WINGSPAN: Dis/ability Arts, Culture and Public Pedagogy has announced that the Wingspan Showcase is open to the public on Friday, May 31 at 3 p.m. at Seaquam Secondary School in Delta.
Jugpreet Bajwa has been working with students at Seaquam Secondary in Delta and Elsie Roy Elementary in Vancouver for the past two months all to culminate in the Wingspan Showcase. Manitoba Wingspan musician Connor Derraugh and guests will join Jugpreet. Carla Qualtrough, federal Minister of Sport and Physical Activity, who has strongly supported Wingspan since its inception, will attend to open the Showcase.
Jugpreet has gained recognition worldwide for performing with his motto of “Seeing the world through music.” Jugpreet’s musical journey began at the tender age of five. It evolved into a lifelong passion despite facing the adversity of eye cancer, to which he lost both of his eyes. Canadian audiences will know Jugpreet from his celebrity status as a televised performer of the national anthem at the Vancouver Canuck and Whitecap games. A graduate of Seaquam Secondary, he returns as a role model and a barrier-breaker at both schools. His life’s mission is spreading love and peace through music globally.
“Jugpreet has been creating magic in the Wingspan classrooms, and we are thrilled to share the enthusiasm from his students in the performances at the Wingspan Showcase,” says Dr. Leslie Roman, Wingspan visionary.
Jugpreet is joined by Manitoba musician and Wingspan artist Connor Derrough at the Wingspan Showcase. Music has always been central to Connor’s life. At 15, he suffered a traumatic brain hemorrhage during routine surgery. Connor has performed at the Winnipeg Jazz Festivals and the Asper Jazz Series and is a regular performer with the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra.
Wingspan Dis/Ability Arts, Culture and Public Pedagogy is Canada’s first accessible and inclusive Disability and Deaf Artist Residency Program in Canada’s schools and is a UBC VPRI Excellence Cluster, and in 2024, under the leadership of Roman, UBC Professor of Educational Studies, in collaboration with an interdisciplinary cluster of colleagues, asks: how can the aims of Canada’s Accessibility Act take center stage in the hearts and minds of students, teachers, and staff in partner K-12 schools? Like starlings in a murmuration, Wingspan has flown into schools in three Wing Provinces: British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario. Wingspan, this year, has gone national.
“Creating inclusion begins with educating students, teachers, and educational leaders that disabilities or Deafness are not something to fear or feel shame about. The more we learn, the more we appreciate what artists with disabilities and Deafness bring to the table of our schools (K-12) and our entire educational system”, says Roman, a leading scholar of disability studies and sociology of education. Artists have been placed in K-12 schools or as touring artists who perform in art galleries, museums, or community centers.
The Wingspan Showcase is free to the public: May 31, 3-6 p.m., at Seaquam Secondary School, 11584 Lyon Road, Delta.
https://se.deltasd.bc.ca/our-school/contact-directions/
