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Events

Events

Feb 12

LUNCH & LEARN

HUMOUR COAST TO COAST

Mon Feb 12, 11:30am  $18  BUY TICKETS

JEFFREY GROBERMAN / Grobetrotting Strikes Again!
Following in the footsteps of last year’s Grobetrotting: Travel the World Laugh by Laugh, the sequel Grobetrotting Strikes Again! continues with more funny stories about travel attitude, focusing on how one faces the cringe-worthy, unpredictable and sometimes frightening aspects of travel. Jeff’s narrative moves the stories forward with edgy wit and just the right amount of self-deprecating humour.

JEFF GROBERMAN is a writer and producer who has entertained legions of radio and TV audiences over a distinguished-yet-hilarious career. Jeff produced shows for CBC, PBS, CTV, Global and Knowledge Network and was inducted into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame.

Also presenting on Feb 11 at Har El, by donation.

STEVEN MAYOFF / The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief
Samson Grief, a reclusive painter from Prince Edward Island, is haunted by three red-haired figments of his imagination in the form of Judas Iscariot, Fagin, and Shylock. They claim to be messengers of a genderless deity who has decreed PEI the new Promised Land, and also wants Samson to build the Island’s first synagogue. Scared, confused, and doubting his sanity, Samson eventually accepts the challenge. This is a darkly humorous, utterly original and wildly entertaining novel.

STEVEN MAYOFF’s fiction and poetry have appeared in literary journals across Canada and the U.S. He is the author of the story collection Fatted Calf Blues, the novel Our Lady of Steerage, and two books of poetry. Originally from Montreal, Steven lives in PEI.

Also presenting on Feb 11, 1:00pm at Burquest JCA, by donation.

WHY COMICS? – A PANEL DISCUSSION

Mon Feb 12, 6:00pm   $18

Several graphic novelists and cartoonists explore why they originally chose the comic form as a way to tell the stories they wanted to tell.

AMY KURZWEIL / Artificial: A Love Story
A visionary story of three generations of creators whose search for meaning and connection transcends the limits of life. (See full description and bio in the following event).

SIMA ELIZABETH SHEFRIN / Couches Get Lonely Too
A series of daily cartoons during the Covid-19 pandemic became its narrative arc in a nutshell. ”By reading it you understand that lockdown can turn into an opportunity for fun, rich and varied everyday life”…

Textile artist and illustrator SIMA ELIZABETH SHEFRIN is the author of Embroidered Cancer Comic and illustrations to several children’s books.

BEVERLEY KORT, CATHERINE HOLMES & THERESA HENRY-SMITH / Hold That Thought: 12 Cartoonists on Their Worlds of Humor
Last summer, editor David Endelman sought out 12 cartoonists from around the globe to create this unique collection of humour. When fellow HTT cartoonists, Theresa, Catherine, and Beverley discovered they were all from BC, they decided to meet up at Word Vancouver.

BEVERLEY KORT is a cartoonist who also happens to be a registered psychologist with a private practice in Vancouver.

CATHERINE HOLMES is a cartoonist/painter living on Vancouver Island, with a focus on single-panel cartoons and simple animations.

THERESA HENRY-SMITH, a retired art teacher, has roots in the Vancouver indie cartoon/comic scene going back to the 80’s.

ART & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Mon Feb 12, 8:00pm  $18

AMY KURZWEIL / Artificial: A Love Story
A visionary story of three generations of creators whose search for meaning and connection transcends the limits of life.

In the graphic novel/memoir Artificial, we meet the Kurzweils, a family of artists who are preserving their history through unusual means. At the centre is renowned inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, who has long been saving the documents of his deceased father, Fredric, an accomplished conductor and pianist from Vienna who fled the Nazis in 1938.

Now, Fred has returned. Through AI and salvaged writing, Ray is building a chatbot that writes in Fred’s voice, and he enlists his daughter, cartoonist Amy Kurzweil, to help him ensure the immortality of their family’s fraught inheritance.

AMY KURZWEIL is an American cartoonist and writer. Her first book was the graphic memoir Flying Couch. She draws cartoons for The New Yorker.

SEAN MICHAELS / Do You Remember Being Born?
Scotiabank Giller Prize-winner Sean Michaels’ luminous new novel takes readers on a lyrical joy ride—seven, epic days in Silicon Valley with a tall, formidable poet (inspired by the real-life Marianne Moore) and her unusual new collaborator, a digital mind just one month old.

This is a relationship, a friendship, unlike anything Marian has known, and as it evolves, she is forced to confront the secrets of her past and the direction of her future. Who knew that a disembodied mind could help bend Marian’s life towards human connection, that friendship and family are not just time-eating obligations but soul-expanding joys. Or that belonging to one’s art means, above all else, belonging to the world.

SEAN MICHAELS is an internationally bestselling novelist and critic from Montreal, author of the Theremin novel Us Conductors, winner of the Scotiabank Giller prize, and The Wagers.

SPONSORED BY BEVERLEY KORT & RAY SCHACHTER