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Vancouver on the Cheap: Read Local BC

If you were to create a Venn diagram where one circle was labeled "cheap" and the other labeled "awesome", the middle point where they cross over could be labeled "Vancouver on the Cheap".

If you were to create a Venn diagram where one circle was labeled "cheap" and the other labeled "awesome", the middle point where they cross over could be labeled "Vancouver on the Cheap". In other words, this is a weekly series on things to do and places to go in Vancouver that fall into that magical category of being both cheap and awesome. Got a cheap-living tip you'd like to share? Send it in here or tweet it to @andreaxuaxua (#cheapthing)!

For (almost) the entire month of April, Vancouver has a new festival: Read Local BC. A celebration of local authors, it's a 100-mile diet of books featuring a series of FREE events with authors and publishers. There are four main events (listed below), but I am most looking forward to "An Evolving City" and "Roughing it in the Bush Revisited".

In An Evolving City, you get an exploration of Vancouver from the 60s into the future. Think our Vancouver WAS Awesome book, but in a live event. And what' more Vancouver than taking selfies at the top of a mounting? Roughing it in the Bush Revisited brings together literature and the mountain sports this city is known for.

Perhaps this was the inspiration for their truly clever posters, playing off BC's outdoor advisory signs.

ReadLocalBC_Poster

RLBC_Instagram_Eagle

RLBC_Instagram_Moose

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS:

Writing About First Nations Tuesday, April 7 at 7pm: Book Warehouse, 4118 Main Street - Three celebrated UBC Press authors discuss their discoveries in research, how writing about First Nations people has changed over time, and the challenges and successes of the process. with Jean Barman: French Canadians, Furs, and Indigenous Women in the Making of the Pacific Northwest; Paige Raibmon: Written As I Remember It: Teachings from the Life of a Sliammon Elder; Jennifer Kramer: Native Art of the Northwest Coast: A History of Changing Ideas

An Evolving City: Writing Vancouver’s Past, Present & Future Thursday, April 9 at 7:30pm: Pulp Fiction, 2422 Main Street, Vancouver - Join two of Canada’s literary heavyweights for a conversation exploring Vancouver’s vast networks of people, streets, and change over time. From the storied streets of East Vancouver in the 1960s to a haunting, speculative vision of the city of glass, these two renowned authors reveal their probing impressions of a beloved yet flawed city. with George Bowering and Wayde Compton

Roughing it in the Bush Revisited, Wednesday, April 15th at 7:30pm: Artspeak Gallery, 233 Carrall Street, Vancouver - As big industry and increased construction continues Vancouver’s sprawl into nature, do we give thought to how we invade and modify our own natures through technology? Or to what happens when wilderness creeps back in, reclaiming the crack of a sidewalk or the corner of an abandoned lot? Five Vancouver poets explore the ever-evolving representation of urban and rural spaces in Canadian art. Hosted by poet and Poetry Is Dead editor Daniel Zomparelli. with Jordan Abel, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Evelyn Lau, Daphne Marlatt, W.H. New and George Stanley.

Secrets, Booze & Rebellion: Vancouver’s Unknown History, Wednesday, April 15 at 7pm, Lynn Valley Public Library, 1277 Lynn Valley Road - Discover the historical underworld of Vancouver and the adventures that took place in many of the buildings and streets still standing today. Three of the city’s finest historians share its rollicking history, from cops turned robbers, to rum-running entrepreneurs during prohibition, and the glamorous yet naughty history of one of the city’s oldest nightclubs. With: Eve Lazarus, Daniel Francis, and Aaron Chapman.

More information on this, and other Read Local BC events here.