The Proud to be Portuguese-Canadian Conference & Cultural Festival is presented by Mirateca Arts in partnership with On Your Mark (WWCC). The project is also a media partner with Canadian Music Week and Missão Canadá: Mission Canada.

Terry Costa is the founder and producer of Proud to be Portuguese-Canadian

The festival includes cultural presentations divided into the following categories:

1) DESCENDANTS IN THE AMERICAN CONTINENT; the programming includes young Portuguese-Canadians in the music world including Sonia Tavares and Paulo Filipe with An Evening of Fado, soloists Nancy Dutra and Lucas Silveira, Louis Simão and the Portuguese Guitar, the comedy of The Portuguese Kids, amongst others.

2) THE BEST OF PORTUGAL; the programming presents some top notch talents from Portugal including Marta Pereira da Costa, Dead Combo, Frankie Chavez, among others, as well as a special presentations during the March 17th Conference that welcomes PicoWines, Manjerica, Frank & Stein, among others.

3) THE CONFERENCE: on Saturday, March 17th  at MOD Club Theatre one can learn about the best programming in Canada that relates to the youth and their Portuguese culture, as well as some exciting projects and products coming out of Portugal; meet amazing individuals, from all walks of life, yet, we might not be necessarily aware that they are of Portuguese ancentry. The Conference is free and open to all but we encourage registration.  

This is a conference that  focus on the younger generations of Portuguese Canadians.
Our main conference date is Saturday, March 17th 2012 at MOD Club Theatre.
Our cultural festival and satellite events happen from Thursday March 15th until Sunday the 25th.

    
Sonia Tavares, Suzana Camara, Brian Melo

Paulino Nunes

Conference Opening Speaker

Carmen is the President and founding owner of Chef Network Inc. Through the building of her personal relationships with top PR firms, corporate, agencies and others, she has grown CNI into the #1 booking agency for celebrity chefs and food experts in Canada. Carmen has over 10 years of experience in the business and is regarded as the “industry maven” of all things culinary from chefs to food trends. She is often the first link for media to information on food trends and celebrity chefs and is an expert in her field.

Terry Costa was born in Canada and  raised in Pico island (Azores, Portugal).
Terry founded Mirateca Arts in Vancouver-Canada and leads the organization since 2002. Currently the company has offices in North America and Europe.
  As an “artist of artists” Costa’s mandate is to elevate an idea step by step through its development and production and raise its visibility from local to national, and at times around the planet.    Past leadership positions include Managing Artistic Director of AQT Vancouver (2002-2006), and UNI Theatre (1997-2001) in Mississauga-Ontario; he also founded the Gastown performance art gallery Spaces, the Looking Forward, Looking Black Festival and Vancouver’s Portuguese Heritage Month Festival. (http://www.portuguesecanadian.com)