The Nanaimo Art Gallery is celebrating the launch of its first major publication – Black Diamond Dust.
The book examines Nanaimo's coal mining heritage and its impact on the community, including economic development, racial segregation, labour inequality and more through contemporary art. The book includes a series of essays, poems, songs, photographs and artwork.
It expands on the exhibit also called Black Diamond Dust, which the gallery hosted in 2014. The exhibit was one of three projects that focused on the main resource industries of Vancouver Island.
Black Diamond Dust was co-edited by Jesse Birch, Nanaimo Art Gallery curator, and Will Holder and was published by Sternberg Press in Berlin.
The book launch and readings are Thursday (March 16) at 7 p.m. The event is free to attend and will feature readings by historian Lynne Bowen, Birch and Elisa Ferrari, a Vancouver-based artist and writer. Ferrari will share the work of late Nanaimo poet Peter Culley. Culley's piece Walking in Nanaimo is included in the book, which is also dedicated to him.
Attendees will also have an opportunity to see the Nanaimo Art Gallery's current exhibit Landfall and Departure: Prologue.
For more information, please visit http://nanaimogallery.ca.