Getting Hooked on Community Art and Media
Engaging youth and elders through Our Community Story in Hastings Sunrise
Interviews by Fiona Lemon and Juan Solorzano
Story by Fiona Lemon, Get Out! Mentor
The afternoon sky is a drab grey and it feels like we probably won’t escape the rain. We decide to stuff our rain gear into the bike panniers as we head down to our destination: a neighbourhood we’ve passed through often enough to think we know it.
As we coast downhill, away from the trendy cafés and boutique stores of Main Street, past the rush-hour traffic at Broadway and Knight, and winding through the grid of residential streets lined with Vancouver Specials, we come closer to this neighbourhood whose story we just might not know so well after all.
Where does Hastings Sunrise begin anyway? Crossing a city grid-line at Nanaimo or Boundary? At the watermark staining the wharf down by the waterfront? Or at the first tailor shop the oldest residents remember? As we walk into Sorrento Barbers at Hastings and Nanaimo, we meet the group of youth who’ve brought together a set of stories that trace the hazy, overlapping borders that define a community.
The youth from Our Community Story (OCS) have gathered with friends, family, mentors and many residents of Hastings/Sunrise to come spilling out the doors of the already packed barbershop. Necks crane to find a view of “Four on Hastings”, a video documentary about four of the oldest businesses in the community. It is one of the first showings at the OCS opening, and the youth artists are joking with the storytellers as their interviews come onscreen.
OCS is a youth-driven community art project and oral history process. Over the summer of 2005, 14 youth interns and 6 mentors worked together to create 3 projects exploring the living social history of Hastings/Sunrise, one of the city’s earliest established neighbourhoods: “Four on Hastings”, “Stories of the Waterfront”, and “Sights and Sounds of Hastings Park”.
The youth interviewed long-time residents, mostly from their grandparents’ generation, about the stories of their lives and community, and presented these stories using digital media ranging from stop-motion animation to soundscapes.
None of the members of OCS are quite sure when it all began. Instead, they talk about it slowly taking shape—first as founders and community artists Maya Ersan and Jaimie Robson gathered their ideas from casual, meandering conversations with long-time residents at local diners and pubs. Next, as ideas coalesced into funding, and other young artists joined as mentors. Then, as the word spread and more youth came to check out what exactly spending summer holidays animating a longshoreman’s memories of packing hide or editing oral history interview tapes from Hastings Park might be like.
Maya’s back porch is the gathering place for our chance to meet the youth from OCS. The chairs crowded together around a table arranged with a Turkish tea set are starting to fill up. The tea, various snacks and the youth from OCS circulate between the kitchen and the porch steps. We eventually settle down to talk in-depth with three youth interns, Wendy Chen, Darnel Colby and Bruce McDonald, and coordinators and mentoring artists Maya and Jaimie.
“My family has been connected to the neighbourhood for generations,” Wendy remembers. “My grandma owned the Lotus Garden restaurant, which is remembered as an important historic landmark. It was a gathering place for writers too.” But she goes on to explain that like a lot of people her age, she didn’t really know much about the history of her community. “There aren’t that many opportunities to get involved something like this.”
When she heard about the project, it had already started, but she was very persistent because it was different and seemed like a unique opportunity to get training and to be part of an art project. “I don’t think I’m an artist, but I’m I love with art.” Wendy worked with the “Four on Hastings” group. They brainstormed the idea for the project together, whittling down “The Seven Wonders of Hastings” to “Four on Hastings”, by choosing the most diverse and oldest businesses.
“We went all around the neighbourhood. It’s interesting to learn about the changes in the neighbourhood. A few generations ago, it was more than eighty percent European immigrants. All the businesses we talked to were family-run, with dedication and loyalty. Now the jobs for young people are really different. I remember funny stories too, like the one we heard about parents calling to make sure their son’s haircuts were properly short!”
Wendy’s plans don’t stop with OCS. She is already thinking of her next project: “I’d love to do one for Chinatown; I’d definitely like to do more stories around other areas. This has been really fulfilling. I got a sense of this neighbourhood. I felt lucky to have a glimpse of the living history that’s here.”
Darnel remembers that when he first heard about OCS, he wasn’t that interested. He didn’t know much about Hastings, and didn’t think he’d be into it.
“But then my mom told me to get a job, so I chose OCS”.
He says now that it is one of the most interesting and important things he’s ever done. He discovered much more about the community, and learned new skills in digital arts and planning that he thinks will be helpful in the future.
He points out that one of the successes of the project was the honorarium offered to the youth participants. “It made the work feel more important. I’d never thought of doing something creative like this as a job.” Maya agrees: “I think the project shows the power and the possibilities of creating employment for yourself and for others in the arts.”
Darnel worked on the “Stories of the Waterfront” animation. As he talks about his work recording, animating and editing, it’s obvious that he has put so much creativity and hard work into the project.
He has an impressive memory for the details of the oral histories he’s witnessed, telling us about tales of drug busts and a crocodile pulled out of the water. He also remembers the “cool stories of everyday life in the houses by the ocean— pulling all the fish out for dinner in 20 minutes.”
He jokes, “interviewing was easy because older people like to talk, so the second question we asked was half an hour after the first one.” When we ask about his future plans, he says he’s definitely thinking about going into the arts, especially using cameras and computers.
Bruce tells us that the project helped him get through a tough time. When he was hit by a car, OCS was “the only project that kept me going.” Working on “Sights and Sounds of Hasting’s Park”, gave him a chance to improve his skills in audio editing, and area he was already interested in. “I really like editing; the possibilities are fun to play around with.” Bruce also had the chance to travel all around the Hastings Park area interviewing people with long-time knowledge of the area’s history.
“Oh yeah,” he laughs, “now I know more than my parents about the neighbourhood!” Bruce thinks that being part of OCS had an important impact on him. He’s told friends about the project, and has plans to continue working on his editing skills: “I’d like to do more in editing. Now that I know how, I’d like to do a snowboarding video with my friends.”
Meeting the youth from OCS, and having the chance to share their achievement, together with family, friends and mentors at the opening event showed us how significant and long-term the impact of a participatory, youth-driven project can be.
Maya believes that the impact of community arts and cultural initiatives is unique: “Art is something people interact with and can feel truly part of. Creative processes like OCS should be seen as very important both socially and economically, because they not only generate experience and jobs for youth, but they also listen to and fulfill all members of the community, such as older people.”
OCS truly opened up a space for youth to challenge themselves and to engage with their community, and in turn, the youth showed that they were up to that challenge, and more. Projects like OCS are ultimately about building spaces for youth where they alone can take ownership, with all the risks and triumphs that come with it.
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