You’re Invited to Hapa-palooza 2017!
Hapa-palooza Festival returns for its 7th year of programming. Come join us!
A vibrant fusion of music, dance, literary, artistic and film performances, Hapa-palooza places prominence on celebrating and stimulating awareness of mixed-heritage and cultural hybrid identity. Hapa-palooza is the first mixed roots festival in Canada, and is currently one of the largest festivals celebrating mixed heritage in the world.
Festival Programming
Hip Hapa Hooray Awards Gala
Friday, September 22nd
Doors Open at 6:30pm; 7:00pm-9:30pm
CBC Studio 700
Hip Hapa Hooray: An evening of celebration to kick off our 2017 festival! Guests will enjoy delicious “hapa-tizers” and drinks, as well as live music by Desiree Dawson, CBC’s 2016 Television Searchlight talent contest winner and a keynote presentation by noted performer, activist and educator Michelle La Flamme. At our awards presentation, inspiring community members of mixed heritage will be recognized. The evening will also feature a visual art display, silent auction, and much more!
Admission is free, but registration is required.
Donations are much appreciated and directly support Hapa-palooza Festival efforts. Register for Hip Hapa Hooray here.
Hapa Family Day in the Park
Saturday, September 23rd
1:00pm-4:00pm
Granville Island Picnic Pavilion
Family Day is a Hapa-palooza Festival Favourite year after year!
A free community event, welcoming all people from all walks of life to celebrate mixed heritage. We will host family-friendly fun including live music and dance, balloon art, face painting, and more!
Hapa-palooza Education Day at WORD Vancouver
Sunday, September 24th
11:00am-2:30pm
Vancouver Public Library Central Branch
Hapa-palooza partners with WORD Vancouver in the largest celebration of literacy and reading. Hapa-palooza presents two free author events:
11:00am – Mixed Voices Raised
Perspective Point (Peter Kaye Room)
More and more, we live in a society of hybridized, mixed, or blended identities. What is it like to write and read from within or beyond the hyphen or transnational identities? What creative opportunities does hybridity present? Join authors Leanne Dunic, Mercedes Eng, and Carleigh Baker in a reading and discussion of writing in fluid identity contexts. Moderated by Hapa-palooza Festival co-founder Anna Ling Kaye.
Location: VPL Central Branch – 350 W Georgia Street. Free Event
1:00pm – Feeling a Little Mixed—or—Do I Have a Story to Tell You? with Jónína Kirton
Port of View (Alice MacKay Room)
There are gifts and challenges that come with hybrid identities. We may feel that life would have been simpler if we had only one culture or group to be responsible to. And yet we see the possibilities in the weaving. Our stories are enriched by the willingness to embrace it all. Together we will write. All persons of between welcome. Jónína Kirton, a prairie born mixed-blood Métis/Icelandic poet, just released her second collection of poetry, An Honest Woman, with Talonbooks.