What’s up

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/11/2022 (1364 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Santa Claus is coming downtown

Saturday, 3 p.m.

From Portage and Main to Memorial

Free to attend

The jolly old elf makes his annual appearance in Winnipeg this weekend during the Manitoba Hydro Santa Claus Parade in support of The Christmas Cheer Board.

You can catch St. Nick and his eight plastic reindeer floating down Portage Avenue this Saturday beginning at 3 p.m. The parade route starts at Main Street and concludes on Memorial Boulevard, with spectators welcome to watch from the surrounding sidewalks.

Sponsored block parties with family-friendly games and activities, like Reindeer Ring Toss and Christmas Cornhole, will be stationed along the parade route with festivities starting at 2 p.m.

Dress for the weather, consider public transportation and prepare for crowds. The annual event draws tens of thousands of people downtown and with several closed streets, parking and traveling through the area can get a bit hairy. Street closures begin at 1:30 p.m. and include the parade route and several side streets.

Visit Manitoba Hydro Santa Claus Parade website for more information.

— Eva Wasney

Poet takes centre stage

Rupi Kaur

Monday, 8 p.m.

Burton Cummings Theatre, 364 Smith St.

Tickets: from $65, Ticketmaster

Poet Rupi Kaur, who has a formidable 4.5 million followers on Instagram, will bring her unique brand of poetry to the Burton Cummings Theatre Monday night as part of her world tour.

Winnipeg is the second stop on the North American leg of her tour, after she spent the summer performing in Europe.

Famous for her sparse prose accompanied by minimalist drawings, her poems are exclusively published in lower case as a nod towards her mother tongue Punjabi. Her poetry tackles universal themes such as personal loss, love, friendship, community, growth, and mental health.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author, who emigrated to Canada from India when she was three years old, first came to attention in 2014 with her self-published first poetry collection milk and honey.

Her latest book, Healing Through Words, was published this year.

Showtime is 8 p.m. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

— AV Kitching

Local cider and wine celebrate ‘nouveau’ vintage

Saturday, starting at noon

Low Life Barrel House, 398 Daly St. N

Free admission

Every year on the third Thursday of November, the wine world celebrates the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau. The fresh and fruity red wine, made from the Gamay grape in France’s Beaujolais region, is the first taste of the current vintage from wineries north of the equator.

This year, however, things are a bit different. Beaujolais Nouveau is in much shorter supply, prices have crept up a couple bucks a bottle and while it was slated to be released today, Manitoba’s shipment won’t make it here until tomorrow or Monday, with our modest shipment was stuck in Toronto as of Nov. 16.

And while the Beaujolais Nouveau’s late arrival throws a wrench into celebrations which were slated to mark its arrival, over at Low Life Barrel House (398 Daly St. N.) they’ve put their own local twist on the party. Starting at noon on Saturday they’ll be popping corks on their Piquette Nouveau, a blend of Marquette, Chambourcin, Petite Pearl, Vidal and Riesling grapes, as well as the Next Friend Nouveau Cider, a blend of this year’s early-season Manitoba apples, offering up the first taste of their 2022 products.

Low Life/Next Friend head wine/cider maker Jesse Oberman will be on hand for most of the day to field questions and offer some other fun surprises to taste, while Beaujolais-inspired snacks will be available for purchase between 1-8 p.m.

— Ben Sigurdson

Love is all you need

The Power of Love: Mennonite Community Orchestra

Sunday, 3 p.m.

Lutheran Church of the Cross, 560 Arlington St.

Tickets: $20 for adults, $10 for students, free for children under 12 available here

The Mennonite Community Orchestra, along with the goodwill partner Mennonite Disaster Service, will be exploring the theme of power of love through music and stories at an upcoming concert.

MCO, the orchestra in residence for Canadian Mennonite University, will perform a repertoire featuring several Canadian connections, including works by former Winnipegger Andrew Balfour as well as John Estacio and Geoffrey Ridout.

The Mennonite Disaster Service, a relief agency that rebuilds homes destroyed by natural disasters, will share stories of their work during an interlude.

This is the first concert in which a goodwill partner is collaborating with the MCO.

The concert takes place Nov. 20 at 3 p.m. at Lutheran Church of the Cross, 560 Arlington Street. Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for students and free for children under 12. They are available at the door or by contacting Mennonite Community Orchestra.

Un. Deux. Trois.

Nov. 17-20 at Théâtre Cercle Molière

Tickets: $13

There are grand productions, and then there is Un. Deux. Trois., debuting tonight at the Théâtre Cercle Molière, from the mind of director Mani Soleymanlou. The show, which is in French with English subtitles, has an epic running time of four hours, and a cast of 40 performers, all uniting on stage to answer une questione importante: What does it mean to be francophone in Canada?

An important question, indeed.

— Ben Waldman

Local acts take on King, Dylan

Thursday, Nov. 17, 8:30 p.m.

Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, 234 Main St.

Tickets: $15 at eventbrite.ca

Two of Winnipeg’s up-and-coming artists will play some of their favourite tunes from two songwriting titans, Carole King and Bob Dylan, Thursday night at the Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club.

The Grey Jays — a roots/R&B group that released the album Birds in 2015 as Holly Ruth and the Grey Jays, and a single under their new name, Molecules, last year — will perform some of King’s trove of songs, which include ones she co-wrote for other artists, such as (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, which became one of Aretha Franklin’s biggest hits, and It’s Too Late, which King recorded herself in the 1971 album Tapestry.

Sam Singer — a singer-songwriter who dropped albums Fatal Friends and Don’t Mistake Me for a Lovebird in 2017 and 2019 respectively, and a single, Don’t Make Me Blue earlier this year — will sing some of the six decades of music Dylan has written and recorded, which include pop-culture anthems such as The Times They Are a-Changin’ or songs of heartache, such as Simple Twist of Fate.

— Alan Small

If you value coverage of Manitoba’s arts scene, help us do more.
Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project.