BPAC Celebrates 2nd Annual Cultural Diversity Festival September 28 & 29, 2019 as an Ontario Culture Days ‘Feature Hub’!

The Burlington Performing Arts Centre (‘BPAC’) is proud to have been invited by Ontario Culture Days to be a Feature Hub of Culture Days 2019 following up last year’s Ontario Culture Days ‘Best Hub’ award. Ontario Culture Days has commissioned Dave Dyment to guest-curate a special exhibition that will occur in multiple locations across the province, including BPAC. The exhibition will highlight fun, engaging works that look at the question of public agency. Dyment is a well-known Nuit Blanche curator, admired for his exhibitions across the country which have both captured the public imagination and contributed to contemporary art discourse. The special exhibition at BPAC is Mammalian Diving Reflex: Haircuts by Children, presented in partnership with Ontario Culture Days and Bruno’s Schools of Hair Designs (Sept 28 & Sept 29 from 12pm to 4pm in the Community Studio Theatre). Kids are given the tools to become working hairdressers and the public is invited to have their hair cut, by nine and ten-year olds. It’s a simple premise, with deep implications. The free event—which the Calgary Herald called “Part performance art, part public service, part therapy”—tests our trust in the next generation and measures how far we’re willing to go to empower youth. Will we let them shape our hairstyles?

Anchoring the Cultural Diversity Festival are exciting musical concerts from Hamilton-native Tom Wilson on Saturday, September 28 and Sultans of String on Sunday, September 29 on the BPAC Main Stage. Tom Wilson joins a 9-piece chamber orchestra for a unique multidisciplinary literary and musical event in Tom Wilson: Beautiful Scars. A Symphonic Literary Recital. Audiences will be transported to the pages of his bestselling memoir Beautiful Scars as he uses words and music to illustrate the surprising discovery of his Mohawk heritage. It’s a musical journey inspired by a family history of carefully guarded secrets and profound acts of forgiveness that will allow audiences to reflect on their own identity and family struggles.

The audience will take a musical ‘round the word’ journey as BILLBOARD-charting Sultans of String, featuring Burlington’s own Chris McKhool, travel the globe through song with the newly named Burlington Symphony Orchestra (formally Symphony on the Bay) and special guests Anwar Khurshid on sitar and Indigenous elder Shannon Thunderbird on vocals in ‘A World of Music’.

Tammy Fox, BPAC’s Executive Director, has programmed a robust schedule of free music, dance and speaking engagement events throughout the weekend that will make the BPAC Feature Hub a hot spot of activity fitting for the City of Burlington which was just named best community in Canada by Maclean’s Magazine.

Tales & Dances Around the Baobab, written and performed by Lua Shayenne (Sept 28 & 29 at 12pm on the BPAC Plaza) is a free, interactive family performance that takes audience members on an African folk-tale journey that includes call and response, African dance, song, and live drumming.

Shreya Bollywood Dance (Sept 28 at 1pm on the BPAC Plaza) returns with free performances and interactive demonstrations.

Amai Kuda et Les Bois (Sept 28 at 2pm on the BPAC Plaza) challenges the issues of oppression and the degradation of the planet through an eclectic mélange of roots, blues, R&B, Motown continental African and electronic music. The artists invite the audience to dance and manage to create a truly uplifting experience that is not easily forgotten.

The PepTides (Sept 28 at 4pm on the BPAC Plaza) are snapshot of Canadian diversity. An eclectic community of musicians with a rainbow of identities: girls and guys, gay and straight, English and French, black and white and in between, Ukrainian, Mexican, Guyanese, Cree, Acadian, Armenian and Scottish will leave the audience enthralled by their pop aesthetic.

After gathering with the community at last years Cultural Diversity Festival, Dr. Terri-Lynn Brennan returns with a conversation on a map of Turtle Island to learn more about the Indigenous history of the region and the joint responsibility of returning Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations to the original intentions of the Two Row Wampum and the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Covenants. Join A Conversation with Dr. Terri-Lynn Brennan on the Land and Waters We Share (Sept 28 at 6pm in the Community Studio Theatre).

Osob Adus is a well-known local female advocate and the Founder of Bridgepoint Development Inc., a professional firm dedicated to diversity integration and inclusivity training for the Canadian workforce. The community is invited to join an interactive session with Osob where you can broaden your understanding of the Muslim faith, cultural differences and a general understanding of the ordinary community perspective. Osob Adus: Unity in Diversity – The Common Culture (Sept 29 at 2pm in the BPAC Family Lobby).

Halton Dance Network presents: heartBEATZ 2019 (Sept 29 at 3pm on the BPAC Plaza) a transformative event that embodies HDN’s mandate to build community in and through dance. heartBEATZ will conclude with a community dance experience involving all the dancers and the audience. This interactive workshop will be facilitated by Alan Faigal.

Visit burlingtonpac.ca/culture for up to date listings of workshops, lectures, and performances.

The Burlington Performing Arts Centre’s Cultural Diversity Festival is supported by City of Burlington’s Cultural Diversity Initiative. Tom Wilson: Beautiful Scars A Symphonic Literary Recital is sponsored by Keller Williams Edge Hearth and Home Realty, and Sultans of String with Burlington Symphony Orchestra: A World of Music is sponsored by Burlington Royal Arts Academy.

Add to listings immediately:

BPAC Presents
Cultural Diversity Festival
September 28 & 29, 2019

Mammalian Diving Reflex: Haircuts By Children
Free event. September 28 & 29 from 12pm to 4pm in the Community Studio

Tales and Dances Around the Baobab by Lua Shayenne
Free event. September 28 & 29 at 12pm on the BPAC Plaza

Shreya Bollywood Dance
Free event. September 28 at 1pm in the BPAC Family Lobby

Amai Kuda et Les Bois
Free event. September 28 at 2pm on the BPAC Plaza

The PepTides
Free event. September 28 at 4pm on the BPAC Plaza

A Conversation with Dr. Terri-Lynn Brennan on the Land and Waters We Share
Free event. September 28 at 6pm in the Community Studio Theatre

Tom Wilson: Beautiful Scars. A Symphonic Literary Recital
Regular $39.50 (All in), Member $34.50 (All in), VIP: $60.50 (All-in), VIP (Member): $55.50 (All-in)
September 28 at 8pm in the Main Theatre

Osob Adus: Unity in Diversity – The Common Culture
Free event. September 29 at 2pm in the BPAC Family Lobby

Halton Dance Network presents: heartBEATZ 2019
Free event. September 29 at 3pm on the BPAC Plaza

Sultans of String with Burlington Symphony Orchestra: A World of Music
Regular: $39.50 (All in), Members: $34.50 (All in)
September 29 at 4pm in the Main Theatre

The Burlington Performing Arts Centre
440 Locust Street, Burlington, ON, L7S 1T7

Box Office Information:
Online: burlingtonpac.ca
Over the Phone: 905.681.6000
In Person: Monday – Saturday, 12:00pm -4:00pm, or 1 hour before the show

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