Stories of Rising Waters
Michael Gurney, Bella Casey, Tara Blasco and Wanda Nowicki
September 27, 6pm – 8pm
Sunshine Coast Arts Centre
Join us for a gathering of storytellers, sharing their yarning with water. From poetry and storytelling, to spoken work and play reading, each weaves joy, hope, anger, distress and possibility, inviting us to be with the complex emotions of climate grief and loss.
Michael Gurney is dedicated to creativity, historical inquiry and community enrichment. For him, a speaker ignites the minds of his audience. Knowledge of the past illuminates present events. Curiosity and opportunity graze like flint and iron, sparking innovation. Michael embraces projects that unite people in a superlative purpose whose subtle ends are improvement, intelligence and inspiration. He is also the Arts and Culture correspondent for the Coast Reporter newspaper. He is a lifelong believer in volunteerism and mentorship, as well as the transformative power of the arts. He is an enthusiastic contributor to local initiatives involving visual arts, dance, music and theatre. Michael promotes powerful communication through Toastmasters International, the public speaking organization in which he currently serves British Columbia and the Yukon as a district leader.
Bella Casey is a writer and cedar weaver from the Sunshine Coast. She is inspired by her culture, her mixed heritage and the land.
Tara Blasco is an theatre arts teacher, a multi-hyphenate performer, burgeoning spoken word artist and new writer. At last years’ festival she performed in two climate change themed plays by acclaimed playwrights Elaine Avila and Jordan Hall. This past spring Tara was one of 10 local artists participating in the Sechelt Arts Council ‘Field School’ in conjunction with Emily Carr University and the Sunshine Coast Regional District in an interdisciplinary project exploring themes of climate change grief and more specifically, the crisis of our warming oceans and subsequent rising sea levels. Out of this collective inquiry (Rising Waters) Tara processed her learning and personal longing through an expression of poetic imagery best suited to forms of oral story telling and sharing.
Wanda Nowicki is originally from Vancouver Ms. Nowicki and started her music career in Los Angeles bar bands, jazz bands, and having the great pleasure of sitting in with Richard Berry and Big Jay McNeely. Retuning to Vancouver in 2004 she has played on a variety of stages including Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Pender Harbour Jazz Festival, Gibsons Jazz Fest, and Chemainus Jazz fest . Her trio is featured regularly at the Sylvia Hotel lounge .