Welcome to 1BUW 2019!
The Department of English launched a campus reading event in Fall 2019 called One Book UWinnipeg (1BUW). The “One Book” movement started in 1998 at the Seattle Public Library, and over the past fifteen years numerous cities, communities, and universities have undertaken group reading programs aimed at fostering connections and promoting reading. The book we selected for this pilot project of 1BUW was This Place: 150 Years Retold, published in March, 2019, by HighWater Press (an imprint of Winnipeg’s Portage and Main Press) and available to the UW community as a free e-book through the UW Library.
With the support of the President, UWinnipeg Indigenous Affairs, the Faculty of Graduate Studies, the Faculty of Arts, the Department of History (Riley Fund), the UW Library, and UWFA, we organized a Fall 2019 1BUW program to help build the conversation about Indigenization at UW through a common reading experience. Indigenous writers and artists have embraced comics as a powerful form of storytelling, and this book invites rich conversations about the role of popular culture and the politics of reconciliation.
One Book UW 2019 included a three-month program of events featuring eight Indigenous comics creators and their collaborators, and the participation of 1000 students, from grade 10s in the Collegiate to MA students in Cultural Studies, in courses taught by 27 faculty across 12 departments.
Also tied into 1BUW was the traveling art exhibit, When Raven Became Spider, at Gallery 1C03 that ran from September 19 – November 30. The exhibit, which exclusively features art by Indigenous creators, including Joi T. Arcand (Cree), Sonny Assu (Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw), and Shaun Beyale (Navajo), explores the intersection of Indigenous art and stories with contemporary superhero comics. This exhibit, curated by Leena Minifie, a Gitxaala/British artist, writer, and curator based in Vancouver, B.C., and Gallery 1C03 curator Jennifer Gibson, welcomes class visits and tours.
