{"id":5914,"date":"2024-05-28T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/?p=5914"},"modified":"2024-10-25T13:54:05","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T17:54:05","slug":"opera-mariposa-benefit-may-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/news\/opera-mariposa-benefit-may-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver\u2019s Opera Mariposa presents month-long programme benefitting the ME | FM Society of BC"},"content":{"rendered":"

This May, Opera Mariposa<\/a> is rallying the community to support people with chronic and post-viral illnesses. From May 1 to June 1, 2024, the disability-led indie arts company is presenting their 2024 Benefit + Awareness Month: an all-digital charity extravaganza featuring music, art, prizes, and special events benefiting the ME | FM Society of BC.<\/p>\n

The initiative honours the International Awareness Month for chronic neuro-immune diseases, and it showcases disabled and chronically ill artists from around the world. Proceeds aid people and families affected by myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME or ME\/CFS), fibromyalgia, and long COVID – a group of complex chronic illnesses that are surging due to long-term health impacts from COVID-19.<\/p>\n

While Opera Mariposa has hosted Benefit + Awareness events since their inception, general manager Stephanie Ko emphasizes that the cause is more urgent than ever. \u201cPrior to the pandemic, over a million Canadians already lived with ME\/CFS<\/a> and fibromyalgia<\/a> – many housebound or bedbound, often without adequate support or medical care. Now, 1 in 9 Canadian adults have developed long COVID<\/a> so far, and many meet ME criteria as well. We\u2019re seeing the impacts firsthand in our own community – it\u2019s clear the need for support is greater than ever before.\u201d <\/p>\n

Opera Mariposa\u2019s Benefit + Awareness Month spotlights the issue while creating a platform for artists impacted by these illnesses. Toronto artist and ME advocate Christina Baltais says, \u201cAwareness events that spotlight creatives in the community are vital because art can be a powerful tool to help engage and educate the outside world about our cause. Sharing our personal experiences through art also connects us as a community, contributing to a stronger foundation for our advocacy efforts around heavily stigmatized diseases like ME\/CFS, long COVID, and fibromyalgia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mariposa\u2019s 2024 Benefit + Awareness Month showcases Baltais\u2019 collage art, alongside work from other chronically ill creatives including Saskatoon\u2019s Lia Pas; New York State\u2019s Rana; international art-activist collective Berlin Buyers Club; and the late Vancouver artist and ME advocate Eileen Theresa Stephens (1947-2023). The benefit also includes an online performance by acclaimed baritone Riley McMitchell, and features a prize draw with nearly $4,000 in prizes. 100% of proceeds support the ME | FM Society of BC, and contributions up to $3,500 will be tripled by matching donations. <\/p>\n

Join the event:<\/h2>\n

Opera Mariposa\u2019s 2024 Benefit + Awareness Month – May 1 – June 1, 2024 online at Benefit.OperaMariposa.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Event summary:<\/h2>\n

Join Opera Mariposa for a month of digital programming featuring music, art, merch, nearly $4,000 in prizes and more in support of the chronic illness community and the ME | FM Society of BC.<\/p>\n

Access:<\/h2>\n

Digital, available worldwide. Free and by-donation options. Self-paced. Includes captions, lyrics and translations, artwork alt text and image descriptions.<\/p>\n

About Opera Mariposa:<\/h2>\n

Opera Mariposa<\/a> is Canada\u2019s first fully disability-led and run company, dedicated to #MakingOperaAccessible and recognized as \u201c[one of] Canada\u2019s key indie players\u201d (Opera Canada Magazine). They work to create inclusive opportunities for emerging and underrepresented artists, and their internationally-recognized Benefit + Awareness programming has raised over $128,000 to date for chronic illness charities and healthcare programs. operamariposa.com<\/a><\/p>\n

About the ME | FM Society of BC:<\/h2>\n

The ME | FM Society of BC<\/a> is a registered Canadian charity working to support and advocate for people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), long COVID and\/or fibromyalgia (FM). They work to educate the healthcare community, government and public; provide information and resources for patients and their families; champion issues that impact the ME, long COVID and FM communities; and promote state-of-the-art medical research, testing, diagnosis and treatments. www.mefm.bc.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This May, Opera Mariposa<\/a> is rallying the community to support people with chronic and post-viral illnesses. From May 1 to June 1, 2024, the disability-led indie arts company is presenting their 2024 Benefit + Awareness Month: an all-digital charity extravaganza featuring music, art, prizes, and special events benefiting the ME | FM Society of BC.<\/p>\n

The initiative honours the International Awareness Month for chronic neuro-immune diseases, and it showcases disabled and chronically ill artists from around the world. Proceeds aid people and families affected by myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME or ME\/CFS), fibromyalgia, and long COVID – a group of complex chronic illnesses that are surging due to long-term health impacts from COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Continue readingVancouver\u2019s Opera Mariposa presents month-long programme benefitting the ME | FM Society of BC<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[83,96,18,1160,11,1247,1016,1159,14,121],"class_list":["post-5914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-covid-19","tag-fibromyalgia","tag-long-covid","tag-me-cfs","tag-myalgic-encephalomyelitis","tag-opera-mariposa","tag-sars-cov-2","tag-vancouver","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5914"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5920,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5914\/revisions\/5920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stillcoviding.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}