CBC Radio: BC Almanac live interview with Todd Wong for Save the Kogawa Homestead update
12:45 pm CBC Radio's BC Almanac will do a live
interview with me about the Save the Kogawa Homestead movement.
Joy Kogawa will also be featured in taped interviews BC Almanac did 2
months ago.
This great! The media is rolling on our story. It will be
wonderful to share with the rest of BC, as Joy Kogawa's novels Obasan
and the children's story Naomi's Road are really stories about BC.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After the interview:
The CBC radio BC Almanac interview went okay…
Funny thing is I bumped into former CBC radio host Hal Wake downtown,
and when I called out to him he said “I heard you on the radio today –
good job!” I wished him luck for the upcoming Vancouver Writers'
Festival, which he will soon be taking over from Alma Lee. He
said they were worried about all the school programs as it looks like
the schools will still be out. I think he said that 5,000
students were otherwise expected to attend.
Anyways… for the CBC Radio interview:
I got all the main points in such as:
a) Margaret Atwood's statement of support
b) New Cultural Classification for the Heritage status
c) Imminent Demolition of the house – surveryors tape and paint
markings present
d) Only real known house of Japanese Canadian origin with
literary/historical value
e) Need to raise funds – to buy house $600,000 to $700,000
needed – we only have about $7,0000 so far.
f) Important for all Canadians and BCers and Vancouverites
g) Visit www.kogawa.homestead.com to sign petition and make
donation through the Vancouver Heritage Foundation
h) Jim Green's quote that “To demolish a heritage house, you
really have to want to do it.” (Jim is on the Vancouver
Heritage Foundation Board)
I forgot to mention that:
a) I walked by the house last week and could imagine a 6 year
old Joy playing in the cherry tree
b) Obasan is studied all across Canada in highschools and
universities
c) The Opera Naomi's Road is now touring across BC at
schools and is inspiring people to read both Obasan and
Naomi's Road
d) Watching the opera brought tears to my eyes
e) Obasan was really the first works by Asian Canadian authors,
inspiring many others to share our “Canadian stories” of a
diverse Canada
f) Did not get in Margaret Atwood's actual quote of Vancouver
being ranked high on the livability scale – but woefully short
on the heritage and cultural scales.