by Jenifer Milner

"Today, I see humanity as a family that has hardly met." - Theodore Zeldin, An Intimate History of Humanity

This is the second of a two-part article examining how the arts have helped people find, strengthen, and celebrate identity and heritage. In the previous article, we profiled Frannie Sheridan and Mia Weinberg, two artists who have tackled identity and culture-related issues in their work.

These explorations have had a dramatic impact on Sheridan and Weinberg. And they are not alone.

Arts and culture can bring together people from diverse backgrounds to discover more about their humanity. Consider works by Roger Sinha at Vancouver's Dancing on the Edge festival in July. A British-born dancer based in Montreal, Sinha explored his mixed Armenian and Indian heritage in two works chronicling his search for identity. Cheers accompanied the finale of Chai, in which Sinha created a "pure symbiosis"1 of dances from different cultures.

Carmen Aguirré, a Chilean-born local actor, also brings culturally diverse themes to Vancouver stages. Among her roles, Aguirré has acted in two plays she helped to adapt from works by Uruguayan Eduardo Galeano.

Aguirré achieved a local theatre milestone with the March debut of the Latino Theatre Group, an acting company she founded "to express Latino perspectives on an ongoing basis."2 The company performed a play inspired by their experiences and written and directed by Aguirré.

When Georgia Straight reviewer Colin Thomas "met with the show's director and actors...some told [him] flat out that working on ¿Que Pasa [with La Raza, Eh]? had changed their lives."3

"Without a way to name our pain, we are also without words to articulate our pleasure,"4 says bell hooks, writer and cultural critic, in reference to African Americans. But this is true of all humans. Artists from many cultures find representations, names, and words for their truths at Gallery Gachet in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

The gallery's April Porter points to visual artist Naufus Ramirez-Figueroa, who "witnessed torture and killing"5 in his native Guatemala, as an example of someone whose work reflects his past.

According to Porter, many of Gallery Gachet's artists have had interrupted lives. "By the time our artists move on from Gallery Gachet, they've got their confidence back. They've had some exhibits and they can take the things they've learned back out into the world."6

Jamaican-Canadian Andrew Moodie, an actor and award-winning playwright, creates portrayals of black Canadian culture to take out into the world.

"I think that to a large degree what we see about black men is defined by American culture," says Moodie. "I want to show us as we are, to be able to take a snapshot, or to use a close zoom in camera, so that we are watching the lives of black Canadians…so that we can see how their colour and culture weave in and out of their lives."7

Moodie's plays reveal a cultural identity that they may influence one day. This is the reality Stuart Hall refers to in his essay "Cultural Identity and Diaspora" when he says, "cultural identity...is a matter of 'becoming' as well as 'being.'"8

Human identity is also fluid. "I see the meeting of people, bodies, thoughts, emotions, or actions as the start of most change,"9 writes Theodore Zeldin in his book, An Intimate History of Humanity. " Frannie Sheridan created a "meeting" between the Jewish and Catholic communities in Ottawa. Members of St. Basil's Church and Temple Israel Synagogue joined forces to bring Sheridan's family-inspired play, The Waltonsteins, to Ottawa for two performances.

"These are two communities that don't have a long history of working together," said Temple Israel's Tina Birnbaum of following the shows. "Today's event isn't the culmination of something, but the beginning of something."10 By sharing stories, art and artists are changing lives, bringing communities together, influencing cultural identities, and enhancing our understanding of what it means to be human.

Jenifer Milner directs communications for the International Council on Active Aging. Since 1992, Jenifer has worked in Vancouver’s arts and cultural sector, most recently as communications manager with the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture for almost five years.

1. Janet Smith. "Burning Skin/Chai," Reviews, The Georgia Straight, July 8-15, 1999.
2. Colin Thomas. "Leaving Normal for Eduardo Galeano's Wild Fiesta," The Georgia Straight, July 15-22, 1999.
3. Ibid.
4. bell hooks. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Between the Lines, 1992.
5. Lisa Smedman. "Quality comes first at art co-operative," Vancouver Echo, September 8, 1999.
6. Ibid.
7. Donna Bailey Nurse. "Just your average black Canadian guy-whatever that is," The National Post, April 15, 1999.
8. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Op cit.
9. Theodore Zeldin. An Intimate History of Humanity. Minerva, 1995.
10. Leonard Stern. "'Once upon a time there was a little girl who was always hiding,'" The Ottawa Citizen, November 1999.

Last Updated: Tuesday, August 24, 2004