What’s up

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/04/2024 (883 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opportunity keeps knocking for X Ambassadors

X Ambassadors

• Burton Cummings Theatre
• Saturday, 8 p.m.
• Tickets: $54.50-$66.75 at ticketmaster.ca

A big break in music sometimes means getting the right people to hear the right song at the right time.

This moment of destiny happened in 2013 to the X Ambassadors, the Brooklyn rock group that plays the Burton Cummings Theatre Saturday night.

It was in a Norfolk, Va., hospital where Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons first heard the X Ambassadors’ track Unconsolable on an alternative radio station, and urged his band’s record label to sign up the group ASAP.

The quartet, which includes brothers Sam and Casey Harris and drummer Adam Levin, found traction after that bit of kismet, amassing more than 1.3 billion listens on Spotify from five EPs and four albums, including X Ambassadors’ latest record, Townie, which came out April 5.

— Alan Small

Mushrooms and Manitoba Maple Syrup

• Richardson Interpretive Centre, FortWhyte Alive, 1961 McCreary Road
• Saturday, 1-2.30 p.m.
• Cost included with general admission ($12 for adults 18-64; $11 for 65+; $10 for children aged 3 to 17) and free for members and Indigenous peoples.

Here’s your chance to learn how to grow mushrooms and harvest your very own maple syrup.

During this 90-minute workshop led by expert Ken Fosty, participants will be taught how to “plant” mushroom spawn and grow their own shiitake mushrooms on oak logs with a hands-on demonstration on how to inoculate logs with the mushroom spawn.

The second part of the workshop focuses on how to make syrup from local Manitoba maple and birch trees. Participants will learn to identify trees and select the right one to tap, before tapping trees, boiling off the sap, bottling and storing the syrup.

The workshop is recommended for adults and children aged 10+.

Mushroom grow kits and tree taps will be on sale after the demonstration.

— AV Kitching

Luckygirl Pop up

• Centennial Concert Hall
• Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Tickets: $8.50 at centennialconcerthall.com

This weekend, the Centennial Concert Hall hosts the Luckygirl Spring Pop Up, a vibrant gathering celebrating creativity and community while supporting local businesses. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than 140 local makers and artisans will showcase their talents, featuring a range of products and experiences.

Fashion enthusiasts can explore the latest trends from Fashion by Hafsa or Sarah Sue Design, while art lovers can discover captivating pieces from Black Artists WPG. And for coffee aficionados, Bricolage Coffee Roasters will be serving up aromatic brews.

Tickets are available on the Centennial Concert Hall website.

— Thandi Vera

Poet laureate launches new collection

Chimewemwe Undi book launch

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

Hot on the heels of receiving a distinguished alumni award from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg’s poet laureate is launching her debut poetry collection.

Chimwemwe Undi, who won the John Hirsch emerging writer Award from the Manitoba Book Awards in 2022 (and is also a lawyer), launches her collection Scientific Marvel on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location, where she’ll be joined in conversation with Charlene Diehl, director of the Winnipeg International Writers Festival.

The poems in Scientific Marvel, published on April 2 by House of Anansi Press, explore all manner of notions of race, gender, history, immigration and more, all rooted in a vivid sense of place and of what it means to be a Winnipegger writing about Winnipeg. (The collection’s title presumably references the now-shuttered downtown beauty school.)

Admission to Undi’s book launch is free; the event will also be streamed on McNally Robinson’s YouTube channel.

— Ben Sigurdson

Sustainable fashion hits the runway

• Canadian Museum for Human Rights, 85 Israel Asper Way
• Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Free admission

Fast fashion is in the crosshairs at an interactive runway show this weekend.

The event, hosted by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation, will feature games, workshops and displays aimed at educating visitors on the social and environmental toll of cheap, trendy garments.

Local designers Andréanne Mulaire Dandeneau, Lennard Taylor and Sarah Sue will share insights on sustainability in the clothing industry during a fashion show of their latest collections beginning at 1 p.m. in Bonnie and John Buhler Hall.

Following the show, guests are invited to take part in hands-on demonstrations on sewing, mending, beading and dyeing clothing with environmentally-friendly dyes.

The event takes place ahead of Fashion Revolution Week, an annual global campaign to promote conscious fashion consumerism running from April 15 to 24.

— Eva Wasney

If you value coverage of Manitoba’s arts scene, help us do more.
Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project.