Winnipeg – The City of Immigrant Dreams

When I moved to Winnipeg in February 1997 I had never heard of voyageurs or Pierre Gaultier de la Vérendrye, the French-Canadian explorer who constructed Fort Rouge on the site of what has become Winnipeg. But much like the Scottish and Irish immigrants who settled in the Red River and mixed their life and love with the Assiniboine and Cree, my stories and songs soon entwined with the English, French, First Nations and Metis artists and musicians I discovered.

As fate would have it I managed to arrive just in time for the snowstorm of the century. Spring melting soon turned all the snow into the flood of the century and the honeymoon, as they say, was officially over. It’s been 12 years now that I have been a professional artist writing, recording, performing and producing everything from CDs and TV shows to podcasts and multi disciplinary concerts from the heart of the Canadian heartland.

Now in 2009 the Red River has just come through the second worst flooding since 1997 and I am on the verge of another move, one that will take me a world away from Winnipeg. So I am sifting through the memories and moments of the last decade, what do I know now that I didn’t know then? What have I learned and experienced that I couldn’t have if I had lived anywhere else? What do need to take with me and what should I leave behind?

Winnipeg - The Land of Opportunity

More than anything Winnipeg has been a land of opportunity, an opportunity for this white male, from a privileged middle class background (I would never have recognized this had I not lived here) to live in an urban centre with the highest population of First Nations people in Canada. An opportunity to experience a creative climate where English, French, First Nation and Metis cultures coexist in a way unlike any other region of the country. In many ways Winnipeg is like an island. The nearest city of equal or greater size in Canada is 14 hours away, or 9 hours if you go to the U.S. So everything happens here on the Island, it’s like an incubator or a hothouse. It’s my theory to explain the massive creativity and rich artistic diversity the city is known for, if you want something you have to build it or grow it yourself. Winnipeg is the only city to produce something like Folklorama or Festival du Voyageur; which in my humble opinion is not only one of the most exciting festivals in the country, it is the most distinctly Canadian and uniquely Manitoban. Joie de vivre!

Winnipeg - Confessions of a Serial Quitter

If I’d written an autobiography before moving to Winnipeg it could have been called Confessions of a Serial Quitter. As early as six years old I have memories of my dad trying to get me to stop giving up. My family spent two weeks each summer at a lake, and as kids we’d spend countless hours every day waterskiing. I’d be eager and talking like a beaver about all the tricks I was going to do right up until it was my turn. Then I’d try to back out, I’d promise to go tomorrow, I’d swear I had a stomach ache, I’d start to cry…and the whole time my dad would be putting my life jacket and skies on, ignoring me entirely. I’d be crying as I sat on the dock holding the rope as he gave me the thumbs up and took off. Up I’d go and as soon as I started skimming across the water I’d be all smiles and screams of delight. And the next day, we’d go through it all over again.  My dad would push me when I balked, he’d holler encouragement from the sidelines at sports events, try to build me up and egg me on. Looking back I really appreciate every effort he made, but I realize that it wasn’t ultimately what I needed to quit quitting. Cause if I only had the strength and belief to keep going while someone was watching and yelling encouragement, I was screwed when I was on my own. And I have discovered living life is a uniquely solitary experience, even when friends and family surround you.

Winnipeg was what this serial quitter needed to kick the habit of giving up and giving in. I have a note in one of my journals from 2000 from the night I put our last $5.00 in the gas tank so I could drive to the studio to start recording my first CD. The studio and the producer agreed to be paid out of CD sales, so while I worked on the album I madly booked my first solo tour. It was a three-month journey that took my young pregnant wife and I along with our 3-year old son coast to coast and across England, Ireland and Scotland. By the time we returned I was able to hand a cheque to the producer for the entire recording. No grants, no tour or art council support, no endorsements or record deals, just friends and friends of friends making the improbable possible.

There is a certain ‘end of the line’ sense living in Winnipeg. Quitting wasn’t really an option for immigrants, I mean seriously, where else were they going to go? For many of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants that poured through the CP station on Higgins Ave. the money ran out here; the buck literally stopped in Winnipeg. I think I inherited some of that tenacious drive, because for the next several years I started every tour with absolutely no money. I’d put everything on my credit card just to make it to my first gig and then deposit the first nights performance fee and merch sales so Zara could buy groceries and diapers for the kids back home. But we were artists, and living in Winnipeg was one of the few luxuries we could afford. During those years the rejection letters I received from arts councils and music organizations were no reason to quit, they were an opportunity to realize why I didn’t have to. I was Frank Sinatra, doing it my way.

Winnipeg – A City of New Beginnings

For a few years my music took a supportive role to raising two small children and financing Zara’s apprenticeship at Metamorphosis to become a tattoo artist. I contributed songs to some compilation projects during the years and kept touring in Canada but it wouldn’t be until 2006 that I’d release another full-length CD. By that time I’d spent eight years writing, recording, booking and producing my own tours, managing a music career that was actually paying the mortgage and putting food on the table. It seemed as if all the time, money, energy and resources I’d invested in my craft and career were about to pay off in a Big Industry way.

I met a world-class engineer/producer who was eager to produce my project. A friend who had been a FACTOR juror went through my grant application before I submitted it for optimum success.  I met with the President of Manitoba Film & Sound who talked me through my submission process. I attended every workshop Manitoba Music offered and envisioned getting a Real recording grant, and Real tour support, possibly securing a booking agent…maybe even a MANAGER! OMG…the excitement kept me up at night!

I mean in an industry of overnight sensations and a steady stream of the Next Big Thing’s here today and gone tomorrow, I’d been around for 8 years! (for those of you who don’t know, an artist’s career is actually measured in dog years, so it was like I’d been a professional artist for 56 years) Someone was sure to recognize the commitment, the ingenuity and dedication. In the end I received rejection letters for every grant application I’d submitted. After eight years as a successful independent artist dreaming of how exciting and earth shattering it was going to be to release my next CD, I found myself in a cold, partially finished basement in Winnipeg, by myself, staring at a computer screen facing the biggest hurdle to date, my perception of my own limitations. If it ever felt like the writing was on the wall; that was it. But this was Winnipeg; this is where I learned to quit quitting. So the question wasn’t, ‘what am I going to do now?’ (the phrase, ‘would you like fries with that’ came to mind) it was, ‘now how the world am I going to produce a new CD with no money?’

I like to think I tapped into the immigrant heritage sown into the fabric of the North End, of the desperate people driven by desperate circumstances to transform this sparse prairie landscape into a field of dreams. I renegotiated our mortgage and spent the next 6 months working on my CD. Of course I was only able to start recording after the kids had gone to bed, after a full day of navigating school schedules, making lunches, snacks, doing puzzles and playing tickle-tag along with Zara’s apprenticeship schedule and the host of domestic chores that entail running a house. Nothing like reality to nip an old fashioned God complex in the bud. I called the CD ‘…now is the winter of our discontent’ and it was, an amazing, cold, lonely, solitary winter full of personal accomplishments…it remains one of the most profound seasons of my life.

Winnipeg - Invest in what you Value

Winnipeg has been an opportunity to learn to invest in what I value while living in a city that often doesn’t share those values or make the investment easy. For instance, Winnipeg is a city with no bike lanes that mixes a post-war car culture mentality with new millennium road rage, making riding a bike to work a death-defying extreme sport. Public transit is both expensive and inconvenient, and in the case of the #18 that runs up North Main, an odiferous gauntlet to run.  I’ve had to teach my kids to recycle while living in a city that leads the country in the amount of garbage it produces. Former Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray once tabled a proposal to allow a maximum of two garbage bags per week per household, with every additional bag costing $1.50 You would have thought he’d proposed legalizing the indentured servitude of pre schoolers in state run grow ops to subsidize daycares. Some Winnipeggers came unhinged, and for weeks the airwaves and letters to the editor were filled with citizens promising to dump their extra garbage on the steps of city hall and hold midnight vigils around burning barrels in Transcona. Apparently is it a Manitoban’s god given right to produce as much garbage as they want; environment beware!  In this cultural malaise we continued to use non-toxic green alternatives in a city that leads the country in pesticide use and holds the dubious distinction as the only major centre in Canada still spraying Malathion. But so what if the city doesn’t make it easy to go green, eat organic or ride a bike to work, so what if they don’t subsidize and cheerlead every noble pursuit, it’s not a reason to quit, it’s a reason not to, and to make sure you’re thinking for yourself. In Winnipeg, I learned to invest in what I value cause there is no guarantee anyone else is going to.

Winnipeg - The North End Home…Where the Heart Is

“Up above us all, leaning into sky, our golden business boy, will watch the north end die.” The Weakerthans, One Great City

Boutiques, trendy cafes and art galleries do not exist along the North Main strip, in their place are pawnshops and Dollar Stores, fast food outlets and run down hotels gone to seed. There are corner stores on every other corner that survive by selling copious quantities of junk food and cigarettes, while fresh fruits & vegetables and organic produce are virtually non existent.

For the first two years in the city I had the opportunity to write and rehearse in the heart of the North End in the basement of a drop in centre on the corner of Selkirk and Main, The street community that frequented the centre during the day would hear the drums pounding through the walls and pound on the doors until we were forced to acknowledge their persistence. In the bitterly cold winter months conscience would insist we let them in to warm up, and it was in those unbearably uncomfortable moments, staring into the eyes of another human being that looked like death warmed over, smelling of solvent, piss and shit that I learned that a five-minute rock song can be the best five minutes of someone’s day. It was living in the North End that I lost my faith in the excuses white males from privileged middle class backgrounds use to explain the abuses of the past…and the present for that matter.

Many Winnipeggers are familiar with the sign on the roof of Boyd Auto Body you see as you come over the Salter Bridge that says, ‘Welcome to the North End…People over Profits.’ It plays great as an anti capitalism slogan in an area known for its poverty, failed social policy and deep immigrant roots. I love that the actual story behind the slogan involves a disgruntled worker, recently laid off who climbed up on the roof in the middle of the night and tagged ‘People over Profits,’ not as a statement of worker solidarity, but as a casualty. By rooting my discovery of the world in the North End I encountered a palette of possibilities that allowed me to imagine a bright, generous future that includes everyone and not just those in charge. Of course doing business and usual and maintaining the status quo are the first casualties of innovative and imaginative thinking, but as Eric Hoffer said, in a time of change learners inherit the future, and the learned find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.

Winnipeg - The Artist Next Door

When I moved to Winnipeg in 1997 all I had recorded were 3 songs on a live compilation CD from a show in Kelowna. My entire career has happened since moving here. I’ve been featured on 5 internationally released compilation CDs as well as releasing 4 full-length CDs of my own with combined sales well over 40,000 copies.

In 1998 I founded Tribe of One, a performance collective that today features English, French, First Nations and Metis singers, musicians, dancers and painters. In 1999 Tribe had the opportunity to perform at a United Nations Benefit Event in war-torn Kosovo with Bruce Cockburn, Vanessa Redgrave and Cape Breton’s Men of the Deeps.

I’ve toured full-time since 2000 self-managing all aspects of recording, booking, promotions and production. In 2003 I was hired by the Trillennium Media Group to be the Assistant Producer, Music Guest and ‘shit-disturbing’ panelist for 24 episodes of Free TV’s nationally broadcast 4th season filmed in Winnipeg. In 2004 I helped initiate the North End Artist Collective along with Judy Wasylycia-Leis, MP for Winnipeg North. In 2006 I founded JUST Artists, to represent an emerging affiliation of socially active performers and producers from across the country. That led to producing the JUST Art Showcase series and an opportunity to perform on Parliament Hill. In 2008/09 I’ve been the host and a producer for two seasons of The Artist Next Door TV series. In a little nod to the accumulated activities of the last decade, Judy Slivinski, President of EDGE Cultural Management recently nominated me for the Winnipeg Arts Council 2009 ‘Making a Difference’ Award. Everything that has happened for me as an artist and activist has happened here in Winnipeg…it really is one great city.

Winnipeg – A City of Discovery

Marcel Proust said, ‘The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.’ The last 12 years in Winnipeg have been such an eye opening experience I feel like I’ve discovered a world so big I can only fit it into a suitcase. I discovered the value in failing, the value of struggling, pain, discouragement and mining the silver lining of the dark night of the soul for myself. It dawned on me recently that neither the lack of industry investment in my career or the support of a local audience has prevented me from realizing the potential of my creative projects and productions. I’ve toured, recorded and produced CDs, videos and TV shows without the validation of cheerleaders or the support of the gatekeepers of the industry. What a gift - I’m free. I can go anywhere I want, do anything I want and all because of my time in Winnipeg. Being free of the rewards of the system brings a freedom from the punishments as well. I mean seriously what are they going to do, ignore my next release and reject my grant application? They already do, so there really is nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I’m stronger than I was when I came here, more confident and humble. I appreciate the little things in life and I’ve learned to enjoy the moment. I can do anything I want, and right now, sharing the sights and sounds I discovered in Winnipeg with the rest of the world is what I want to do.

During the Zoo TV zeitgeist of the early 90’s, U2 flashed a statement on a screen that said, ‘Everything you know is wrong.’ Now while that may be a shocking paradigm shift to consider, I find it less complicated than, ‘Everything you know isn’t right.’ Instead of chucking everything, you’re forced to sift and sort and learn to read between the lines and find the baby bobbing along somewhere in the bathwater. Many of my expectations of Winnipeg were wrong, and everything I think I know probably isn’t right, but tonight as I look to the future through the lens of my past, the view takes my breath away.

- Rik & Zara Leaf are selling their house in Winnipeg and finalizing plans to travel the world with their two kids for a year.

If the ‘eyes are the window to the soul’ what do your eyes reveal about you? The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. (Marcel Proust)

JUST Artists is an emerging affiliation of socially active performers, producers, writers, musicians, painters and creative individuals committed to improving the world through their artistic contributions.

It is a movement in the making, where we create opportunities to view culture and the arts with new eyes; to inspire one another to become active participants in the events that define who we are and what we are running to, and not just running from. Over the last few years a number of JUST Artists have been sinking their eyes into Canadian culture; into the landscape where emerging Canadians are developing their values and beliefs amidst a constant barrage of highly manipulative sales techniques and campaigns designed to sell them an identity suitable for consumption.
The paintings we hang on our walls and the music we choose for our special events are valuable as personal expressions of who we are and how we feel. The commercial use of music and art involves identifying products as extensions of those pre-existing personal tastes, expressions and emotions.
Pop culture is certainly not the only cause, and maybe not even the primary cause of our growing disillusionment, but where it cannot undermine it overwhelms other voices and cultures. Culture creates the mainstream and the margins, marginalizing an ever increasing number of ideas, individuals, communities and even countries. Along with our loss of faith in our elected leaders and the electoral process, we’ve experienced a significant shift in how we view religion, the promises of capitalism, even optimism, but most importantly, we’ve lost faith in our own talents, ingenuity, and significance. Most of us have been fed the scraps from pop culture’s table so long we’ve forgotten how it feels to sit down and really feast on creativity and originality.

We continue to insist that change is progress, self-indulgence is freedom and novelty is originality…Western man is creating his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own vulnerability out of his own strength, his own impotence out of his own erotomania. (Leslie Fiedler)

In 1999, the Foreign Affairs Department of Canada sent my band Tribe of One to Kosovo to participate in a United Nations humanitarian festival called ‘The Return’ hosted by Vanessa Redgrave. A group of university students befriended the band and shared that for the previous 10 years, they had not been allowed an education, to speak their own language, walk on the sidewalks, stay out after dark, or be in large groups outdoors. Albanian musicians were not allowed to perform publicly, and they could only be stagehands in the theatre. As we passed rows of tables selling bootleg copies of NSync and Ricky Martin, we commented on how well dressed everyone was, and asked where they had learned to speak English. They told us; from watching Beverly Hills 90210. Pop culture was able to cross into a war zone and sell its look, feel and identity to a generation who weren’t even allowed an opportunity to explore their own.                                         Two years later in the winter of 2000, after driving 15 hours straight north of Winnipeg and crossing over 35 lakes on a winter road, in –30-degree weather, I arrived at the Wasagamak First Nation Community. I was driven across the Reserve to the little radio station where I met three junior high school boys. They were playing Marilyn Manson, Korn and Limp Bizkit over the radio, and dressed like they just stepped out of a Much Music video. Pop culture had successfully sold its look and feel to these youth who were so isolated none of them had never even been to Winnipeg.
But are Aboriginal and Albanian youth allowed a voice in pop culture? They’re certainly paying the price, buying the clothes, the CDs, the magazines and watching the videos, but are they allowed to play the game? Are they empowered with a distinctive voice to share and receive their thoughts and ideas and tell their stories, or are they simply overwhelmed? For that matter is anyone empowered by globalized commercial culture or are we all just overwhelmed?

Culture is the very essence of national identity, the bedrock of national sovereignty and national pride. (Canadian Government)

In her acceptance speech at the Oscars in 2003 Nicole Kidman asked the question many people, (including artists) ask; is art relevant during times of crisis? And if it is, why is it? Is it foolish to believe that artists have a vital role to play in defining our national identity, sovereignty and pride? Maybe the answer is ‘yes’, if by ‘artists’ we mean Britney Spears and Andre 3000. What can the manufactured product pushers offer us but next year’s fashions?
Are we looking to politicians to provide a future for us? Are we looking to religious leaders? Are we looking at all? Or are we really as lazy and uninformed as some of those individuals make us out to be? Maybe the artist’s voice, or the priest’s, or politician’s is disposable because that’s how we’ve come to view our own? If that’s true, who convinced an entire generation their unique talents and abilities were disposable? Especially when our world is caught in an endless cycle of self-defeating behavior and we desperately need someone to help us imagine a better way to a better world.

The worse things get, the more vital Art becomes. Art can overcome. Art can lead the way to hope from despair.(Counterpunch Magazine)

As commercial interests have been allowed to triumph over all other interests, we have begun to lose our cultural sovereignty and certain structures necessary for a successful society. We’re losing the framework for engaging new ideas and new ways of looking at the world, along with meaningful opportunities for informative dialogue. This is where JUST Artists and our leaders need to connect if we hope to positively affect change.
We need authentic, honest, passionate individuals who have a voice and are willing to use it. It doesn’t have to be political, or philosophical, or even deep, just something honest and real and the willingness to share a moment of the journey. While there is no unanimous agreement on what art is, or what makes some art authentic, we are able to sense the difference authenticity makes in both art and individuals. JUST Artists crack the door to the emotions and thoughts we all share, and give us new eyes to see ourselves and the world around us.

The first demand any work of art makes upon us is, “Stop. Look. Receive.” (C.S. Lewis)

Aldous Huxley described a process of cultural control in Brave New World Revisited, ‘it has become clear that control through the punishment of undesirable behavior is less effective, in the long run, than control through the reinforcement of desirable behavior by rewards. The nearly perfect control exercised by the government is achieved by systematic reinforcement of desirable behavior.’
Has nearly perfect control been achieved by corporate interests manufacturing celebrities whose sole purpose is to sell us their values and products? The fans buy the image and values pawned off by the celebrities they’re trying to emulate by replicating the look, the feel, and the sound, thereby providing the corporation with unlimited resources to perpetuate the cycle. The artists are handsomely rewarded, shit moves off the shelves, and one day you wake up and the little girl that used to be Sporty Spice, is now Britney Spears.
“Lenin takes responsibility for creating the first truly modern propaganda machine, from postage stamps and Mayday parades to monumental sculptures. Perhaps its most colorful, dramatic and original form was the poster. Through it, the greatest artists of the time proclaimed government policies, asked for support, and demanded greater efforts — all with the goal of building Soviet power. The Russian Revolution offered a clear example of how art affects social circumstances, and social circumstances affect what kind of art will be made. Artists were fully involved in the Revolution, both inspired by and helping to elucidate and convey the new ideals that this new
society was meant to be organized around. These works were meant as public education, speaking directly to the citizens, and were produced as a central part of the process of creating a new society. In this way, artists were a critical part and architect of this society, not seen as standing outside of it, as in Western traditions.” (Russian Revolution, The University of the Poor)
JUST Artists are learning to see the cultural landscape with new eyes, learning to differentiate between novelty and originality, between self-indulgence and freedom, and champion the voices in our midst whose work truly engages our imagination.
John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Cockburn – their work shaped and solidified the values and opinions of their generations on everything from war and peace to sex, drugs, freedom of speech and sexuality. Cockburn said, ‘Part of my job is to keep people awake. To remind people that there are things they need to pay attention to. Everything around us, especially here in North America, is designed to kill our senses and awareness of what’s going on.’
It was a culture of artistic relevancy banging on the door of social revolution. Compare that to the Dixie Chix sharing a personal political opinion in a concert, and having some of their fans actually drive their tractors into town to drive over their CDs. The backlash was in response to an artist daring to have and share an opinion on real life! Were their opponents overreacting, or recognizing the influence artists actually have?

We live in an age when people want to reinvent a whole bunch of demarcation lines and say, ‘if you’re a rock band don’t step across the line into news coverage, we reporters do that! I think that all creative activity, in fact, is a process of destroying frontiers. (Salman Rushdie)

Many people assume that art is nothing more than window dressing, or icing on the cake, a belief happily perpetuated by the very organizations that use its infinite worth to modify and control behavior. We have to consider that things are not going to get better unless ‘we the people’ make them better, and to do that we’re going to have to cross the line where art and artists provide the creativity that inspires innovation, and the cooperative partnerships with politicians, policy makers, industry, humanitarian organizations, service groups and communities of faith that can develop sustainable programs and procedures to implement vision. It’s not about pretending we have the answers; it’s about the willingness to learn to ask the right questions and being humble enough to have a humble beginning.

How fortunate for leaders that men do not think. (Adolf Hitler)

People invest in what they value. For individuals to invest in creative self-expression they have to appreciate the value of doing so. To be an inspired generation actively pursuing unique and innovative solutions to the problems we face we cannot afford to be passive observers sitting on the sidelines. At this point, discovering the right questions is a great beginning, a huge first step toward starting a conversation that can continue throughout our lives. Art matters when it empowers the people.
The arts enhance our lives, stimulate our creativity, and allow us to express our emotions, thoughts and aspirations through countless forms of artistic expression…people of all ages convey their values and their beliefs through artistic and intellectual works. These creative efforts communicate the ideas that shape lives. As we face the challenges of a new era, the arts and humanities will be vital to a future of innovation, opportunity and hope. (George W. Bush)
JUST ART - JUST CAUSE

“I Fought The Law” was written by Sonny Curtis of the Crickets and recorded on May 18, 1959 at Bell Sound Studio in NYC. The song was released on the album “In Style With The Crickets” on December 5, 1960. This was of course after the passing of Buddy Holly; one can only speculate what would have become of this song had it been recorded before his death. The most commercially successful version was recorded by The Bobby Fuller Four and released on the Mustang label in October 1965.
On July 18, 1966, Bobby Fuller’s body was found lying across the front seat of his mother’s 1962 Oldsmobile - parked in front of his apartment near Grauman’s Chinese Theatre - dead, apparently from swallowing gasoline. The fact that he had been beaten up and had ingested gasoline was not released to the public. Although police ruled his death a suicide, friends speculated that he was murdered, possibly by mobsters.
I fought the law and the law won actually brings up a point we should consider. If you fight the system by the system’s rules, you will get your ass handed to you every time. You can’t beat the house fighting by house rules, and the good news is…you don’t have to.
There are lots of things that need to be changed; there are a lot of things worth fighting for, including the rules of how and why we are engaged in the struggle to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. To achieve qualitative and lasting change is going to involve changing the way we keep score, the way we play the game, basically the way we fight.
Canadians will not win at the polls playing by the rules designed to divide and conquer the electorate. It is not in ‘OUR’ best interest to play the ‘US’ (same-sex marriage-gay-rights) and ‘THEM’ (anti-women’s rights & abortion rules) Not only do these rules drawn partisan lines down the centre of our lives, families and communities, they trivialize the fact that we’re talking about people’s lives, people just like us trying to find their way through the fog of life and love, hopes and dreams in the hope of finding a future worth living.
Rewriting the rules of engaging dialogue and discussion means more than simply propping up our wing of a sagging institution, it involves redefining the rules of engagement, crossing partisan lines, actively and effectively drawing people together so we can learn the value of an opposing perspective.
These days an increasing number of individuals feel powerless, the agents of change seem woefully inadequate or entirely unwilling to engage the enormous challenges that face us, which is why JUST Artists are so important. JUST Artists are able to work with the power and potential of our collective imagination. They are artists that can translate ideas into words, songs, movements, colours and sounds that will simultaneously engage a wide variety of learning styles.

JUST Artists is about entertaining ideas that engage and empower individuals, helping them to recognize how their talents, gifts and abilities provide unique opportunities for them to be agents of change. It’s about changing how we fight partisan politics, rampant consumerism, the destruction of our environment, epidemic childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes, third world poverty, the adverse effects of corporate mega culture, and the litany of ills and evils purported every waking moment of every day. It’s not just about battening down the hatches and trying to survive, it’s about changing the rules and learning to win.
 

What is the value of a human life? St. Ambrose said we wrong everyone would could help but choose not to. That the coat hanging unused in the closet belongs to the one who is cold, that the shoes unused belong to those who have none.

The way we choose to live so often breaks the convictions we profess. This is as true of our religious convictions as it is our political. Held prisoner within the confines of our convictions, our assumptions prevent us from entertaining the transformative power of imagination and the full measure of possibilities available to us.
Canadians along with every other first world country misuse our privilege and position when we consider any personal or national sacrifice an unacceptable cost in acting as agents of change in the global community. In communities across our own country we are confronted with the economic disparity and the inequitable distribution of wealth, hope and optimism on a daily basis.
And yet, it’s so easy to bitch, such a simple thing to complain and lay blame for all our societal ills at the feet of bureaucrats and policy makers, all the while engaging in a lifestyle that reinforces the very system of exclusion and exploitation at work in devaluing our neighbor’s lives
By identifying our securities we can begin to recognize the values we are investing in. Suddenly the problems are not too big, but too small. The decisions that maintain the status quo and reinforce the corporate commitment of doing business as usual fit uncomfortably into our lives. We are active participants every day…and we know it. And it is because we know it that so many around us spend their time, money and resources doing anything and everything to avoid looking in the mirror. No price is too great to avoid looking into the eyes of those we prevent from having a place at the table because of our insatiable greed. We know we could do more, we know our genius and our talents and abilities could revolutionize the way we do business, and we know that it would require sacrifice. The ability is ours…the willingness is up for grabs.

 “The artist - in so far as he is an artist is looking not for the causes of effect; he is simply looking - sinking his eye into the object. To his eye this object permanently reveals.” Joseph Campbell

What is missing with most bands, most artists even, is a belief that what they’re doing matters. As a career artist I can understand why they might feel this way. Our society has produced an environment where the arts are often seen as an extravagant indulgence or worse, simply irrelevant.
I was recently invited to participate in a community building event in the capacity of an artist. With a mandate and vision statement eerily similar to that of the JUST Artists, I was eager to participate and happy to be invited. What I saw, what I heard, the people I met, talked and listened to made me very, very excited about the future. It wasn’t all bells and whistles, bluster and bravo, it was much simpler and more difficult…people getting together with other people and starting a dialogue that exceeded the limitations of preconceived notions and positions.
There was something else I found noteworthy… a place of was given to pastors and priests, politicians and the successful members of the business community, each were allotted their time at the mic, front and centre with all eyes and ears riveted on them as they voiced their ideas.
And the artists…well, the artists were scheduled as background ambience during lunch. Off to the side at the back of the stage with the volume turned down low enough to avoid cluttering the conversations over coleslaw. It was a great physical manifestation that represented the pre existing beliefs that what artists do and say matters little, if at all.
It is in those moments that artists can identify with the marginalized of society; be it the poor, ethnic minorities, the gay community or women, basically all those who have had to struggle to be heard and make their thoughts and ideas known.

And to be honest, these are the ones most in need of artists, writers, painters, poets and musicians, a creative community that can help tell their stories to the world.
Creating change always involves learning to give meaning to what you do. Believing that what you do matters so that you can believe that paying the price is a worthwhile investment. Change doesn’t just happen…it is created.

Since its inception, JUST Artists Inc. has been collaborating with a wide variety of performers and producers from across the country who  use their talents and abilities to champion the beauty of truth, imagination and unrestrained creativity. Some of these amazing artists have included,

The Wyrd Sisters
For over 20 years the Wyrd Sisters have been performing across the continent at folk festivals in concert halls and national and international TV and radio shows. They have five recordings, three Juno nominations, three videos, were awarded Best Group in the folk category at the Prairie Music Awards. With strong connections to the GLTB communities, the Wyrds have used their music to amplify the beauty and diversity of many voices that would have otherwise remained silent. www.wyrdsisters.com

Hope McIntyre
Hope McIntyre is the Artistic Director of Sarasvati Productions and chair of the Playwrights’ Union of Canada Women’s Caucus. In its history Sarasvàti have done benefits for several organizations and worked extensively with community groups. Their artistic contribution over the years has provided invaluable opportunities to emerging artists. Over the past 9 years, the company has continued to develop new initiatives including FemFest, a festival celebrating women playwrights and the International Women’s Week Cabaret of Monologues. www.sarasvati.ca

Bob Haverluck
Painter, poet and political cartoonist, Bob Haverluck has been designing and leading workshops on peacemaking and social issues since the early seventies. A former artist-in-residence at the University of Winnipeg, and United Church minister, Bob makes the political and theological subjects of his art accessible to a wide audience through humor and irony captured in his cartoon-like drawings and poetry.

Jacob & Lily
Jacob & Lily are a folk-roots duo whose fusion of world rhythms and innovative, spontaneous songs create an electric atmosphere that captivates their audiences. Combining artistic excellence with their ambitious commitment to making a difference in this world one show and one song at a time, these 21st century gypsies are happily defining the terms of their success while encouraging those around them to do the same. www.jacobandlily.com

Shannon Rayne
Writer & slam poet, Shannon Rayne is an artist active in women’s advocacy issues, writing and performing her original spoken word pieces and theatrically driven prose and poetry. Since competing at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word on the Winnipeg Slam team in 2006, Shannon has gone on to perform with numerous musicians and visual artists. Shannon is the author of ‘Letting it Pile’ a poetic monologue, produced by Sarasvati Productions for their annual Cabaret of Monologues. www.myspace.com/shannonpoetry

John Weier
Author & Luthier John Weier had his first book published in 1986, with his tenth published in 2004. John has been published in a variety of literary journals and anthologies, and has read widely in Canada, Europe, India, Syria and the United States. www.poets.ca/johnweier/

David Ball
Musician, photojournalist and educator David Ball, David was involved in relief efforts in Lebanon before being evacuated during the Israeli/Lebanon war in July 2006. David’s experience in community journalism, public interest research, education and graphic design has brought him to the forefront as an emerging and spirited voice in media. www.davidpball.net

During the 2004 federal election, Rik Leaf approached Judy Wasylycia-Leis, the Member of Parliament for Winnipeg North, with a cultural initiative designed specifically to engage the emerging electorate. It was an ambitious initiative in scope and imagination that in the end never managed to get the necessary traction to get off the ground. But it was that initial conversation that ultimately led to Judy inviting a group of artists from the North End to her home for an informal meeting to discuss what possible role the cultural community could have in addressing some of the social concerns and interests of the neighborhood. The evening was full of potential and numerous possibilities were presented. As an artist Rik has performed and hosted many house concerts over the years, and he decided to initiate a series of concerts in and around the north end in non traditional venues including homes and local businesses. Unafraid of a humble beginning it seemed the perfect place to begin; where we are and who we are when we get together.

That is how the Artist Next Door Concert Series began, and it has continued for well over a year now and has featured an array of singers, songwriters, published authors, photographers, illustrators, painters and poets, all from Winnipeg’s North End.

Inspired by the ongoing success and an engaged group of area residents, Rik approached Derek Eidse, a local filmmaker with a proposal to produce a series of these concerts to celebrate Winnipeg’s rich cultural history and diversity. In late 2007 Rik and Derek pitched the Artist Next Door series as a pilot project to MTS Allstream for their Winnipeg On Demand programming. They accepted.

The Artist Next Door TV Series is one of a number of ongoing JUST Artist projects initiated by an emerging category of socially active performers and producers committed to improving the world through their artistic contributions.

We will be taping the first show Friday night, April 18, 2008 at the Flatlanders Inn, 782 Main St. Winnipeg, Manitoba. All are welcome. Contact Rik Leaf at info@justartists.org for more information.

Painting a Big Picture
The need for Canadians to connect with one another and the information that shapes our lives is pressing. It is vital we reclaim a strong cultural voice that will allow us to communicate our hopes and dreams at home and abroad. It is an exciting challenge for those of us who work with the tools of creativity and imagination, to dream up new ways to engage, empower and educate our peers. We need to work with existing organizations and institutions to take the necessary steps to develop and implement these creative strategies as we build our future together.
“Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labeled Utopian.” (Emma Goldman)