Did you miss the eclipse? Were you stuck in the mud, and forgot to look up at the stars? Maybe you’ll join us in Iceland on August 12, 2026. In the meantime, we boldly zoom past mud season into spring. And stuff is happening.
SOMETHING B/OLD
A weeklong fest for old people, B/OLD Aging Together is planned for May 6 to 15, at Concordia University. It’s reaching out to us in the Haut-Saint-François too; most of the events are hybrid, so available via Zoom. What a good use for our new high speed fibre-optic internet. (Thank you, Mr. Legault for connecting the anglophone underclass to each other, she says with a chuckle.)
No, no, B/OLD is for everyone! The program is both hybrid and bilingual. And it’s totally free of charge.
I know about this event because I have an old artist friend participating in it. “I’d like to make you aware of the wonderful work Concordia University’s EngAGE program is doing. Simply put, their goal is to empower aging!” she emailed.
The program includes a series of panels and discussions―for example, participants get to see a podcast being recorded live. The Forever Young podcast is created by three women at the Montreal West Public Library who engage in conversations about aging with people who think outside the box.
They plan a conversation with Ryan Backer, co-founder of Old School, an online space that raises awareness of ageism and promotes age equity. That’s offered by Respecting Elders: Communities Against Abuse (RECAA), activists against mistreatment of older adults. Other topics are mistreatment in long-term care, and Aging and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
A series of workshops mostly requires attendance in person: Creating stories of aging in Zine form; music therapy for culture change and social justice in long-term care; puzzles and riddles; propagating food in your kitchen from scraps. Another series of short films also offer interesting glimpses into living while old.
Then we come to the exhibits. My friend, Joanne Kielo, is participating in the group show “advantAGE: Reinvention,” showing the work of 10 artists who create while old and female.
In the Fraud Tails/Tales “Scam Booth,” people of all ages are invited to share their encounters with scams and scammers, while a digital animal filter hides their identity and offers a humorous take on the experience. Another participatory exhibit is the ACT Living Lab mobile garden, described as “a vibrant space showcasing hydroponics, soil-grown seedlings, and innovative ideas for aging together with vegetables.”
Joanne is a good ambassador. The program includes some innovative approaches. It sounds like fun! I’m looking forward to embodying a feline in the “I am not a cat” style while explaining how I’ve made myself immune to telephone scams. The themes treated are important―ageism, fraud targeting seniors, senior abuse, navigating the long-term-care jungle, and so on. I’m happy to see old women appreciated as artists. We’ve come a long way since Grandma Moses.
But I can’t help it. I wish this kind of focus would be less needed in our society. I wish “intergenerational” would be less of an exotic concept, that senior generations were more integrated into our society as a whole. That the need to focus on survival didn’t impede the joy of living and contributing our experience and creativity.
Check it out online: bold2024.ca. Just imagine the slash between the “b” and “old.”
SOMETHING V/YOUNG
This weekend the Townships Sun’s Young Voices is to give 15 Awards for magazine art, photos, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to youth ages 11 to 29, selected from more than 75 entries from across the Eastern Townships,
Townships Young Voices has two youth coordinators, Ana Martinez and Arabella MacFish. Four local experts volunteered as jury members: author and film director Louise Abbott, author Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt, poet and journalist Scott Stevenson, and artist Yong Sook Kim-Lambert (read more about the jurors at: instagram.com/tyvoices). The awards total $3,000, more than triple last year’s purse. Five first-prize winners will each receive $450, five second-prize winners will each receive $100 and five third-place winners will each receive $50.
On top of that, we’ll be able to vote for winners of People’s Choice Awards in each category!
Winning entries and honourable mentions will be published in the July-August 2024 special youth-designed edition of the Townships Sun magazine, as part of its ongoing 50th anniversary celebration year.
The Awards Gala is planned for Sunday, April 28, from 2 to 4 p.m., at the Lac-Brome Community Centre, 270 Victoria, in Knowlton, and we are all invited, free of charge, to help celebrate all the participants. Please reserve your space at townshipssunRSVP@gmail.com.
WATERWAYS
What has happened to our Townships waterways? A few answers are in the current Townships Sun, available at townshipssun.ca or the magazine stands at the Cookshire IGA and Dépanneur Lachance in Sawyerville.
VIACTIVE
April 24 is the last Viactive session of the season in Sawyerville, and May 15, in Newport. Happy summer!
CANTERBURY FLEA MARKET
Tony De Melo of the Canterbury Cultural Centre is still looking for items for the May 18-19 flea market: Old, new, used, vintage or antique items in good condition, please; large pieces of furniture, appliances or clothing, no thank you. All proceeds go to the restoration and regular maintenance of the Canterbury Centre at 1095 Victoria Road (Route 214), Bury. Info: 819-872-3400.
CHURCHES
Anglican. Sunday, May 5, at 10 a.m.: St. Peter’s in Cookshire. To find services in the deanery, check the schedule at deaneryofstfrancis.com/calendar/. Info: 819-887-6802, or quebec.anglican.ca.
United. Thursday, April 25: 10:30 a.m. Saint Francis Manor, Lennoxville; 1:30 p.m. Grace Pavilion, Huntingville. Sunday, April 28 and May 5: 9:30 a.m. in Cookshire, and 11 a.m. in Sawyerville. Info: 819-889-2838. For pastoral care, call Rev. Spires at 819-452-3685.
Baptist. Sunday Services are in French at 9 a.m. and in English at 11 a.m., at the Sawyerville Baptist Church, 33 rue de Cookshire. For information, please contact Pastor Michel Houle at 819-889-2819.
Do you have news to share? Call 819-640-1340 or email rawrites@gmail.com by April 25 for publication May 8.