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W2 Soul Gardens Mural – Cultural History of the Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
Soul Gardens is a W2 community public art project that investigates the cultural history of the Downtown Eastside as told through stories of food, gardening and community.
A collaboration between five muralists and five artist researchers, the project draw heavily on individual and shared narratives within founding DTES cultural groups including the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam Nations, and African, Chinese, Japanese and European settlers. In addition to a large public mural, Soul Gardens will create a dynamic online interface inviting individuals to share recipes, stories, photos and other information about how food has played a role in shaping their experience of Vancouver.
Muralists: Jordan Bent, Indigo, Scott Sueme, Melanie Shambach, Take5. Researchers: Wayde Compton, Lani Russwurm, Anne Marie Slater, Sid Tan and Cease Wyss. Project Coordinators: Irwin Oostindie, Lianne Payne.
Documentation by AHA MEDIA
Wayde Compton shares history of the African American community for W2 Soul Garden in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
Soul Gardens Public Art Project
Time: July 5, 2011 to September 21, 2011
Location: W2 Media Cafe, DTES locations
Event Type: project, exhibition, workshop
Organized By: W2 Woodwards
Event Description
Soul Gardens is a W2 community public art project that investigates the cultural history of the Downtown Eastside as told through stories of food, gardening and community.
A collaboration between five muralists and five artist researchers, the project draw heavily on individual and shared narratives within founding DTES cultural groups including the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam Nations, and African, Chinese, Japanese and European settlers. In addition to a large public mural, Soul Gardens will create a dynamic online interface inviting individuals to share recipes, stories, photos and other information about how food has played a role in shaping their experience of Vancouver.
Muralists: Jordan Bent, Indigo, Scott Sueme, Melanie Shambach, Take5. Researchers: Wayde Compton, Lani Russwurm, Anne Marie Slater, Sid Tan and Cease Wyss. Project Coordinators: Irwin Oostindie, Lianne Payne.
Look here for further event updates on the project as they are announced, including long table dinners, recipe card collections, and public talks and workshops on cultural heritage and community history.
With support from the City of Vancouver’s 125th Anniversary Grants Program and the participation of the Government of Canada. Artwork design: Jordan Bent.
Below are photos and videos of Wayde Compton sharing history of the African American community in the DTES from a writer and historian’s perspective.
AHA MEDIA filmed at W2 Comfort Soul Food Dinner with Anne Marie Slater in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
Comfort Soul Dinner
August 7
For residents of the Rice Block, ATIRA Housing, artist Anne Marie Slater brings together local women and children from low-income communities adjacent to the Soul Garden site to share their stories and recipes about comfort foods. The dinner will draw on the cultural and immigrant histories of the site by serving Sunday dinner dishes that celebrate the history of comfort foods through the European, Russian, Jewish, and Ukrainian community churches in the area, as well as participant’s favorite comfort Sunday dishes.
AHA MEDIA filmed at W2 Soul Gardens Long Table Pie Competition in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
Soul Gardens Pie Competition
Event Details
Time: August 6, 2011 from 4pm to 6pm
Location: W2 Media Cafe
Street: 111 W Hastings
City/Town: Vancouver, BC
Phone: 604-689-9896
Event Type: culinary, food, pie competition
Organized By: W2 Woodwards
Event Description
Soul Gardens Pie Competition
What’s Vancouver’s best pie? Taste the history of Vancouver through the unique ingredients we grow in our gardens and put in our fruity summery pies and savoury dinner pies. Welcoming artful culinary creations that qualify for the artistic category.
3 categories: Savoury, Sweet, Artistic
It is all going down in the Woodward’s Atrium, and to enter, it’s easy!
AHA MEDIA filmed at W2 Soul Gardens Long Table Japanese Dinner in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
Time: August 1, 2011 at 7pm to August 5, 2011 at 9pm
Location: W2 Media Cafe
Street: 111 W hastings
City/Town: Vancouver
Event Type: dinner
Organized By: W2 Woodwards
Event Description
W2 Media Cafe, 7pm daily
Founding DTES communities shared gardens, ingredients and stories, now taste the recipes and flavours from Vancouver’s early settlers on the Unceded Territories of the Squamish Nation, Tsleil-Waututh Nation and Musqeam Nation. Guests chef Mark Smith (Toronto) works with artists Cease Wyss, Indigo, Anne Marie Slater, Wayde Compton and Lani Russwurm to craft nightly menus centred around a single heritage.
Tickets $1–20 by donation/sliding scale.
European, Aug 1
Coast Salish, Aug 2
African, Aug 3
Chinese Aug 4
Japanese, Aug 5
Tickets available at: w2longtables.eventbrite.com/
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