 Artist Mary Sui Yee Wong's Restless by Nature, Dalava's reimagined Moravian folk songs, and storyteller Paul Yee's The Three SistersNXNW Apr. 12/13, 2025 | Welcome to the NXNW newsletter! We've got a lot of transformative and fun conversations on the show this weekend. Mary Sui Yee Wong gives us a tour of her first retrospective exhibit, Dalava drops in with its new album, Understories, and Paul Yee presents some imaginary wonder from his new children's book.
Looking for something from a past show? Check out our CBC Listen page. | | | Coming up on NXNW this weekend: | | | Saturday |  | Food Banks Canada penned an open letter calling on voters and parties to prioritize food insecurity as one of the key issues during the federal election. CEO Kirstin Beardsley is here to elaborate on how the political parties can address these concerns. | | | | | Mary Sui Yee Wong draws from archival material, family memories, cultural history, and anti-Asian sentiment to create the striking installations showcased in her new retrospective exhibit, Restless by Nature: 1990s to Present, running April 12 - June 8 at the Richmond Art Gallery. | | | | | How do we go on living and loving in a time of overlapping crises? Vancouver writer and 2018 CBC Poetry Prize winner Natalie Lim explores that question in her debut collection, Elegy for Opportunity, as we continue our April poetry series. | | | | | Genre-defying musical ensemble Dálava is releasing its new album, Understories, on May 2. Julia Ulehla and Aram Bajakian are partners in life and music, and they join us to discuss how they're reimagining traditional, century-old Moravian folk songs gathered by Julia's great-grandfather. | | | | | Sunday | | | Nikkei Canadian artist Luka Kuwabata opens up about his upcoming appearance in the Vancouver Opera production of Madama Butterfly, running April 26 - May 4 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. | | | | | April is Parkinson's Awareness Month. Parkinson Canada CEO Karen Lee joins us to explain how the symptoms can differ in women and men and what initiatives are being developed to help people with the neurological disorder. | | | | | Our monthly film column, B.C. On Screen, is back for more cinematic spotlighting. Tonya Hartz chats about the highs and lows of being a location scout, having worked on films and TV shows like Peacemaker, Joy Ride and Bones of Crows and See. | | | | | Award-winning author Paul Yee shares his new children’s book The Three Sisters, which he's bringing to Vancouver’s Chinatown Storytelling Centre on April 19 for a live reading and performance by the UBC Chinese Music Ensemble. | | | | | Champagne Weather's Anne Janelle and James Hill tell us about the inspiration of their new project, ADSR (Attack Decay Sustain Release), a four-part series of EPs inspired by the shapes of sound. They're bringing the third installment (S) to Tyrant Studios on April 16. | | | | | | | | | | | Chronicling Mary Sui Yee Wong's Restless by Nature | | | Earlier this week, NXNW's Margaret Gallagher paid a visit to the Richmond Art Gallery to connect with Mary Sui Yee Wong. Raised in Vancouver's Chinatown and based in Montreal, the multidisciplinary artist explores memory, cultural history, identity and anti-Asian racism through large-scale installations. Restless By Nature is her first retrospective exhibit and features works dating from the 1990s to the present, as well as a number of performances on April 12 and April 14.
Restless by Nature: Mary Sui Yee Wong, 1990s to the present is curated by Zoë Chan and runs at the Richmond Art Gallery until June 8, 2025. | | |  | Mary Sui Yee Wong with the Land installation. | | | | | | | Reimagining songs from centuries past with Dálava | | | Julia Ulehla is an actor, singer and ethnomusicologist. Aram Bajakian is a guitarist who has toured with artists like Lou Reed, Diana Krall and John Zorn. Together, the married couple leads the genre-defying musical ensemble Dálava. Their new album, Understories, sees the duo reimagining Moravian folk songs that were gathered more than a century ago by Julia's great-grandfather Vladimír Úlehla, a noted Czech biologist and ethnomusicologist.
Dálava is previewing its new album at Music on Main's A Month of Tuesdays concert series, taking place April 15 at the Fox Cabaret in Vancouver. Doors open at 7 p.m. PT. | | |  | Julia and Aram in the NXNW studio. | | | | | | | In case you missed it... | | | Last week on NXNW, food and travel journalist Don Genova brought in some tasty samples and stories as he discussed the latest edition of his book, Pacific Palate: Food Artisans of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. NXNW's Margaret Gallagher wrote the foreword. And coming up on May 7, Margaret will introduce Don at the Vancouver launch of Pacific Palate, taking place at the Main Street Book Warehouse from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. PT.
Stream this interview on CBC Listen. | | |  | Don Genova with a copy of Pacific Palate, as well as a "pacific palate" of samples. | | | | | Thanks for listening! | Have comments or suggestions you'd like to share? Email us!
The NXNW Team | | | | | |
