KITSILANO
One year, to the day, after the 2011 Stanley Cup Riot, the Museum of Vancouver is opening a small exhibit displaying 15 of the plywood panels used to board up broken windows downtown.
The exhibit, "Reading the Riot Boards," will include selected panels from the Bay department store, which was heavily damaged following the riot that started after the Vancouver Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final against the Boston Bruins. Residents and visitors wrote messages on the boards during the cleanup.
The opening of the exhibit is June 15 when MOV invites the public to join in a roundtable discussion with Vancouver playwright Kevin Loring, Vision Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer and photographer Maurice Li in a "multi-faceted examination of how the riot has altered our collective conscience, spurred new civic conversations, and changed how Vancouverites see themselves and each other."
MOV wants gallery-goers to pause, reflect, and share in a discussion that asks: "Is this Vancouver?"
The roundtable will include a visual street-view storytelling of events by Li, excerpts from "The Thin Veneer," a play written as Loring's response to the riots, and policy insights from Reimer. A question-and-answer period and closer look at selected boards installed in the MOV studio will follow. The event is by donation (suggested $5 to $10, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds). MOV members get in free. The exhibition runs from June 15 to Sept. 23. RSVP for the opening online at riotreflections.eventbrite.com.
KITSILANO
I'm guessing this event will be both sad and happy for everyone attending.
A celebration of life for Bea Blackford takes place Saturday, June 9 at 6 p.m. at the Billy Bishop Royal Canadian Legion, 1407 Laburnum St. Bea was best known and much-loved for her piano playing at the Billy, where she had been entertaining crowds and leading sing-alongs on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights since 1974. Bea also volunteered her time playing at hospitals and nursing homes. In 2004, Bea was awarded the B.C. Community Achievement Award for her decades of volunteer service.
An email from the Billy reads, in part, "She won't be at the Billy to play 21 Today for our birthdays anymore, or get us up on our feet with another rendition of 'O Canada' on July 1, or keep us going with round after round of Lily Marlene and The White Cliffs of Dover on Remembrance Day. She has played her last 'Auld Lang Syne,' but 'We'll Meet Again' some sunny day. Rest in peace dear Bea."
METRO VANCOUVER
The Greater Vancouver Home Builders' Association is inviting the public to tour seven professionally renovated homes in Vancouver Burnaby, North Van and Surrey this Sunday, June 10 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The 19th annual Parade of Renovated Homes showcases leading-edge design, advanced construction techniques and products, and energy-saving features. Renovations on display include the revitalization of a 1950s bungalow, restoration of a 1920s Vancouver heritage home, an eco-chic kitchen, a bathroom makeover and conversion of a West Side basement suite, an extensive interior and exterior renovation, and a contemporary whole-house transformation. Admission is $10 and tickets can be purchased at any home. For more information, visit gvhba.org.
CEDAR COTTAGE
The public is invited to attend the installation of an historic plaque commemorating the Lakeview Disaster of Nov. 10, 1909, when a B.C. Electric Railway freight car collided with a passenger car, killing 14 on board and injuring 19 others
The plaque will be installed in the Cedar Cottage Garden at Victoria and Hull Street, under the SkyTrain line at 1 p.m., June 16.
Twitter: @sthomas10
