Yes, this is Vancouver

On June 15 (Fri) the Museum of Vancouver is hosting a dialogue, Is This Vancouver? Reflections on the 2011 Hockey Riot Boards. As we remember, the boards drew crowds post-riot, and “citizens” etched their reactions towards the unrest into multiple slabs of plywood. The riot was an affective response to a year of media hype and build-up and it disturbed Vancouver’s carefully polished identity as a benevolent and beautiful city. Taking issue with a tarnished reputation, the apologizers (along with the media narratives) aimed to rectify the city’s image by casting the rioters outside of it and anthropomorphizing the city into a scorned lover.