As Artsweek Peterborough wraps up this weekend, you have one more chance to don an animal mask and participate in Woodland & the Wilds Promenade, with the final performance taking place at 2 p.m. on Saturday (May 13) at Ecology Park in Peterborough.

The promenade is a celebration of local wildlife and the animals that make the local ecosystem unique. The idea of the event is for audience members to participate in an embodied experience celebrating local ecology while engaging with the city’s artistic community.

Among the animals you can expect to encounter — or become — during the performance include foxes, bears, wolves, crows, and owls, with the masks created by Laurel Paluck. The performance also feature stilt-walkers in the guise of a monarch butterfly, a moose, a heron, and a praying mantis.

While the promenade is led by stilt-walkers Jennifer “Opal” Elchuk, Jeff Cadence, Victoria Kopf, and Victoria Wood with musical accompaniment provided by fiddler Jay Edmunds, everyone is encouraged to join by donning one of the available masks.

“It’s definitely not like a sit-down and spectate, although I guess it would still be fun to watch if you were not someone who wanted to promenade around,” Elchuk tells kawarthaNOW.

While the artists and performers in Woodland & the Wilds Promenade have worked together in the past, with the stilt-walkers members of the Peterborough Academy of Circus Arts, this is a new performance created for Artsweek Peterborough.

“Two of the stilt characters have been out at a couple of other performances over the last couple of years,” Elchuk says. “Jay did the music for a production I did with an aerial canoe and Jeff and Victoria Kopf were a part of that as well. Jay has also been with Laurel for her promenades in the past.”

Beyond the masks that will be lent to willing participants, there will also be the opportunity for audience members to dress in costume and join in on the proceedings.

“There are some costumes that allow audience members also to be woodland animals,” Elchuk explains. “People even without a costume can join our celebratory promenade.”

As the number of costumes and masks available for the public is limited, audience members are also welcome to bring their own costumes and join in.

“Anyone would be welcome to come with any animal ears or masks or costumes that they happen to have,” Elchuk says.

Woodland & the Wilds Promenade was first performed during Artsweek Peterborough’s opening night in downtown Peterborough last Friday, and again last Sunday afternoon at the Riverview Park & Zoo.

As well as mentioning her gratitude for Theatre Trent, which donated some funds for Woodland & the Wilds Promenade, Elchuk adds that some Peterborough Academy of Circus Arts students may join the stilt-walkers.

“We’re offering it as an opportunity for some of our students who’ve been getting really skilled at so far,” Elchuk says.

The final performance of Woodland & the Wilds Promenade takes place from 2 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 13th at Ecology Park, located at 1899 Ashburnham Drive in Peterborough. Parking is available in the Beavermead Park parking lot. Pedestrians and cyclists can access the park using the Trans Canada Trail entrances from the parking lot or from Ashburnham Drive.

For more information about Artsweek 2023, visit artsweekpeterborough.ca.

kawarthaNOW is proud to be the official media sponsor of Artsweek Peterborough 2023.

Every Thursday, we publish live music events at pubs and restaurants in Peterborough and the greater Kawarthas region based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, May 11 to Wednesday, May 17.

If you’re a pub or restaurant owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our nightlifeNOW editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com. For concerts and live music events at other venues, check out our Concerts & Live Music page.

With the exception of karaoke, we only list events with performing musicians. Venues may also host other events during the week (e.g., dancing, DJs, comedy shows).

In keeping with Artsweek Peterborough’s theme of art in unexpected places, be on the “look out” for works by local artists in downtown Peterborough until Friday (May 12).

Curated by Su Ditta, executive director of Artsweek Peterborough presenter Electric City Culture Council, “Look Out!” features installations by artists Sioux Dickson, Casandra Lee, and LA Alfonso and Age of Moss (Paul Moss) that investigate the possibilities of the urban landscape. A fourth installation by Sammy Tangir was presented earlier during Artsweek.

“Shadow Selves” by artist and accessibility advocate Sioux Dickson, described as “a photographic conversation about being a part of and apart from,” features four photos that reveal the shadow of the photographer and her wheelchair as she confronts accessibility challenges.

The installation is on display in the front window of PBO Kawartha: Prosthetics, Bracing, and Orthotics at 210 Hunter Street West. Dickson’s photos can also be viewed online at the Artsweek Peterborough website.

“Project: An Ode to Trees” by artist and illustrator Casandra Lee features painted “tree cookies” — cut from a fallen cedar tree that was a victim of last May’s derecho windstorm — that are tied in a non-harmful way at various heights on five of the artist’s favourite urban trees.

Lee’s work can be seen hanging on trees at the Peterborough Public Library at 345 Aylmer Street, in front of Sandy’s Variety Store near the corner of Aylmer and Hunter Street West, in the couryard behind Black Honey Cafe at 217 Hunter Street West, between La Hacienda and Sam’s Place on Hunter Street West, and in front of Kit Coffee on Hunter Street West between George and Water streets.

For “POV” at H. Paradigm Pictures at 161 King Street, video artists LA Alfonso and Age of Moss (Paul Moss) “infiltrate and activate the site’s media file systems for random ephemeral public consumption.” The video projection can be seen from 9 p.m. until midnight.

Sammy Tangir’s “Winter Weeds and Spring Shoots” was on display only on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon outside Robinson Place at 300 Water Street.

The work featured the “Winter Weeds” zine, a collection of photos of plants in their winter wares, along with “Spring Shoots,” described as “an activation that brings the intention of Winter Weeds into the present environment, inviting people to explore and notice the great diversity of spring plants thriving amongst the concrete around Water and Charlotte Street.”

PDF: “Look Out!” Walking Tour Map"Look Out!" Walking Tour Map

For more information about Artsweek Peterborough, visit artsweekpeterborough.ca.

kawarthaNOW is proud to be the official media sponsor of Artsweek Peterborough 2023.

The Lakefield Literary Festival, returning on Friday, July 14th and Saturday, July 15th after a three-year pandemic hiatus, has announced this year’s line-up of Canadian authors.

This year’s authors include acclaimed novelist Sheila Heti (winner of the 2023 Governor General’s Award for literature), novelist and screenwriter Iain Reid (recently proclaimed “Hollywood’s favourite Canadian” by The Globe and Mail), Anishinaabe author Waubgeshig Rice (who will introduce the sequel to his recent bestseller), and Harley Rustad (whose latest book recounts the tragic true story of an ill-fated spiritual quest in the Himalaya mountains).

Over two days at the Bryan Jones Theatre at Lakefield College School, the authors will present their latest works, engage in spirited conversations with a moderator, respond to audience questions, and sign their books. Admission to individual events is $35, or $90 for a pass to all the events.

Tickets are available at Happenstance Books and Yarns at 44 Queen Street in Lakefield or online at lakefieldliteraryfestival.com.

The festival’s opening event takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 14th at the Bryan Jones Theatre with Waubgeshig Rice and Kai Thomas.

Rice is an author, journalist, and former CBC radio host from Wasauksing First Nation on Georgian Bay who will present Moon of the Turning Leaves, the soon-to-be-published sequel to his bestselling novel Moon of the Crusted Snow that earned critical acclaim for its depiction of a post-apocalyptic future in a remote Anishinaabe community.

Thomas is an Ottawa farmer and educator whose debut novel In the Upper Country tells the intertwined stories of Black and Indigenous people living in the shadow of slavery in 19th-century Canada.

At 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 15th, the festival features Toronto authors Sheila Heti and Harley Rustad.

Heti, who has written 10 novels including Pure Colour that won the 2022 Governor General’s Award for literature, will present her new novel Alphabetical Diaries, which has been optioned for a Hulu television series.

Rustad, a non-fiction writer who came to national prominence for his 2018 debut Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees, has earned international acclaim for 2022’s Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalaya that explores the unsolved disappearance in 2016 of American backpacker Justin Alexander Shetler in India’s remote Parvati Valley.

On Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Kingston’s Iain Reid and Napenee’s Catherine Hernandez will take the stage at the Bryan Jones Theatre.

Raid, whose debut novel I’m Thinking of Ending Things was a New York Times bestseller adapted into a Netflix film by Charlie Kaufman and whose second novel Foe has also been adapted for a feature film, will present his latest psychological suspense bestseller We Spread, which tells the tale of an elderly artist who finds herself losing her grip on reality after moving into a unique retirement home.

Hernandez, who adapted her breakout debut novel Scarborough into a screenplay that was first runner-up for the People’s Choice Award at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival and won eight Canadian Screen Awards, will present her latest novel The Story of Us, focusing on the extraordinary friendship between a Filipina caregiver and her elderly client as narrated by an infant onlooker.

In addition to the ticketed author events, the Lakefield Literary Festival will also host its popular free Children’s Tent in Lakefield’s Cenotaph Park on Saturday morning.

Renowned children’s author Liz Macleo will present Meet Buffy Sainte-Marie, the latest book in her 10-part series introducing important Canadians to kids. Award-winning author, teacher, and performer Ted Staunton will present two of his books, including The Good Fight.

For more information about the Lakefield Literary Festival and for passes and tickets, visit lakefieldliteraryfestival.com.