02 September 2020 | 7:00 p.m. EDT

Event Poster

Launch of the Asian Heritage Virtual Series at Toronto Public Library
Title of Presentation: Asian Heritage: Art and Haiku In the Time of COVID
Presenters: Patria Rivera (writer) and Joe Rivera (painter)

Welcome: Mr. Gregory McCormick, Toronto Public Library
Opening Remarks: Mr. Justin Poy, Honourary Patron, Asian Heritage Month-CFACI; Professor Leslie Sanders, York University & project co-lead

Poet Patria Rivera and artist Joe Rivera share their art through poetry and paintings. Patria Rivera will read from haiku written before the COVID-19 pandemic and revised during the months of lockdown, while Joe Rivera will share the artwork he has painted to counter months of self-quarantine. Their hope is that transcendent sketching from life can bring heightened awareness or capture the sublime even in uncertain times.

Patria Rivera notes: “The haiku in this collection aim to bring old forms with new aesthetics, to limn from ordinary life moments that pierce and captivate, that probe and question the self against forces—living and nonliving, both visible and invisible—that surround us.”

Co-Organizers: Asian Heritage Month—Canadian Foundation for Asian Culture (Central Ontario) Inc.; Toronto Public Library; York Centre for Asian Research, York University; Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto; Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University; Richard Charles Lee Canada Hong Kong Library, University of Toronto; Chinese Canadian Photography Society of Toronto; WE Artists’ Group; Social Services Network; Cambridge Food and Wine Society

Asian Heritage Month Festival is partially funded by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Asian Canadian Artists in Digital Age is funded by Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund