MAY 27, 2018, 1-3PM
MIXED ME: MULTI-ETHNIC STORYTELLING FOR TEENS AND KIDS

For story-tellers and story-lovers! Hapa-palooza Festival, a celebration of mixed heritage arts and ideas, presents an afternoon of multi-ethnic storytelling for teens, kids, and families. 

Please join three exciting mixed race authors — poet and memoirist Chelene Knight (Dear Current Occupant), young adult writer Michelle Kim (Running Through Sprinklers), and animator/children’s book author Jeff Chiba Stearns (Mixed Critters: An ABC Book) — for creativity workshops focusing on youth, children, or authors who write for youth, followed by readings and discussion of their newest works.  

Venue: Museum of Vancouver (Joyce Walley Room), 1100 Chestnut St., Vancouver info: 

FREE event
RSVP here!
Info: info@hapapalooza.com

Presented by Hapa-palooza Festival, Museum of Vancouver, Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society

BIOS:

Chelene Knight is a Vancouver born-and-raised graduate of The Writer’s Studio at SFU. In addition to being a workshop facilitator for teens, she is also a literary event organizer, host, and seasoned panelist. She has been published in various Canadian and American literary magazines, and her work is widely anthologized. Chelene is currently the Managing Editor at Room magazine, and the 2018 Programming Director for the Growing Room Festival. Braided Skin, her first book (Mother Tongue Publishing, March 2015), has given birth to numerous writing projects including her second book, memoir, Dear Current Occupant (BookThug, 2018).

In 2016 Chelene worked with fiction mentor Jen Sookfong Lee to flesh out the first draft of a historical novel set Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley.

Michelle Kim is a filmmaker and actor. She was born and raised in Surrey, Canada, and now lives in Vancouver, Canada. Running Through Sprinklers is her first novel. Visit her at HapanessMedia.com

Jeff Chiba Stearns is an Emmy® nominated and Webby award winning animation and documentary filmmaker. After graduating from the Emily Carr University with a degree in Film Animation, he founded Vancouver based boutique animation studio Meditating Bunny Studio Inc. in 2001. From animated viral video ads and broadcast commercials for companies like Sharpie, 3M and Post-it Note, to short and feature films like “What Are You Anyways?”(2005), Yellow Sticky Notes (2007), One Big Hapa Family (2010), Ode to a Post-it Note (2010), Yellow Sticky Notes | Canadian Anijam (2013) and Mixed Match (2016) Jeff’s work has broadcast around the world, screened in hundreds of international film festivals and garnered over 40 awards.  Mixed Critters is Jeff’s first children's book. 

MIXED FLICKS
MULTI-ETHNIC SHORT FILM SCREENING & YOUNG HAPA ACTORS PANEL

DATE: August 4, 2018
TIME: 1-1:45pm
COST: Free
LOCATION: Firehall Arts Centre Theatre

Hapa-palooza Festival is proud to present this year’s annual Mixed Flicks screenings of short films including a youth actors panel at the Powell Street Festival. This program of shorts includes the films, Juken starring Koyu Rankin (Isle of Dogs), Lions in Waiting (trailer) starring Taylor Kare (The Romeo Section), and Floating Light staring Sahara Forest and Erika Maximum Forest (Godzilla). A panel featuring the actors will follow the screening. 

KOYU RANKIN

Born in 2007 in Vancouver, Canada, to a Scottish-Canadian father and Japanese mother, Koyu Rankin is bilingual in both Japanese and English. Koyu can be heard voicing the lead character of Atari in Wes Anderson's stop-motion animation film, Isle of Dogs, which is Koyu's first role in a film. He has since acted in the short film Juken as well as appearing in a music video and a soon-to-be released web series. When not acting, Koyu enjoys visiting Japan and playing soccer and drums.

ERIKA (MAXIMUM) FOREST

Erika Maximum Forest loved to perform, Max started dancing at the age of 2, then started acting when she moved to Vancouver at the age of 6. She did many commercials, and had a pivotal role in a TV show Falling Skies. She's been in a number of Nickelodeon movies, and a feature film, Godzilla. Now in high school, Max's passion is theoretical physics and hopes to study at Cambridge one day. She plays piano and composes her own music, and continues her acting at the Drama program at her school. 

TAYLOR KARE

Taylor Kare made his film-acting debut in the CBC drama The Romeo Section. Since then he has gone to work on Supernatural and a handful of independent films. He has trained in both Film and TV and musical theatre with teachers like Deb Podowski, Neil Maffin, and Jeff Hyslop. When he’s not working on acting he’s living an artist lifestyle practicing photography and playing Jazz piano. Currently he is further studying acting and is excited to work on future projects.

SAHARA FOREST

Following her big sister, Max's footsteps, Sahara Forest got into acting when she was 3. She did many commercials and short films, one of which, Floating Light, has won awards. Her most recent work is being used at Telus World of Science to promote science education for children in remote parts of Canada. Her passion is competitive swimming, and she trains every day. She hopes to go to the Olympics one day. Her another passion is traveling. After spending weeks in the UK and France, she fell in love with French and is quickly becoming skilled in French.