JCLS Funded Presentations at the 2026 Powell Street Festival
The Japanese Canadian Legacies Society (JCLS) was honoured to have a significant presence at the 50th Anniversary Powell Street Festival, held August 1st and 2nd in the historic Powell Street area of Vancouver. In addition to our expanded community booth, featuring the popular gyotaku (fish printing) workshops led by artist Paula Nishikawara, JCLS provided a grant to the Powell Street Festival to help showcase 35 projects that were funded through the Community Fund. Many of the presentations took place in the Vancouver Japanese Language School & Japanese Hall (VJLS–JH), but also the Firehall Arts Centre and the Festival stages.
Audience Survey
If you attended any of the JCLS-supported presentations listed below, we would love your feedback! If you have not already done so, please take a few minutes to fill out our online survey. Your responses are critical in helping us measure community impact and provide important feedback for our reporting and future planning. And you could win a prize just by filling out the survey! Thank you for helping us honour our past and invest in our community’s future.
Saturday, August 1 Presentations
- Japanese Canadian Place and Memory with Mata Ashita — Firehall Arts Centre
- Gyotaku Workshop with Paula Nishikawara – JCLS Booth
- Uzume Taiko Community Players — Street Stage
- Winter Never Fails to Turn to Spring with Akiko Date — VJLS–JH
- Sharon Minemoto Quartet – Goodbye Strawberry Hill — Firehall Arts Centre
- Rendezvous — Love Letters with Caroline Ishii — VJLS–JH
- JCCC’s Sedai Oral History Workshop with Karen Suzuki — VJLS–JH
- Road to Justice with Art Miki — VJLS–JH
- Chibi Taiko — Diamond Stage
- Centennial Park Tea House — VJLS–JH
- 千代 Chiyo: a Thousand Generations with Rachel Iwaasa — Firehall Arts Centre
- Origami + Movement Workshop with Shion Skye Carter — VJLS–JH
- Nikkei History of Eburne, Terra Nova, & The Edwardian Cottage with Taka Lee — VJLS–JH
- Kokoro Dance and ÓFukami — Firehall Arts Centre
- Katari Taiko History and Archive Project — VJLS–JH
Sunday, August 2 Presentations
- From ABCs to Activism with Lynn Kobayashi — VJLS–JH
- Gyotaku Workshop with Paula Nishikawara – JCLS Booth
- Sansho Daiko — Street Stage
- Reflect and Connect to Haiku Through Your Language with Carolyn Nakagawa — VJLS–JH
- Haruye: A Life Lived with Harriet Miyagawa — VJLS–JH
- When the Blossoms Fade with Tamiko Potts — VJLS–JH
- Stories of Nikkei Canadians with Masako Fukawa — VJLS–JH
- North Pacific Cannery Triplex Restoration with Mona Izumi — VJLS–JH
- NoriNori Unravelling… with Noriko Kim Kobayashi — Firehall Arts Centre
- JCLS Family Sharing and Healing Study with Lucy Komori — VJLS–JH
- Tomoshibi Tour: letting the light shine with Sachiko Okuda — VJLS–JH
- Senda Kinoshita Nikkei Histories with Christopher Takashi Robertson — VJLS–JH
- Little Temple on the Prairie with Megan Wray — VJLS–JH
- Short Film Series at the Firehall
Rei — Directed by Connor Morton
Inverse Journey — Directed by Laura Shintani
Echoes of the Tide — Directed by Craig Madokoro
Ramen Boys — Directed by Jason Sakaki
All Day Programming at the Vancouver Japanese Language School & Japanese Hall
- Generations of Assimilation with Stephanie Takagi
- My Great-Grandparents’ Farm with Tamiko Nicholson
- Undertow / 潜流 with Paula Nishikawara
- Uprooted Lives: Sugar Beet Stories — film screening with David Iwaasa
- The Story of the Powell Street Salmon Barbecue — film screening
