Happy Sixteenth Anniversary to Winnipeg is Better Than Chocolate and to you, its readers!
Thank you for visiting, whether you’re a regular or a ‘new to you’ visitor.
Since 2009 there have been over 1,067,000 visitors.
For the first few years Canada was the number one country for visitors.
Well, a few years ago, people from the United States became the top visitors.
These are the places where our top twenty visitors come from:
United States………….. 422 K
Singapore……….………..114 K
Canada…………….…….. 107 K
Hong Kong………………… 73.6 K
Germany………....…….. 69.6 K
Russia………..…….…….. 49.8 K
Brazil…………..………..…39.3 K
Ukraine………..…..……. 20.4 K
France………..…...……. 18.1 K
Vietnam………..……..….11.9 K
Unknown Region…..... 7.67 K
United Kingdom…..….. 7.66 K
Philippines…..…....….. 5.67 K
Netherlands………...….. 5.41 K
China………………..….….. 5.07 K
Japan…………..…..….….. 4.5 K
Sweden……..…...……….. 3 K
Indonesia………...……….. 2.93 K
Poland…………...….……… 2.62 K
Other………….…...……… 96.5 K
Vietnam is new to the top ten countries.
During the years there have also been visitors from Moldova, Turkey, Ireland, Australia, Taiwan, Argentina, Denmark, Eritrea, Italy, Finland, Spain, Macedonia (FYROM), Mexico, Afghanistan, Thailand, Slovakia, India, Bangladesh, Israel, Malaysia, Kuwait, Greece, Kenya, Vietnam, Czech Republic, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Armenia, Belarus, Namibia, Honduras, Lithuania, Turkmenistan, Cambodia, Switzerland, Czechia, Bermuda, Portugal, Qatar, Egypt, Chile, Nigeria, South Africa, Iraq, Côte d’Ivoire, Serbia, Libya, Dominican Republic, Togo, Saudi Arabia, Albania, Malta, Seychelles, Morocco, Peru, Belarus, Cyprus, Slovenia and Austria.
Please take a moment and comment when you have enjoyed an event.
Local musicians and writers check when they’re in the media and they love the feedback.
Once again, thank you so much for visiting!
As I said when Sophie and I signed off our weekly show...
Have a great weekend. How can you miss - you're in Winnipeg!
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Wednesdays, 4 pm to 8 pm, until Oct 15
Lord Roberts Community Centre, 725 Kylemore Ave, Winnipeg, MB R3L 1B8
Fireweed Food Co-op's 10th Annual South Osborne Farmers’ Market
Farm fresh veggies, local food items and handmade goods from many local vendors you know and love alongside fantastic new faces, prepared food, live entertainment, and beer gardens featuring local beer and cider. https://www.fireweedfoodcoop.ca/aboutmarket
This event is outdoors. The entrances are gravel pathways, and the rink is concrete. Washroom has a ramp at the buildings front entrance on Kylemore Avenue and automatic door openers. Walking distance of bus stops on Osborne Street (F6), Morley Avenue & Daly Street (557), and Fort Rouge and Jubilee Station (557, BLUE). Bike racks in front of the community centre, or walk your bike through the market. Limited parking lot spaces in the LRCC's lot. Do not use the back lane for parking.
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Indigenous & Crafting Events
9/25, 11 am - 2 pm
Enter through the St. Boniface Hospital's main doors, turn right to find the gallery.
Free, drop-in event. All are welcome! No registration needed.
paskwâwi-mostos: caretakers of the prairie, a collaborative community sculpture
Join Two-Spirit artist and educator, Britt Ross, at Galerie Buhler Gallery for this drop-in workshop. Britt will share bison teachings, while you create beads from clay and prairie seeds to adorn paskwâwi-mostos; a bison sculpture on display outside the gallery. Over the seasons, the beads you create will drop to the ground and plant the beginnings of a prairie! paskwâwi-mostos is part of the exhibit 'Tending to Wild' to November 15.
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MAWA, 203 - 329 Cumberland Ave, Winnipeg, MB R3B 1T2
Mobility issues - call us at 204-949-9490 for entry. Washrooms are single occupancy and gender neutral. MAWA opens 30 minutes before each program is due to begin. ASL interpretation is available for programs with 2 weeks notice. https://mawa.ca/about/accessibility
Oct 1, 7 pm - 9 pm
Free! everyone welcome!
To mark the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, Elder Albert McLeod will explain traditional Indigenous concepts of gender, the sacredness of gender diversity, the impact of colonization on gender diversity, and the re-emergence of 2Spirit/Indigenous LGBTQI+ people in the 21st century.
Albert McLeod is a Status Indian with ancestry from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and the Metis communities of Cross Lake and Norway House in northern Manitoba. He is one of the directors of the Two-Spirited People of Manitoba. McLeod began his Two-Spirit advocacy in Winnipeg in 1986 and became an HIV/AIDS activist in 1987. He was the director of the Manitoba Aboriginal AIDS Task Force from 1991 to 2001. In 2018 McLeod received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the U of W and in 2019, a Champions of Mental Health Award from the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health. He is experienced in beadwork, Indigenous regalia-making and leather crafts. McLeod is part of the team designing Thunderhead, the 2SLGBTQI+ National Monument in Ottawa. He is a board member of Winnipeg’s Urban Shaman Gallery: Contemporary Indigenous Art.
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Oct 11, 1 pm - 4 pm
Tickets $25 https://mawa.ca/events/thread-painting-workshop-with-shula-mulenga-brown
All welcome! Spaces limited (24)
Thread Painting Workshop with Shula Mulenga Brown
In this embroidery workshop, you’ll learn to thread-paint a Hoopoe bird on a 6-inch hoop, with all materials and instructions provided. This piece is a tribute to everyday sights and sounds like those of the African Hoopoe or Canadian Blue Jay that offer a sense of belonging, comfort and home.
Shula Mulenga Brown is an African textile artist based in Winnipeg. She creates decorative and functional art through embroidery, sewing and rughooking. Her textile art is rooted in sustainability, supporting small African and North American businesses in order to craft pieces that inspire belonging and beauty in everyday life. https://www.mulenga.ca/
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Oct 11, 2 pm - 5 pm
#3 759 Pembina Hwy, Winnipeg, MB R3M 2l9
Cost $75. Spaces limited (12) Fabrics, notions and use of machines and tools included.
Join Cynthia Boehm (Lilax Studio) for a three hour beading lesson where you will learn the two-needle beading technique. Kits will include all materials required to complete a small beaded pin cushion.
Cynthia Boehm, born and raised in Norway House, MB, enjoys carrying on the tradition of her ancestors. The appreciation for the art form was strengthened when Cynthia discovered her great grandmother’s art at the Manitoba Museum. It prompted her to research the historical beadwork and embroidery patterns of her Cree-Métis ancestors.
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Oct 16, 6 pm - 7 pm
20 West Gate, Winnipeg, MB R3C 2E1
Invoking the Classical Past in the Gilded Age: The Greek Myth of Penelope and Women’s Craft
In the 1800s, neoclassical themes were popular in art and design. Penelope, the idealized faithful wife of Greek myth, appeared across a variety of media, from painting to upholstery fabric. Building from a discussion of an 1886 tapestry depicting Penelope by Dora Wheeler Keith, this talk examines the use of women’s craft and the invocation of the classical past in supporting colonial enterprise in late 1800s America.
Speaker: Melissa Funke, Dept. of Classics (2025-2026 UW Community Lecture Series)
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Oct 25, 12:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library, 1-329 Cumberland Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3C 1S6
Tickets https://c2centreforcraft.ca/2025/08/29/caribou-moss-embroidery-workshop/
Caribou Moss Embroidery Workshop, associated with the Galerie Buhler Gallery exhibit “Tending the Wild”
Caribou moss is the inspiration for a free form work that uses colour, layering and only a few stitches to build a fanciful recreation of Cladonia rangiferin. Found in areas of alpine tundra, and in reality a lichen, it grows on the forest floor. You will finish a small piece in the workshop. A frame is included. Skill Level: Beginner and above
Leona Herzog’s art focuses primarily on botanical watercolours and fibres. She has spent hours in the forest with her pencils and watercolours recording plants in situ, pressing samples, and later taking advantage of dried specimens at the WIN Herbarium, U of M, for further study.
Her embroidery was in WIN Herbarium’s exhibition Dry Medium VII: Germinate, at the community gallery in Assiniboine Park Pavilion, and will be in Tending the Wild, curated by hannah_g, at the Buhler Gallery, until November 15. Leona has served on many arts boards and is currently Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for MAWA. Recent curatorial work includes Crafting Wellness – mind + body …at a cost, at C2 Gallery for Manitoba Crafts Museum & Library; and Divergence & Connection at MHC Gallery, a juried exhibition for FLASH photographic festival.
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Book Fair & Launches
9/27, 11 am - 4 pm
Millennium Library, 251 Donald St
Join us for the second annual Queer Book Fair, featuring local authors, booksellers, and makers. All are welcome and entry is free!
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McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park, 1120 Grant Ave, Wpg, MB
These events will be hosted live in the Atrium and are also available as a YouTube stream.
Oct 1, 7 pm
Join George Amabile for the launch of Seeing Things. Featuring a reading and a conversation hosted by Kristian Enright.
George Amabile's thirteenth book and newest collection of poetry is a poetic journey through clarity and distortion, presence and memory, grief and wonder.
George Amabile is a Winnipeg poet and writer. He has published 13 books and has had his work published in over a hundred national and international venues. He has won awards in the CAA National Prize, the CBC Literary Competition, the Petra Kenney International Competition, the MAC national poetry contest, and the National Magazine Awards. His most recent publications are Small Change, Dancing, with Mirrors, Martial Music all of which won Bressani awards, and Operation Stealth Seed which won the Michael Von Rooy award for genre fiction.
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Oct 3, 7 pm
Thomas Wharton will launch Wolf, Moon, Dog, a heartfelt novel about the many fabled lives of a dog named Wolf. Featuring a reading and a conversation hosted by Winnipeg Free Press literary editor Ben Sigurdson. This event is dog-friendly.
Follow Wolf as he reincarnates through the ages, from Ancient Egypt to Alexandrian Greece to the Space Race and all the way to a dark future beset by climate change. It is as insightful about human nature as it is about canine behaviour.
Thomas Wharton’s first novel, Icefields, won the 1996 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book Canada and the Caribbean and was also a 2008 CBC Canada Reads pick. His next book, Salamander, was shortlisted for the 2001 Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and was also a finalist for the Roger’s Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize the same year. His latest novel, The Book of Rain, was a finalist for the 2023 Atwood Gibson Writer’s Trust Fiction Prize and the 2024 Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction.
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Oct 11, 7 pm
Join Melanie Dennis Unrau for the launch of her poetry collection Goose, featuring a reading and a conversation hosted by Ariel Gordon.
Goose is a collection of hand-traced visual poems made using found text and images from the 1938 and 1956 editions of Northland Trails, a book of self-illustrated short stories, poems, and essays about the Athabasca region authored by “father of the tar sands” S. C. Ells (1878–1971). Goose takes Ells’s early work as the starting point for an inventive and biting critique of the oil-sands industry and our petromodern energy system.
Melanie Dennis Unrau is a poet, editor, scholar, and climate organizer. She is the author of the literary study The Rough Poets: Reading Oil-Worker Poetry and the poetry collection Happiness Threads: The Unborn Poems. A former editor of The Goose journal and Geez magazine, Melanie also co-edited I’ll Get Right on It: Poems on Working Life in the Climate Crisis.
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Oct 23, 7 pm
Join us for for the launch of two new books: Into the D/ark by David Elias and Honeydew by Ben Zalkind. Featuring readings and a conversation hosted by Ron Robinson.
In Into the D/ark, Rose Martens struggles with the aftermath of a fire that has left her sons disfigured. When the first major snowstorm of the year roars into the valley, it unleashes a chain of bizarre events that the valley may never recover from.
Winnipegger David Elias is the author of seven books. His historical novel, Elizabeth of Bohemia, is a finalist for The Margaret Lawrence Award for Fiction at The Manitoba Book Awards. His previous works have been up for numerous awards. His writing has appeared in literary magazines and anthologies across the country. He is also a mentor, creative writing instructor, and editor.
In Calgarian Ben Zalkind's debut novel Honeydew, Rose Gold can’t catch a break. Her latest “golden opportunity” has given way to a madcap adventure through the soft underbelly of Bonneville City.
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Dalnavert Museum and Visitors' Centre, 61 Carlton St, Wpg, MB R3C 1N7
9/27, 6 pm - 10 pm
Admission to the museum is free. No registration is required.
During Nuit Blanche listen closely as Dalnavert comes to life with sound. As you wander the halls and rooms, let sounds from the past greet you, evoking the everyday presence of those who once moved through these spaces. A phonograph, a clock, a tub filling with invisible water - immerse yourself and experience what life looked and sounded like in the Victorian Period.
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Oct 19, 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Tickets https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/friendsofdalnavert/items/436747/availability/1828617213/book/
Mourning fashion was at its peak during the reign of Queen Victoria. How you grieved was framed by rigid social expectations extending to the clothes you wore. Learn about the history of mourning dress with Dressed to Grieve: The Style of Sorrow in the Victorian Era, our special spooky season edition of The Language of Dalnavert: An Insider’s Perspective of the House and the Victorians, a monthly lecture series with Dalnavert’s Collections Registrar, Inés Bonacossa.
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Sept 27, 12 pm - 4 pm / Sept 28, 12 pm - 2pm
St. Thomas Anglican Church, 1567 William Ave W, Winnipeg, MB R3E 1A7
Bring a donation of a non-perishable food item or a monetary donation and you get one bag to fill with clothes, books and small household items. Limit one bag per donation per family, while items last. We ask that only one member of each household participate in this event. www.stthomasweston.ca
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Oct 11, 10 am
764 Erin St , Winnipeg, MB R3G 2W4
Tickets $65 https://icfron.ca/2025/09/03/tour-of-icelandic-winnipeg/
Covers transportation, lunch, the photo exhibit, and Kaffi Tími.
The Icelandic Canadian Frón and Lögberg Heimskringla’s Icelandic Winnipeg Bus Tour!
Led by Logberg Heimskringla Editor, Stefan Jonasson, the bus will take you through Winnipeg’s West End, highlighting landmarks and heritage sites tied to the city’s Icelandic roots. A delicious lunch will be served by the Scandinavian Centre’s own Bonne Cuisine, and a photo exhibit by Signy Thorsteinson will be on display. The tour also includes a visit to the University of Manitoba’s Icelandic Library archives, followed by a relaxing Kaffi Tími to close the day.
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Halloween Events
Oct 23 and Oct 24, 7:30 pm - 10 pm
Oct 25, 2:00 pm - 4:40 pm and 7:30 pm - 10 pm
Oct 26, 2:00 pm - 4:40 pm
Université de Saint-Boniface, 200 De La Cathedral Ave. Martial-Caron Theatre
Tickets $25 at www.HoodandDagger.ca (special rates if you have a group of 9 or more)
The Haunting of Hill House, by Hood and Dagger Production
Join us for this chilling mystery that follows a small group of researchers who have arrived at Hill House, a brooding mansion known as a place of evil. Led by a professor, they have come to probe the secrets of the old house, but they soon find that Hill House has terrible plans of its own.
This play was adapted by F. Andrew Leslie from the novel by Shirley Jackson. Featuring a local cast and crew of volunteers and local businesses. This is a community event with a 50/50 raffle for Darcy's Animal Rescue Centre! A portion of ticket sales will be given to Darcy's.
High Tea Bakery and Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore will have booths in the lobby.
Free Parking. Wheelchair accessible. Doors open 45 minutes before showtime. Rush seating. Performances in English.
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Oct 24 8 pm - 2 am
The Osborne Taphouse, 112 Osborne St
The Dark Eighties Halloween Costume Party in Winnipeg 18+
We'll be playing your favourite DARK 80s anthems: GOTH / POST PUNK / NEW ROMANTICS / EBM / INDUSTRIAL / DARK + COLD WAVE / DEATHROCK / MINIMAL WAVE / CULT 80S HITS / SYNTH POP / DARK ELECTRONIC / LATE 70s PUNK / DEEP CUTS / OBSCURITIES / FOREIGN / CULT HITS! We strongly encourage COSTUMES!
The Dark Eighties originated in Vancouver 11 years ago and have sold out nights in Montreal, Vancouver, NYC and London. We have a livestream running on Twitch.
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Oct 24 2 pm to Oct 26 - 4 pm
RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg, 375 York Ave, Winnipeg, MB R3C 3J3
Tickets https://comicconwinnipeg.com/tickets/
Winnipeg Comiccon is a pop-culture fan convention that showcases artists and products from Sci-fi, Horror, Anime, video games, table top games, cosplay and comic books. It features a large array of exhibits with several companies demonstrating their wares, and a few vehicles or set pieces from film or television are on display.
Fans have the opportunity to meet creators from the world of comics, get their autographs, buy a sketch or thank them for their work. Fans get to meet the personalities behind their favourite TV shows and movies. Celebrities participate in photo opportunities and appear on stage. Fans are treated to a variety of panel discussions and workshops (included with any general admission).
Come dressed as your favourite pop culture characters and enter the costume contest!
