Winnipeg-born author Kate Bowler faces hard facts on search for meaning of happiness in 'Joyful, Anyway'

Kate Bowler wants you to know that joy is still made for you.

“Even now,” she says. “And even especially now.”

The Winnipeg-born, Durham, N.C.-based author, podcaster and Duke University professor of American religious history is back with Joyful, Anyway (Dial Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House), a new self-help-book-meets-memoir that continues Bowler’s ongoing mission: “Giving you permission to feel human.”

A decade ago, Bowler, now 45, was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer and was told, for years, it was incurable. The gruelling experience of treatment and recovery — she is in remission — changed her forever, and put our “good vibes only, everything happens for a reason” culture into stark relief. (Her 2018 New York Times bestseller is called Everything Happens For a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved, and her podcast is called Everything Happens.)

Joni Mitchell fêted by PM, fellow singer-songwriters at Juno awards

Joni Mitchell took the stage for her first performance since 2024 after accepting a lifetime achievement award from Prime Minister Mark Carney at Sunday’s Juno Awards.

What’s up: Grotoko, Philipp Schott, flower arranging, Dirty Dancing

GrotokoPark Alleys, 730 Osborne St.Saturday, 9:30 p.m.Tickets: $12One month after donning witch hats at Public Domain for their first gig as a full band, Grotoko — the former solo project of Winnipeg songwriter Blue McLeod — will keep on rolling at Park Alleys, a revitalized bowling alley that forms a veritable South Osborne venue trifecta along with the Park Theatre and Sidestage.

Known for its cynical, yet routinely optimistic lyrics — a necessary specialty for post-pandemic indie dirges — and McLeod’s clear-eyed, diaristic delivery, Grotoko is gearing up for its third album, a followup to 2022’s Periwinkle.

For those looking to get acquainted, Periwinkle sees McLeod’s lyrics floating atop jaunty baroque rock air, with the panflute and the glockenspiel joining as occasional passengers. Alongside Veronica Blackhawk’s project Tinge, Grotoko is one of the city’s top contemporary interpreters of the grunge era, with McLeod frequently decorating their tunes with Celtic mysticism. Grotoko is the main event on Saturday night, with midwest emo rockers On Purpose greeting audiences at 9:30 p.m. sharp.

— Ben Waldman

Hip-hop duo spread the word about social justice, education at STEM outreach program

During one of Canada’s busiest music weekends, two celebrated musicians stopped in Winnipeg to entertain 100 or so middle and high school students inside RRC Polytech’s auditorium.

On Friday afternoon in the final hours before spring break, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, a hip-hop duo from Kitamaat Village, B.C., paced the makeshift stage, delivering hits such as Boujee Natives while students jumped and chanted.

Many teachers danced too, overlooking the band’s mild profanity and bird-flipping amid the uplifting message of empowerment and fun.

“We were tired, but now we’re rejuvenated,” said band member Darren (Young D) Metz after seeing so many young people get fired up at their performance.

C’est l’amitié qui a gagné

Lors de la finale de la 30e saison de la Ligue d’improvisation secondaire tellement époustouflante (LISTE), un moment historique s’est joué: les Grenouilles grotesques et les Extra-terrestres rocambolesques, deux équipes du Collège Louis-Riel, ont remporté ensemble la victoire, partageant le trophée.

La soirée du 17 mars, une quinzaine de jeunes joueurs d’improvisation de la Division scolaire franco-manitobaine (DSFM) se sont rencontrés pour la finale de la trentième saison de la LISTE. Accueillies par une foule passionnée d’environ cinquante personnes, les deux équipes finalistes se sont rencontrées dans la Salle Pauline-Boutal du Centre culturel franco-manitobain (CCFM).

D’une part, en chemises vertes et représentés par des cartes de vote vertes, on retrouvait les Grenouilles grotesques, du Collège Louis-Riel (CLR). L’équipe s’est ralliée sous la houlette de leur capitaine Gabrielle Pagé, élève de 12e année.

De l’autre, en chemises noires et représentés par des cartes de vote jaunes, il y avait les Extra-terrestres rocambolesques, également du CLR. Cette équipe était dirigée par Nathan Perkins, lui aussi en 12e année.

Five Manitoba bowlers named to Team Canada, including back-to-back Marinelli champ Naylor-McCall

In the final frame of her semifinal match, bowler Marissa Naylor-McCall needed to strike and mark to advance and defend her title as Winnipeg’s tenpin champion.

WSO conductor shares stage with soloist son for Stewart Copeland piece

A tyrant stormed the Centennial Concert Hall as the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra presented rock royalty Stewart Copeland’s Tyrant’s Crush during its final Thursday Classics offering.

Choreographing conflict: Stage combat direction amps up royal rumblings in RMTC's The Last Wife

Last month at the Tom Hendry Warehouse, when the actors used paintbrushes and purses as ammunition in playwright Trish Cooper’s Holland, none of their movements were random. Every jab and swing was intricately plotted with the help of the production’s secret weapon.

Over the past decade, Jacquie Loewen has become Winnipeg’s go-to co-ordinator of onstage battles, hired to develop the physical language of conflict and character on stage with chessboard precision.

When theatre directors want to punch up their productions with carefully constructed realism or cartoonish slapstick, they often turn to Loewen to choreograph the good fight.

But fight direction isn’t only about the bumps and bruises, says Loewen, who worked with director Cherissa Richards to choreograph the royal rumbling in The Last Wife, the second-last production of Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s mainstage season. It’s about the slow accumulation of action that may or may not lead toward collision.

Singer-songwriter Del Barber trades life on the road to open small-town pizza parlour

Singer-songwriter Del Barber is working with a new creative medium: pizza.

The Juno-nominated artist has stepped away from his music career to open a wood-fired pizza shop in the little town of Inglis, where he and partner Haylan Jackson have been living for the past 12 years.

For Barber, who released his last album, Almanac, in 2023, the career change has been a long time coming. His connection with audiences felt like it was waning and the economics were becoming harder to justify.

“I was making less and less money every year as a touring musician,” Barber says over a video call while seated at the bar of The Shop, his new restaurant on the town’s main drag.

Dakota, Maples come out on top at provincials

This time, the Dakota Lancers got the last laugh.

One year after being denied a historic four-peat at the hands of the Vincent Massey Trojans, a revamped Lancers squad returned with another chance to win it all, against the same opponent at Investors Group Athletic Centre on Monday, and made good on their opportunity, earning a 78-73 triumph over the Trojans to capture the AAAA girls’ provincial basketball championship.

Later in the evening, the Maples Marauders defeated the Dakota Lancers 115-106 in overtime to win the boys’ provincial title.

The Dakota girls finished with a 30-2 record overall to capture their fourth title in the last five seasons.

PWHL Takeover Tour: Charge down Victoire in OT

It was a debut many hope will one day turn the dream of hosting a professional women’s hockey team in Winnipeg into a reality.