Updates

Our Below the Radar podcast mini-series See How We Run! looked at local arts collectives and organizations, highlighting conversations about creation, spacemaking, accessibility, and self-determination within the framework of Vancouver’s cityscape.

On June 29, 2023, 200 people turned out for the world premiere screening of Smokey Devil: Underworld Street Reporter, a feature length documentary by Nathaniel Canuel, co-hosted by SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement.

Released every spring, Voices of the Street (VOTS) is a compendium of writing by Megaphone community members, a space for exploration of creative expression through language.

We are delighted to welcome Julia Aoki as Program Manager at SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement!

In Below the Radar’s The Climate Imaginary series we touched on disinformation, links between the arts and climate activism, and the challenges in making real environmental change.

SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement was honoured to support four events at the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, featuring activists, performance artists, and a comic journalist, telling their stories and illuminating directions for positive change.

SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement (SFU VOCE) and Megaphone are delighted to present the completed Voices of the Street podcast — a Below the Radar original series created by Megaphone storytellers. Inspired by writings and themes from the 2021 Voices of the Street literary anthology, this series was thoughtfully curated and hosted by Megaphone Speakers Bureau participants: Jules Chapman, Angel Gates, Nicolas Leech-Crier and Yvonne Mark.

As we step into 2022 with anticipation for the new engagement opportunities this year will bring, we are excited to introduce Steve Tornes, who has recently stepped into the role of interim Community Engagement Coordinator for SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement.

For emerging researchers, the process of publishing in an academic journal is “a bit of black box,” says SFU Geography professor and Minor Revisions host Eugene McCann. SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement got a chance to speak with McCann about his experience hosting Minor Revisions, the intentions driving the podcast, and how he hopes these conversations will make the publishing process more approachable.

Whose city is it anyway? Who does it embrace, who does it marginalize, and who does it push away from legibility? Whose bodies matter and whose don’t? Is the ‘Right to the City’ just words on a page?

At the seventh annual Jim Green Memorial Lecture, community planner Nathan Edelson explored the future of urban planning and how to encourage community engagement in policy-making processes.

SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement partnered with Hives for Humanity to support the development of Research 101, a community-based project that produced resources for ethical research in the Downtown Eastside (DTES), including a resource card on informed consent and a manifesto for ethical research.

On a grey Vancouver day, the community engagement team met with co-facilitators Jackie Wong and Stefania Seccia for Pie Happy Hour at Acme Cafe to talk about one of the Office’s longest-running programs, Community Journalism 101.

Surrey has been a rapidly-expanding ‘up-and-comer’ in Metro Vancouver for quite some time — and former city planner Bob Williams claims the future of our province lies south of the Fraser.

Super Cool Tuesdays has been connecting artists and members of the DTES as a drop-in speaker series for over five years. With over 50 artists involved to date and a weekly attendance ranging from 10-25 community members (most of them regulars), folks meet up to discuss, learn about, and make art.

Former UN rapporteur Miloon Kothari visited Vancouver this summer to receive an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University. This trip marked his return to Vancouver for the first time since visiting as UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing 10 years ago to report on Vancouver’s housing situation.

Community organizer and urban studies lecturer Matt Hern launched his new book, What a City Is For: Remaking the Politics of Displacement on October 21.

Libby Davies comes to SFU Woodward’s this Wednesday, Sept 21 for Libby Davies: Reflections of a Life in Politics. The former MP will be in conversation with Am Johal and Jackie wong as they delve into her four decades of experience in politics.

Super Cool Tuesdays wrapped up for the Fall a few weeks ago. We were lucky to have welcomed a great selection of artists during this past session, and to have partnered with community organizations such as Heart of the City Festival (HOTC) and Hives for Humanities.