5 experimental genre-bending events to enjoy at this year's PuSh 2021

PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Vancouver’s mid-winter festival, returns for its 17th year of groundbreaking work in the live performing arts.

This year PuSh is bringing a series of genre-bending online shows and COVID-safe in-person experiences to Vancouver. Although PuSh is looking much different than in previous years due to the pandemic, the mission remains to connect audiences with original artistic experiences.

Here are five experimental online events that are part of PuSh this year:

Graveyards and Gardens

Co-presented with Music on Main, here is your chance to see an album emerge before your eyes — and to witness a unique, revelatory melding of movement and sound. This live streamed performance features a mixture of archival and electronic sounds, and the aural component is joined with dance creatively to give each element new dimensions. Entrancing, enveloping, and ultimately liberating in its innovations, this is experiential art at its best.

When: January 28 and 29, 2021
Time: 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm
Where: Online live stream
Tickets: Online

I swallowed a moon made of iron 我咽下一枚铁做的月亮, a Music Picnic Production – Online live stream

In this haunting song cycle, composer and performer Njo Kong Kie sets the poetry of factory worker Xu Lizhi to song and delivers a lament for our digital age. Kong Kie’s score for solo voice and piano is performed in Mandarin with English subtitles, combined with imagery, ambient sound, and more; it is an act of political witness, a vital human document, and, not least, a work of great beauty.

When: February 4 to 6, 2021
Time: Thursday and Friday at 7 pm, Saturday at 4 pm
Where: Online live stream
Tickets: Online

DJ Kookum & Sierra Baker / Missy D, co-presented with Coastal Jazz & Granville Island

Kookum is an open format DJ but grew up listening to EDM and Hip Hop music. With club residencies, one-off gigs, and through work as the official DJ for Snotty Nose Rez Kids, this diverse mix diva slays on the decks and always keeps it hype, fresh, and unpredictable. They’ll perform a 30-minute set with dancer, designer, community consultant, entrepreneur, artist, and storyteller Sierra Baker.

Next up, it’s Missy D, a bilingual emcee born and raised around the Motherland of Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire, and Zimbabwe. She’s been rapping since she was 11 years old in both French and English, and represents a blend of African cultures in her life-force and in her music, fusing hip hop, rap, and R&B with what she calls Rap & Soul.

When: February 19, 2021
Time: 8 pm
Where: Online live stream
Tickets: Online

Gordon Grdina Trio, co-presented with Coastal Jazz & Granville Island. – Online live stream

Gordon Grdina is a JUNO Award-winning oud/guitarist whose career has spanned continents, decades, and constant genre exploration throughout avant-garde jazz, free form improvisation, contemporary indie rock, and Arabic music.

When: February 20, 2021
Time: 8 pm
Where: Online live stream
Tickets: Online

PuSh Walks, streamed on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcast

Brand new to this year’s festival is PuSh Walks, aimed to get audience members out and about during these uncertain times. Put on your headphones and join in on this special series that features guided audio journeys through the urban spaces that have inspired the featured artists.

These walks are designed to be enjoyed on the listeners’ own time without any given time restriction. New walks are released weekly and are available on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

When: Any day
Time: Anytime
Where: Across Metro Vancouver
Tickets: Free

PuSh 2021

When: Winter 2021
Time: Various times
Where: Various online streams and in-person locations
Tickets: Online

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Daily Hive is a proud media partner of the PuSh 2021.