What’s up: Philharmonic Choir; films of Sylvia Hamilton and Claire Prieto; storytime; Emily Austin; French Class

Around the World in 80 Minutes

• Westworth United Church, 1750 Grosvenor Ave.
• Sunday, 3 p.m.
• Tickets: $20-$40 available online or 204-896-7445. Free for 12 and under

Let the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir take you for a spin around the globe with an afternoon of music from 16 countries and traditions in 13 languages.

Repping the North will be works from Scandinavian and Baltic composers, alongside some Canadian contributions: Winnipegger Andrew Balfour’s Sound Prayer for Mother Earth and a contemporary arrangement of the traditional Québécois folk song C’est l’aviron by Donald Patriquin.

From the East: songs from Japan, South Korea and China, as well as a Filipino folksong arranged by Winnipeg-born composer and conductor Philip Lapatha.

From the South: pieces by Brazilian and Argentine composers, and a pair of choral works from South Africa.

And from the West: works from France, Spain, the U.K. and Germany.

The Phil, along with pianist Donna Laube, will be led by Yuri Klaz and joined by guest artists Jackson Bartel and Will Spencler on percussion and violist Paolo Camus for this event, whose title is a riff on Jules Verne’s 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days.

— Jen Zoratti

---

The Films of Sylvia Hamilton and Claire Prieto

• Dave Barber Cinematheque, 100 Arthur Ave.
• Friday 7 p.m.; Saturday 5 p.m.; Sunday 3 p.m.
• Admission $9-$11.50

Stories of Black women in Nova Scotia are being highlighted this weekend at Cinematheque.

Three documentaries made between 1989 and 1992 by filmmakers Claire Prieto and Sylvia Hamilton will screen, including their collaborative work Black Mother Black Daughter, credited as one of the first National Film Board productions created by an all-female crew.

That film, alongside Prieto’s Older Stronger Wiser and Hamilton’s Speak It!, preserves and shares oral histories spanning eight decades in Atlantic Canada, illuminating the experiences of several generations of Black women in rural and urban communities, in church and in the workplace.

— Ben Waldman

---

Extra Story Time at the Museum

• Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada
• 2088 Wellington Ave.
• Saturday, 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
• Tickets: $9.50-$16 at royalaviationmuseum.com. Children two and under, free.

To wrap up I Love to Read Month, the aviation museum is hosting an additional weekend story session as part of its Extra Story Time program, featuring a volunteer-led reading of Daniel Kirk’s Newton and Curie Take Flight.

The story explores the science of flying after curious squirrel Curie sees a baby bird learning to fly and tries to take to the skies herself. But everyone in her life tells her that squirrels can’t fly. Determined to prove them wrong, Curie and her big brother Newton conduct various experiments to find a way to soar in the sky.

The reading introduces children to simple aviation concepts such as gravity, air currents, air pressure and lift through the principles of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math).

After the story, children will learn how to build simple model airplanes from popsicle sticks, exploring basic ideas of structure and design.

— AV Kitching

---

Emily Austin

• McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park, 1120 Grant Ave.
• Friday, 7 p.m.
• Free

Ottawa novelist Emily Austin visits McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location on Friday at 7 p.m. in support of her new novel, Is This a Cry for Help?, published in January by Scribner.

Austin is the author of 2021’s Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, which was longlisted for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour and was a finalist for both the Amazon First Novel Award and the Ottawa Book Awards.

She followed that up with 2023’s bestseller Interesting Facts About Space, the most circulated LGBTTQ+ book in Canadian libraries, and 2025’s We Could Be Rats.

Is This a Cry for Help? follows a book-loving librarian who has a mental-health breakdown after learning of her ex’s death. When she returns to work, she finds herself pitted against book-banning types and has to rally the support of her wife, friends, colleagues and the community to persevere.

Austin will be joined at the launch by Angela Torgerson, executive manager at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location. The launch will be streamed live on the bookstore’s YouTube channel.

— Ben Sigurdson

---

French Class

• Public Domain, 633 Portage Ave.
• Friday, 9 p.m.
• Admission TBD

Music careers can be built in funny ways.

A few years ago, artist Drue Langlois plucked an unknown song by another Winnipegger and gave it some funky, brilliant animation. That song was Robot Tune by French Class (Megumi Kimata), and today it has three million views on Langlois’ popular YouTube channel.

Kimata wisely uploaded the same materials to her YouTube and Spotify channels, where they accumulated another few million streams and built her a sizable online following after years of releases.

It’s equally thanks to its charming live show that French Class has established a loyal Winnipeg following. They come to see Kimata, usually joined by several friends, perform her unmistakable blend of Nintendo 64 boops-and-beeps and goofy anthemic choruses (“Boy goes goth!”; “Hot girl summer!”; “I don’t want to go to French class!”).

Local DJ BBS Steve and Grupo de Solar round out their Friday show at Public Domain.

— Conrad Sweatman

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.