VIU Faculty Association Women's & Gender Equity Committee

🌈 NANAIMO PRIDE PARADE ROUTE 🌈

Parade Route:
➡️ Fitzwilliam Street
➡️ Bastion Street Bridge
➡️ Commercial Street
➡️ Church Street
➡️ Front Street
➡️ Ends at Maffeo Sutton Park

🗓 Sunday, June 14th
🚶‍♀️ Parade starts at 11:00 AM
🎊 Pride Festival: 12:00 – 5:00 PM at Maffeo Sutton Park

✨ Come early, bring your signs, flags, and biggest smiles. Let’s paint the streets with Pride! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

More information: https://www.nanaimopride.ca/event-details/nanaimo-pride-festival-1

TODAY!

Please join us in person or online this coming Saturday for the Third Annual Watermelon Seeds Festival of Literature!

Saturday, May 23 | 12 PM Pacific Time
VIU Gustafson Theatre, Building 355 Room 203, on the land of the Snuneymuxw First Nation and by live video stream

Register: Click here to register for the livestream
Admission: Free and open to the public

Internationally acclaimed and award-winning writers read in solidarity with the Palestinian people in a time of genocide.

The Festival features Batool Abu Akleen (48Kg.), Sarah Aziza (The Hollow Half), Jess Housty (Crushed Wild Mint), Sara Kishawi, Hajer Mirwali (Revolutions), Magnolia Pauker (InterViews in Performance Philosophy), Zeina Sleiman (Where the Jasmine Blooms), and Smokii Sumac (Born Sacred). A hybrid event with readings by video and an interview on site.

Following the success of the second Watermelon Seeds Festivals of Literature, the third annual Festival will take place in the Gustafson Theatre at Vancouver Island University on 23 May 2026. The inaugural grassroots Festival took place in May 2024, and it featured authors reading in support of student protesters in the Palestine Solidarity Encampment in the exercise of their rights to free expression and peaceful assembly.

The mandate of the third Festival is to commemorate the second anniversary of the Encampment and to witness the ongoing genocide in Gaza; it also seeks to foster connections between literatures from Palestine and Turtle Island, and to promote intercultural understanding. It is partly inspired by the Palestine Festival of Literature, in which international authors combine with their Palestinian counterparts for an act of cultural solidarity.

The Watermelon Seeds Festival of Literature is sponsored by VIU’s Department of Creative Writing and Journalism, VIU’s Muslim Women’s Club, VIU’s Palestine Solidarity Encampment, Nanaimo’s Students for Palestine Committee, VIU’s Faculty and Employees for Students for Palestine Committee, VIUFA’s Human Rights and International Solidarity Committee, VIUFA’s Women and Gender Equity Committee, and Windowseat Books.

Vancouver Island University Faculty Association
Vancouver Island University Department of Creative Writing and Journalism
VIU Arts and Humanities
VIU Indigenous
Literacy Central Vancouver Island
VIU Students' Union
VIU Cultural Connections
VIU Harm Reduction Alliance
VIU Arts and Humanities
Risebridge
Windowseat Books

JOIN US TODAY AT MAFFEO SUTTON PARK

Thanks to the campus community who made posters for tonight’s Take Back the Night March hosted by Haven Society.

Thanks to Hannah Downes (Student Activity Lead for Sexualized Violence Training, Education, and Prevention (STEP) at Thrive - VIU Health and Wellness for co-hosting with Melissa Stephens (VIUFA WAGE Chair)