2025 Artists
FRIDAY NIGHT
Rose Cousins’ songwriting plumbs the depths of the human condition. Her work has garnered her two JUNO Awards (2013’s We Have Made a Spark 2021’s Bravado), two Canadian Folk Music Awards, eleven East Coast Music Awards and one Grammy nomination (2018’s Natural Conclusion), along with praise from the likes of the CBC, No Depression, LA Times, Associated Press, Billboard, Folk Alley, and NPR, who raved “Cousins’ disarmingly fluid vocal tone has the ability to convey the most internalized feelings without an ounce of fuss.” Over the years, she has shared stages with Patty Griffin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jann Arden, Kathleen Edwards, Joe Henry and Anais Mitchell, and her music has fittingly underscored scenes from notable TV shows including Grey’s Anatomy, Fire Country, Batwoman and Heartland.
“Her ability to see through the pain and bleakness of the world to find the light that connects us all proves that she indeed has a fire that burns in her soul and catches to her music, art, and the world she’s so powerfully conscious of.” – No Depression
"Cousins has a disarmingly fluid vocal tone and an ability to convey the most internalized emotions - disappointment, grief, resolve, forbearance — without an ounce of fuss.” – NPR Music
“Deeply caresses her exquisite vocals through a dozen songs that form an exploratory, intimate meditation on the mysteries of being human: identity, fraility, relationships, the nature of love and spiritual connection” – LA Times
SATURDAY NIGHT
The Boom Booms are a Canadian funk/soul band formed in Vancouver, BC in 2008. The group consists of Aaron Ross, Sean Ross, Tom Van Deursen, Geordie Hart, Richard Brinkman, and Theo Vincent. The band has toured internationally, influencing the music scene in countries like Brazil, Spain, Canada, the U.S. and more. The bands’ roots soul sound draws heavily from artists including Bill Withers, Damian Marley and the Buena Vista Social Club.
They have a reputation for their high energy live performances and danceable music. Friends from childhood, they released their debut album, Butterfly Man where the video for their feel-good party anthem, “When the Night”, reached #6 on the Much More Music chart and was licensed for an episode of 90210. “Delivered”, a surreal banjo ballad garnered an award for Best Roots Song at the Just Plain Folks Music Awards in Nashville.
The Boom Booms released their debut album ¡Hot Rum! which earned them a spot in The Peak Performance Project. They won second place picking up a cash prize of $75,000, which enabled them to produce and release their travel documentary, Boom Boom Brazil. The documentary explores the rich and unpredictable adventures of an up-and-coming band on tour in Brazil and raises awareness of the Belo Monte Dam’s impact.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
PIERRE SCHRYER, ADAM DOBRES AND DANIELLE ENBLOM
This acclaimed Celtic trio features JUNO-nominated fiddler Pierre Schryer, Métis step dancer and choreographer Danielle Enblom, and versatile guitarist Adam Dobres. Pierre is a multi-time Canadian fiddle champion and internationally renowned performer and luthier. Danielle blends Irish step dance with Métis and French Canadian roots, having performed with top traditional musicians across North America and Europe. Adam’s genre-spanning guitar work includes tours with Grammy nominee Toni Childs and folk icon Ruth Moody.
Together, they deliver a dynamic mix of traditional and contemporary music from Ireland, Scotland, Quebec, and beyond — captivating audiences with their virtuosity and infectious energy.
SATURDAY NIGHT
The Lee Boys have taken their modern expression of Sacred Steel on the road and have become a pre-
eminent touring ensemble, performing for over 750,000 music fans at festivals throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Their music attracts audiences from the jam band, folk, blues and Gospel worlds. The Lee Boys grew up in the church where their father was a pastor and a steel player
himself. “Sacred Steel” is a type of music described as an inspired, unique form of Gospel music with a hard-driving, blues-based beat. The musical genre is rooted in Gospel, but infused with rhythm and blues, jazz, rock, funk, hip-hop, country and ideas from other nations.
Over the past 20 years, The Lee Boys
have released four albums, packed prestigious venues, and spread their music and message beyond the church pews through residencies, recording studios and concerts across the world. Their unique sound has attracted musical artists such as Allman Bros. Band, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Robert Plant, Robert Randolph, Derek Trucks, Mavis Staples, Gov’t Mule, Del McCoury, Traveling McCourys, Victor Wooten, Blind Boys of Alabama, Black Crowes, John Legend, and The Roots – all of whom have performed with the Lee Boys and/or invited them to tour with them.
The Chicago-Sun Times compared the band to Jimi Hendrix, saying "The Lee Boys, whose Church of God-inspired sacred steel music may be what Jimi Hendrix had in mind with
his grand plan for ’electric sky church music."
SATURDAY DAYTIME
Willy Blizzard, a Vancouver/Pender Island acoustic duo (and sometimes trio), plays original folk/roots music with rich vocal harmonies, guitars, banjo, and upright bass. Their songs feature on the album Celebrating the Best in BC Music. John Hough, “the richest baritone west of The Rockies” (Vancouver Province), is the principal songwriter and vocalist. With a career spanning major BC folk festivals and CBC airplay, his nature-inspired lyrics reflect his background in Life Science and Environmental Education. His song “Hallie” earned a nomination for Best Canadian Lyric. Andrea Law, a third-generation musician, brings rhythm, wit, and stage presence on upright bass and piano, honoring her family’s musical legacy with every performance.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT
Grayson Lenner makes music that balances heart and hook—blending the warmth of folk with the energy of indie pop and the depth of alternative influences. Inspired by the introspection of Ben Howard and the sonic layering of Bon Iver, his songs move between quiet reflection and full-band, upbeat moments that stay with you. Based in Victoria, BC, Grayson'S s debut EP Never Left showcases both sides of his sound:
emotionally honest songwriting wrapped in rich textures, catchy melodies, and dynamic
arrangements. The EP has reached listeners around the world through Alex Rainbird Music, connecting with fans far beyond his hometown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC3N7c6lG9o&ab_channel=GraysonLenner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9xXo-mSklI&ab_channel=GraysonLenner
FRIDAY NIGHT
CORK AND PORCUPINE
Cork & Porcupine are Anne Mullins and John Palmer. They play their original songs on a variety of acoustic and electronic instruments. They love to collaborate, striving for songs with fresh melodies and thoughtful
lyrics, are passionate about fresh language in their lyrics, and love twists and turns-of-phrase and in points-of-view. Music, to John and Anne, is an emotional experience, so their delivery aims to move people. As retired music teachers, they are both schooled in Western folk and classical traditions, plus West African music. They were weaned on the diversity of popular music and jazz of the 1960s and 70s, along with their “parents music” from the jazz era is all in their blood. That is to say their sound is primarily acoustic in tone, and eclectic in style. They celebrate rhythm, harmony and open tunings, equally. They like contrast and variety in a set, so play several instruments to supply their audience with ear-candy.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHTS OPENING!
JACK MARTIN
Jack Martin is an accomplished Grade One soloist, Grade Two band member, composer, and the 2025 Aggregate of the 92nd BCPA Annual Gathering. Runner up in Grade 3A at the 2023 World Pipe Band Championships with the Robert Malcolm
Memorial Pipe Band (RMM). At the time of writing this, Jack is competing with the North Stratton Pipe Band and is Headed to Scotland on August 5th to
compete at the European and World Pipe Band Championships. He has been living on Pender for the last 4 years, his goal in the community being to encourage the youth to learn and play traditional and contemporary Scottish music.
SATURDAY MORNING
THE PENDER HIGHLANDERS
Larry Dempster, the Pipe Major, has said a resounding YES to each year! This year might see
pipe playing guests from Victoria joining in!! Outside the Hall and another time to be announced WITH possible invasion of many Pipers from Vancouver Island!
SATURDAY UNTIL DUSK
TYPEWRITER POETRY WITH NIA
Step into a moment of stillness with poet Nia Williams and her vintage typewriter. You are invited to welcome in Autumn and pause for a quiet conversation. Each personalized poem is a little keepsake, typed in real time, a thread of connection to something wonderful. Wander the weekend at The Crisp, with poetry in your pocket.
BELLY DANCER - SATURDAY NIGHT
CANDACE ALDRIDGE
Candace offers classes in Modern Fusion Format, American Tribal Style, and Bellyfit®. She performs with her troupes Harmony Dance Company, The Khamsa Collective, and TangleWood throughout Vancouver Island, the lower mainland, and internationally. Candace
also performs as a soloist. “To be able to share all that I have learned, to share with others the passion this dance form brings to me is truly the greatest gift. Being able to share with these brilliant beings everyday a form of movement that embraces such beauty, strength, diversity is absolutely empowering not only to myself but to those that choose me as one of their teachers”
PANEL MODERATOR - SATURDAY
HEATHER REMACLE
Heather Lynn Remacle (She/Her) is a settler who was born and raised in traditional territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, specifically the llək̓ʷəŋən People, known today as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations, and the W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) nation. Heather engages collaborators and audiences with a multidisciplinary lens, drawing on extensive experience in public service,
community engagement, and creative arts. Known for her ability to foster dialogue and bring diverse perspectives together, Heather is dedicated to supporting clear communication and collaborative problem-solving.
Her work includes the Decades After Paris music project, which explores themes of connection and contemporary challenges through storytelling, alongside a significant career in public service where she has focused on sustainability and service delivery reform. As a moderator, Heather is committed to creating an environment where complex ideas can be explored with clarity and mutual understanding. She is delighted to contribute to the Crisp again this year.
ADAM OLSEN - SȾHENEP
Saturday Panelist: “Living as if We Belong: Indigenous Food, Land, and Governance”
Former MLA, and a W̱JOȽEȽP community member explores the intersections of governance, food policy, and Indigenous rights. Drawing from his experience engaging with Western governance systems, he examines environmental racism in forestry and fishing practices, including the Crown’s disruption of Straits Salish relationships with foreshore and intertidal areas protected under the Douglas Treaties. He critiques how industrial farming has allowed the wholesale destruction of ecosystems that once sustained abundance, setting the stage for deeper discussion on belonging, stewardship, and food sovereignty.
SUSHEELA KUNDARGI AND DAVID FIERRO
Saturday Panelist: "What does true land stewardship look like when it’s rooted in kinship, not control"
What does true land stewardship look like when it’s rooted in kinship, not control? In this compelling and grounded conversation, David Fierro (Indigenous hunter, environmental advisor) and Susheela Kundargi (land-based educator, food sovereignty advocate) offer stories, teachings, and provocations that challenge colonial food systems and extractive agriculture. Drawing from their life on Mayne Island and ancestral knowledge, they explore ethical hunting, regenerative growing, and the radical act of living as if we belong. This session is an invitation to listen, unlearn, reconnect, and reclaim. Come ready for truth, tenderness, and just enough discomfort to inspire change.
CHRISTINA COOK
Saturday Panelist: "Garden and Orchard Ecosystem Health"
Founder of The Organic Gardener's Pantry in Victoria. Christina will speak about garden soil and plant health from a holistic perspective, and how she came to start her business of making organic fertilizers and microbial inoculants available to home gardeners, urban farmers, and landscapers. She will explain how many of our soils have become depleted over time, and it is often necessary to use minerals, microbes and nutrients to bring a garden ecosystem back into balance. Christina’s products will also be available for sale throughout the day. www.gardenerspantry.ca (http://www.gardenerspantry.ca/)
VISUAL ARTIST AND PANELIST - SATURDAY
Canadian artist James Wyper was born in British Columbia in 1971, and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, home of modernist painter William Perehudoff, whose work was particularly inspiring, and the excellent Mendel Art Gallery, which was an influential
childhood sanctuary. His bright, geometric paintings explore the idea that state-of-being (consciousness) is causal. They illustrate states of meditation, ecstasy, spontaneous spiritual realization, and transcendence. James' liminal paintings are active devices which emanate the energy of the intention of their making, and reflect to viewers their own state(s) of consciousness.
James lives in Invermere BC, with the author Marlo Johnson, and their rescue dog Ana. His work is collected and available internationally, and he welcomes painting and mural commissions.
VISUAL ARTIST
Kathleen Theriault is a Canadian abstract artist celebrated for expressive oil, cold wax, and mixed media paintings inspired by the rhythmic and visceral impressions of the Salish Sea, her muse. Based on Pender Island, BC, she teaches workshops, hosts art retreats, and privately mentors artists. Her work is featured in galleries across Canada, with commissions and collaborations welcomed.
ARTIST
WENDY GARDNER
A perpetual student of the arts, Wendy enjoys playing with various mediums: oils, acrylic, water colour and clay. Landscapes, still life, figurative work or abstract, Wendy gives everything a try. She believes that learning to draw is a solid foundation for all fine arts and gives private lessons in her studio. Wendy has studied with a variety of notable instructors in both Canada and Chile, has taken courses at Sheridan College and the Fleming School of Art in Ontario. Always a community arts advocate she has served on various art society boards and has done all sorts of art related volunteer work.
VISUAL ARTIST
MARGARET ALPEN
Born and raised in Vancouver, Margaret moved to Victoria in 1969 then made Pender Island her home in 2005. She has studied oil, acrylic and watercolour painting, as well as batik, pottery, printmaking and drawing. In 1997 she graduated from the Victoria College of Art. She shows her work locally as well as on Vancouver Island. Her art reflects her love of exploring lines, shapes, colours and layers on canvas or paper.
PRINTMAKER
STEPHANI WILLIAMS
Pender Island artist
VISUAL ARTIST
I started painting 29 years ago, when my daughter began the art careers program in high school, thinking that it might be something that we could do together. At the time, I had no idea how significant art-making would become in my life. I enjoy everything about painting; studying it, looking at it, reading about it, talking about it, doing it, the feel of it, the focus of it, the surprise
and thrill of it and decorating my home with the results of it. I’ve been known to photograph my palette after a painting session because the abstract arrangement of colours is just so attractive to me.
I paint mostly landscapes, wetlands, seascapes and cloudscapes, because nature provides inspiration without limit. Recently, I’ve taken to painting architectural scenes – I’m very attracted to the interesting and beautiful arrangements of geometric shapes, weathered colours
and hard-edged shadows that develop over long periods of time in old towns, with no overarching plan guiding the process. They are like large-scale compositions created through generations of uncoordinated human action offered up for free to anyone who wishes to notice.
I paint scenes to share the beauty of a particular location. These are places that have a quality that stops me in my tracks and puts me in a reflective mood. My goal for every painting is to paint it so well that anybody who sees it wants to be there, too.
TEXTILES
CLAUDIA LORENZ
Full time textile and sewing machine nerd, part time bus driver. Also, dogs.
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WRITER, WOODCHOPPER, INFLUENCER
"It's funny how life turns out sometimes" After three years of logging her passion for chopping wood online, she's just released a book full of advice and history about the world of wood chopping, titled Axe in Hand: A Woodchopper's Guide to Blades, Wood and Fire. Coenen, who now lives in B.C.'s Gulf Islands area, grew up in Ontario, and said she never really chopped wood as a kid. "Maybe once at Girl Guides" But she had to learn the tricks of the trade in 2020 when she was working on a farm in B.C.;s Kootenay region."I was really bad at it, my aim was horrible, and I just couldN't get the wood to split"
Axe in Hand: A Woodchopper’s Guide to Blades, Wood and Fire by Nicole Coenen is available now. Coenen joined a community group of woodchoppers who taught her everything she needed to know, and then, she was hooked. She had to learn everything there was about the best techniques for splitting logs.
FELTER
Starting in 1991, Monica studied quilting, fabric dyeing, hand and machine stitchery, and surface design with a variety of international teachers, including Julia Caprara (Britain) and Jan Beaney of the renown 62 Group, London. Bennett taught textile arts in Vancouver and on the North Shore from 1995 to 2003. She has worked with handmade felt since 2001, developing a strong set of skills in her exploration of felt as a medium for sculptural pieces, functional and wearable art. In her ongoing felt
education, she has taken workshops with internationally renowned instructors Fiona Duthie (Canada), Andrea Graham (United States), and Pam deGroot (Australia).
Her work focusses on the beauty of the land and ocean that surrounds her. Working with a variety of fibres, including locally raised rare breed Cotswold, Icelandic and Romney sheep and alpaca, she explores the 'small' things of the natural world to remind the viewer of those delicate and vulnerable flora and fauna that are often overlooked in a busy world.
Bennett is a member of the International Felters Association, the international Surface Design Association, Craft Council of British Columbia, and the Southern Gulf Islands Arts Council (past Director, North Pender Island). She has participated in both juried and invitational shows on Pender, Salt Spring and Vancouver Islands, including the Sidney Fine Arts Show, the Sooke Fine Arts show and Canadian Felt Week. As a founding member of the Pender Islands Artisan Cooperative (inc. 2001), she was pivotal in establishing the Red Tree Gallery in 2005 at Hope Bay on Pender Island. She worked and showed at the gallery until 2013. Bennett has lived on Pender since 1999.
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FOOD-GROWER - SATURDAY
ROZ KEMPE
Roz Kempe is a food-grower first and foremost, but loves to photograph the incredible abundance of nature so as to ground her while navigating this increasingly unstable world. She will be presenting a piece inspired by the incredible abundance of seeds that nature puts forth every season in the garden, and the beauty and diversity of bean seeds in particular. While feeling gratitude for this abundance, she was reminded of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s message that natural law requires us to be in a reciprocal relationship with all beings for our mutual survival.
PANELIST - SATURDAY
MP ELIZABETH MAY
Elizabeth May is currently the Leader of the Green Party of Canada, and is the Member of Parliament representing the southern Vancouver Island riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands on the territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ Nation.
PANELIST - SATURDAY
SONIA FURSTENAU
Sonia Furstenau was the Leader of the BC Green party from 2020-2025. She was MLA for Cowichan Valley from 2017-2024, and previously elected as Area Director for Shawnigan Lake in 2014. Prior to politics, Sonia was a high school and middle school teacher. Before teaching, she was the National Administrator for RESULTS Canada, a citizen-led organization committed to reducing global poverty. From 2013-2017, Sonia worked with her community of Shawnigan Lake to protect their drinking
water. In 2013, the provincial government issued a permit for a five million tonne contaminated landfill uphill from Shawnigan Lake, putting the community's drinking water at risk. The four-year battle to get the permit revoked highlighted systemic failures in BC's decision-making processes. Working to fix these systemic issues is what motivated Sonia to run for public office. Sonia now enjoys the many benefits of post-politics life, including more time with her family and new granddaughter, and the opportunity to work in and with community on issues that she is passionate about.
PANELIST - SATURDAY
BEN KADEL
Ben is the founder of Emotus Operandi, Inc. and a co-founder of the Lifeboat Academy and the Farmastery at Spalding Valley on Pender Island. He brings over 30 years of organizational development experience and a unique mix of skills to every project he works on. His specialty is working with the emotional dynamics that often keep work teams from performing at their best.
Equally at home with hard data or hot emotions, Ben has developed an approach to teamwork that blends good fundamentals—structure, process, and culture—with the “soft” skills necessary to navigate the challenges of working with purpose and passion. He spends the time necessary to get to the heart of the matter then draws on an extensive toolkit to design participatory processes that maximize impact and increase the group’s capacity to address new challenges by improving communication, growing trust, and deepening the group’s shared understanding of each other and their shared goals. Ben has a B.A from Pennsylvania State University and a M.S. and PhD in Sociology and Social Psychology from the University of Wisconsin—Madison.
FESTIVAL WELCOME - SATURDAY MORNING
MLA ROB BOTTERELL
Rob Botterell is the MLA for Saanich North and the Islands on the territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ Nation. Rob also calls Pender Island home!
PANELIST MUSICIAN - SATURDAY
ALVIN LEE
Alvin Lee was born in Miami, FL, and was raised in a musical family. His father, mother, sisters, and brothers are all accomplished musicians and were an integral part of shaping the vision that Alvin has to spotlight musicians in all genres, but especially those musicians that are working hard to keep the Sacred Steel tradition alive.
His early experience with music started when he was very young and took an interest in the drums. His parents nurtured that interest and ensured that Alvin had lessons on not only the drums but also the guitar, bass, and steel guitar. This music form was totally unknown to the world outside the church until the mid-1990s when folklorist
Robert Stone attended House of God services and recorded the music, as well as its history, contributing the name “sacred steel.” A series of compilations featuring artists such as Aubrey Ghent, Calvin Cooke, and the Campbell Brothers, as well as the late Glenn Lee (my brother) followed on the legendary roots label Arhoolie Records, for whom The Lee Boys also record. The music coming from inside the walls of the House of God Church sparked a passion in him as a youngster, and that passion lives on today.
In 2001, Alvin formed The Lee Boys, a true family band and took them out of the church and into the world. The Lee Boys have played to over 100,000 people globally.
In 2002, he formed AJ Lee Publishing so he could have control over publishing rights for the 4 albums and over 20+ years of performing for The Lee Boys. He serves as a Sacred Steel Ambassador, introducing fans to this style of music at festivals, Art Centers, and other music venues. Alvin successfully planned the Sacred Steel Summit, one of many that were executed in May 2023 at the Florida Folk Festival. Alvin came to Pender last summer, loved it and we are so pleased he returned!
POET - SATURDAY
YVONNE MACKENZIE
Yvonne was born in a village in Scotland and emigrated to Canada on the Empress Britannica ocean liner in the sixties. She remembers writing stories and poems from the earliest age to make sense of her transition
from the old world to the new. Consequently she was dubbed Yvonnicle Chronicle by young friends. She trained as a journalist and worked as a cub reporter in Toronto, but became a social worker; lay counsellor in the court system and used her writing skills to report on the inequities and injustice she encountered in her job. She volunteered for several judicial pilot projects that became models for prison reform and was a co-founder of an organization which investigated police brutality, racism, and sexism.
By 1983, disillusioned with the slow pace of change, she pulled up stakes and moved to Pender with the intention of making creative writing her focus. She fell in love with the natural beauty of the Island and the warmth of the community. What she thought was going to be a years sabbatical morphed into 40 years of community service and early childhood education jobs, always with poetry simmering on the back burner. Her work appears in several Pender anthologies and two self-published collections of poetry and she is a co-founder of Pender’s Speakeasy group. While periodically conjuring a good rant about the state of the world, her primary interest lies in describing the wonder of nature. She is an avid believer in the value of shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) as a healing modality. Yvonne’s poetry is intrinsically connected to her spirituality, particularly her zen meditation practice; her approach is to find her still place where she can become a conduit for the message.
PANELIST - SATURDAY
MAT DES ROCHES
Father, husband, blue collar and red plaid. Mathew has lived his whole life on the west coast and calls Pender island home. Mathew stands by the power of community and believes we are better together. Politically he has cast a vote for every colour of the rainbow and is constantly trying to ask better questions instead of
seeking easy answers.
PANELIST MUSICIAN - SATURDAY
BENEDICT BEATTIE
Benedict Beattie is a singer/songwriter and scholar who resides as an uninvited guest on the traditional territories of Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, also known as Prince George, in northern British Columbia. He writes and performs folk music inspired by many genres, places, people and times. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from the University of Victoria, and
Master of Arts in Religion from the University of Manitoba. His academic interests, like his musical interests, are diverse, and revolve around common themes of humanity, love, resiliency, creativity and courage.