Hapa-palooza Festival 2014

hapapalooza

HAPA-PALOOZA FESTIVAL
Canada’s Largest Celebration of Mixed Heritage & Hybrid Identity

A six-day festival featuring a vibrant fusion of music, art, storytelling, film, dance and community gatherings celebrating mixed heritage and hybrid identity.
September 23 to 28, 2014 – Vancouver, B.C.

Now in its fourth year, Hapa-palooza Festival is Canada’s largest festival celebrating and stimulating awareness of mixed heritage and hybrid identity. Held annually in Vancouver, a diverse city that celebrates hybridity, synergy and acceptance, Hapa-palooza Festival embraces the word ‘Hapa,’ of Hawaiian origins, as a broad term for people identifying as having mixed heritage. Hosted by the Hybrid Ancestry Public Arts (HAPA) Society, Hapa-palooza Festival features an unprecedented array of mixed-heritage artists in the mediums of film, music, visual and literary arts. In venues chosen for central and easy access by public transportation, Hapa-palooza welcomes all people to 7 FREE public events during its festival September 23 to 28, 2014.

This year, Hapa-palooza will honour three remarkable community leaders of mixed heritage by presenting the first ever Hapa-palooza Hip Hapa Hooray! awards reception. This year’s recipients include the Youth Achievement Award presented to Ann Makosinski (inventor of the hollow flashlight that runs on human heat and 2013 Google Science Fair winner), Community Builder Award presented to Kip Fulbeck (award-winning US artist, activist, actor and author) and the Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Fred Wah (Governor General’s Award Winner and Canada’s fifth Parliamentary Poet Laureate).  

The festival is honoured to be supported by the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Public Library, and Citizenship and Immigration Canada. As well as numerous community partners, including the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre, Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Beats without Borders and Eclipse Awards.

Hapa-Palooza_Logo_Banner


 HAPA-PALOOZA FESTIVAL FREE EVENTS


Hapa-palooza Pop Up & Art Exhibit 
September 23 to 28, 12pm-6pm
@thisopenspace, 230 East Pender

Visit the 2014 Hapa-palooza Festival Headquarters open noon to 6pm daily for the Hyphen Art Exhibit featuring four talented Hapa artists, including work from acclaimed photographer Hana Pesut and Vancouver artists Jana Sasaki, Nargis Dhirani and Sunkosi Maya. It is also a place to check out festival goodies, such as acclaimed artist and author Kip Fulbeck’s book Part Asian, 100% Hapa, festival merchandise and your very own Hip Hapa Hooray T-shirts. Come by on Sat. Sep. 27 at 1pm for an artist talk with participating artists.


Mixed Voices Raised
Wednesday September 24, 7:00pm-8:30pm 
Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch
Alice MacKay Room

An evening of stories from the heart: Join eight dynamic storytellers including CBC radio host Margaret Gallagher, Delhi2Dublin’s Tarun Nayar, poet Jonina Kirton, artist and facilitator Vanessa Richards, activist Kathryn Lennon, storyteller Aeryn Williams, Angela Kruger and more as they share true tales from the heart about their experiences growing up with mixed heritage. Curated by Ricepaper Magazine editor and festival co-founder Anna Ling Kaye. 


 Mixed Flicks
Thursday September 25, 7:00pm-8:30pm 
Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch, Alice MacKay Room

Hapa-palooza Festival brings back this much-loved event, curated by award-winning filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns. Acclaimed American artist, filmmaker and author Kip Fulbeck will present his 1991 landmark film on Hapa identity, Banana Split. Including an exclusive 12-minute sneak preview of Jeff’s upcoming feature length documentary Mixed Match. Following the screening, Jeff and Kip will engage in a passionate discussion about the importance of multiethnic media and the role it plays in stimulating dialogue and discussion in the mixed-race community. Audience Q&A and books/DVDs signing to follow.


Hapa-palooza Pop Up & Art Exhibit Party
Friday September 26, 7:00pm – 10pm 
@thisopenspace, 230 East Pender

Join us for a party at the 2014 Hapa-palooza Festival Headquarters to groove to hip Hapa DJ duo Spirit ANML, marvel at the Hyphen Art Exhibit, enjoy Hapa Tapas by Michael Tora Speier, meet Hapa-palooza organizers and check out festival swag. It’s like a full ‘Hapa’ goody bag.


Hip Hapa Hooray! Awards Reception
Saturday September 27, 4:00 – 7:00pm 
Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre 
6688 Southoaks Crescent

Hip Hapa Hooray! is the Hapa-palooza Awards Reception recognizing outstanding community members of mixed heritage. This year’s inaugural Hapa-palooza award recipients are Ann Makosinski (youth inventor of the hollow flashlight that runs on human heat and 2013 Google Science Fair winner), Kip Fulbeck (US award-winning artist, activist, actor and author) and Fred Wah (Governor General’s Award Winner and Canada’s fifth Parliamentary Poet Laureate). This event also marks the Nikkei National Museum’s opening for Kip Fulbeck’s “Part Asian – 100% HAPA” photography exhibit.


Hapa Family Day in the Park
Sunday September 28, 1pm – 4pm
Granville Island Picnic Pavilion
adjacent to Cat’s Social House and waterpark

Join the family fun! Jump in with family friendly yoga starting at 1pm, followed with music by soulful singer and song-writer Green Tara at 2pm, and closing with the dynamic dance and music of Compaigni V’ni Dansi’s Louis Riel Métis Dancers at 3pm. Throughout the event there will be fun family activities, including ultimate balloons by Michael Ouchi, face painting, a photo booth, and an interactive art project celebrating our heritage.  

 Cover-Montage-Sized-MOD

Dancing & A Movie
Sunday September 28, 4pm – 10pm
Academie Duello at 412 West Hastings Street
Come unwind after the festival with the Hapa-palooza crew at a free family-friendly dance and movie screening. The Vancouver Blues and Fusion Dancers and The Blues Cafe will be presenting a public dance with the city’s best blues & fusion dance DJs. The Vancouver Asian Film Festival and Hapa-palooza will be presenting a special film screening of Jeff Chiba Stearns’ feature documentary, One Big Hapa Family, starting at 8pm with director Q&A to follow.

For updated festival details, please visit www.hapapalooza.com


Hapa-palooza, a short history

What do you expect when you combine plum wine and haggis? Asian Canadian Writer’s Workshop Society (ACWW) board member Anna Ling Kaye was at fellow Board Member Todd Wong’s annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner. Mostly to try haggis siu mai and see Todd in a kilt. 

Little did she know, 2011’s banquet was Hapa-themed: “hapa” being the Hawaiian term for “half-Pacific Islander” but often referring to being of mixed-identity. Anna got talking with fellow-Hapa, film-maker Jeff Chiba Stearns, and mentioned she thought the time was ripe for a mixed-roots festival in town, this being Vancouver’s 125th anniversary and all. He agreed with great enthusiasm. 

Then Todd sent a follow-up e-mail the next night to the many Mixies who had been at the table, saying he’d had pretty much the same conversation that night with actor Patrick Gallagher. Anna said, let’s try for a 125th anniversary small-scale grant. 

The ACWW board got on board! Anna contacted experienced community coordinators like In The House Festival Director Myriam Steinberg for advice on how to coordinate a festival like this, and Jeff got the word out to his extensive Hapa-network. Small hitch: the application was due in a matter of days, and Anna was going to be in India for most of those days. So she dialed up her fabulous, Hapa, talented, festival promoter friend Zarah Martz. Who would have guessed: Zarah too thought the festival was a great idea to foster awareness and community for mixed heritage, and ALSO that it was realistic to get the application in. Despite the small hindrance of Anna being on the other side of the world, and Zarah being new mother to a two-month-old baby. 

All that was needed was a name. Many were tried, but they fit like a glass slipper on a step-sister. HybrIDentity. Mixed Fits. The Sir James Douglas Mix-A-Lot. Then CBC personality and hapa-papa Tetsuro Shigematsu suggested “Hapa-palooza.” It was a unanimous keeper. “Hapa,” which you already know means “Mixed” and “-palooza,” which universally connotes “awesome party!” The tagline “A Celebration of Mixed-Roots Arts and Ideas” was added. 

Between ACWW, Anna, Jeff, Zarah and the patient counsel of many generous and patient advisors and an active peanut gallery, the application for Hapa-palooza went in to the City of Vancouver on time. And the rest, as they say, is history.