Laura Crema + Seraphina Crema Black
Laura Crema is a vocalist, dancer and interdisciplinary artist. She has a degree from SFU in Economics and Fine and Performing Arts, has studied Music at VCC, at the Banff Centre for the Arts with Sheila Jordan, Jay Clayton and Richard Armstrong, and in Washington State with Nancy King and Kurt Elling. She has toured and performed across Canada and Europe having the great honor to play many of Canada’s most prestigious venues and festivals. Laura is an accomplished dancer, choreographer and interdisciplinary performer. Among others she has performed and worked with RADIX Theatre, the Karen Jamieson Dance Company, Touchstone Theatre, Catherine Lee, Olivia Thorvaldson, Evann Siebens, and Grant Strate. Her recordings have received airplay worldwide and positive notices in Downbeat, Coda, No Depression and other taste making journals. Her most recent CD, Blue Shadows on the Trail was co-produced with multi-instrumentalist Scott Smith and recorded by acclaimed engineer John Raham. Laura’s music has been featured and recorded on CBC radio’s Studio One Jazz Series during The Vancouver Jazz Festival as well as appearing on Hot Air, North by Northwest, The Sunday Edition and several other influential radio programs. Her 2005 recording Almost Blue, 2007’s Spring Is Here and 2014’s, Fotografia, was produced by the celebrated trumpeter and bandleader Brad Turner.
My name is Seraphina Crema Black, I am 15 years old, and a student at Lord Byng High School. Like many students my age, I am passionate about saving our planet. I think we can use the arts to express a larger message, and hopefully change the narrative that we have set ourselves up for. It is through art that we can move students, politicians, and leaders. We hold power in our art. We need to act now, before it is too late.
Artist’s Statement
My name is Laura Crema, I am a singer, dancer and interdisciplinary artist. My relationship to protest is closely related to where I chose to film today, at my Grandparent's house on Prior and Princess St. in historic Strathcona. This neighbourhood and my grandparents' house which was built in the 1900's is still standing. Strathcona, Vancouver's oldest residential neighbourhood was a marginalized community of immigrants that due to social economics, language barriers, and racism didn't always have a lot of power or voice. In the 1950's my grandparent's home and this community were intended to be destroyed for an Urban Renewal Plan that among other things proposed a super highway to be built through the community. Due to the heroic efforts of the communities of Chinatown and Strathcona, they fought and won, keeping historic Strathcona and Chinatown intact. This place is the power of protest and represents hope for me. I have tried to follow in their footsteps in my own efforts to protest for the environment, to preserve and protect the forests of Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island, marching for Climate Change, the Women's march and in support of Indigenous Rights and communities, Black and indigenous lives matter as well as LGBTQ. It is a real honor and privilege to be a part of this project and significant for me to share this experience with my daughter.