Tu B’Sh’vat is on the 15th of Sh’vat, falling on Jan. 21 in 2019. Or Shalom is leading up to the New Year for Trees with two special evenings: Shabbat Soul on Jan. 18 and Tu B’Sh’vat Open Mic on Jan. 20.
Shabbat Soul – Friday, Jan. 18
Join us for this Tu B’Sh’vat Celebration & Kabbalat Shabbat service and welcome Shabbat with feeling!
Vegetarian potluck: 5:30-7 p.m.
Bring a dish in the shape of a tree
Fruits of the season desserts provided
Music for young children and families: 6:30 p.m.
Kabbalat Shabbat service led by Rabbi Hannah Dresner and accompanied by our band: 7:30 p.m.
All welcome at no cost. Bring friends and meet new ones! Please RSVP here for dinner so that we can provide ample desserts for all – no RSVP required for the service!
Tu B’Sh’vat Open Mic – Sunday, Jan. 20
Our next instalment of Koreh: Writers in the Sanctuary is an open mic with special guests Renée Sarojini Saklikar and Mark L. Winston. Our open mic spots filled in advance and will feature seven readings including prose, poetry, and memoir on the theme “the human relationship with the environment.”
The evening begins at 7:30 p.m. We acknowledge that this event takes place on the traditional unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil Waututh people.
About Renée and Mark:
Photo credit: Sandra Vander Schaaf
Renée Sarojini Saklikar recently completed her term as the first Poet Laureate for the City of Surrey, British Columbia. Her latest book is a B.C. bestseller: Listening to the Bees (Nightwood Editions, 2018). Renée’s first book, children of air india, (Nightwood Editions, 2013) won the 2014 Canadian Authors Association Award for poetry. Renée co-edited The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them (Anvil Press/SFU Public Square, 2015,) a City of Vancouver book award finalist. Renée’s chapbook, After the Battle of Kingsway, the bees, (above/ground press, 2016), was a finalist for the 2017 bpNichol award. Her poetry has been made into musical and visual installations, including the opera, air india [redacted].
Renée was called to the BC Bar as a Barrister and Solicitor, served as a director for youth employment programs in the BC public service, and now teaches law and ethics for Simon Fraser University in addition to teaching creative writing at both SFU and Vancouver Community College. She curates the popular poetry reading series, Lunch Poems at SFU and serves on the boards of Event magazine and The Capilano Review and is a director for the board of the Surrey International Writers Conference.
Renée belongs to the League of Canadian Poets and The Writer’s Union of Canada (TWUC) and is active on the TWUC Equity Committee. She is currently working on an epic-length sci-fic poem that appears in journals, anthologies and chapbooks.
Mark L. Winston is the recipient of the 2015 Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction for his book Bee Time: Lessons From the Hive. One of the world’s leading experts on bees and pollination, Dr. Winston is also an internationally recognized researcher, teacher and writer. He directed Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue for 12 years, where he founded the Centre’s Semester in Dialogue, a program that creates leadership development opportunities that equip and empower students contribute to social change in communities.
As a consultant and thought leader, Dr. Winston partners with universities, corporations, NGOs, governments and communities to advance communication skills, engage public audiences with controversial issues through dialogue, and implement experiential learning and community engagement in educational institutions. As an award-winning writer and editor, he works with students, scientists, other professionals and writers to develop compelling non-fiction, from proposals and newspaper opinion pieces to manuscripts and books.
He currently is a Professor and Senior Fellow in Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue, and a Professor of Biological Sciences.
