I need to work on ruthless, but in the meantime artless will have to do.

If you’re in the UBC vicinity tomorrow evening, I’m reading and speaking as part of a series put on by Patricia Robertson, the writer-in-residence at Green College. The series is called “Is Fiction an Endangered Species?” I feel very honoured to be sitting on a panel called Words Tamed and Untamed: When We Were Stories” with Robert Bringhurst and Linda Harvey. We’ll be talking about traditional storytelling and the role of fiction in contemporary culture. It runs from 8 – 9:30 pm at the Green College Coach House on the UBC campus.

If out and proud is more your style, come to Little Sister’s this Thursday. I’m reading with Nairne Holtz, one of the editors of No Margins, and the illustrious Marion Douglas, who was the very first person I ever went on tour with.

Little Pear Garden has just put out a trailer for the Salt Fish Girl theatre piece. I’m really excited about it! Check out their website:

http://www.saltfishgirlshow.com/Salt_Fish_Girl_Home.html

If I can get away from work, I’ll check these events out:

No One Is Illegal and neworldtheatre present…

Storytelling Our Lives:
Stories of Migration and Displacement

Featuring: Sindy Angel, Adriana Contreras, Gurpreet Kambo, Amal Rana,
Ghassan Shanti and Carly Teng

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Doors at 2 PM
2:30pm – 3:30pm sharp
Chapel Arts
304 Dunlevy Avenue (corner East Cordova, 2 blocks East of Main)

Monday, September 29, 2008
Doors at 7:30
8 – 9 pm sharp
Room 1800, SFU Harbour Centre
515 W Hastings

[ These are all free events. Donations will be thankfully accepted ]

‘Storytelling Our Lives’ is an exciting new theatre production that
involves young people of colour sharing their personal stories of
immigration and displacement in a series of deeply moving and courageous
testimonies.

These performances are a culmination of a series of workshops as part of a
collaboration by No One is Illegal and neworldtheatre. The project and
performances hope to jointly contribute to bridging the gap between art
and activism by bringing into focus the individual faces and unique
stories of those who have gone through the migration process. This project
also draws upon the deeply rooted and central role of culture, creative
expression, and storytelling as key components of resistance movements by
providing a connection between personal narratives and global
understandings.

Eleanor Ty and Chrystl Verdun’s Asian Canadian Writing Beyond Autoethnography is out! There are pieces by Smaro Kamboureli, Paul Lai, Kristina Kyser, Pilar Cuder-Dominguez, Joanne Saul, Christine Kim, Ming Tiampo, Tara Lee, Eva Karpinski, Mariam Pirbhai, Christine Lorre writing on the work of Shani Mootoo, Fred Wah, Hiromi Goto, Suniti Namjoshi, Ying Chen, Ken Lum, Paul Wong, and Laiwan. If you are at all interested, I also have a piece in it, thinking about the problem of how the racialized subject can write her or himself, and what kinds of public selves get produced in this apparently self-liberating act.

Back in town. Went to see The Tempest at Bard on the Beach last night, in preparation for teaching it later this term. Enjoyable and fraught. Or enjoyable because fraught? Race issues neatly skirted through calculated casting. I’ve been watching the remakes and retakes too– a hilarious version from the 80s featuring John Cassavetes and Molly Ringwald and of course, Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books. Derek Jarman made one too, which perhaps I’ll watch later tonight.

Working with the Play Chthonics committee to get the new season lined up.

Don’t forget to attend the 20th anniversary JC Redress conference if you’re in town.