What’s up: Catherine Hunter, Tragic Queendom, Katharine Bruce, Harte Trail, Great Wealth, BarkFest

Catherine Hunter book launch

• McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park location (1120 Grant Ave.)
• Tonight, 7 p.m.
• Free

Winnipeg author Catherine Hunter launches her latest book, the short-story collection Seeing You Home, tonight.

Hunter has worked in a variety of genres, to widespread critical acclaim. The former University of Winnipeg professor’s poetry collection St. Boniface Elegies was a finalist for the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Awards, while her collection Latent Heat won the 1998 McNally Robinson Book of the Year prize at the Manitoba Book Awards.

On the fiction side of things, Hunter’s novella In the First Early Days of My Death was a finalist for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for fiction at the 2003 Manitoba Book Awards; the previous year, her thriller The Dead of Midnight was shortlisted for the Margaret Laurence Award, as well as the Carol Shields City of Winnipeg Book Award and the Mary Scorer Award for the best book by a Manitoba publisher.

Published by Winnipeg’s Signature Editions, Seeing You Home is a collection of linked stories that follow a couple, Richard and Clare, from their first encounter through their time together and into Richard’s struggle with cancer in the St. Boniface Hospital and beyond.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

The launch of Seeing you Home was originally slated for Sept. 10, but was postponed until tonight due to illness. Joining Hunter at the launch of the collection will be fellow writer Margaret Sweatman.

The event is free; for those who aren’t able to attend, the launch will be available via McNally Robinson’s YouTube channel.

— Ben Sigurdson

 

Tragic Queendom: A Tribute to No Doubt + Gen X: The Ultimate 90s Rock Show

• Blue Note Park, 220 Main St.
• Tonight, 8:30 p.m.
• Tickets are $25 at eventbrite.ca

Relive music’s best decade (and no, it’s not up for debate) at Blue Note Park tonight.

Headlining is Tragic Queendom, Winnipeg’s tribute to No Doubt. A nod to the California ska-punk outfit’s breakout 1995 album Tragic Kingdom, Tragic Queendom is fronted by vocalist TJ Pepper (Big City All Star Band), who will be bringing her very best Gwen Stefani, and also features a four-piece brass section arranged by multi-instrumentalist Sean Irvine, who is known for his work with Royal Canoe, the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, David Braid and the Ron Paley Big Band.

Opening the show is GenX: The Ultimate 90s Rock Show, which plays tribute to all your favourite ’90s bands (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Green Day and more) in full costume. Get ready to flick those Bics.

— Jen Zoratti

 

Katharine Bruce: Prayers and Secrets

• Soul Gallery, 65 Albert Street
• Opening reception tonight, 6-9 p.m.

Katharine Bruce is a big believer in trusting the process.

The new paintings in Prayers and Secrets, the latest solo exhibition from New York-born, Manitoba-raised visual artist, slowly revealed themselves to her over the past year.

“Daily I go into my studio with an open heart, a willingness to explore my medium, and trust what flows through my body,” she writes in her artist statement. “What comes is a line, a choosing of colour, a brushstroke. It’s all magic to me. My job is to get out of the way.”

Twenty-three works will be on view at Soul Gallery until Oct. 4. The gallery will host an opening reception tonight with live music and refreshments.

— Jen Zoratti

 

Harte Trail Studio Art Tour

• Various locations along the trail
• Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Free

Explore the creative spaces of 20 Winnipeg artists in this curated tour, which winds its way through homes and studios close to the Harte Trail in Headingly, Charleswood and Tuxedo.

Established in 2018 as a way to take art outside the gallery and into everyday life, the tour provides an opportunity for artists to engage with the local community.

Now in its seventh year, the annual event gives visitors a chance to meet and talk to 20 local artists across 18 locations, as well as purchase their artworks. Download a brochure and map from www.hartetrailstudiotour.net

The Harte Trail, a 6.5-km section of the Great Trail, runs along the south side of Charleswood on a former rail bed. The active walking, cycling and running trail is maintained by volunteer group Friends of the Harte Trail.

— AV Kitching

 

Great Wealth EP Release

• The Handsome Daughter, 61 Sherbrook St.
• Saturday, 8 p.m.
• Tickets: $15 online at reallovewinnipeg.com, $20 at the door

On their latest release Blackout Summer, Great Wealth waves goodbye to memorable seasons they wish they could forget, wryly revisiting youthful cities that keep slipping through their fingers. Last Day of Summer is set in West Broadway; I Don’t Want to Remember You takes a ride on Vancouver’s Millennium Line, gentrification nearing in the rearview mirror. “Some people said they’d take me in, old friends of friends of friends,” sings Andy Cole, formerly of Eagle Lake Owls. “Man, you wouldn’t believe the rent. You would have loved the city then.”

“The EP wraps up where it started,” the indie quartet — which evokes the Hold Steady and the Rural Alberta Advantage — writes. “Our main characters’ younger selves facing an uncertain future as autumn looms ahead.”

Closer Six St. James — set deep in Munson Park and featuring a ripping saxophone from Gage Salnikowski — is the standout on the four-track EP, a followup to last year’s Runaways.

Joining GW on the bill are Prairie emo standouts Leon’s Getting Larger and Solaire, whose latest single, Tetanus, has as much bark as it does bite.

— Ben Waldman

 

BarkFest

• Red River Exhibition Park, 3977 Portage Ave.
• Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Tickets $16 to $39 at barkfestmb.ca

Dogs and dog lovers are invited to Red River Exhibition Park this weekend for a pooch-friendly festival in support of local animal rescue groups.

BarkFest the Ultimutt Dog Party runs Saturday and Sunday with live canine entertainment, including agility events, a talent contest and a dapper dog fashion show. Pet owners can also take in educational presentations on car safety, trick training and first aid.

You can also catch a glimpse of your companion’s future with the dog fortune teller — unclear if the seer is a human offering spiritual guidance to hounds or a particularly perceptive dog.

Stop by the indoor market to find vendors offering pet-centric products and services. Visit the barks and brews tent, puptail bar, barkery or K9 café for treats and refreshments.

Dogs (and kids under 12 years old) get in free and are welcome to zoom around the off-leash dog park and make use of the many pooch potties stationed throughout the grounds.

Proceeds and 50/50 raffle sales will support K9 Advocacy Manitoba, Manitoba Mutts Dogs Rescue and Manitoba Underdogs Rescue.

— Eva Wasney