Thin Air director closes book on job

for food cost estimator see https://staging.winnipegfreepress.com/uncategorized/2025/12/04/2026-food-cost-estimator

After 23 years at the helm of Thin Air, the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, director Charlene Diehl is stepping away to begin the next chapter in her life.

Diehl has been at the helm of what is now Plume Winnipeg, the organization that oversees Thin Air, since 2003, and will see out her role as director until the end of December.

Panellists look at social services for vulnerable people through a spiritual lens

Spiritual care has an important role to play when addressing social issues such as homelessness and mental health in Winnipeg.

That was the message shared Wednesday during a panel discussion at the Salvation Army’s Centre of Hope on Main Street.

The discussion was part of a half-day event titled Beyond the Physical: Spiritual Care in Community Care and Support. It was organized by the Interfaith Health Care Association of Manitoba, in partnership with the Manitoba Multifaith Council.

The goal of the event was to give people working in various community health and social service fields an opportunity to learn more about the role spiritual care can play in assisting people who experiencing homelessness, trauma, poverty and addiction.

Intimate concert series amplified by homegrown musicians

You won’t be subjected to the predetermined whims of a streaming service algorithm when you walk into King Cob Market Pub: only local music is on the menu at Darryl Friesen’s Ellice Avenue restobar.

Since opening to the public two winters ago, Friesen has been building an extensive digital library featuring thousands of songs by Manitoban artists he’s acquired either through his own purchasing habits or by donation from the performers themselves.

Over the course of a single pint, guests can expect a well-curated jaunt through a half-century of local tracks flowing through the bar’s eight-channel analog mixer and its 200-watt Yorkville speakers. During a recent visit, Bif Naked’s spoken-word poem Eine Tasse Tea led into Forever Dub by the Hummers into Don’t Change, a jangly folk tune from Dylan Csincsa, who releases music under the moniker Borrowed Standards.

The soundtrack on the stereo is one piece of the music-first strategy at King Cob, which has volunteered itself as the unofficial pre- and post-concert watering hole for its neighbouring venue, the West End Cultural Centre.

Nothing mysterious about Hood & Dagger’s motives

A bit part in a community theatre run in Selkirk has turned into a full-time pursuit for the Winnipeg couple behind Hood & Dagger, a non-profit that’s raised more than $15,000 for local charities through its stage productions.

Since its first show in 2024, Crystal and Brian Hood’s company has used the medium of mystery theatre to provide dozens of amateur actors and stage crew with key roles while also giving a financial boost to organizations such as Harvest Manitoba and the Winnipeg Pet Rescue.

Hood and Dagger’s next production — a stage version of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps running today through Sunday at the Gas Station Arts Centre — has sold out all five of its shows at $25 per ticket. Local food assistance program Agape Table is the designated beneficiary for the thriller, which should easily push Hood & Dagger past the $20,000 plateau.

“In a nutshell, we want to build community through community theatre,” says Crystal Hood, who was inspired to start the non-profit after playing a nurse in a production of M.A.S.H. mounted by Selkirk’s Holy Hams community theatre in 2022.

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: There are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions. The moon is in Cancer.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Even though you might prefer to be low-key or stay behind the scenes, this is also an excellent day to shmooz with family and relatives. Therefore, entertain at home. Invite someone over. Enjoy being generous to others because this will come back to you.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Shining a light on cultural harms caused by forgeries

Holding its world première tonight at Prairie Theatre Exchange, The Undeniable Accusations of Red Cadmium Light is a Drew Hayden Taylor original — he swears.

It’s something the writer from Ontario’s Curve Lake First Nation never thought he’d have to specify. After all, who would try to pass off their own work as his?

But in the era of artificial intelligence, when large language models are trained to mimic the tone, phrasing and paragraph patterns of successful authors such as Taylor, it isn’t just visual artists and musicians who risk getting their work ripped off by lazy imitators or shady profiteers.

“I was interviewed by CBC’s The National a year-and-a-half ago, and they were doing a piece on ( AI writing), so they asked the AI to write a short story in the style of Drew Hayden Taylor,” says the playwright, humourist, TV host and author of more than 30 books.

Stacking up

Last week, local fans of the hit television show Heated Rivalry received a thrilling notification: “Your hold at Winnipeg Public Library is ready to borrow!”

The gay hockey romance has become a major CanCon export, turning Haligionian author Rachel Reid, who penned the books upon which the show is based, into a New York Times bestseller and wreaking havoc on library wait-lists everywhere.

Things started heating up at the Winnipeg Public Library last month.

“That’s when it really took off. There was some increase in December, but not enough to warrant additional copies,” says Aileen Clear, one of three collections librarians responsible for keeping the city’s 20 library branches stocked with new and popular material.

Living, loving and laughing

Vibrant, spirited, joyful. The adjectives used to describe Yvonne (Cherry) Chase are the same words used to characterize the richness of her Caribbean culture and the way she lived her life in her adopted Canadian home.

The wife and stepmother was a dedicated nurse and a central figure of Winnipeg’s multicultural Folklorama festival.

Her parents, sister and many others called her Cherry, a term of endearment expressing the affection, warmth and cheerfulness she embodied.

According to her sister Andrea Grant, Chase packed in an extraordinary amount of living, loving, serving and shaping the lives of others.