DANIEL COLEMAN BOOK LAUNCH: “Grandfather of the Treaties: Finding Our Future Through the Wampum Covenant“
WEDNESDAY, 21 MAY 2025 | DOORS at 18:30, WORDS at 19:00
This is a FREE EVENT
Daniel Coleman celebrates the launch of his new book and will share his research on the original wampum agreements between First Peoples and the early settlers. These covenants bound nations together in mutual regard and friendship. They consisted of a promise to respect one another’s different cultures, values, traditions and ways of life, and to live peaceably together. In recalling the wampum covenants, we are presented with an opportunity to renew our original promises between settlers and First Peoples, and to consider their applicability to how we relate to the diverse peoples and beings who make up the Earth.
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HEARTWOOD: THE WELL TREE
SATURDAY, 24 MAY 2025 | DOORS at 18:30, PERFORMANCE at 19:00
This is a TICKETED EVENT
Join folk trio Heartwood – Heidi Wilson, Willy Clemetson, and Sarina Partridge – for an all-ages, immersive, participatory journey through song and story. The Well Tree is a three-person musical, accompanied by a ‘crankie’ – an illuminated, papercut, hand-cranked scroll, created by papercut artist Jen Jones. It is an original ‘singing story’ about wild journeying, remembering kinship, and finding one’s way home in unraveling times.
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FRASER UNION + MOHAMED ASSANI: Benefit Concert for Sahar Ahmadi
SUNDAY, 25 MAY 2025 | DOORS at 14:00, PERFORMANCE at 14:30
This is a GIFT ECONOMY EVENT
Fraser Union is a mainstay of the Vancouver folk music scene. Barry Truter, Kathy Griffin, and Roger Holdstock are also paragons of generosity and compassion. Please join them, along with special guest sitarist Mohamed Assani at this concert to benefit Ms. Sahar Ahmadi, an unaccompanied Afghan minor who is immigrating to Canada. All proceeds will go to a trust fund in Sahar’s name, managed by the Vancouver Unitarian Refugee Committee.
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DROWNING THE MICE
THURSDAY, 29 MAY 2025 | DOORS at 19:30, PERFORMANCE at 20:00
This is a FREE EVENT
This is a wonderful opportunity to see theatre in the making, a solo show that is both in the process of finding its shape and, we suspect, already beautifully drawn from Avi Dolgin’s substantial body of thinking and writing. Avi’s contemplations tend toward theology, politics, and his own mistaken choices — he has written two contemporary monologues based on biblical characters — and he might be described as a “theatrical midrashist”, exuding Talmudic, exegetical good humour and lessons learned from the trial-and-error of life. He is offering this performance as a free event; but he will ask the audience for thoughtful criticism he can use to polish “Drowning the Mice” into its final form.
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VICO PRESENTS ERICA ROOZENDAAL
THURSDAY, 5 JUNE 2025 | DOORS at 18:30, Music at 19:00
This is a GIFT ECONOMY EVENT
The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO) is proud to present the international accordionist Erica Roozendaal in this solo recital showcasing her versatility as a musical storyteller, passionate about creating new timbres, images and stories. Erica will perform an exciting and diverse programme of contemporary classical and early music, including the Canadian premiere of Kat en Muis by BC composer Sylvia Rickard, De Profundis by Sofia Gubaidulina, and compositions of her own, all intertwined with The Well Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach.
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CELSO MACHADO, SARA MAGAL & FRIENDS
SUNDAY, 8 JUNE 2025 | DOORS at 15:00, Music at 16:00
This is a TICKETED event
Celso Machado, Sara Magal, Liam MacDonald, and Steve Charles write songs and conjure powerful rhythms rooted in Brazilian traditions. They hit you in the heart and move your feet. This music feels like summer: soulful, joyful, and full of life. And the Boteco Brasil food truck will be parked just outside Notional Space with amazing eats.
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A DAY IN THE PETRICHOR: ZMI AND TOHRU FUJIMURA
SUNDAY, 6 JULY 2025 | DOORS at 19:30, Music at 20:00
This is a gift economy event
Petrichor is more than a musical ensemble — here represented by pianist and composer zmi and and multi-instrumentalist and composer Tohru Fujimura — it is a theory of performance that distills the essence of our encounters with nature and small, everyday pleasures. Zmi’s boundless exuberance and delicate expressiveness is well known to Notional Space audiences, following her sold-out performance here last year. Her exquisite sensitivity is perfectly complimented by Tohru’s ability to convey the natural world in sound, not simply through mimircy, but through a deeply impressionistic musical intuition. While the ensemble’s third member, Saiko Shiiki, is unable to make the journey from Japan on this visit, her painting provides a vivid backdrop to the soundscape.
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AL QAHWA
WEDNESDAY, 23 JULY 2025 | DOORS at 19:30, Music at 20:00
This is a gift economy event
Al Qahwa will guide you on a musical journey you may not take frequently, bridging Middle Eastern cultures and hearts. Led by Maryem Tollar on vocals, qanun (Arabic table harp), and riqq (Arabic frame drum), the band features Ernie Tollar on wind instruments, Naghmeh Farahmand on percussion, and Waleed Abdulhamid on bass, vocals, and percussion. “Al Qahwa” is Arabic for “The Coffee House”, inspired by cafe culture in the Middle East, where people go to hear the latest news, music, poetry and stories. Their repertoire includes both traditional songs from Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Sudan, as well as compositions by members of the band.
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