By Howie Roman
Rick Bockner, Immanuel McKenty and I have spent a year and a half working on this. Rick and I spent 18 months looking at over 30 hours of Lip Sync that Immanuel digitalised for us. We selected 16 acts and 7 mc bits for a usb video of Highlights of Lip Sync. It was a constant reminder of how great the shows were and what a special thing they were. We did 23 shows in 11 years It provided an outlet for the island’s performers that is now missing.
Continue reading The Lip Sync Video
What does it mean to be a neighbour on Cortes Island? This question is at the heart of the new Cortes Island Museum exhibition ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbour?’ curated by Melanie Boyle, Managing Director of the museum and Monica Hoffman. Opening Sunday May 4th the exhibit invites visitors on a visual and narrative journey through both the historical and contemporary communities that shaped life on the island.
“The idea of focusing on neighbourhoods came from the prior exhibition, ‘From the Ground Up,” explained Hoffman.
Boyle added, “We did touch on how people work together to build structures, in terms of collaboration. It was also about repurposing material and sharing of resources and, in a way, this is also what this new exhibition is about. Collective land arrangements are a way for people to live affordably on Cortes, to share the land, but also to share the material, resources and work collaboratively. So there’s a lot of overlap.”
Continue reading At The Museum: ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbour’ Exhibit Explores Community Life In Cortes IslandJennifer Pickford will be showing her documentary ECO Warriors at Mansons Hall on Tuesday April 22.
“This film is telling the story of several environmental activists who have faced imprisonment for their actions, as well as the actual and real threat of being labeled terrorists for protecting the land and the forest that they love,” she explained.
“Eco Warriors is about 12 years old. It’s one of my earlier works, but following on the footsteps of last year’s Earth Day screening of ‘Sacred India, A Plastic Revolution,’ I wanted to show another film because I felt that not only is it still a relevant topic, but also it’s just nice to have that continuity of having an Earth Day screening here on Cortes Island.”
Continue reading “Eco Warriors” — A Story of Resistance and ReverenceThe Blue Hat Memorial Project opens at 10 AM this morning, Tuesday, April 14, 2025. Campbell River artist and city councillor Ron Kerr has installed 50,000 flags at Tyee Spit (ʔUxstalis), representing the number of people who have lost their lives through Canada’s ongoing opioid crisis.
“What I really want to do is to stimulate conversation about the gaps in men and boy’s healthcare. These deaths are generally fentanyl drug deaths. If you look at the other results of addiction, alcohol addiction, and other kinds of addiction, the numbers are far higher. I don’t think the men’s health system is doing an adequate job of addressing that,” he explained.”
Continue reading Blue Hat Memorial Project: 50,000 Flags on Tyee SpitMichael Keith and his wife Iris Gildea are leaving Cortes Island.
“This was a decision we made a while ago. My wife teaches at the University of Toronto. It’s quite the communte between semesters and we started investigating the possibility of libving somewhere a bit closer to her work. We found the ideal situation in the Maritimes. The commute is about a fraction of the time and we can get the place that really suited us. So we made that decision. It was tough, but it’s time for the next part of the journey,” he explained.
Continue reading Michael Keith & Iris Gildea: Leaving Cortes Island
