Dear Powell Street Festival friends and family: maintaining community connection and drawing on our individual and collective strengths is essential during this turbulent time. We are committed to employing safe and innovative ways to connect and support communities through Japanese Canadian (JC) arts and culture. In the coming weeks and months, we will host online Town Hall Meetings to gather input and explore ways in which we might uplift our Japanese Canadian artists and our JC and Powell Street neighbourhood community members.

In the meantime, we are pleased to announce our partnership with the Japanese Canadian Arts and Activism Project (JCAAP) research team at the University of Toronto. JCAAP will be conducting interviews with folks who want to share stories for our festival archives. We are currently looking for personal anecdotes and lasting memories from those involved with the festival over the last decades. We are especially interested in those who have thoughts about the planning behind the festival, the politics that inform the annual celebration, and the performances that have sustained it – but we are open to hearing from you about anything and everything! Please reach out to us at info[at]powellstreetfestival.com if you have any questions or want to relay some of your personal memories for the archives!