Hastings Street | AHA Media

W2 info night on June 4, 2009 at Flack Block in Vancouver Downtown Eastside ( DTES )

June 6, 2009 ahamedia Leave a comment

Interested in W2 and the community? Want to get involved to make a positive and lasting change?

Come to the W2 info night, held on Thursday, June 4th at 7PM. This is an free and informal event open to everyone. Food and drinks will be served.

Thursday night is a community meeting for our supporters. We will be doing Info Sessions every week on key subjects, but this meeting is aimed at updating our active community on challenges we are having with City negotiations, as well as recruiting more volunteers.

The W2 Info Night will be held in W2’s new offices at the Flack Block building at 163 West Hastings from 7-10PM on June 4th.

A W2 staff member will be waiting out front of the building to let guests inside.

Future topics include Social Enterprise Incubator program

W2 Youth Media Arts Lab apprenticeship program recruitment

Intro to our tv/radio programs

Youth program

Disability arts program

W2 Community Media Arts http://www.creativetechnology.org

To see 68 photos, please see our Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahamedia/sets/72157619314534906/

Hendrik Beune, Director of AHA MEDIA attended Pacificthorn Launch Party

June 4, 2009 ahamedia Leave a comment

Pacificthorn Launch Party 0

::Pacificthorn:: Spring/ Summer 09 street release – Fall/ Winter 09 preview

Following up our private launch event last week, the Pacificthorn showroom is now open and will be hosting a public reception and preview of our seasonally self titled fall line (the Fall) and street release of our spring line (ATLANTIS).

Pacificthorn Launch Party 60

The concept for our spring collection is informed by Christian Nicolay’s gallery exhibit of the same name, which provocatively questions the loss of personal freedoms and examines the potential fall of the American nation-state in the contemporary milieu.

Pacificthorn Launch Party 48

From its initial reception on Nov .08 at Winsor Gallery, the ATLANTIS exhibit has extended itself to a variety of expressions, each differing only slightly between venue, This June ATLANTIS finds itself uniting with its cross referenced clothing line.

Featured artist Christian Nicolay , extends himself, producing a third and final installation in conjunction with the Pacificthorn showroom tying the very conceptualization of the spring line together in cross reference to his gallery project.

-Neal Nolan

Pacificthorn.com

Spring/ Summer 09 street release – Fall/ Winter 09 preview::

Thursday, June 4,

7pm – 12am

110 E. Hastings at Columbia.

Please see artist’s statement (attached) in compendium to this event.

ATLANTIS.

Christian Nicolay.

2009

ATLANTIS is a protest of the erosion of the US Constitution, which was formed as a safeguard against tyranny by the Government.

ATLANTIS deconstructs American Flags and reconstructs them into art objects and not willingly destroyed or desecrated for that purpose.

ATLANTIS draws attention to the pitfalls of the globalization, the instability of the international markets and corrupt financial institutions.

ATLANTIS represents not only the fall of a great nation, but also the fall of basic rights and freedoms.

ATLANTIS combines ubiquitous and mundane materials such as ‘Made in China’ labels, plastic toys and USD One-Dollar Bills with the intensely symbolic American flag. The subsequent re-presentation is a timely commentary on national self-image and its inherent fragility.

ATLANTIS represents the global economic crisis we are currently in and “change” needed to stay afloat and navigate through troubled waters.

Not all is lost,

because hope floats.

the war on terror,

is the war on your freedom

fighting terrorism

by creating it

less they forget

we’ll remind.

c.nicolay 09

Online portfoilio

To see 95 photos, please see our flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahamedia/sets/72157619218649520/

Hendrik Beune, Director of AHA MEDIA attended the closing of the artshow by Daniel McRorie in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside ( DTES )

June 3, 2009 ahamedia Leave a comment

Hendrik Beune, Director of AHA MEDIA attended the closing of the artshow at Goonies at 108 East Hastings Street in Vancouver Downtown Eastside by Daniel McRorie.

McRorie folded 1000 cranes to try save his friend from cancer (the tradition was started by a young girl after the atom bomb attack on Hiroshima)

Daniel’s website is danielmcrorie.com

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AHA MEDIA at the scene of a “suicide” Jumper on top of new Lux Hotel on East Hastings between Columbia and Carrall St in Vancouver Downtown Eastside ( DTES )

June 1, 2009 ahamedia Leave a comment

There was high drama on the 100 block of E. Hastings St Sunday evening shortly before 8pm when a male perched himself atop the New Lux residence and threatened to jump.

A crowd had quickly gathered with several shouting at the individual to go ahead and jump.

Police responded promptly to string up yellow police line tape blocking off the whole block and moving the growing crowd of onlookers back far enough so as not to excite the individual. The man appeard to be agitated and would lean over the edge of the building every so often.

There was a tense moment as the police escorted an elderly Native gentleman who had found himself behind the police line. As he was being escorted he lost a shoe and one officer kicked it along on the ground which angered several in the crowd as they demanded that “an elder should be treated with more respect”.

Harsha Walia, a activist at the DEWC told the officer that this was not how an elder should be treated.

It was also noted by other DTES activists that there had been evictions at the New Lux and that this may be the reason for the actions of the man on the roof.

The New Lux is one of the new social housing buildings run by RainCity Housing and BC Housing that caters to the hard to house citizens of Vancouver and more specifically the Downtown Eastside (DTES).

At the time of this item going online (9:30pm) the man was still talking to police negotiaters and playing up to the large crowd of approximately 300 area residents.

How the man got onto the roof, why he took this action and what were the circumstances that led to this unfortunate incident are questions that will need to be answered in the following days.