Art has a way of binding people in moments of crisis and revolution. It illuminates common truths and feelings evoked through shared experiences, making individuals feel less isolated. The historic moment that we’re currently living through is no different. It’s clear that art, in its many expressions, has become the fire around which we gather, no matter the circumstances. 

This is what makes events like BC Culture Days, a month-long artistic festival, so vital and relevant. Entering its 11th year, the event fosters creative connections in communities across the province. It brings people together over a wide-range of artistic programming—from natural ink making and burlesque, to musical performances and painting workshops. With free or pay-what-you-can offerings, the event’s virtual space breaks down barriers to artistic communities. 

From September 25—October 25, BC Culture Days will celebrate this year’s theme of unexpected intersections—a timely take on 2020 writ large, and an open invitation for genre-bending, form-defying creation. 

Emerging artist and BC Culture Days Ambassador Coral Santana says the festival is an opportunity for people to try anything and everything. The theme invokes things we’ve never thought of, and taboos hidden in plain sight. 

Santana’s contribution to the festival theme comes in the form of her creative direction and production of ARTIVISM: Sex + The Unheard, exploring the connections between minority experiences of sex, sexuality and body ownership. 

ARTIVISM is jam-packed with a wealth of eclectic offerings, including open mic nights, spoken word and dance performances. Prominent sexuality educators will host workshops on race, kink and consent culture, as well as sex work and disability. There’s even an aphrodisiac cooking show with a virtual, community dinner on the menu. As if that’s not enough, audiences can also expect puppet sex-ed shows, sex activism trivia nights, and a performance by local hip-hop, rap and soul artist, Missy D. 

As an Afro-Latinx woman with an invisible disability, the show is personal for Santana. Fueled by an insatiable curiosity, her work explores her mixed heritage and how colonialism has shaped her perception of self. An advocate for gender, sex and sexuality, she uses her platform to amplify the voices of resistance in her community. 

“Sex, gender and body ownership are topics that touch everyone,” says Santana. “Either you’re in a minority community or you know someone who is. Why not learn about these experiences?” 

The show is also a political statement, boldly addressing what Santana calls the passivity of diversity in Vancouver, and the perspectives that remain missing from the dominant diversity narrative. 

“In this era of social revolution, it’s important to understand how themes of sex and the unheard are relevant to trauma, and the reclaiming that we’re doing right now. With this event, I’m not only trying to create art myself, but to hold space for others who have their own commentary on what’s happening,” she says in reference to the intersection of the Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19.

For Santana, a 4th year UBC student and director of the campus arts organization, Dive into UBC, this event marks another momentous occasion: the first time she has actually referred to herself as an “artist”. 

Santana hopes that those attending BC Culture Days will find community within the diverse content and many artistic mediums presented. She encourages participants to start conversations, welcome new perspectives, and endeavor to find something in common.

“Art is a way to realize that we’re not alone in a feeling. It may be anger, fear, despair, or hope. We see art and we think, you just represented this feeling that I was having, a feeling that I didn’t know looked like this, or sounded like this.”

Explore the BC Culture Days program for a full list of unexpected intersections, and many reasons to gather with new communities province-wide.