Baking for the Holidays
The holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year—and perhaps the busiest for VIU’s Professional Baking and Pastry Arts department. The department went through an intensive two weeks of holiday baking in early December to fulfill approximately $15k worth of orders for the VIU and Nanaimo community. The holiday delicacies range from classic … Continued
All Together Now
VIU’s Malaspina Theatre joined thousands of other theatres around the world to put on a showing of Music Theatre International’s “All Together Now.” “All Together Now” is a musical celebration of theatre coming back after COVID-19, featuring numbers from musicals such as Les Misérables and Mamma Mia! The North American editions of the show were … Continued
Home for the Holidays
The National Stage Company of Canada’s Home for the Holidays: A Nat King Cole Christmas will be at the nearby Port Theatre in downtown Nanaimo for one night only on December 5—and The Navigator will be giving away two tickets! Touring Vancouver Island December 3–13, Home for the Holidays features New York actor, singer, and … Continued
Angela Traynor
Angela Traynor flips through a sketchbook of paint colour samples and pencil drawings over a live stream on Twitch, the camera trained on her work desk. She banters with her viewers about crochet and cross-stitching as they fill up the comment section. “That’s rad!” she says when someone comments they’re teaching themselves how to knit. … Continued
We Are VIU Mural
VIU students may have noticed a new mural to the side of the VIU Library entrance on their way to study…or get Starbucks. What they may not have realized is that it’s a collective, worldwide project that has been years in the making. The We Are VIU mural was officially unveiled as part of the … Continued
Terrifying Texts
Halloween is coming up and everywhere you look is decisively spooky. If you’re literarily inclined, one way to indulge this seasonal atmosphere is to curl up with a good horror book. Creative Writing students Kenzie Clarke and Erika Parsons are both huge horror buffs, and are happy to share their favourites. Clarke has a broad … Continued
Review of A Drama Class’s Dream
VIU’s Malaspina Theatre recently put on its first play with a live audience since March 2020 with A Drama Class’s Dream. The performance, which ran from October 13-16, is Theatre professor Ross Desprez’s adaption of the play-within-a-play from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The play was a fun, fantastic, and whimsy return to live theatre—for both … Continued
Ay Lelum:
Remarkable would be the simplest way to describe the last two months for Ay Lelum. Snuneymuxw sisters Aunalee Boyd-Good and Sophia Seward-Good went from figuring out what to do next after a fire destroyed nearly all their clothing stock, to walking down a runway at their own show in New York—all in the span of … Continued
Publishing
I check my inbox outside my English classroom and see a new email from The Malahat Review. They’ve decided not to accept the short story I’d sent for their consideration. They say one of the characters was unrealized. I had cut a significant section building his character at the suggestion of one of my Creative … Continued
Daniel Elliott’s Winds of Change Exhibit
There is a timely new art exhibit on display in VIU’s Malaspina Theatre lobby. Stz’uminus First Nation artist Daniel Elliott’s Winds of Change was unveiled last Wednesday evening, the night before Canada’s first Truth and Reconciliation Day, and runs until October 8, then again from October 12-13. The exhibit turns a deliberate eye to themes … Continued
A Review of the Brontë Sisters’ Work
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre might be a rite of passage for first-year English students at VIU. I’ve seen the university edition being read on the number 40 bus and in the hallways of building 345 before classes start. There are upwards of five copies sitting on the bookswap shelves in the Student Union building—it’s hard … Continued
Robert Hilles’ Book Launch
VIU Creative Writing and Journalism professor Robert Hilles has a book launch coming up this Sunday, October 3rd. The event will be for not one, but two new books: a novel called Don’t Hang Your Soul on That and From God’s Angle, a poetry collection. The launch will take place virtually, via a Zoom webinar … Continued
Eliot White-Hill:
The Vancouver Island University Library has become a home away from home for generations of students throughout their educational journey. It is the go-to place for researching topics ranging from ancient history to modern medicine, using the library’s printer to shoot out dozens of essays, or to lay on the floor and stare at the … Continued
The Show Must Go On
While all departments suffered from online and distanced learning during the academic year of 2020-21, VIU’s Theatre Department was struck a unique blow when the university was closed in March 2020. Students performing to live audiences from Malaspina Theatre’s stage could not be easily replicated over a Zoom call. Despite the circumstances, the department rose … Continued