New comic classes

A Langara instructor says
comics are experiencing a

rebirth. P4-5

Kombucha clamor

Local brewers spewing over
possible sweet bubbly beverage
sales tax. P7

Women speak out ie |

Langara students and an expert

discuss living in a patriarchal
society. langaravoice.ca

PRODUCED BY LANGARA JOURNALISM STUDENTS | WWW.LANGARAVOICE.CA

MARCH 5, 2020 +

VOL. 53 NO. 02 > VANCOUVER, B.C.

sequoia
benches
a slow

process

Kerrisdale group
to repurpose
beloved giant
tree this fall

By DANAUCA DORY

@) ne year after it was chopped
down, a beloved century-
old Kerrisdale sequoia
tree now sits in storage at Magee
Secondary School to be transformed
into community benches by shop
students.

The tree, which was removed in
front of Shopper’s Drug Mart at
Vine Street and West 41 Avenue,
has to dry out before it can be turned
into benches.

Key figures in the community,
Terri Clark, Andrew Robinson and
Mark Perry want to make sure the
tree remains into the Kerrisdale
community and hatched a plan to
turn it into benches they hope to
install along the Arbutus Greenway.

Clark, the Executive Director of
the Kerrisdale Business Associa-
tion, started the project after trying
to keep the tree alive. The tree was
estimated to be between 90 and 110
years old.

“Tt’s sad but we tried to make the
best of it,” Clark said of the tree’s
death.

As part of the Magee Design and
Fabrication program, students from
Magee Secondary School will be
making the benches once the wood
is done drying, which will happen
over the next few months.

“T think it’s really, really exciting
for them and holds a lot of value
for them,” said Robinson the head
of the shop department at Magee.
“Especially when it comes to taking
ownership of your neighbourhood
in your community.”

Robinson and his class doesn't
plan on painting the benches
because they want to retain the tree's
natural colour.

Although the benches are being
made by students, the project has
been acommunity effort, with Perry,
the owner of Kerrisdale Lumber,
helping with the transportation and
milling of the wood.

Perry said knowing the Magee
students will be creating the benches
is “just a heart-warming thought.”

A photo of Tarique Qayumi directing a TV series in Afghanistan called Defenders. He travelled back to his birth country in 2011 for four years to pursue his
passion in film and rediscovered his roots. susiiTTED BY TARIQUE QAYUMI

Filmmaker conquers fear

Former Langara student reveals his journey as a rerugee

By JACOB HOHEISEL

or Tarique Qayumi, child-

hood trauma and his expe-

rience as a refugee have

been the fuel and inspira-
tion for becoming a successful writer
and filmmaker.

His storytelling has helped heal
his own personal trauma and now
he has a platform to tell the stories
of others to help them.

“I want to go into writing. The
only thing I wanted to do in my life
was to become a writer,” Qayumi
said.

Russia invaded Afghanistan when
Qayumi was a young child in 1979.
Constantly running away from
danger, the family had to obtain fake
passports from smugglers to travel to
Demark and Portugal before settling
in Vancouver.

Qayumi also had to overcome
attention deficit disorder, a learning

disability.

His disability and traumatic child-
hood made it hard for him to fit in.

“T was kind of a loner... kind of
lived in my own magical world that
I created,” he said.

Qayumi first enrolled in pre-
med at UBC but switched to

creative writ-

tried to distance himself from the
story by inventing a character to give
it a distance from himself by invent-
ing a character to fit into the story,
Bushkowsky added.

In 2011, Qayumi received an
opportunity to work for TOLO,

a commer-

ing at Lang- 7) * cial televi-
ara, where The only thing I sion station in
he learned | wanted to doin mylife | Afghanistan.

to express His wife

his emotions
before going
back to UBC
to finish his
bachelor's degree. Then Qayumi
earned a Master's in film and televi-
sion at University of California, Los
Angeles.

He met Langara instructor Aaron
Bushkowsky more than 10 years ago.

“He stood out as the best writer
and the most skilled in visually
seeing a story,” Bushkowsky said.

Qayumi took a personal story and

was become a writer.”
— TARIQUE QAYUMI, WRITER & FILMMAKER

Tajana Prka,
joined him
from Germany
and turned a
business trip into the filming of
Black Kite, an Afghan father risk-
ing death to fly kites for his daugh-
ters childhood.

“Everything we experienced from
working in Afghanistan had an
immediate impact on us,” Prka said.
“Both of us come from a different
culture, we are always questioning
about identity, who am 1?”

Tarique Qayumi on set directing
Defenders. suBMiTTED BY TARIQUE QAYUMI