We are now entering the fifth week of the fall semester. Is the slump feeling real? We’ve settled into the weekly routine of classes for the semester like coffee that’s gone cold. (Although, I hear some people like that?) A project or two have been handed in, some marks have been handed back, tests are being studied for, larger projects loom ahead. Class participation has probably already seen better days. Long weekends will come and go and soon we’ll be counting the days to reading break (maybe some already are), then to winter break, and so on
I’m currently flopping back and forth ...
"I’m looking for a unique, complete story, compelling characters, and a point of view. Let your voice shine through because that’s your most valuable asset."
On Thursday, October 3, Robert Hilles will be holding a book launch to present his new collection of poetry, Shimmer. The event is from 6:30–7:30 pm at the Nanaimo Harbourfront Library.
Hilles lives on Salt Spring Island, and is a faculty member of the Creative Writing department at VIU, teaching both poetry and fiction. A master of his craft, his oeuvre is extensive and admirable, to say the least; Shimmer will be his seventeenth book of poetry and twenty-second published book overall. Hilles won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 1994 for Cantos From A Small Room, and that ...
The chrome Indian head
of a black ’49 Pontiac Chieftain Coupe,
shimmers in the late afternoon sun.
My Dad had one fifty years ago;
it had leaky brakes
and sometimes he had
to angle it against the curb
to stop it.
It must have died
long ago, but here,
frozen in time, this one
glides past a couple
on their clunky chunky
Chinese bicycle.
She beams
and has one hand
around his waist;
in the other,
a birthday cake.
A little further along,
in an old Mafia hotel,
the ghost of the gangster,
Meyer Lansky
dressed in ...
In a one-room schoolhouse
a cast iron pot belly stove
burned through
great stacks of wood
and sometimes mice
whose necks had snapped
in shiny steel traps.
We all cheered and clapped
when our hero
dangled them by their tails
and flung their tiny corpses
into the fire.
He was a lanky man
with horn-rimmed glasses
and graying hair, who seemed
only a little older than we.
I’d clap when he told us stories
from his youth and tall tales
of derring-do that stirred my blood
and made my eyes shine.
I ...
VIU has recognized and honoured their long-term philanthropic partner, the Windsor Plywood Foundation, by adding their name to the Trades Discovery Centre.
A media release published by the University stated that building 108, which stands adjacent to Wakesiah Avenue and is connected to the Heavy Mechanical/ Carpentry Shop, now bears the name Windsor Plywood Trades Discovery Centre in acknowledgement of the Foundations unconditional support.
“The Windsor Plywood Foundation is eager to give back to the communities we live and do business in,” said Cathy Brown of the Windsor Plywood ...
The City of Nanaimo is currently looking for artist proposals for a temporary outdoor art initiative that is starting next year in 2020. The selected art will be put up for public display at various parks and local spots around town.
The program is part of the Mayor and City Council’s 2019-2022 Strategic Plan. The Plan, which is outlined here on the City of Nanaimo’s website, has the vision “to be a community that is livable, environmentally sustainable and full of opportunity for all generations and walks of life.” Building off this, the plan is then organized into four main themes: ...
What’s it like to be a band in Nanaimo?
If you ask the members of Sweetdreams and Lovely Grime, you can expect to hear a lot about community support, and a comradery with your fellow local artists that is unmatched anywhere else they’ve been. Add that to the growing number of venues in town and around the island, and it only seems to keep getting better.
One look at the Nanaimo Music Scene group on Facebook and you’ll see it right away. With over a thousand members, it is a buzzing online hub where artists and music lovers can communicate and share what’s going on. There’s ...
In August, VIU’s Applied Environmental Research Laboratory (AERL) sent a small team over to the Powell Street Getaway Harm Reduction Site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. They used a groundbreaking drug detection technique which allowed them to see trace levels of different drugs within one sample. The technique is called paper spray mass spectrometry and it was the first time in the world that it was used to test drugs in a legitimate safe consumption site scenario.
In British Columbia alone, there were 1514 reported deaths due to drug overdose in 2018. Fentanyl was detected in 87 ...
This semester I will be warming up for when VIU hosts the women’s national basketball championships by attending every possible event, tailgate party, and game so that I can stand tall in the bleachers and barbarically yawp Mariner pride. I may have no confidence in my ability to understand the game, but I have every confidence in my fellow Mariners. After all, it’s a great thing to be a sturgeon.
The Nav has gone through rigorous transformation in the last three years. Having begun as a biweekly newspaper on October 16, 1969, it ran that in-print format until 2017, when my predecessor, Cole Schisler, transformed The Nav into what you hold in your hands today. A sleek, full-colour 40-page magazine produced by VIU students, written by VIU students, for students and the VIU community at large.
In 1992, The Nav became “The Navigator Newspaper Society,” under the BC Society Act. This designation allows The Nav to operate as a nonprofit and receive a share of student fees from the ...
Nanaimo is full of small parks and nature to explore. Bowen Park, offering tranquil duck ponds and amphitheatre. Icarus Park’s meandering stairs down to the beautiful beach. And Pipers Lagoon Park, with its picturesque view of Shack Island.
It’s hard to miss the small collection of buildings that cluster on the strips of land stretching away from the northern tip of Pipers. There’s a certain rustic charm to them, each boasting a quirky defining detail. The one with the freshly painted Canadian flag on its roof, the olive green abode that stands apart from the others, the maroon one ...
It took Lydia five minutes to pry Pointer away from the door, where he growled and barked incessantly. With one hand buried in his silken gold coat she cracked the door with the other, the dog howling in distress.
“Can’t you read?” Lydia yelled over the wails from Pointer, and then flung the door open.
On the porch stood Mark, arms full of empty boxes, looking determined, albeit a little sheepish. Pointer, realizing who the intruder was, instantly changed his guarded growls to joyful yips as he bounced into Mark, pink tongue lolling out of his mouth. Mark put his boxes down and ...
In early April, I received an event update informing me of the unveiling of The Nanaimo Bar Stamp at the Nanaimo Museum. It immediately took me back to my childhood. When out for dinner, I would pile the treats in tall stacks on my dessert plate, only to eat the top two layers of each bar. Though I was born and raised on Vancouver Island, I was always ironically curious about the Nanaimo Bar: did it have any connections to the city? If so, what Nanaimo Bar was the best in Nanaimo? Does anyone else share my distaste for the bottom layer? Despite entering my fourth year studying at VIU ...
The infamous China Steps of Downtown Nanaimo, located between Victoria Crescent and Terminal Avenue, has this post-historical aroma of a cultural genesis and if you look ever so closely, you might be able to see a spry blue building that cradles a certain Harbour City culture; enter: The Hub City Cinema Society (HCCS).
This nonprofit is a community made by filmmakers for filmmakers to connect, support, share, and collaborate. It’s a haven for the contagiously ambitious storyteller who wants nothing more than to pick up a camera and film their Imaginarium.
Zachary Tannar, acting ...
Second-Hand September started at the Oxfam GB in the UK. It is an initiative to encourage people to go one month without buying new clothes. Oxfam GB works globally to reduce poverty and generate development in a sustainable way.
The term "fast fashion" refers to the constant flow of new trends at cheap prices for clothes made by people who are making less than minimum wage and working more than 40 hours per week. Fast fashion is on a slow and steady rise, but it's not just the producers who are at fault. We, as consumers, have also played our part in building up this industry. It is ...
A VIU press release disclosed that two members of VIU’s faculty are being recognized by their peers and nationally for their outstanding work.
Dr. Ralph Nilson, VIU President Emeritus, and Dr. Pam Shaw, Director of VIU’s Masters of Community Planning (MCP) program, were elected by their peers to, and have been accepted into, the Royal Society of Canada’s (RSC’s) Class of 2019 for their efforts in developing a positive influence in their community and the world. They are the third and fourth scholars based out of VIU to be admitted into the RSC.
The RSC was established as Canada’s ...
VIU's Sonnet L'Abbe and Spenser Smith to read alongside Vancouver Poet Evelyn Lau at Malaspina Theatre September 27th and 28th.
Here are a few things I wish I had paid more attention to in my first year at VIU. Do with this information what you will.
A media release from Vancouver Island University (VIU) revealed that within its Geoscience department, a student has introduced multiple media campaigns to educate people on the impact humans have on the natural world.
Nick Temos, established The Pacific Northwest Collective in 2014 to promote science-based and pragmatic solutions to the environmental crisis.
“As an aspiring scientist, I see a lot of benefit in pragmatic solutions we can work toward to lessen the impacts on the environment from forestry, development and climate change. More can be done from a legislative position ...
VIU Students’ Union is holding their annual Club Fair this Tuesday, September 17. You can find the event at the Upper Quad (between the library and upper cafeteria) from 11 am - 1 pm. Club Presidents will be available to answer any questions about what they do and how often they meet.
New clubs pop up every year and there are also many returning clubs. This is a great opportunity to find a club that connects you to a community that shares some of your interests. VIU currently has 52 clubs that fall under five categories: Activist Clubs, Course Unions, General Interest Clubs, Partisan ...
On September 9, the Mariners Dance Club began the season with team tryouts. Of the club’s short history, beginning in 2013, the event saw its biggest turnout with twenty-one eager dancers in attendance.
Elissa Miranda and Keely Forget, both who carry titles co-coach, manager, captain, noted their excitement for prospected talent.
“There was the most, probably, professionally trained gymnasts and dancers that we’ve ever had at tryouts,” Miranda said.
“And it baffled both of us,” Forget added.
“It’s always nice to have people who are technically trained,” so the ...
Our Baby Was Born Premature (the Same Way He Was Conceived) by Paul Alexander is a charming and honest debut novel that showcases the true triumphs and chaos of first-time parenthood. Cleverly constructed in what the back of the book refers to as “super-tweets,” the novel is Alexander’s personal collection of brief paragraphs, starting with his wife Maggie’s pregnancy and then organized through the first five years of his son Sean’s life. Alexander’s background in comedy is evident (he’s appeared on MTV, A&E, and Comedy Central); he has a knack for humour, even amongst the ...
One thing’s for certain, no matter who you are, or where you’re from, there’s always an open seat at the family table of the Nanaimo Community Kitchen Society.
I found the Nanaimo Community Kitchen Society online, but what spurred my search was a rumour I’d heard that one could attend a cooking program and dine with strangers. A fascinating way to get to know one’s neighbours, which seems to be a dying flame nowadays.
A community kitchen is a group of people who gather to cook healthy, nutritious meals together to either take home or enjoy as a group. It’s an opportunity to learn ...
