What’s up

Veg Out with vegan comfort food

Jan. 19 to 28

Various locations

Visit Winnipeg Veg Fest website for more information

Three weeks into the new year and Winnipeg is already celebrating its second food festival. Veg Out, the annual vegan restaurant event hosted by Winnipeg VegFest, kicks off today on the heels of Fried Chicken Fest.

Veg Out’s mission is to raise awareness about veganism while raising funds for local animal aid organizations. This year’s recipient is the Free From Farm Sanctuary, a refuge in Ste-Geneviève, Man. that provides a permanent home for unwanted or abused farm animals.

There are nearly 30 restaurants participating in the 2023 edition of Veg Out, which runs for 10 days until Jan. 28.

Featured menu items include cavatelli with vegan peppercorn cheese from Inferno’s Bistro, a barbecue pulled tofu bun from the Mighty Kiwi Juice Bar & Eatery, a chickpea frittata from Marion Street Eatery, caramelized banana bread from Eadha Bread, and many more.

— Eva Wasney

Wab Kinew — The Everlasting Road hybrid book launch

In conversation with Tasha Spillett-Sumner

Wednesday, 7 p.m., McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location

Free admission

While he’s no Prince Harry, Winnipeg author and politician Wab Kinew is hoping you’ll “spare” some time to check the launch of his latest young adult fiction.

Kinew’s new novel The Everlasting Road had the unfortunate luck of being published on Jan. 10 — the same day as the Duke of Sussex’s much-hyped memoir Spare. No matter — on Wednesday, the author and leader of the New Democratic Party of Manitoba will talk about the second book in his Floraverse series (the follow-up to the award-winning Walking in Two Worlds) with local author Tasha Spillett-Sumner at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location.

The Everlasting Road follows an Indigenous gamer named Bugz who seeks solace in the virtual world of the Floraverse after her older brother’s death. In the Floraverse she creates a bot called Waawaate to battle ClanLess members with her friend Feng, who grew up in China but now lives on the same rez as Bugz.

Can the pair fend off the ClanLess in the Floraverse? Will Feng end up having to return to China after he receives news his parents are alive and are looking to contact him? Kinew will answer questions, read from The Everlasting Road and discuss it all with Spillett-Sumner.

There’s no cost to attend; in addition to an in-person event, McNally Robinson will also be streaming the launch of The Everlasting Road on their YouTube page.

— Ben Sigurdson

Times Change(d) launches inaugural winter blues festival

Saturday, 3 p.m., Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club, 234 Main St.

Tickets: $22.09 at Eventbrite

There are plenty of reasons to be blue about the winter — a festival’s worth to be precise.

Five artists will take the stage at the Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club Saturday for the inaugural Winter Blues Fest.

The Debra Lyn Neufeld Band kicks off the bluesy proceedings at 3 p.m., followed by the Curtis Newton Band (4:30 p.m.), the Chris Ghidoni Band (6:15 p.m.), the JP Lepage Band (8 p.m.), and winding up with Son of Dave at 9:45 p.m.

Son of Dave, whose combination of harmonica and beatbox blues earned a Western Canadian Music Award nomination in 2022, released the album Call Me King last April and in December he got prepared for 2023 with a single, New Year’s Eve Was Wild Last Night.

— Alan Small

Women Talking

Cineplex Odeon McGillivray, Landmark Cinemas 8 Grant Park

Various times

People are talking about Women Talking, the latest film from Sarah Polley (Away From Her, Stories We Tell), based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Manitoba writer Miriam Toews.

Featuring costume designs by Winnipeg’s Quita Alfred, profiled earlier this month in the Free Press, the film has earned effusive praise from critics and audiences alike. A.O. Scott, the New York Times’ co-chief film critic, raved about the movie, which raises important questions about the way society is ordered and disordered. “The women don’t want pity or revenge,” Scott writes. “They want a better world. Why not listen?”

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