What’s up: Jane’s Walk, Disturbed, pizza, jazz and more

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/05/2023 (1245 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Explore neighbourhood gems on foot

Friday to Sunday

Various times and locations

Visit Jane’s Walk Winnipeg for more info

Dust off your comfiest footwear and hit the streets this weekend for Jane’s Walk, an annual festival of neighbourhood connectivity.

The global event is inspired by the work of urbanist and activist Jane Jacobs, who saw cities as dynamic ecosystems that shift based on human interactions. The local iteration is hosted by the Winnipeg Arts Council.

Six live, in-person walks are scheduled Saturday and Sunday in East Kildonan, the Exchange District, Transcona and St. Boniface. The walks are guided by community members and subject experts on topics such as local waterways, history, murals, public art and Winnipeg’s urban grain industry.

A series of self-guided walks are also available for download on the arts council’s website.

— Eva Wasney

Disturbed is ready to take back your life

Monday, 8 p.m.

Canada Life Centre

Tickets $72-$112.50 for standard seats; $142.94-$483.31 for platinum seats at ticketmaster.ca

Disturbed is bringing a blast from its past to a North American tour called the Take Back Your Life tour, which stops at Canada Life Centre Monday.

The Chicago metal group is cranking it up for their latest album, Divisive, which came out last December, and hearkens back to its early, heavier sound.

The latest single, Bad Man, came about on the spur of the moment, with guitarist Dan Donergan riffing in the studio before working on other guitar tracks.

“I think the high energy of that song is something I look forward to playing,” he says in a reel on the band’s Facebook page.

Theory of a Deadman, the British Columbia post-grunge group, opens the show.

— Alan Small

B.C. bluesman Jesse Roper sets sights on new Horizons

Friday, 8 p.m.

West End Cultural Centre

Tickets $20 plus fees at eventbrite.ca

Jesse Roper would likely say he feels most at home when he’s onstage. But it wasn’t always that way.

Though the Victoria, B.C.-based blues/Americana singer/songwriter first picked up a guitar at six years old, his teens and early 20s were defined by paralyzing stage fright. “My buddies in high school all knew I played guitar, but I kind of hid it away. I had no desire to play in a band. It was very closeted for me,” he told the Times-Colonist back in 2014.

Roper’s since shared the stage with the likes of Booker T. Jones, Colin James, Beth Hart and Burton Cummings, and is currently touring in support of his third full-length album, 2022’s Horizons. Produced by Gus van Go (Metric, The Stills, Whitehorse, Arkells, The Trews, Sam Roberts), Horizons is a hook-heavy showpiece for Roper’s soulful vocals and guitar virtuosity — the kind of record that basically begs to be heard live.

Victoria alt-folk act the Bankes Brothers will open. Doors are at 7 p.m.

— Jen Zoratti

Pizza lovers have their eyes on the pies

La Pizza Week

Until Sunday, May 14

Various venues — see lapizzaweek.com for details

Whether you like Neapolitan pizza, Detroit-style pies or slices inspired by Sicily, eateries across Winnipeg and beyond have all manner of creative takes on pizza on offer as part of the third annual La Pizza Week.

Over 70 participating restaurants in Manitoba (mainly in Winnipeg) will be dishing up pies as part of the pizza party, with established local pizza joints such as Red Ember, Santa Lucia Pizza, Pasquale’s and more, alongside less-than-traditional pizza spots such as Hoagie Boyz, Peasant Cookery and Underdogs, to name but a few.

As for the pies themselves, they range from riffs on classics to left-field, out-of-the-box creations. St. James Burger & Chip Co., for example, is cooking up a deluxe pizza bun burger, Parcel Pizza’s entry, the Updog, is a mac-and-cheese and hotdog pizza, Kilter Brewing Co. has the Super Mariio pizza sub, Shelly’s Bistro is offering a bannock taco Dorito pizza and at the Fionn MacCool’s Crossroads location you can dig into a shepherd’s pizza pie.

Those looking for La Pizza Week offerings beyond the Perimeter, meanwhile, can enjoy entries cooked up in Souris, Brandon, Selkirk, Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes and more.

For details on all participating eateries and the pizzas they’re pumping out, visit lapizzaweek.com — it’s also where you can rate your favourite ‘zas in the hopes they’ll be crowned best of the fest.

— Ben Sigurdson

BMO Walk so Kids Can Talk

Sunday, 11 a.m. (registration starts at 10 am)

University of Winnipeg — Axworthy Health & RecPlex, 350 Spence St.

Visit their website for more info

A five-kilometre family walk takes place in 17 communities across the country this weekend to support youth mental health and well-being across Canada.

The walk aims to raise funds for Kids Help Phone, the volunteer-led free and confidential online, phone and text mental health service that has been accessed more than 10,000 times every day.

The Winnipeg venue is stroller- and wheelchair-accessible; however, pets are not permitted in the indoor location.

Demand for the Kids Help Phones’ services are growing fast; service interactions have more than doubled in the last three years.

So far this year in Manitoba, Kids Help Phone has helped youth as they deal with a variety of challenging issues, including depression, anxiety and stress, providing mental and emotional help for suicidal thoughts via phone calls and text messages.

— AV Kitching

Connor and Cordelia release jazz album

May 7, 7 p.m.

Tickets: $20 on Showpass

Local saxophonist and pianist Connor Derraugh and local singer Cordelia Donovan have joined forces on Acceptance, the first album from the emerging jazz duo Connor and Cordelia.

The album’s name refers to the pair’s mutual tragedy: a close friend, Cole Ediger, 26, died in his sleep, drawing Donovan home from Vancouver for the memorial service and sending Derraugh to his piano bench. A piece poured out of him, which he called Far Too Soon, in one tear-filled session.

Derraugh played the song at the funeral, and accompanied Donovan as she sang Amy Winehouse’s arrangement of There is No Greater Love.

Out of that shared pain emerged Acceptance, produced by Juno nominee Larry Roy. Connor and Cordelia take the stage at the Fort Garry Hotel on May 7.

— Ben Waldman