Making a More Accessible Festival

Dear Verses Festival Goers (And Vancouver community members)

If you have not yet seen the event posted, we would like to invite you to come out to Havana Theatre today at 3:00 pm to participate in a community conversation happening around the topic of physical and social accessibility within arts communities. This conversation is the first session in a three part series called Talk the Talk, which is a new addition to the festival, and is aimed at engaging artists and community members in anti-oppression dialogue.

This conversation is of great importance to the Verses organizing committee and to the Vancouver community at large as we have attempted to stay progressive and make accessible spaces a priority in our planning. It is important to note that while efforts have been made and accessibility has remained a priority in our planning, we have had our own challenges and shortfalls in this process. Three of our festival venues this year (Cafe Deux soleils, Rio Theatre and The Prophouse Cafe) are spaces which currently hold only partial physical accessibility status, we would like to dialogue around this issue in a way that is solution oriented and hopefully create plans for improvement in years to come.

We ask that you, our community, come out to engage and contribute your thoughts and ideas to the discussion. Our hope is that we can develop strategies for improved accessibility, more visible accessibility information, as well as provide tools and resources that can be shared between communities. Lastly we would like to discuss the possibility of plans for converting important community spaces from partial and non accessible status into fully accessible spaces. This conversation will be facilitated by Alex Lu with contribution from several key community members, including you! We hope to see you there.

Havana Theatre is an accessible venue. To reach the theatre, you must pass through the restaurant to the gallery space. On the right, is a black door leading into the theatre. There is a narrow hallway and two doors to access the performance space, but no stairs.