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Headlines/Nov. 25, 1992

A TAST. e OF THE ARTS showcases local talent

Jenny Stevens loves adventure. She
spent two years cruising the Atlantic
Ocean with her husband and five
children in “an ancient West Country
Trader sail boat.” When the boat finally
broke up on the coast of Brazil, the
family was fortunate to make it to port.
“Tt was a great life,” says Stevens.

Stevens is now a physiotherapist with
a thriving practice in Mission, and has
already launched a retirement career as a
writer.

Jenny Stevens has been blind since
she was a teenager.

She will share some of her adventures
in a reading at A Taste of the Arts at the
UCFV Mission Centre on Sunday,
December 6.

The two-evening event on December
5 and 6 from 7—10 p.m. will feature
literary readings, musical interludes, a
visual art display and a wine and cheese
reception each night.

“T want to try to get the point of view
of a blind person across but with a little
bit of humour because there are
enormously funny things that happen to
you when you’re blind,” says Stevens. “TI
can’t begin to tell you some of the
adventures I’ve had in public.
washrooms!

One of Stevens’ future projects will
tell the story of how she adopted her
sixth child in Brazil and will be called
Love at First Touch.

“T’ve been writing a lot of articles
which in the back of my mind I see as
disconnected chapters in a book which I
want to call Laughing in the Dark. It
will be autobiographical to a certain
extent and it will be factual, but I want
to write about being blind from a
humorous point of view.”

Joining Stevens on December 6 is
Mission writer, teacher and all-around
supporter of writers, Andreas Schroeder,
who will present the other literary
offering of the evening. Schroeder has
made his living as a freelance writer for
the past 28 years, writing poetry, fiction,
radio dramas, non-fiction, translations,
journalism and even literary criticism.

When Terrie Evans first came to B.C.
from Louisiana in 1969, she didn’t have
a banjo on her knee, but she did have a

box full of her prize-winning poetry and

- short stories. Evans will be one of the

writers presenting her work on Saturday,
December 5.

Evans has written three historical
novels since her arrival, one of them set

~ right here in B.C. :

“I’m going read some of my poetry at
A Taste of the Arts,” says Evans. “T
believe poetry has more substance and is
more self-revealing than fiction and I
want to share something personal,
something of my self.”

Evans’ works will include some
classical themes and a poem about
poverty in the south which critics have
judged as her “best work to date.”

Award-winning poet/playwright
LaVerne Adams will take the podium
for the second reading on December 5.
Adams, who lives in Chilliwack, teaches
English and leads writing workshops at
UCFV. Her stage play Medicine won the
1991 CBC Playwriting Prize. She
recently completed a book of poems
about war and the myths surrounding it
inspired by her father’s letter home from
World ‘War II.

The visual arts display will include
oil painting, watercolours, clay
sculpture, pastels, acrylics, native textile
art and photography.

Akaing Chen will display some of her
oil paintings inspired from China’s
encompassing traditional tribal culture
and folk customs. Chen and her
husband were art teachers at the
Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in
Hangzhou, China until two years ago
when they fled China following the
Tiananmen square massacre.

“This is the first time I have had to
make a living by selling my art,” says
Chen. “In China there is no art market,
so we teach and paint what we like when
we are commissioned. Now I have to
paint what the market dictates. It’s very
different.”

Chen’s impressive and extensive list
of credits include interior and exterior
murals at the Yanghow Theatre and the
Shanghai Hotel. She has held several
very successful exhibits since settling
here.

. Both Chen and another Taste of the
Arts presenter, Sylvia Dozengal, are
Adult Basic Education students at
UCFV. Organizer Catherine McDonald
was tipped off about their talents by
ABE instructors.

Dozengal grew up in South America
and came here as a teenager. Her work
reflects a profound interest she has had
since childhood in native people in
North and South America. Her
epic-style oil paintings depict traditional
native culture and events. She has also
taught herself to do wood carvings in the
West Coast native style, and these have
become her specialty.

The art exhibit will also feature
Regina Dalton, Cheryl Campbell, June
Pender, Lynn Pajunen, native artist
Elizabeth Tait and photographer David
Evans.

Musical entertainment for the event
will feature Frank Bliven. on classical
guitar and baroque lute. Bliven has
performed and taught extensively
throughout North America, has made
numerous television and radio
apperances and has published articles,
books and computer programs. He is a
faculty member at the Chilliwack
Academy of Music.

Tickets for A Taste of the Arts are on
sale now at all UCFV Registration
offices. The cost is $8 per evening.

Thanks from
Marie Moore

I would like to thank everyone for
the understanding and empathy
shown to me during my husband’s
battle with and subsequent death of
cancer at the age of 48. The notes of
encouragement and the exquisite
flowers meant much. The FSA’s
donation to the Abbotsford/Matsqui
Hospice Society will be fully used to
help another person die with dignity
in his or her own home.

— Marie Moore,
ESL instructor