Jen Zoratti

Winnipeg

Columnist and Arts Writer at Winnipeg Free Press

Free Press columnist/arts writer @WinnipegNews. Author of NEXT, a weekly newsletter looking at a post-pandemic future. Find me @jenzoratti.bsky.social

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Articles

New Canada Post issue commemorates founding event of Two-Spirit Gathering

1 day ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Jen Zoratti

The summer of 1990 will forever loom large for Elder Albert McLeod. That year, Indigenous leaders from all over North America — including McLeod, who helped organize the event — assembled at the third North American Native Gay & Lesbian Gathering (now known as the Annual International Two-Spirit Gathering) near Beausejour. It was a powerful, transformative and intensely spiritual weekend, where attendees could be held by all the Indigenous history, culture and ceremony that had been stolen.
Barrier-breaking French dancer inspiration for boundary-pushing choreographer

3 days ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Jen Zoratti

Sahel Flora Pascual’s dance career has taken her all over the world: Ballet Manila, the School of American Ballet in New York City, Ballet Austin in Texas and, for the upcoming 2025/26 season, London City Ballet. In April, it brought her to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
Opinion: Lady of Fire and other shapes of landscapes to come

1 week ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Jen Zoratti

In the early spring, well before out-of-control wildfires tore through northern Manitoba and Ontario, well before the snow had even melted, I went to see Marcel Dzama’s Ghosts of Canoe Lake in its final days at Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art. The works comprising the exhibition were inspired by the iconic Canadian landscape paintings by the Group of Seven, but if the Group of Seven’s beloved jack pines were on fire.
Winnipeg artist uses ancient technique to tell historical stories

1 week ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Jen Zoratti

By: Jen Zoratti Posted: 2:01 AM CDT Thursday, May. 29, 2025 Last September, Winnipeg-based visual artist Tim Schouten travelled to Linklater Island in northern Manitoba.
‘Not just one of the greats, she’s one of the greatest,’ Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s Daniel Raiskin says of retiring concertmaster Gwen Hoebig

1 month ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Jen Zoratti

When Gwen Hoebig takes the stage at the Centennial Concert Hall this weekend, it will be for the last time as the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster. After 37 years, the renowned first-chair violinist will be taking a well-earned rest, but not before a pair of shows celebrating her glittering career.
Opinion: Standup set a dream come true for Winnipeg writer

1 month ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Jen Zoratti

Welcome to Jen Tries, a semi-regular series in which Free Press columnist Jen Zoratti tries something new and reports back. In this instalment, Jen Tries… standup comedy. No surprise here, but I love telling stories. Especially funny stories.
Steady hand, bold vision: For 30 years, André Lewis steered Royal Winnipeg Ballet toward adventurous artistic choices

1 month ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Jen Zoratti

For 50 years, André Lewis has been part of the fabric of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, first as a ballet student, then as a company dancer, then finally as artistic director, a post he’s held for 30 years. It’s hard to imagine RWB without him. “I can’t actually picture it,” says associate artistic director and former principal dancer Tara Birtwhistle, who herself has been with the ballet for 35 years and was a student before that. “He was always there — how do you even describe that?
YouTube-famous comic Julie Nolke happy to return to live performance with one-woman show in Winnipeg

1 month ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Jen Zoratti

In April 2020, Julie Nolke caught her big break. The Canadian comedian/actor/writer debuted a new series on the sketch comedy channel she runs with her husband on YouTube: Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self, wherein a pandemic-present Julie tells a pre-pandemic Julie what’s in store for her. The first video has 21 million views and counting.
Opinion: Long live independent bookstores

1 month ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Jen Zoratti

By: Jen Zoratti Posted: 2:03 AM CDT Saturday, Apr. 26, 2025 In the 1998 rom-com You’ve Got Mail, Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) owns an adorable independent bookstore facing an existential threat — a big baddie corporate chain bookstore that has moved in across the street.
Increasingly sophisticated deepfake AI-generated political ads threaten to unravel Canada’s social order

1 month ago | winnipegfreepress.com | Jen Zoratti

The video features a man who looks a lot like Liberal leader Mark Carney at a podium with Liberal party branding, flanked by Canadian flags. It’s styled to look like a clip of a press conference on CBC News Network, with a news ticker that reads “Mark Carney presents the Main Financial Project of 2025.”“Only the bravest can take advantage of this opportunity,” intones a voice that sounds a lot like Carney’s.