A rezoning proposal for 5163-5187 Joyce Street near the Joyce-Collingwood Skytrain station drew a lot of interest earlier in the year. Covered in the Tyee as Vancouver’s Filipino Heart, attention has been on the cluster of six small businesses, many Filipino-run and patronized, facing displacement.

Listening Room: The Filipino Community and the food hub at Joyce-Collingwood is a Zoom event on December 9 at 7pm – 8:30pm PST. During the event, two guests will speak about being directly affected by the development proposal:

Bennet Miemban-Ganata, the owner of Plato Filipino, one of the businesses on the site up for redevelopment

Claire Baguio, the co-founder of Sliced Mango Collective, an organization conducting their own community engagement about the displacement of the businesses through their #SliceofSupport campaign

Listening Room provides a space for the two guests to share what this neighbourhood and food hub means to them and for attendees to understand this place from their perspective. During the event, a moderator will conduct a conversation with the two guests about the life experiences connected to this food hub and neighbourhood:

• How do relationships with these food businesses express a living Filipino-Canadian culture and a sense of local heritage?

• What meanings do these businesses have for Filipino immigrants?

• What is the significance of these food businesses at Joyce Collingwood, to a networked community within and beyond the neighbourhood

• What are some of the stories important for consideration when decisions are made about this hub?

Listening Room: The Filipino Community and the food hub at Joyce-Collingwood is a collaboration among Sliced Mango Collective, UBC Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program (ACAM) and Heritage Vancouver Society. In particular, we would like to thank our volunteers Sydney Lines, Phd Candidate at UBC and Alyssa Sy de Jesus for co-organizing this series on the Joyce-Collingwood neighbourhood.