Summer soundwalks
Walk #2
Creativity and Deep Listening: Weaselhead Park Soundwalk with Kenna Burima
August 8 2021
7PM
weaselhead parking lot
6615 37th St. SW
free
Creativity & Deep Listening
Weaselhead Park Soundwalk with Kenna Burima
The land where the Elbow River flows into the Glenmore Reservoir teems with life among the trees. Hundreds of species of birds, animals and insects create a symphonic cacophony nestled amongst the background of airplanes, traffic, construction, and human language. The land here has a rich, complex human history too that speaks to our positionality as listeners in the “natural world”. Be you an artist yourself or one that is looking to connect with a yet unknown creative process, this soundwalk has been created with you in mind. Opportunities for sharing will be given space following the walk if it calls to you.
During the soundwalk, Kenna will offer gentle prompts for opening to creation; be it through the expression of our individual and collective relationship to the sacred natural world or the heaving turmoil of our inner landscapes. Where these two fields of perspective merge is where deep listening occurs and creative expression has the potential to pour forth.
Kenna Burima is a composer, musician, teacher, writer and broadcaster living on Treaty 7 land where the Bow and Elbow rivers converge. She is currently completing writing and recording her third solo album While She Sleeps, a collection of art songs exploring the experiences of motherhood, depression, and self-discovery.
top image by Yves Dansereau. bottom image shows walking route.
the walk
We will depart from and return to the Weaselhead parking lot at 66th Avenue and 37th Street S.W. Please arrive at 6:45PM.
Following a short introduction and history of the land, we will walk west along a short, gravelled pathway that leads to the main, paved Glenmore Reservoir pathway. The soundwalk will last approximately 1 hour and will take place at a slow pace, with frequent stops. The walk will cover approximately 2.5KM and take place on paved even pathways, though there is a rather steep hill down to the river delta.
Due to COVID-19, pre-registration is required and walk size will be limited to 20 people. Bring water, bug deterrent, and dress for the weather. Walk will take place rain or shine.
accessibility
Walk is fully accessible to those using wheeled mobility support. Due to the hill near the start of the walk, it may be challenging for those using canes or walkers; however the pace will be slow, with frequent stops.
There are public washrooms (Porta Potties) on site.
Featuring
kenna burima
In her adopted hometown of Calgary (Mohkinstsis, Treaty 7 land), Kenna Burima has earned a reputation as someone who can turn ideas into big projects, teach the unteachable and inspire people to come together. But at her core, Burima wears one label most proudly: musician.
Since her completing classical music education with an Artist Diploma in piano performance from Mount Royal University and a BMus from University of Calgary, Kenna’s love for all musical forms has seen her involved in a diversity of projects over the years; the indie-folk of Woodpigeon, the garage sludge of Brenda Vaqueros, and the retro-punk of LoveWaves. She currently plays keys in organ punk band Jeans Degrees and the sweaty stoner rock of Beaver Squadron and continues to work with other artists when time allows. Grandiose projects abound through the years nurturing Kenna’s compositional skill and style. Most notably long-time collaboration with iconic performance theatre company One Yellow Rabbit offered opportunities to utilize the largest and loudest of instruments, the carillon of the Calgary Tower. First composing the requiem Rico’s Requiem for long time member Richard McDowell upon his passing in 2014 followed by 2017’s The Calgary Songs Project, an ambitious transcription and arrangement of a thirty-song playlist comprised of Calgary songwriters stretching over thirty years. This work dovetails into her daytime concerns of teaching songwriting and piano to students of all ages at her home studio she shares with her husband musician and engineer Steve Fletcher and their 4-year-old daughter.
But the best way to figure out what drives Kenna is to delve into her solo albums; classical cabaret affairs that draw on her vast musical know-how. Pinning Kenna’s solo music down is no easy task — the complexities of her songwriting and performances reflect the heart of an artist who is never content to restrict herself to one genre, one project, or one set of rigid ideas. With her second solo album Hymn, Kenna used her boozy-cabaret-style pop songs (the beginnings born of a residency at the celebrated Banff Centre for the Performing Arts) to mine musical, political, and emotional ground, bravely reporting her findings with raw honesty and musical vulnerability. Swirling synths, resplendent horns, and Baroque fueled piano accompaniment underpinned a vocal depth harkening back to Blue Note singers and Motown belters. With Kenna’s recent work on her third solo album While She Sleeps, almost complete, she now turns inward from the angry intensity found on Hymn to unravel the quiet mysteries of creation. Gone are the trappings of large-scale band dynamics and musings on the societal ills of the day. It’s just her and a grand piano. And motherhood, she admits, has changed her. Most notably it seems through the necessity of process – the concept album is a direct reference to the entire album being written and recorded while her daughter sleeps. The album is slated for a 2021 release, first as an illuminated songbook designed by lifelong collaborator visual artist Brianna Strong and then as a fully animated album for auditory enjoyment online.
www.KennaBurima.com
Summer soundwalks
Walk #1 - sunnyside by side
June 17 2021
6pm portland start
7pm Calgary start
Sunnyside By Side
Guided Soundwalk in two different cities
Presented in partnership with containR
Two neighbourhoods, 1,200 km apart, both occupied by European descendants in the late 1880s, with common histories of trolley transport and freeway resistance, now house restaurants and infill housing on lands that had been village sites, hunting grounds, grasslands, and forests filled with game, roots, and berries. On June 17, 2021 artists Rebecca Bruton in Sunnyside, Calgary, Alberta and Julie Hammond in Sunnyside, Portland, Oregon will lead Sunnyside By Side, an evening soundwalk of simultaneous and speculative listening to the place we are and the place we aren’t. This guided walk will take listeners through a variety of sonic environments, attuning attention to the presently present and across physical and chronological distances.
![Top: [a digital collage in which two antique maps are overlaid on top of each other. one is an 1911 draft of the City of Calgary; not all the neighbourhoods are filled in. the other is a 1901 map of the City of Portland. a dotted line is drawn from the bottom left corner (where ‘City of Calgary’ is written in bold type along with publication information) to the top right corner (where ‘Portland’ is written in bold type). overlaid faintly against the maps are a series of concentric circles, and an image of two women leaning with their ears against a steel railing]. Collage by Julie Hammond.Bottom: [two women-presenting people lean over a steel railing by a still body of water. they each have an ear to the railing, and appear to be smiling or laughing. one of the people is wearing a black fabric Coronavirus mask on her face]. photograph from An (Almost) Equinox Soundwalk, created & produced by Julie Hammond, September 2020. Photo by Marcus Fischer.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6019ca92c3a95746b6204588/1623163874338-NHABO5KLBKV8BO52FK47/JH_Soundwalk_085.jpg)
Top: [a digital collage in which two antique maps are overlaid on top of each other. one is an 1911 draft of the City of Calgary; not all the neighbourhoods are filled in. the other is a 1901 map of the City of Portland. a dotted line is drawn from the bottom left corner (where ‘City of Calgary’ is written in bold type along with publication information) to the top right corner (where ‘Portland’ is written in bold type). overlaid faintly against the maps are a series of concentric circles, and an image of two women leaning with their ears against a steel railing]. Collage by Julie Hammond.
Bottom: [two women-presenting people lean over a steel railing by a still body of water. they each have an ear to the railing, and appear to be smiling or laughing. one of the people is wearing a black fabric Coronavirus mask on her face]. photograph from An (Almost) Equinox Soundwalk, created & produced by Julie Hammond, September 2020. Photo by Marcus Fischer.
the walk
The soundwalk will last approximately 1 hour and will take place at a slow pace. Due to COVID-19, pre-registration is required and walk size will be limited to 10 people. Please wear a mask, bring water, and dress for the weather. Walk will take place rain or shine.
Calgary: Walk will depart from containR (located by the Sunnyside LRT Station) at 7:00 pm MT. Please arrive at 6:45pm.
Portland: Walk will depart from the south side of Sunnyside Environmental School (SE Salmon St between 34th & 35th) at 6:00 pm PT. Please arrive at 5:45pm.
accessibility
Each walk will cover approximately 2.5KM / 1.5 miles, and last for approximately one hour. The walks will be slow, with frequent stops. The Calgary walk will take place predominantly on paved walkways, with some short excursions over a grassy park area, and through some wooded paths at the base of McHugh Bluff. There are public washrooms available at the starting point of the Calgary walk. The Portland walk will take place predominantly on paved pathways with some short excursions over grass and dirt paths, and steps up/down over uncut curbs. There is an optional section involving a steep flight of stairs. There are no public washrooms available.
Featuring
Julie hammond
Julie Hammond is a theatre maker and instigator of public projects currently based in Portland, Oregon. Her practice activates spaces with the performative, and investigates the relationship between performance and audience, spectator and place, site and story. She creates in collaboration with peers, students, non-artists, and places, and uses her background as a theatre artist to make projects that do not always look like theatre. Her work as a theatre director has toured and been presented by On the Boards (Seattle), Artists Repertory Theatre (Portland), Z Below (San Francisco), the Alliance of Jewish Theatres (Boston, MA), and the rEvolver Festival (Vancouver, BC), among others. Recent participatory public art projects include a year-long residency through the Vancouver Park Board (wayfinding // wandering), a community performance/installation for Richmond Public Art (Minoru Manifesto), soundwalks for Vancouver New Music and Third Angle New Music, and collaborations with students in elementary and secondary schools exploring historical landmarks, site, and boredom. Julie holds a BA in Theatre from Bates College (Lewiston, Maine) and a MFA from Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, BC).
rebecca bruton
rebecca bruton is a Calgary-based composer, song maker, vocalist, and bandleader of the rarely-heard experimental supergroup Swanherds. She creates across several musical mediums, including chamber music, film scores, and free improvisation. Rebecca’s chamber compositions are widely performed, having been commissioned by Ekmeles vocal ensemble, Quatuor Bozzini, Quasar Quatuor de saxophones, Arraymusic, and more. She is one half of the vocal performance duo Moss Moss Not Moss, with Canadian-Icelandic poet Angela Rawlings. With sound artist Alexandra Spence (AUS), Rebecca co-founded Tidal ~ Signal, a Vancouver-based festival dedicated to supporting women and transgender artists creating experimental music. Rebecca holds a Master of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University, and is Co-Artistic Director at New Works Calgary.
