neighborhood is in a state of
transition as the area converts into
commercial use, such as fruit and
vegetable warehouses.
break up a dogfight in Hogan’s Alley.
1935
After firing Police Chief Cameron for
taking bribes, Mayor McGeer vows
to clean up Hogan’s Alley and close
down the red light, gambling and
bootlegging districts. “Gambling and
prostitution supplied the funds which
made it possible to corrupt the law enforcers,” said former East End resident
and criminal lawyer Angelo Branca.
1938
Barbara Howard, age 17, becomes the
first black woman athlete to represent
Canada in international competitions
when she travels to Australia to sprint
for the British Empire Games. A few
years later she will be the first black
person hired by the Vancouver School
Board – and will teach physical education at Strathcona School.
1940
Fourteen year old Leonard Gibson gets
his first nightclub job at the Mandarin
Gardens with Ernie King’s sister Dorothy; he’ starts to “bus” tables and
perform floor shows at Buddy White’s
Cabin Inn (544 Main St). Al Hendrix
leaves for Seattle
1940s
Approximately 400 blacks live in
Vancouver. Zoot-suited gangs hang
out around the Princess Cafe (601 E.
Hastings). Vie Moore’s Aunt Emma
Alexander runs Mother’s Tamale and
Chicken House (250 Union St). Vancouver erupts as the vaudeville capital
of Canada. East End clubs are denied
liquor licenses.
Thelma Gibson plays baseball at
Oppenheimer Park with the Brown
Bombers girls’ team. Chic Gibson plays
baseball at Oppenheimer Park and basketball with the Gibbs Boys Club (700
E. Pender St). Rufus Gibbs, a resident
of the Patricia Hotel for over 40 years,
sponsors the club. Pianist Joe Wilson
plays for open air dances at the first
McLean Park (Gore and Union) with
jive and jitterbug competitions.
1943
The Navy lifts colour restrictions for
those who want to serve in World
War II.
1944
Dorothy Nealy moves to Vancouver
from Winnipeg. From Main Street to
Campbell Avenue, whole apartment
blocks have black residents. Eighteen
year old Len Gibson studies ballet with
Mara McBirney. An estimated 500-700
black people live in Vancouver.
1945
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters – an all black union – signs
its first collective agreement with C.P.
Rail – increasing wages and reducing
hours on the job. This is the first time
that a trade union organized by and for
black men signs an agreement with a
Canadian Company. The Brotherhood
urges equality for Japanese Canadian
citizens.
Formation of the Vancouver branch of
the British Columbia Association for
the Advancement of Colored People
(BCAACP). The Canadian League for
the Advancement of Colored People
1939
Formation of the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters. Frank Collins
is elected President – an office he
holds until 1956. The union creates
opportunities for people like Frank
to gain leadership skills; many of its
key members will become involved in
agitating for anti-discriminations bills
in jobs and housing.
1934
Armando Mori is hit on the head with
a wrench and killed after trying to
Brown Bombers Baseball Team, Powell Street Grounds (Oppenheimer Park).
Thelma Gibson lower left. Photo courtesy Thelma Gibson.
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 29
(CLACP) rallies for a fair employment
practices act. The Vancouver Park
Board votes to open to everyone English Bay’s Crystal Pool, regardless of
colour, race or creed.
1947
Len Gibson gets the break of a lifetime when he subs for the Katherine
Dunham Dance Company and wins a
scholarship to her school in New York.
1948-50
Viva Moore and her railwayman/sailor
husband Robert open up Vie’s Chicken
and Steak House (209 Union St). The
Vancouver Labour Council is urged
to picket a Main Street beer parlor
that refuses to serve a black unionist
and war veteran when he arrives with
white friends.
1949
Seven year old Jimmy Hendrix arrives to stay with his Aunt Pat and
Grandma Nora Hendrix. Over the
years he spends summers in Vancouver
and sometimes attends school at the
Dawson Annex. Leona Risby opens
her second Country Club Café (247 E.
Georgia St). The black cast members of
the touring show ‘Carmen Jones’ are
billeted in the homes of black citizens
because they’re unable to get hotel
accommodation.
1950
Supreme Court of Canada rules that
restrictive property covenants against
Jews, Negroes, and Semites are illegal.
After the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters conducts a survey of bars that
discriminate against Negroes, bar managers voluntarily revoke discriminatory
policies. As sleeping car porters cease
to be an all black profession, new job
opportunities open up in longshoring
and trucking. As the colour bar begins
to lessen, the black population spreads
out to different neighbourhoods of East
Vancouver. The lights are going out in
Vancouver’s vaudeville and burlesque
theatres. Chinatown is turning into a
thriving entertainment district—the
city’s premier ‘exotic’ destination after
the West End nightclubs close at night.
1951
Leona Risby opens the Country Club
Inn (473-475 Powell Street), her third
restaurant. Her children Leonard and
Thelma choreograph family floor
shows with Afro-Caribbean jazz and
tap. The East End nightclubs are unable
30 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
Still photo, CBC TV’s Bamboula - Leonard
Gibson, Eleanor Collins, Austin Gibson.
Lena Horne and friends, Vie’s Chicken and
Steakhouse. Photo courtesy Randy Clark.
to get liquor licenses from the city—all
are bottle clubs—and no one is allowed
to dance after 2am. Mary’s Ready to
Wear, another black owned business,
is at 411 Powell Street.
When the singer Paul Robson is barred
at the US border and not allowed to
enter Canada, he sings a concert for
40,000 people at the Peace Arch border
crossing.
1952 With the help of Pearl Hendrix, Reverend J. Ivan Moore sets up Wednesday
night young people meetings at the
Fountain Chapel. There are approximately 700 blacks in Vancouver. The
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters,
Kuvannah Chapter of the Order of
the Eastern Star, and True Resolution
Lodge, No. 16 of the Free and Accepted
Masons sponsor charity dances at the
Silver Slipper Ballroom, aka Hastings
Ballroom (828 E. Hastings). “Everyone
went. Young, old—it didn’t matter.
Even if you were a babe in arms, you
went to the dance.” Ernie King
Members of the Fountain Chapel demand an inquiry into the 1952 police
beating and death of longshoreman
Clarence Clemens, arrested for loitering outside the New Station Café at 763
Main St. The case is handled by Jewish
lawyer Nathan Nemitz.
1953
Arrival of television in Vancouver.
1954
Leonard Gibson choreographs BAMBOULA: A Day in the West Indies, a
short-lived CBC series showcasing Caribbean music and dance. It’s the first
live musical series created in Vancouver and one of the first TV shows with
a multi-cultural cast. The inter-racial
cast is ‘too risky’ for sponsors, so the
producers close the show down. The
BC Civil Liberties Union conducts a
survey of bars that refuse to serve black
and mixed race couples.
1955
BC passes a Fair Employment Practices
Act. Eleanor Collins becomes the first
jazz singer and black woman to star
in her own national weekly variety/
music TV series, The Eleanor Show,
choreographed by Leonard Gibson.
1957 Trombonist Ernie King has a six month
gig with his band at the New Delhi
Cabaret (544 Mains St). When the
owner decides to stop paying union
wages, Ernie refuses to work without a
contract and purchases his own venue
from a struggling Italian bootlegger. He
and his wife Marcella open the Harlem
Nocturne Cabaret (343 E. Hastings).
Len Gibson stages floor shows at the
Nocturne and introduces the limbo.
1958-59
Strathcona is declared an urban blight
despite evidence to the contrary. For
fifteen years, the City ceases to maintain the neighbourhood’s roads, services and sidewalks and the banks refuse
loans for renovation. Ten acres of
homes are destroyed to build Raymur
Housing Project, displacing residents.
1959 Mrs. Pryor’s Chicken Inn closes. Some
hotels are still refusing to admit blacks
and mixed race couples. Liza Crump is
the first black sales clerk to be hired at
the Army & Navy store, followed by
Ethel Howard.
1960s
The Smilin’ Buddha Cabaret (109 E.
Hastings) caters to soul bands – it was
“the place to go and anything went
there” (Stan Chong). Civic rezoning
and the end of de facto segregation
result in more blacks moving into various Lower Mainland areas.
1961
Jimmy Hendrix lives with his grandmother Nora on Georgia Street after
he was discharged from the US army
due to a parachute injury. One story
says he performs at the Smilin’ Buddha
Cabaret where he’s fired for being too
loud. Four blocks of homes in Strathcona are demolished and hundreds of
people are relocated.
1962
Racial rules are removed from the
immigration laws.
1965
Vie’s daughter Adelene Ellen Alexander
Clark arrives with six children to help
Vie run her establishment. East End
residents unite to fight urban renewal
plans to raze homes and replace them
with high rise towers for low-income
housing.
1967
The city’s transportation study recommends an eight lane freeway through
the heart of Chinatown, Strathcona,
Gastown and along the waterfront.
Opposition to the freeway is nearly
unanimous. In a last ditch effort to
save their homes, residents form the
Strathcona Property Owners and Tenant Association (SPOTA) unite with
merchants, action groups, academics,
social planners, legal aid workers and
architects.
1968
The Harlem Nocturne is sold to a Chinese entrepreneur and finally closes
for good. The Jimi Hendrix Experience
plays at the Pacific Coliseum. Jimmy,
now ‘Jimi’, acknowledges his grandmother Nora who is in the audience.
1969
Ernie King co-founds the Sepia Players Theatre Company. The Fountain
Chapel’s first and only white reverend
(James Elrod) leads evening services
for a black congregation, while a black
reverend (Annie Giard, a Pentacostalist) leads morning services for a white
congregation. Elrod runs a half-way
house for black and anglo Vietnam
War deserters. Arthur Bruce Clark is
Vancouver’s first black policeman.
1970
Jimi Hendrix dies in London. The old
Georgia Viaduct is demolished.
1970s
Large numbers of immigrants arrive in
Vancouver from the West Indies. This
influx outnumbers the original black
population in Vancouver. Until the
1970s, all club dancers are accompanied
by jazz and swing bands playing for
union wages. After the liquor control
board changes its rules to allow entertainment, food and dancing in pubs,
hotels move to pre-recorded music;
independent nightclubs close or lose
audiences. Musicians lose their jobs.
to take up the challenge “End Legislated
Poverty” from the United Church. He
moves into an apartment building on
Princess Street where he lives on the
$350 per month paid to single welfare
recipients. After 22 days he’s lost 15
pounds and is broke. The Vancouver
Historical Society names Seraphim ‘Joe’
Fortes “Citizen of the Century.”
1971
Carolyn Jerome is one of the fifteen
women involved in the legendary
Militant Moms protest, when women
from Raymur Housing Project stop
the trains on the railroad tracks at
Raymur and Pender to demand that
a pedestrian overpass be built so their
children won’t have to cross the tracks
to go to school. They win and today
people cross the tracks by an overpass.
Carolyn’s brother Harry Jerome won
a bronze medal for Canada in track at
the 1964 Olympics.
2002
Hogan’s Alley Memorial Project is
formed with the goal of preserving the
public memory of Vancouver’s original
black neighborhood.
2000
A new wave of immigration brings
blacks to Canada from Africa: Sudan,
Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda ….
2007
Nora Hendrix’s former home is restored
and receives heritage designation.
The federal Liberal government, under
Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau,
announces Canada will follow a Multiculturalism Policy – the 1st national
government in the world to do so.
1971-1972
After six years of struggle, city officials
abandon urban renewal in favor of
rehabilitating existing housing, but
approve a new Georgia Viaduct. The
new viaduct wipes out what remains of
Hogan’s Alley and the two most active
blocks of black-owned businesses and
home-rentals. The black community
that had formed around the Fountain
Chapel is displaced.
1980
Vie’s Chicken and Steak House closes
down.
Nora Hendrix. Photo Tod Greenaway.
2008
Constance Barnes, daughter of the
late Emery Barnes and operations
manager of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, is elected to the
Vancouver Park Board.
1984-85
Nora Hendrix dies, two months shy
of age 100. Within a few months of
her death the Fountain Chapel closes
and the church is sold to Chinese
Lutherans. Black History Month is
established.
2009
Dalannah Gail Bowen founds the
Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts
at the Interurban Gallery, creating opportunities for the artist in everyone,
and offering programs in fabric arts,
music, dance and street arts. The Jimi
Hendrix Shrine opens.
1986
Emery Barnes, an NDP MLA, is the first
black speaker at BC’s Legislative Assembly. He is the only provincial politician
According to Stats Canada, there are
nearly as many black people in Vancouver (18,000) as there are in the
entire province of Nova Scotia.
Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues 31
Credits & Thanks
VANCOUVER MOVING THEATRE
Executive Director
Terry Hunter
Artistic Director
Savannah Walling
Accountant
Lucy Lai
Board of Directors: President Ann McDonell; Vice President Lynne Werker,
Secretary John Atkin; Treasurer Dara Culhane; Member at Large Renae Morriseau
SPIRIT RISING
Executive Artistic Producer
Associate Artistic Producer
Associate Artistic Director
Publicist
Designer
Social Media
Administrative Assistance
Administrative Assistant Intern
Production Staff
Program guide contributors
Community Development Project
Onsite Photography
Terry Hunter
Teresa Vandertuin
Savannah Walling
Jodi Smith (JLS Entertainment)
John Endo Greenaway
Liisa Hannus
Doug Vernon
Chika Buston
Steve Edwards, Simon Garber, Elwin Xie
Dalannah Gail Bowen, Chic Gibson, Thelma Gibson,
Mia Perry, Esther Rausenberg, Savannah Walling
Rupinder Sidhu
Ken Tabata
The following photographers have
contributed photos to this program
guide:
Ben Aberle
Paige Birnie
David Cooper
Wendy D
Liisa Hannus
Terry Hunter
Jens Lund
Projections
Lani Russwurm
Adam P.W. Smith
Ken Tabata
The program guide and East End Blues & All That Jazz owe a huge debt to the research and writings of John Atkin, Wayde
Compton, James Hendrix, Carole Itter, James Johnstone, Crawford Killian, Daphne Marlatt, Keith McKellar, Mark Miller, Derek
Penthick, Becki Ross and Adam J. Rudder.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Carnegie Community Centre, Downtown Eastside
Neighbourhood Council, Hogan’s Alley Café, Humanities 101
Documentary Night, Oppenheimer Park, Raycam Community
Centre, urban ink productions
THANKS TO
The staff and patrons of Carnegie Community Centre,
Oppenheimer Park and Raycam Community Centre, John Atkin,
Carrie Campbell, Colleen Carroll, Randy Clark, Wayde Compton,
Amita Daniels, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, James Johnstone, Jen Halley,
International Web exPress, Sita Kumar, Sandy MacKeigan, Khari
Wendell McClelland, Brad Muirhead, Diane Roberts, Byron
Sheardown, Rupinder Sidhu, Paul Taylor, Rika Uto, Elwin Xie,
and those we may have unwittingly forgotten and those who
have helped after this program guide went to print.
HATS OFF TO OUR SPONSORS
The Spirit Festival gratefully acknowledges the generous contributions of our sponsors. These events could not happen
without their enthusiastic and generous support. Thank you.
32 Spirit Rising Festival & East End Blues
VANCOUVER MOVING THEATRE
Vancouver Moving Theatre is a professional interdisciplinary
arts company established (1983) in the Downtown Eastside by
Executive Director Terry Hunter and Artistic Director Savannah
Walling. The company creates repertoire in collaboration with
artists from many genres, techniques, and cultural traditions,
develops educational resources, and produces the annual
Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival in collaboration
with over 40 community partners, 30 venues and hundreds of
artists and residents. Vancouver Moving Theatre first toured
internationally for fifteen years with drum dances and mask
dance-dramas; then produced original plays and adaptations of
classic texts. Over the last decade Vancouver Moving Theatre has
focused on producing art made with, for and about the people,
cultures and stories of the Downtown Eastside.
Vancouver Moving Theatre was awarded the City of
Vancouver Cultural Harmony Award in 2008. Terry Hunter
and Savannah Walling are joint recipients of the 2008 British
Columbia Community Achievement Award and the City of
Vancouver 2009 Mayor’s Award (Community Arts).