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Woodstock Revisited
TOM WAYMAN ON THE SIXTIES
» Wednesday 7 July 2010 | 7 pm
» Kalamalka Café, Okanagan College, Vernon
An informal evening hour showcasing ideas and people in the Okanagan creative economy. Join us as Canadian writing icon Tom Wayman takes us back to the time - the late 1960s - when time stood still, and dreams were busy being born, and life was simple and full of promise and endless opportunity.
» $2 at the door. Refreshments are available.
» Please reserve a seat at this presentation HERE.
Canadian Writing Icon Revisits the Golden Age of the Sixties
The 1960s continue to cast a huge shadow forward into our life today. Socially, politically, culturally we're still processing all that those brief years initiated. No era after the European Renaissance radiated the same magic until the explosion of light, colour, creativity, and change of forty years ago. The multifaceted legacy of that time continues to suffuse our lives. A chance to relive those heady days when young people were poised to change the world will occur at the Okanagan launch of Tom Wayman's stunning new novel.
 Woodstock Rising traces the adventures of a Canadian grad student in southern California during the tumultuous fall, winter and spring following the August 1969 Woodstock Festival. Woodstock Rising portrays how the defining aspects of the period - radical politics, societal changes, rock music - influenced and were influenced by the usual preoccupations of young people, including school, career, dating, mating. Like the era it portrays, the novel is both serious and light-hearted: besides accurately depicting the radical milieus young people were part of when revolution seemed near at hand, the plot also offers some counter-culture types determined to blast the Woodstock Nation into the space age.
On Wednesday, July 7th at 7 pm the alternate weekly Okanagan Institute Showcase series at the Kalamalka Café, Okanagan College, Vernon presents Woodstock Revisited: Tom Wayman on the Sixties. Join us as Canadian writing icon Tom Wayman takes us back to the time - the late 1960s - when time stood still, and dreams were busy being born, and life was simple and full of promise and endless opportunity.
"You can almost smell the pot smoke mingling with the ocean mist," wrote Calgary's Fast Forward Weekly. The Calgary Herald said: "While his novel delves into serious and complex issues, it's also a comedy. Woodstock Rising is a coming-of-age tale, where characters dress in hippie garb, smoke joints and utter the occasional 'far out' or 'right on.' But it also looks at the political divisions of the student movement ... some of the hard lessons learned by the movement."
 Tom Wayman's first collection of short stories, Boundary Country (2007) was shortlisted for Canada's national prize for debut short fiction, the Danuta Gleed Award. His book of novellas, A Vain Thing, appeared the same year (2007). Woodstock Rising is his first novel. Among Wayman's many collections of poems are My Father's Cup (2002), shortlisted for the Governor-General's Literary Award, and High Speed Through Shoaling Water (2007).
Wayman has written about the sixties and his novel:
"I had wanted to write a book about the 1960s that shows how all the changes that we've come to identify as representative of that era were occurring simultaneously, each influencing the others. Most accounts of the Sixties I've read single out only one subject - rock music, or radical politics, or the counter-culture - whereas none of these really occurred in isolation from each other. And all of these changes happened amid the usual concerns of young people: school/career/dating and mating.
"When people jeer at the Sixties, mostly because such mockers are made uneasy by the values the minority in that era championed, people invariably mention "sex, drugs and rock and roll". All these actually happened, and appear in my novel, but really the list is: "sex, drugs, rock and roll, and politics" - and the last term greatly influenced the other three. Young people were at the forefront of the civil right movement protesting racism and segregation, at the forefront of the women's movement, and at the forefront of the anti-draft movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and the anti-imperialist movement. Eventually, some young people realized that protest was not enough - that what was needed was a fundamental rethinking about alternative ways to organize a self-governing society.
"Most of all, the Sixties were about hope. So much had changed so fast that we who were socially active in that period believed we could change everything for the better. That sense of hope gave us energy to build new institutions. Every social institution - from schools to marriages - was up for reconsideration. In fashion, we went from drab conformity and rigid dress codes to a virtual rainbow of color, shape, form."
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER ONLINE CLICK HERE
Woodstock Revisited: Tom Wayman on the Sixties takes place at the Kalamalka Café on the campus of Okanagan College in Vernon. This is the 6th event the Institute has held there, and the 153th public presentation offered by the Okanagan Institute since 2007.
Showcase is directed, convened and hosted by Katie Brennan and Robert MacDonald. The Institute has played host to many Okanagan luminaries, including former deputy secretary general of Amnesty International Derek Evans, artists Lee Claremont and Gary Pearson, BC Book Award nominee Don Gayton, CBC Literary prize winner poet Harold Rhenisch, distinguished editor and author Jim Taylor, poet laureate and professor John Lent, creative entrepreneur Nikos Theodosakis, animator and filmmaker Jim Cliffe, community activist Don Elzer, dancer David LaHay, architect Jim Meiklejohn, culinary artist and writer Heidi Noble, broadcaster Marion Barschel and many others from a wide range of creative fields.
The Okanagan Institute is a group of creative professionals that has gathered around the goal of providing events, publications and services of interest to enquiring minds in the Okanagan. We partner with individuals, organizations, institutions and businesses to achieve optimal creative and social impact.
Our mission is to ignite cultural transformation, catalyze collaborative action, build networks and foster sustainable creative enterprises. We invite the participation by all members of the creative community.
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