Ephemeral Artifacts

STREAM THE AUDIO
Monday to Thursday - 8am to 11am and 4pm to 7pm

A Video Installation on Tap Dance on the Windows of the Old Fire Hall

Through a partnership with Creative Lab North, and in association with the Yukon Arts Centre, Pivot Festival brings a video & audio installation from renowned tap dancer Travis Knights and Toronto choreographer Brandy Leary to the windows of the Old Fire Hall with audio and storytelling. Throughout the festival, everyone in town will be able to come down and view the installation from Front Street or from the riverside.

Ephemeral Artifacts will loop on the half hour from 8am-11am and 4pm-7pm

Riverfront Poetry Crawl

We kick off with the Pivot Poetry Crawl—a bit of a twist on the regular Story Crawl—folks will stomp through the snow along the river from Shipyards Park to the Old Fire Hall, meeting poets along the way. To follow new regulations, full vaccination is required and we’ll check at Shipyards.

Tuesday January 11th
Starts gathering 5:30pm
Starts walking 6pm

Ephemeral Artifacts

A Video Installation on Tap Dance on the Windows of the Old Fire Hall

Ephemeral Artifacts will loop on the half hour from 8am-10:30am and 4pm-7pm

Air North Sun Room

Yes, last year's beloved Sun Room is coming back! Even if international travel is technically allowed—let’s be realistic, most of us aren’t getting to a beach this winter. Spend time in the Air North Sun Room with friends before or after work.

To ensure everyone’s safety, only one bubble is invited to book for each 20-minute time slot. Proof of vaccination will be required.

Climate Change Theatre Action with Wren Brian

Moved online! Wednesday January 19 4pm Yukon Time (3pm Pacific / 7pm Eastern)

Sparked by a short play written by Yukoner Wren Brian, Interdisciplinary artist Nicole Schafenaker will lead a conversation about the arts’ role in climate justice.

Artist Talk and Q&A with Brandy Leary and Travis Knights

Moved online! Tuesday January 18, 4pm Yukon Time
(3pm Pacific / 7pm Eastern)

We’re postponing Brian Fidler’s Death, Jesus and Friends and Christine Genier’s night focused on Indigenous Futurism until spring /summer.

Look for online opportunities coming later with the Folk Lordz and Candice Roberts.

Thank you for your support and for the support of local business, organizations and all our funders.

Thank you to our Pivot and season sponsors.

THE LINE UP

Pivot Poetry Crawl — A Wordy River Walk Through the Snow

A variation on the Pivot Festival tradition to kick-off with a jam-packed crawl with people and stories in defiance of -30 and below. This year, different from previous years, we’ll be outside for the readings, and they’ll all be poets. Join small, brave groups of listeners and tromp along the river to different riverside locations where, at each stop, local poets captivate you and we provide a warming opportunity to listen, starting at Shipyards Park and ending at the Old Fire Hall.

Short Works for Long Nights featuring Death, Jesus and Friends

Postponed

A cabaret night for local artists to perform short works of theatre, spoken word, music, and more.

Death, Jesus and Friends is the creation of Brian Fidler, Claire Ness and Sharon Shorty with Ramshackle Theatre. Performed by Fidler, this 30-minute work is a tabletop puppet show featuring action figures, hand puppets and a bendable Jesus that celebrates sibling rivalry and what lies beyond.

The overworked and underappreciated character of Death has hurt his foot and falls into a deep funk. Bob and Doug McKenzie engage in a childish game with disastrous results. Jesus and his brother argue about their Dad. Nothing is right in the afterlife unless they can help each other.

Part improv, part absurdist meditation on the nature of being, this show is the perfect remedy for the darkest days of winter.

Climate Change Theatre Action with Wren Brian

Moved online – Wednesday January 19, 4pm Yukon Time

A reading of a short play When by Yukoner Wren Brian, written for the Climate Change Theatre Action Project, followed by a conversation on the arts potential contributions to creating the change the planet needs.

Larry

Cancelled / Look for online offerings later in the year.

Meet Larry, Candice Roberts’ alter-ego, a small town Canadian dude on a path of self discovery. Bold, smart and outrageously funny, it turns out that Larry’s journey into his own psyche uncovers more than he expected. Based on her experiences growing up female in rural B.C. in the 1980s, Larry pokes at stereotypes—and makes people laugh. A Fringe hit comes to town!

Ephemeral Artifacts

A Video Installation on Tap Dance on the Windows of the Old Fire Hall

In this edition of Ephemeral Artifacts, Knights explores the connection of jazz and tap carried through divine Black bodies. Through this work he honours the lineages, bodies, and communities that have shaped tap dance over time through oral tradition, context, form, and relationship in a non-linear reflection on those we lost and a visceral act of re-member-ing them in a way that acknowledges the unforgettable marks they left behind. As Knight’s tap teacher Ethel Bruneau asked, “Whose shoulders are you standing on?”

Folk Lordz

Cancelled / Look for online offerings later in the year.

Improvised comedy has been an important part of Pivot—bringing surprise and laughs to the territory just when we need it.

The Folk Lordz fuse folk storytelling, long-form improvisation and physical comedy. Inspired by Indigenous oral tradition and storytelling practice, Russian Chekhovian character drama, and a third genre of the audience's choosing, Folk Lordz craft a spontaneous and hilarious homage to cultural storytelling practice.

Indigenous Futurism and Science Fiction with Christine Genier

Postponed

What is meant by futurism? Where do we see ourselves in 100 years? In 500 years? Is the science fiction that we see on television, in movies and in books the same for us all? Will we be living in a landscape of high-tech and machinery? Xenobots and AI? Or will we continue to walk with the land that feeds us?

In her presentation on Indigenous Futurism, Christine Genier explores these ideas, connecting to the works of other Indigenous artists across the country colloquially known as Canada, to look ahead at the life that might be for our future generations. Is the Science Fiction of today our reality tomorrow? And if so, where is the Indigenous voice?