He died dancing.
I met him when he was dancing and I took his hand as we skipped about the fountain at what is now the art gallery on Georgia Street – which was then a courthouse where the RCMP had a detachment at the Howe Street side, so Joachim’s dancing was also a challenge. The Vancouver Town Fool as he allowed and prided himself to be called was blessed with a voice, demeanor and courage which combined with his unintimidating physicality and gentle manner spooked the sad little bureaucracy that Vancouver was morphing into under the ‘leadership’ of frightened little men like Mayor Tom Campbell. While the desperately wasteful Vietnam war and other intellectual assaults were commonplace in a time when men needed to hear the voices of champions of good thought, Joachim Foikis stood tall, and while dancing high on a precipice above a band at Victoria harbour fell to his divinely scripted demise. Way to go, Joachim.
11 comments:
Wow.
Inspiration -- just wow. \m/
Cheers (and many thanks for sharing a wonderful story about a wonderful man),
-=*+[z']+*=-
FoikUs. Joachim (Kim) Foikus was famous for receiving a $3,500 Canada Council grant in 1968 to be Vancouver's Town Fool.
Kim was my partner in "Vegetable", an indoor gardening EdCon project in 602 in Rochdale College.
His name was Kim FoikUS. Nobody called him by his Dutch name of Joachim.
I knew him very well because we were partners in an EdCon project in Rochdale College.
He visited Rochdale in 1969 for the Rochdale Summer Festival. He lived in Rochdale College in 1974 and 1975.
I last saw him in Toronto in 1977 at an Embassy Ball. He died in 2008. Some claim he died in the Caribbean, some say he died from a heart attack, and here it says he died from dancing. It doesn't matter, he is dead. At least spell his name correctly. If you didn't know him and don't know anything about him, let him rest in peace. Let me write about my former partner.
I just noticed an internet entry: "In early 1996 he suffered a massive heart attack and died a few days later in hospital. Here it implies he died in 2007.
And the piece here ends with "Way to go, Joachim." NO! His name was Kim. Nobody called him by his Dutch name of Joachim.
When he was Town Fool of Vancouver he had a donkey cart pulled by donkeys named Peter and Pan. If you're going to write about someone you really didn't know or understand, I suggest you stick to his public accomplishments which are well documented in The New York Times and other reputable publications.
Kim was my partner, and it annoys me that strangers are writing bullshit about him. I've already write the truth about him for my "Rochale College" book.
i remember him.. i was 17 in '69 and a West Ender.. i hung out at the Retinal Circus and over on 4th and Kits Beach.. English Bay and The Park was our turf.. Easter Be-ins.. it was a pretty cool time in Vancouver and Joachim Foikis was a part of that.. there was also La Troupe Grotesque.. they did streetplays and gave out free food appearing randomly here and there.. the smell of incense along the bistros on 4th.. Greatful Dead or Jefferson Airplane in the air.. it was like a long festival
Kim Foikis (not Foikus), with his wife and kids, lived for a while next door to me. He rented the little cottage that used to stand at 3823 West 15th Avenue in West Point Grey. The donkey and the cart were there too, in the big fenced front yard. The donkey woke me up early in the morning with its braying. By 1969 he had used up his grant, got more heavily into psychedelic drugs. His wife went back to England with their kids and he moved away. I never saw him after that.
I'd be interested to hear from others who knew him when he was my neighbour in 1968.
what happened to his wife and kids?
They went back to England where she was from.
In about 1970 as I recall.
I met him in 1967-8 at the Student Union Building at UBC. He introduced himself to me as Joachim at that time and I never new him as Kim. When he ran for mayor of Vancouver in about 1969, he said: "Since we have a fool for a mayor, we might as well have a mayor who is a fool." He was wonderfully gracious with his time and attention, and permitted me to wander the streets with him for a few weeks.
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