ALL LIT UP: To start, can you tell us a bit about your near-decade leading the Powell Street Festival in Vancouver? What first drew you to the role in 2015, and how did your connection to the festival evolve through to your departure in 2024?
EMIKO MORITA: I worked in publishing for the bulk of my career. When Douglas & McIntyre Publishing declared bankruptcy in 2013, I began working on some independent art projects. I visited Powell Street Festival’s office to pitch an archival photo project, Hiroshi Calling, and that’s when I learned about the posting for the executive director position. When I accepted the job offer, I understood two things: that my arts administration skills from book publishing would be transferable, and that my independent projects were to be set on the backburner.
What I didn’t expect was the steep learning curve and tremendous rewards of working in community. I made a tangible connection to the neighbourhood where my grandparents first settled and then were forcibly removed during the Internment era. I built strong relationships with Japanese Canadian and Downtown Eastside community members—and through those friendships, I found the courage to use my voice.
Ultimately, I discovered the power of connecting to people and place, of reckoning with histories of systemic discrimination and dispossession, and of working across differences to cultivate collective strength.
With the fiftieth anniversary approaching, I really wanted to bring my discoveries and understandings together in a retrospective exhibition and book. I couldn’t simultaneously run the organization and complete this project so it was time to pass the baton to a new director, and to give the festival room to grow under fresh leadership.
ALU: The Powell Street Festival brings together so many different elements, like food, crafts, music, and cultural programming. It’s full of activity and celebration, but it’s also deeply rooted in Downtown Eastside. Can you talk about those connections?
EMIKO: As I alluded to above, the Powell Street Festival is a celebration of Japanese Canadian arts and culture that takes place in a historically significant location, Paueru Gai, today known as the Downtown Eastside. In 1941, there was a vibrant Japanese community in the area— including at least 19 confectionaries, bakeries and rice-cracker shops, for example! After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour in December of that year, all people of Japanese descent were forcibly removed from the coastal 100-mile exclusion zone. Properties and belongings were sold without owners’ consent, and at a fraction of the value, to fund the incarceration of over 20,000 people. The
Internment trauma and losses had a devastating impact on the Japanese Canadian community. In 1977, the first Powell Street Festival was a gesture to honour our ancestors and, as the first large public gathering in Paueru Gai since 1942, it was a courageous return to a site of trauma. The festival continues to be an act of empowerment and regeneration of cultural identity.
ALU: Can you tell us about your book Return to Paueru Gai: Fifty Years of Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival? Why did this feel like the right moment to commemorate the festival and bring these stories together?
EMIKO: Fifty years is a big deal, worthy of reflection and commemoration!
While running the festival, I learned many idiosyncratic details and socio-political nuances—from “where to find the tug-of-war rope” (it took me several years!) to “how to be in community in a good way.” The book aims to connect tangible facts and lived memory to the festival’s core values and traits so that it might serve as a meaningful resource for future generations.
ALU: The collection brings together many different voices. How did you approach shaping those perspectives, and what felt most important to include?
EMIKO: I was seeking to create a multi-voiced origin story because I value the fact that people in the community hold different perspectives of the same events. The book includes archival documents, quotes, essays, and sidebars that actually reveal conflicting truths. I believe that the festival’s radical inclusivity—welcoming hard conversations, differing views, and evolving identities—makes it a vital space for connection and transformation.
ALU: Was there anything that surprised you as you were working on the book—something that shifted how you think about the festival or its history?
EMIKO: What became evident throughout our research is that the festival is shaped by a collective vision, and a deep commitment to place, culture, to human rights, as well as to its volunteers. It is much more than a performative cultural celebration. I understood this intuitively, and it was very exciting to discover letters, meeting notes and photographs that illuminated these foundational values.
ALU: For someone attending the Powell Street Festival for the first time, what kinds of experiences do you hope they walk away with?
EMIKO: The great thing about Powell Street Festival is that there is truly something for everyone. Some will come to enjoy the down-home cooking, and others might experience an avantgarde performance piece. And if someone is searching for a meaningful connection to their Japanese heritage, I hope they’ll discover it through the diversity of the festival experience.
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Emiko Morita, a third-generation mixed-race Japanese Canadian, is the curator of Return to Paueru Gai: Fifty Years of Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival and editor of its companion book. Her current project, Resonate, is a community art initiative mapping stories and sound across the Downtown Eastside.
The Powell Street Festival takes place this year on August 1 and 2. You can learn more about the event here.
