Titilope Sonuga to deliver Anne Szumigalski Lecture
Nigerian-Canadian poet Titilope Sonuga will deliver the annual Anne Szumigalski Lecture on Sept. 21 in Edmonton.
The League of Canadian Poets presents the lecture in partnership with the MacEwan University Arts and Cultural Management Program. Established in 2002 and modeled after the Margaret Laurence lecture series, the Anne Szumigalski Lecture series presents an annual lecture from a distinguished Canadian poet on craft, culture, and community.
Call and Response
Titilope’s lecture, titled Call and Response, will explore the dialogic nature of poetry and the ongoing co-creation of the work when expressed as the spoken word. Drawing on oral traditions, call-and-response rituals, storytelling and performance cultures, Titilope will illustrate how real-time audience interaction serves as a crucial refinement process for the artist’s work—a dynamic edit through which poetry emerges as a sacred communal act.
Titilope is a playwright and performer who has captured hearts across the globe. She is a leading voice in global literary communities, with work that dazzles from page to stage. Her poetry concert, Open, has shown to sold-out audiences in the UK, Canada, South Africa, and Nigeria. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Down to Earth (2011), Abscess (2014), and This Is How We Disappear (2019). Titilope has released three spoken word albums, Mother Tongue (2011), Swim (2019) and Sis (2024).
Exploring social justice, politics, and identity
The Anne Szumigalski Lectures have ranged from deeply academic to profoundly creative. They have explored poetry and engaged questions of social justice, politics, and identity.
Past lecturers have included Billy-Ray Belcourt, Louise Bernice Halfe-Sky Dancer, Tolu Oloruntoba, Alice Major, Lillian Allen, Anne Carson, and Dionne Brand, among others.
Find more information about the event here: https://poets.ca/
Ticket information is here: https://tickets.macewan.ca/
Lectures are available to view on YouTube, or to read in the anthology Measures of Astonishment or in Prairie Fire magazine.
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