The official launch of the series RML3: Undercurrents and Folds took place at Word Vancouver Festival on September 28 at UBC Robson Square in downtown Vancouver. WV has been around for years as a free destination for those with book and comic passions, including writers and publishers who can find each other there to talk about the latest publications. At the festival tables, Reading the Migration Library rubbed shoulders with a podcasting doula, a comic and zine collective, a virtual museum of migration, and many others who connected with the project. All of this resulted in great conversations and publication exchanges.
At the display table of the Pacific Canada Heritage Centre – Museum of Migration (PCHC – MoM) Society, RML collected a signed copy of the book 1923 Challenging Racisms Past and Present by Denise Fong, John Endo Greenway, Fran Morrison, John Price, Carmen Rodriguez De France, Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra, and Timorthy J Stanley. This photo book was traded for an entire set of RML3 Undercurrents and Folds. This was hoped to be a deposit into the mostly virtual Museum of Migration which is actually not accepting artifacts but still appreciated the gesture. To generate conversation their table displayed a ceramic “pillow” or head rest used by Chinese immigrants, possibly in the 1920s who needed a place to store valuables while they slept. 1923 Challenging Racisms Past and Present describes the events leading up to and continuing after the 1923 “Chinese Exclusion Act”, one of Canada’s most racist pieces of legislation. This is a subject pictured in the poster that is found in Clare Yow’s ac-cu-mu-la-tions.
After attending the session that launched RML3: Undercurrents and Folds Jill Mandrake exchanged a copy of their 2017 chapbook Maybe Tomorrow (I’ll See It All From Heaven) for a copy of Tania Willard and Leah Decter’s Directions to BUSH Gallery. Maybe Tomorrow is a darkly hilarious two-part narrative that recounts the last earthly acts of the eccentric Reverend Sweet. A tiny decrepit church, a dysfunctional television, and a break in at a rundown hotel are described through the words of two women who encounter each other in a decaying world.
Jennifer Zilm conveniently had two poetry books tucked in a backpack that were ready for trades at the Reading the Migration Library display table. First-Time Listener (2022) and The Missing Field (2018), both from Guernica Editions Essential Poets, were traded for Hanafuda 花札 (Flower Cards) by Candie Tanaka and Mama D’Lo and Missy G Under the Sea by Deanne Achong.
Lorna Boschman traded a gold marker for a copy of a previous Reading the Migration Library publication, Sarah Klassen’s Train Country Emigrant (2017). And, to top off a great day, Candie Tanaka signed a copy of Baby Drag Queen for Lois Klassen.
