May 4, 2023 edition - The Golden Plates Awards winners are...

TOGETHER WITH

Forty-eight pages.

That’s how big this month’s newspaper is. Forty-eight pages filled with the arts, music, culture, and news that you’ve come to expect from our monthly dispatch–about 16 pages more than what usually occupies our fleet of black newspaper boxes.

The reason? Well, within those (48!) pages you’ll find the results of the 26th annual Golden Plates Awards, as nominated and chosen by you fine folks. Thanks for that audience participation, by the way.

You’ll also find an extensive guide to this year’s DOXA Documentary Film Festival, including an interview with Karen Cho, the director of Big Fight in Little Chinatown, alongside a number of film reviews.

And sure, you’ll also be able to find quite a bit of that content by scrolling further down, but there’s just something special about holding a newspaper in your hands.

Or at least we’d like to think so.

You might've missed:

• Fleurs de Villes bring their blooming VOYAGE exhibition to VanDusen Botanical Garden

• You Nearly Missed: Wednesday at the Fox Cabaret

  Dust off your dancing shoes and celebrate the return of the Gastown Shuffle

• Arrieta Art Studio offers paint nights, linocut, needle felting, and more. All ages and abilities welcome! Apply gs25 at checkout to receive 25% off all regular workshops. Register for workshops now.*

• Please! Beverage Co. moves beyond bottled cocktails as it opens a Mount Pleasant tasting room

• Cloverdale Rodeo & Country Fair thrilled to be back for 2023 as it celebrates its 75-year-anniversary. From bronc riding to Longhorn Saloon wrestling to the animals at Farm Friendz, there's something for everyone.*

*Sponsored Listing

FEATURE

The 26th annual Golden Plates Awards winners

The nominations were made. The votes have been cast. The winners have been chosen.

We’re proud to announce the results of the 26th annual Golden Plates Awards, and we’re so thankful to our readers for nominating and voting for some of their favourite spots for food and drink throughout Vancouver.

We’ll be posting feature stories on a few of the winners over the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for that, but for now, here’s the official list of 2023 winners.

Open an M&M Food Market Franchise in Vancouver

M&M Food Market is undertaking an aggressive coast-to-coast expansion, wanting you to grow alongside with them!

M&M Food Market is seeking passionate franchise partners to introduce the brand into new markets and local communities across the country.

For a limited time only, eligible franchise partners will receive up to 50 percent of the cost of construction for their new store, reducing the upfront investment and capital required to get started.

Whether you’re a local entrepreneur looking to own your own business, a professional ready to switch careers, or an investor seeking to diversify your portfolio, don’t miss this unique opportunity.

Contact Liz Riley at [email protected] or 905-814-2420 to inquire further about the opportunity of owning an M&M Food Market store in Vancouver.

NEWS

“No one had anywhere to go”: After the Hastings decampments

As grey clouds blanketed the sky on April 5, city workers and police methodically swept down Hastings Street, confiscating tents, survival gear, and personal belongings.

The street sweeps, ostensibly prompted by a July 2022 statement from Vancouver fire Chief Karen Fry that encampments posed a fire risk, led to unhoused residents being evicted from their homes. At the time, Mayor Ken Sim told Global News, “We’re not trying to solve homelessness here… Every person that has asked for housing since we remove[d] the encampments has received it.”

But that is not true, according to sources who spoke to the Straight. Dozens of people were evicted with no shelter spaces, no temporary housing, and nowhere to go.

ARTS

Big Fight in Little Chinatown is a story of resistance, resilience, and hope

Karen Cho was in New York City for a conference to discuss what can be done about the gentrification, displacement, and erasure of Chinatowns across the continent. She was there to represent Montreal’s Chinese community, but also for a documentary she had in the works.

The date? March 2020.

“Three days after I got back from this gathering, they shut down New York for COVID,” Cho says in a phone interview with the Straight. She had already been doing research for what would eventually become Big Fight in Little Chinatown, but little did the director know at the time that the pandemic—and the violent uptick in anti-Asian hate that would be borne from it—would become such a prominent feature in the story she was about to tell.

Find the full story on Big Fight in Little Chinatown here, and the rest of our DOXA coverage here.

Featured arts listings

• The Dance Centre and SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs present FakeKnot’s PIÑA, inspired by the Filipino diaspora experience. May 4-6, SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. Tickets here.*

• Carousel Theatre for Young People presents Alphonse, on now until May 7. An “unmissable” tour-de-force solo play. One actor, more than 20 characters, a “celebration of the imagination”.*

• Discover a world of art. Art Vancouver May 4-7, 2023. Connect with exhibitors showcasing art from across the world. Vancouver Convention Centre West.*

• Margaret Atwood in Conversation with Ian Williams: The legendary Margaret Atwood joins author Ian Williams to discuss Old Babes in the Wood, her extraordinary new collection of short fiction. | May 7 | $35 | Chan Centre for the Performing Arts

• Shalem's Fair: As a “touching comedy” that offers pause for thought about death, dementia, and our true heroes of yesteryear, “Shalem’s Fair” is a real place especially in the minds of those who believe in the miraculous. | To May 20 | Up to $25 | Jericho Arts Centre

• Our True Nature: White Rock Gallery Artists, Allan Hancock, Janice Robertson, Laura Harris, and Nikol Haskova, each convey their interpretation of our intrinsic human connection with nature through the medium of paint. | To May 25 | Free | White Rock Gallery

*Sponsored Listing

SPONSORED BY CHOR LEONI

Experience the magic, power, and beauty of choral music as more than 200 voices soar through the air at Chor Leoni's VanMan Summit Concert on May 13 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.

Tickets and more information at ChorLeoni.org.

MUSIC

Amanda Sum celebrates the beauty of gentle awkwardness

Amanda Sum had been contemplating the ways in which she exists in the world. What does it mean to be a woman? To be young? To be a person of colour? And how do all those things feed into her day-to-day life?

Her thoughts materialized onto “New Age Attitudes,” the title track of her 2022 debut album. It was the first song she wrote for it. Softly, Sum sings: “Who’s it gonna be?/Who you gonna choose?/One to let you win/One to make you lose everything that ever meant anything to you.”

Find Yasmine Shemesh’s interview with Sum here.

Featured music events

• Dean Lewis: Singer-songwriter Dean Lewis is at the Vogue Theatre next week with support from Jessia. | 7pm | May 11 | $40 | Vogue Theatre

• Matchbox Twenty: the American pop-rock quartet featuring frontman Rob Thomas will be performing at Rogers Arena, with guests the Wallflowers. | 7:30pm | May 16 | From $60 | Rogers Arena

• Cheekface: The American indie rock band based in Los Angeles, California will be at the Cobalt alongside Suzie True and Nightjars. | 7pm | May 17 | $17.50 | The Cobalt

• Into the Little Hill: A Canadian premiere, this contemporary, multi-disciplinary production seamlessly fuses the “ravishing, shimmering beauty” of UK composer George Benjamin’s chamber opera with Idan Cohen’s direction and choreography.*

• Grammy Award winner Ray LaMontagne embarks on his "Just Passing Through" tour this fall. The run will include a fan requested set list from his catalog voted through RayLamontagne.com/Tour.*

*Sponsored Listing

SPONSORED BY TOURISM WHISTLER

Wake up from winter.

It’s time to get out and play in Whistler this spring. Where else can you ski, bike, and golf all in the same day? It’s the perfect time of year to maximize your stay.

THE REST

Chris Walter: Originally an empowering tool to open doors, booze eventually became so much more

“I never thought of myself as an alcoholic, even when my addiction to street drugs began to rage out of control. I was no hopeless wino pissing himself under a bridge in the wrong part of town, and so what if the cooking wine and the mouthwash wasn’t safe when I ran out of whisky?”

Chris Walter on his past two months of sobriety, and the roles that alcohol played in his life up to that point.

The Rest of the events

• May the Fourth Be With You: Pop over to the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre this May 4 to celebrate all things Star Wars. | May 4 | $20 | H.R. MacMillan Space Centre

• Got Craft Spring Market: Shop local this spring at one of BC’s largest curated markets of makers, designers, and small shops. | May 6 to 7 | $5 | Croatian Cultural Centre

• Late Nite Karaoke: Head out to Hero’s Welcome on Main Street every Wednesday evening to take to the stage for some late night karaoke. | May 10 | Free | Hero’s Welcome

• Step into a world of creativity and inspiration at The Show, Emily Carr’s annual exhibition of our graduating students’ work. Featuring over 350 works, visit the exhibition in-person from May 11-25. Learn more here.*

• Arts in the Garden: All-ages outdoor community event celebrating nature and the arts in 13 garden spaces across the North Shore! May 27-28.*

*Sponsored Listing