“Making the Links” workshop
Date: October 19th, 2014
Time: 1:00 PM
Location: Downtown Eastside SRO Convention, Vancouver Japanese Hall, 487 Alexander St.
As part of the Downtown Eastside SRO Convention, the Right to Remain artists held a 2 hour workshop called “Making the Links,” to help link past histories of displacement in the Downtown Eastside with current struggles around gentrification, marginalization, and homelessness while asserting a right to remain in the DTES in the face of such pressures. Participants decorated a few hundred cardboard circles with text, poetry and images. These circles were then hung on the Gallery Gachet “Art Cart” as mobiles and in streams like bunting. All in all, the workshop went really smoothly. People were excited to write messages and decorate the cardboard circles, and the artworks that were produced told a powerful story of resilience in the face of displacement. Furthermore, the convention was extremely fun with great food and good participation. Everyone’s hard work really showed!
As an added bonus, the RRCF was able to offer financial support to the SRO convention for the food and rental of the Japanese Hall. Convention organizers and participants were pleased to have us there and were thankful to us for bringing inspiring, positive energy into the Convention with our very active workshop in the centre of the Hall.
