TEDx Vancouver is here this Saturday October 18th for your mind-expanding pleasure. Inspired by the infamous TED talks, TEDx is a program of self-organized events that bring together a diverse group of people in the spirit of “ideas worth sharing”. Rest assured that TEDx is not akin to a little brother desperately aspiring to be like his pimple-faced older brother. TEDx Vancouver is in its fifth iteration and is proving to be the largest TEDx to ever hit Vancouver.
The folks at Sad Mag are stoked to hear an incredible line-up of speakers including sexologist Dr. Jessica O’Reilly on the commandments in the New Sex Bible (2014), Victor Chan on coming face to face with the Dali Lama, and Lesley Kim on loosing an eye to Halloween firecrackers. Even though the conference itself is stacked with 12 speakers, TEDx is also dedicated to sharing the stage with 13 different performance groups, including a 30-person Indie Rock choir, The Kingsgate Chorus, hailing from East Vancouver. Please take a look at the soprano section for a gander at Pamela Rounis, Sad Mag’s Lead Designer and the reason our new Suburbia issue will blow your mind.
Considering this line-up, the theme of this year’s TEDx is “Tilt” or the notion of changing perspectives, altering experiences, and launching outside of your comfort zone. To assist the common Vancouverite in this task, the TEDx menu is stacked with exotic exoskeleton-riddled salads where a “bug bar” awaits you. Hopefully this won’t tilt and sway your belly in the bad way. Make sure you take a peek at #TEDvan to see what the buzz is about. Oh! Punny!
Religion, jokes, friendship—My Rabbi is a strangely perfect blend.
My Rabbi begins with its two main characters, the young rabbi Jacob (Joel Bernbaum) and the recently turned devout Muslim Arya (Kayvon Kelly), each praying on their own. The solemn dignity of the prayers filled the Firehall Arts Centre with a sense of awe, but as the two men moved closer together, the chants blended into a single, mildly painful cacophony. The play, which was also written by Kelly and Bernbaum, presents religious dogmas as dangerous ideologies that stop us from seeing the basic humanity of other tribes, though the script does try to depict the appeal of spiritual quests. My Rabbi is a thoughtful meditation on the meaning of culture, family, and most of all friendship, but at the same time is scabrously funny. In other words, I’ve never seen a play before that contains both the holy Jewish prayer of the Shema, and musings on how to calculate the exact calorie count of semen.
The main action of My Rabbi takes place in an anonymous Canadian bar, and flashes back and forth between the two men as close school-age friends, and as slightly older, less intimate, and more pious acquaintances years later. Kelly and Bernbaum’s timing and chemistry gives the early scenes a riotous energy—both characters are irreverent horndogs, bugging each other about who got laid, how it happened, and whether dry humping counts as sex. Their respective cultural heritages are merely grounds for mockery, directed both at each other and themselves. They exuberantly greet each other with “Mazel Tov, bitch!” and “Burka burka Mohammed jihad,” and they crack (hilarious!) jokes about taboo topics like money, terrorism, and the tensions of Jewish-Muslim relations.
This same tension tears the older Jacob and Arya apart, as Rabbi Jacob deals with attacks on his Toronto synagogue and Arya deals with the fallout of his conversion to Islam. Jacob’s discovery of religion is not as well-dramatized as Arya’s, which includes a lovely lyrical passage about his Hajj to Mecca. The religious versions of these men can no longer communicate through their old jokes, and the invisible wall between them is painful to watch. I wasn’t totally convinced by the play’s overly dramatic ending—the mundane and universal story of friends drifting apart worked quite well on its own. And it would be nice, just once, to see a show about Muslim characters that doesn’t end in violence. That said, the characters’ ability to overcome their ignorance is inspiring and cathartic.
Bernbaum and Kelly play a variety of characters successfully, including each other’s skeptical fathers and a Canadian interrogation agent. Bernbaum has a gangly stage presence and a deadpan wit, while Kelly is a magnetic performer, who can spout off about seemingly anything—I particularly enjoyed his rant about why he’d rather be called Persian than Iranian (“Iranian” is associated with airline attacks, but “‘Persian’ reminds people of nice things, like kitty cats and rugs!”). It might be a betrayal of my Jewish brethren to admit that the Muslim had the funniest lines. But no matter your background or religious beliefs, My Rabbi is a moving and provocative experience.
If Fall were a (composite) colour it would be brown. Mixed with yellow, red and black it is the palette of fading sun, ending of summer love and beginning of darkness. Have a listen to the SadMag Local Music playlist while you rake those backyard leaves, climb your last Quarry Rock and thrift for your favourite Fall sweater.
I left the cinema feeling like I’d just woken from a very beautiful dream after watching Stéphane Lafleur’s Tu Dors Nicole (You’re Sleeping Nicole) at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival. Cute, quirky, and just a little absurd, the film has all the qualities of surreality—strange characters, unexplainable happenings, and an overriding sense that nothing is really as important as it seems.
22-year-old Nicole’s (Julianne Côté) vacationing parents have put her in charge of their suburban home for the summer, leaving her to spend those hot months mowing grass and working a dead-end job in the small Quebec town’s thrift-store. Along with her best friend, Véronique (Catherine St-Laurent), she spends the rest of the daylight hours biking around, impulse-buying with her new credit card, and drinking beers while her brother’s band records an offensively loud album in her parents’ living room. At night, Nicole discovers what her eclectic neighbours do while they think no one is looking. She hasn’t been sleeping well lately, and spends many insomniac hours ambling through the dark streets.
Night and day are almost indistinguishable in this grey scale world, thanks to Sara Mishara’s breath-taking cinematography. LaFleur employs very few background extras, enhancing the film’s dreamlike quality. The streets are almost as deserted during the day as they are at midnight, and so Nicole appears as a lone figure drifting through an unending series of empty frames. Time likewise is unending, and each day feels just as hot, stagnant and aimless as the last. Events don’t follow a classic cause-and-effect sequence; just as in a dream, they occur almost inexplicably.
The surreal treatment of time and space recreates a moment many of us experience growing up: the moment we realized that mini-golf isn’t as fun at 22 as it was when we were 7 and that buying ice cream with a Visa card doesn’t make it free. It recalls that painful moment when we learned that best friends don’t always tell us the truth, and that ex-boyfriends move on with their lives, even when we don’t. Finally, Tu Dors Nicole reminds us of that moment we noticed that summer holidays can be just as dull as school—that waking life can be just as strange as dreams.
In the stifling heat of yet another inconsequential day, the girls ask, “Is this going to be our summer?” In this seemingly simple question lie a million more, pushing the audience to reflect on their own lives. Do we, like Nicole, bump through our days buying ice cream after ice cream to fill the time? Are we, too, passing through life in a half-awake stupor? Watching one slow moment slip into the next, it’s hard not to ask: “Is this going to be my summer? Is this going to be my life?”
Get your high kicks ready—it’s going to be a exciting night.
Come out and get your hands on the latest (DOUBLE!!) issue of Sad Mag featuring interviews with the Jealous Curator, Michael Hingston, Adbusters founder, Kalle Lasn, and RAFFI (yes, your favourite childhood rockstar).
The event takes place THIS Saturday, October 4 at Make Gallery (257 East 7th Ave) from 7pm. Come and look at some art, conversate with some beautiful people, and drink some drinks.
Also, this is your chance to celebrate the Vancouver Art/Book Fair–which is pretty much one of the coolest book fairs you could ever go to. Spend your day at the Vancouver Art Gallery and your night with us at Make Gallery.
Claire Atkin
Portia Boehm
Rachel Burns
Colin Cej
Adam Cristobal
Sara Harowitz
Landon Hoyt
Phil Intile
Carmen Mathes
Murray Mckenzie
Kristine Sostar McLellan
Kaitlin McNabb
Genevieve Michaels
Michelle Reid
Katie Stewart
April Thompson
Farah Tozy
Daryn Wright
Contributing Artists
Colin Cej
Adam Cristobal
Douglas Coupland
Jeff Dywelska
Dana Kearley
Carmen Mathes
Amanda McCuaig
Pamela Rounis
Shelley Stefan
Contributing Photographers
Victor Anthony
Megan-Magdalena Bourne
Sylvana D’Angelo
Lily Ditchburn
Angela Fama
Rommy Ghaly
Kerria Gray
Jackie Hoffart
Robyn Humphreys
Brian Lye
Jennilee Marigomen
Ryan Ming
Michelle Reid
Pamela Rounis
Katie Stewart
Daryn Wright
You know we love books, you know we love art, so it only makes sense that we’re hosting the official after party for the Vancouver Art/Book Fair this October. Coinciding with the launch of our Suburbia issue, come on out to Make. Studios on October 4th from 7-10pm. There will be music, there will be beer, there will be beautiful people, and there will most definitely be a stylish double issue of Sad Mag. Oh, and celebrations too.
Art + books = match made in Sad Mag Heaven.
What’s this Art/Book Fair all about?
Free and open to the public, the Vancouver Art/Book Fair is the only international art book fair in Canada and one of only two on the West Coast. In 2014 the event launches with a Members Preview on October 3 from 6–8pm and takes place on October 4 and 5 from 12pm to 5pm. It is anticipated to attract over 1,500 visitors from across the Greater Vancouver Area and beyond.
Who organized this supreme sounding event?
Presented by Project Space, VA/BF is a two-day festival of artists’ publishing featuring nearly one hundred local, national and international publishers, as well as a diverse line-up of programs, performances and installations. Featured artists travel to Vancouver from across Canada and the globe, and produce everything from books, magazines, zines and printed ephemera to digital, performative or other experimental forms of publication.
Details of the issue launch are as follows—
What: Suburbia (double) issue launch + Vancouver/Art Book Fair after party
Enjoy the Fair and then, of course, enjoy the party with us Sad Maggers! More details can be found on our Facebook page, so invite all y’all friends and join us for an autumnal (no festive gourds guaranteed).
Junk! boasted a creative concept, but failed to deliver.
“One man’s junk is another man’s gold,” sing Andrew Cohen and Alex Nicoll, both vocalists in Paul Snider’s, Junk!, showing at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. Performed exclusively using instruments made of discarded objects, this 60 min musical tells the story of Melissa, a young girl who stumbles upon a junkyard and its ten oddball inhabitants. Together with the gang, Melissa begins a musical exploration of climate change and consumerist themes, all centred around the idea that “junk is in the eye of the beholder.”
Despite its creative approach, however, Junk! failed to provide the gold it promised…at least in this humble “beholder’s” opinion.
Of course, the instruments themselves were fascinating. Among the most notable were a saxophone made out of a rubber glove, a stand up bass built inside a wheelbarrow, and a Glockenspiel constructed using old PVC tubing. Both aesthetically and conceptually interesting, these dumpster creations grabbed my attention immediately. Although these instruments were functional, however, many could not be hooked up to amps, and so their musical contributions were barely audible. The resulting sound scape predominantly featured guitar, percussion and vocals, losing the truly unique sounds to the blare of these more familiar ones.
The score, an original composition by Snider himself, was equally disappointing. Both instrumentally and lyrically repetitive, the only thing about the music I liked was the old hubcaps and empty bottles it was played upon. Likewise, Snider’s messages about consumerist culture and global warming were generic, and failed to convince me to start cutting up my old shoes to make bongo drums.
To top it all off, Junk! had little or no plot to speak of. Instead, performers moved from one mediocre song to the next, seemingly without cause. The musical, much like the instruments themselves, appeared to be held together with little more than shoestrings and duct tape.
With multiple technical malfunctions and generally subpar acting, Junk! certainly lives up to its name. The medium, is, indeed, the message, and in this case, I’m afraid they’re both “junk”.
Finger guns are a key aspect of Kim’s creative process.
So you want to live a more passion-filled, purposeful and creative life . . . riiiight after you watch that Seinfeld re-run, organize your Tupperware drawer, talk to your cat Professor Snuggles, and water your cactus plant. Sound familiar? The anxiety over starting a creative project and making it perfect can be so overwhelming at times that we’d rather do almost anything else. Solution? Do it—and make it ugly. In fact, Make it Mighty Ugly says Kim Piper Werker, the author behind the motivating handbook for vanquishing creative demons.
Sad Mag: Tell us a little bit about yourself:
Kim Piper Werker: I’m a writer and editor in Vancouver. I’ve worked for the last decade in the crafts industry, editing magazines and writing books. In 2010, I started a project to address some of the issues I kept bumping into personally and professionally—it involves making something ugly. On purpose. Personally, this addressed a nagging habit I had of feeling very concerned that people would discover I wasn’t actually very crafty. I was so plagued by this feeling that I’d often sabotage my own projects. If something was going really well, I’d sort of intentionally mess it up, to save myself from feeling the pressure to keep it going well. Nuts, I know. But that self-doubt (or, maybe, that certainty that I wasn’t talented or creative or skilled enough to make something great), fear of failure and perfectionism are pretty much universal – everyone feels some of all of that at some point or another (or all the time). Anyway, the ugly thing really stuck with me, and it’s been my primary focus for the last few years.
More personally, I was born in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to Vancouver twelve years ago. I love to read books, chill with my family, and I’ve gotten a little obsessed lately with making soap.
SM: I admit that I’m a little envious of your New York roots. What was growing up in Brooklyn like? What drew you to Vancouver?
KPW: I grew up in a lower-middle-class neighbourhood of Brooklyn called Canarsie—probably one you haven’t heard of, eh? My family lived on the top floor of a post-war three-story walk-up, and I really and truly had that childhood where I played in the street with the neighbour’s kids and my mom would yell out the window for me to come inside for lunch. I walked to school by myself from the time I was six, and I was heartbroken when my family moved to a suburb of another city in New York State when I was ten. I was a city kid, man. The suburbs seemed like another planet to me.
At the same time, I really loved the open space of living closer to the country, and because I spent my summers in day camps or overnight camps way out in the middle of nowhere, that love of nature created some confusion for me and my simultaneous love of the city. So when I was in university, I decided, without ever having been there, that San Francisco was my obvious goal. I’d move there and have both city and a slower pace and some nearby open spaces.
Then, when I was in grad school when I was twenty-three, I met a guy I ended up marrying, and he had grown up in Vancouver. He’s the only person I’d ever known who couldn’t wait to move back to his hometown, and when he brought me to Vancouver for the first time to visit, I discovered that it had everything I’d wanted out of the mythical San Francisco, and I fell in love with Canada, too. So after we got married, we moved here, and though I find the city a little slow for my taste sometimes, and a little lacking of the gruffness and openness of urban life I really value as a New Yorker, I love it here.
SM: What inspired you to write Make it Mighty Ugly?
KPW: I’d been doing Mighty Ugly workshops for a couple of years when I had the idea of writing a book inspired by it. In my workshops, I walk people through making an ugly creature that’s intentionally hideous. It’s a great challenge for a lot of people, and very liberating for others. Every time I’d lead a workshop, I’d have at least one utterly fascinating conversation with someone about the exercise. One day I decided I wanted to explore the idea in-depth—how and why it’s important to me, how and why I think it can help people address their own creative demons, etc.
SM: Why make something “mighty ugly?” How does this process liberate the artist within?
KPW: It’s just something we’re never, ever asked to do. Which makes it a very different sort of exercise, and difference – and the discomfort that comes with it – can be tremendously liberating. Making something ugly on purpose forces us to be aware of how we consider beauty/aesthetics/marketability/appeal in ways we usually just take for granted when we make things. And for people who don’t consider themselves creative, who may not focus on beauty/aesthetics/marketability/appeal in the course of their daily lives, making something ugly on purpose removes the pressure they feel (for surely they feel it, whether they realize it or not) to make something that possesses those qualities, something they’re inclined to say off the bat that they can’t do.
This little cover is anything but ugly.
SM: Why do you suppose fear of failure is the ultimate enemy of creativity?
KPW: That assertion was pretty much marketing copy. I think perfectionism is no less powerful an enemy of creativity. But fear of failing is a fabulous excuse to give up on an idea before you even try it out. So I suppose maybe it really is the ultimate enemy of creativity, because we use that fear as a reason not to even try.
SM: How do you make time for creative projects? Do you follow a schedule or are you more spontaneous?
KPW: No schedule for me. I’m doing a project this year called #yearofmaking, for which I’ve committed to making something—anything—every day. Sometimes it’s spaghetti and sauce from a jar for dinner. Sometimes it’s starting an art journal or knitting a few rows on a scarf. Sometimes it’s making a batch of cold-process soap. So for at least a few minutes every day, I make something.
SM: How do you set the mood for creativity?
KPW: I don’t. I just make stuff or write stuff. If I get really into it, I allow myself to push other things aside so I can follow it through, but I don’t think creativity is some divine sort of thing that requires a particular mood. As author/artist Austin Kleon wisely says, creativity is a tool. I make sure I use it frequently.
SM: What music are you listening to right now? What book is by your bed?
KPW: I’m not! I have a timer ticking in the background to help me focus (go Pomodoro Technique!), and my dog’s barking at someone walking by outside. The book by my bed is The Faraway Nearby, by Rebecca Solnit.
SM: What advice do you give aspiring creatives?
KPW: Stop aspiring, start creating.
Kim will be joining two authors, Leanne Prain (author of Strange Material: Storytelling through Textile) and Betsy Greer (author of Craftivism) – on a book tour in October. Details can be found online.
Also, check out her blog, and the Mighty Ugly website (with a book-group guide and more info about the book, etc.). Other online stuff: kpwerker on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
Angela Fama is no stranger to Sad Mag. Her images have been featured in several issues, most notably the (unprecedented) 10-page fashion spread in the Suburbia issue launching this fall. We love her. This love and admiration is not limited to an affection for her work alone–we relish in sitting down with Fama on a semi-monthly basis to hear about her new fixations and the new projects+ideas she is sizzling over.
During our most recent brain-sizzle, she described a photography project that will take her across North America in a pop-up photo studio to capture micro-expressions elicited by subtle questioning about the nature of love. As Fama outlines, “What Is Lovewill reveal through comparative photography the strength and beauty of vulnerability that can be found within all adults, regardless of age, nationality, income, sexual orientation or gender.”
It’s about community. We’re into that.
With our Movement issue on the horizon for this winter, we want to throw the weight of our summer carb-intake behind a project we believe in, and encourage you to do the same. Want to help an extremely talented local photographer create a body of work that explores a universal human emotion? We thought so. Check out her kickstarter campaign here and stayed tuned for updates on her progress. If you’re independently wealthy and want to be featured in Fama’s book, you can pledge $1500 and receive a 2-hour “What is Love” session for your friends and family. Your face might just end up in a book. Just sayin’.
Q: WHY SHOULD YOU FUND THIS PROJECT?
A: My Kickstarter goal is researched and set for how much is needed for the motorhome/pop-up studio itself and including funder’s rewards.
The rest of the costs and other expenses (gas, camera, equipment, food, emergency) are covered through hopefully some grant funding and definitely through personal savings I have been building this past year and will continue to build this coming year.
I have to ask YOU, my community, to help me build this project, it cannot happen any other way. The collaboration begins here!
Q: WHY SO LONG A WAIT?
A: I have to prepare. If the funding goal is met, I will purchase a Class-C “pre-loved” Motorhome and create the pop-up studio.
I have PR, marketing and conversations to continue creating with social media, radio stations, magazines, national and local newspapers, locations, events, festivals and volunteers.
Q: WHY MAY?
May is Sexual Assault Awareness month, the perfect date to officially begin this adventure. It is also the beginning of the two months both Joel and I have committed solely to this project.
Q: HOW CAN I LEARN ABOUT THE JOURNEY AS YOU GO?
A: I can be abundantly found on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and/or my blog. Once the project “officially” begins, I will update these daily with stories, thoughts and/or images.
Q: CAN I BE A PART OF IT?
A: Yes of course! Both here on Kickstarter and on www.wabisabibutterfly.com. I will have locations listed with corresponding dates, addresses and times.
??Q: DRIVE ACROSS NORTH AMERICA IN A MOTORHOME?!? EWWW! AREN’T YOU CONCERNED ABOUT THE ECO-FOOTPRINT YOU’LL BE LEAVING BEHIND??
A: YES! ?I intend to DIY the motorhome to be as eco-friendly as a “pre-loved” motorhome can be. In addition to solar paneling for the interior electricity that will recharge my photo gear between locations, I will be looking into rain harvesting, wind energy and composting toilets.
We last spoke with Christepher Wee in February, shortly after he won Mr. Gay Canada.
Since, then Christepher has continued to focus on his activism, using his new title as a platform to reach a larger audience.
And reach he has! Christepher has been involved in Pride events across the country, from World Pride in Toronto to Jasper, and was a keynote speaker at Surrey’s Pride in July.
Christepher sat down to chat with Sad Mag about the upcoming Mr. Gay World competition in Rome, Italy where he will be competing on the world stage.
Sad Mag: How was your Pride?
Mr. Gay Canada, Christepher Wee: It was excellent. I’ve been going to Pride since the end of March! Vancouver Pride was at the beginning of August and prior to that I was at Surrey Pride. I got back from World Pride in Toronto just the night before. It’s always great to be home.
SM: What’s your favourite thing about Pride events?
CW: All the community events. The family picnics and the seniors’ days—in Vancouver, we had Aging with Pride, the Pride Picnic at Brockton Oval, and the Pride Run and Walk. I don’t go to the party events at night so much. I may drop in for an hour or so, but I really love the community events. That’s when you get to talk to people, interact with people.
SM: What do you think is still important about Pride? It’s been around a long time—what is it that makes it relevant to us now?
CW: I think they’re still very relevant and important for a few reasons. There’s still a long ways to go in terms of equality so we need to keep at it and be visible and vocal.
Pride events are also a time to remember our ancestors, what they did and what they went through to get where we are today. There’s an element of remembrance.
It’s also a celebration of all the victories we’ve achieved this year. In Vancouver, we had the Parks Board initiative to provide gender-neutral bathrooms and the School Board’s revision of its LGBTQ policy. These things need to be celebrated with the whole community, not just the LGBTQ population but with our allies as well, who come together and join with us to show that we’re united in building a better tomorrow.
This year, Surrey City Hall refused to fly the rainbow flag so there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done. We’re not at the day where Pride Week or Pride celebration doesn’t need to happen because equality…we’re not there yet.
There’s still a long ways to go. Until everyone, everywhere can be free, I think we need to keep celebrating Pride and pushing for change.
SM: You’re headed to Mr. Gay World in Rome, Italy. What are you most excited about, heading into that competition?
CW: I think I’m most excited about meeting all of the delegates to see what kind of activism and community service actions they’re working on. I’d like to see if we can get something going globally. Imagine dozens of us from all parts of the world doing something at the same time – that could create a phenomenon!
SM: What kind of events will be happening in Rome? What will you be doing there?
CW: It’s a regular pageant so we have a lot of pageantry elements: the photoshoots, the Q&A session, the panel judging, and the talent portion. There’s also a city tour and a look at the LGBTQ services offered in the city. On the Mr. Gay World website, you can see our itinerary—it’s very detailed!
The other thing about the competition is that it gives competitors a worldwide platform to talk about what we’re doing and to bring our issues to the world press. One of the new components at the competition is a pop-speech. You’ll be given a word or topic and you’ll have a minute to talk about it. This is to see how articulate you are and how you can think on your feet.
We also write an exam when we arrive. You need to know your LGBTQ current affairs and history, and Pride history. It’s not just about your looks or how you strut your stuff on the runway.
There’s a sports element too. Last year they went to a police training camp and completed the course there. I’m quite interested to see what we’re doing this year.
We’ve already started our competition with a set of online challenges. Our first challenges was to pick an iconic place where we live and do a 60 second video, unedited and uncut, introducing our city and ourselves. I went to Stanley Park and stood where you could see Canada Place and the Vancouver skyline. We also have online quizzes and handbooks that we need to read. Our current challenge is to present a short documentary of our gay life in our city. This is great for me because I can use all of the video clips I’ve been shooting across Canada.
SM: How many countries compete at Mr. Gay World?
It’s different every year. This year there are 32, last year there were 25 so the numbers are definitely increasing. This year is the largest yet!
SM: What are you hoping for out of this competition?
CW: One, I’m hoping that the delegates can collaborate and do something globally. Even if I don’t win, that’s something I want to do. I’ve already started with my contacts in Asia, being a support for local groups. I definitely want to do something with the Mr. Gay World delegates, if possible.
I’m hoping to do really well in the compeition because of the platform the title provides. I’ve noticed that since I won the title of Mr. Gay Canada, it’s made a huge difference in terms of media coverage and profile. If you’re just Christepher Wee, well, you’re just Christepher Wee. But if you have a title behind your name, it gives you the opportunity to be a visible voice
What’s next for this guy? Lots is our guess. Image courtesy: STUDIOZ QLIX
SM: You mentioned that being Mr. Gay Canada has given you a platform, a higher profile and more media access. We talked a bit about that in the last interview. Have you found you’ve been able to more your various goals forward?
CW: Definitely! I mentioned working with Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) last time and, before I became Mr. Gay Canada, there wasn’t a lot of interest. But now that I’m Mr. Gay Canada, I’ve become a national resource on the GSA Canada website. People from all over Canada can contact me and ask me to come to their school and speak, to write something or give advice. I don’t think that would have happened if I were just Christepher Wee. Mr. Gay Canada opened the doors to that.
I’ve also been approached by organizations to act as an ambassador. I’m an ambassador for the Rainbow Refugee society. I’m proud to speak out to help our brothers and sisters who live in countries that have anti-gay laws. I try to bring attention to the plight of these refugees who flee their home countries to avoid persecution.
I’m also an ambassador for Men’s Health Initiative. They’re a Vancouver-based organization that not only focuses on HIV awareness and education but also generally on men’s health – social health, physical health, mental health. We started a campaign together to raise the visibility of minorities. When you see a lot of MHI advertisements and education materials, you only see Caucasian men. I felt that we needed to increase the visibility of other demographics. So we just started a new campaign, Vancouver Fabulous, where I’m on the poster and the post card and there’s a second version coming out in the fall. We’re also launching a Chinese website – a replica of the MHI website but in Chinese with Chinese individuals pictured on the website. Moving on from that, we’re going to look at other demographic groups that need visibility.
SM: Aside from the networking and realizing how much of a platform you have as Mr. Gay Canada, What would you say you’ve learned in this role?
CW: I don’t think I realized the magnitude of impact that I can have with this title. Originally, I wanted to use the title to do good for my community, to have a voice and be visible. I didn’t realize the impact it would have on so many people. The Facebook messages I get, the emails I get, the thank yous from people that I meet at events—it just blows me away. I didn’t anticipate having that much of an impact. I’m really grateful for that.
I’ve also learned a lot about Canada and how wonderful everyone is. I sometimes sound like a broken record on my videos because I always say how proud I am to be Canadian and how proud I am of the community here. But it’s the truth. Everywhere I’ve gone, from Jasper to Toronto, it’s amazing the response you get from people. And the way you see people treat each other is amazing too.
At the Trans Pride event this year, I met three guys from Edmonton who had come out just to be allies, to be visible allies. They’d made up a bunch of T-shirts to hand out to people. I’m planning on working with them to help them develop their business so that their T-shirts with positive slogans can become more than that. Can become an educational medium. We’re going to do something that has an educational element with the message. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get something ready for the Mr. Gay World competition.
SM: What advice would you offer to those looking to be activists?
CW: I just want to say that everyone, everywhere should pitch in where they can. It doesn’t matter what community you belong to or how you identify yourself, it’s all about the entire community working together as one community. Working together so that our children and our nieces and nephews can have a better life than ours. So if everyone can pitch in and help out wherever they can and be a voice on a daily basis for activism – you know, activism is not just about Pride once a year. It’s about daily activism work, educating your friends and parents. For every person you educate, they can turn around and educate someone else. It’s a great way to give back to your and to move forward. It can totally change what our society will look like, 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now.
You can follow Christepher Wee on Twitter (@ChristepherWee) and on Facebook. He also holds the Twitter handle @WeeChristepher as a platform for his hi5Diversity program.
Mr. Gay World will be crowned on August 31, 2014. You can check out the pageant’s program here. You can also vote for Christepher here – you can vote every day until August 31!
Angela Fama is no stranger to Sad Mag. Her images have been featured in several issues, most notably the (unprecedented) 10-page fashion spread in the Suburbia issue launching this fall. We love her. This love and admiration is not limited to an affection for her work alone–we relish in sitting down with Fama on a semi-monthly basis to hear about her new fixations and the new projects+ideas she is sizzling over.
