Poetry Moves in Schools

NASRA is a queer, Muslim, Oromo curator/creator living in Amiskwaciwȃskahikan (Edmonton) on Treaty 6 territory. They were the Youth Poet Laureate of Edmonton from 2016 to 2017 and are currently the Director of Sister to Sister, an artistic showcase for/by femmes and women of colour. They are also the Festival Director of Black Arts Matter—Alberta’s interdisciplinary Black arts festival—and were the 2017 recipient of the Mayor’s Emerging Artist award. NASRA’s first poetry chapbook A God Dance in Human Cloth with Glass Buffalo Publishing celebrates the soft warrior in all of us; a call to step into our divinity and into ourselves, with fists unclenched.

Liam Coady’s work is special for its ability to foreground the human possibilities for social unity, personal resilience, love, triumph, and enduring hopefulness. Liam’s poetry and artful prose brims with colour, quirk, humour and rhythmic dexterity. His ability to bring together the physicality, intelligence and expansiveness of stage acting with the candour, potency and directness of poetry has made him a beloved local performer, and a spoken word poet of uncommon national distinction. A workshop with Liam can focus on a variety of themes from prompts and writing to performance and sharing. Liam has been an advocate and educator of the arts for the last 6 years.

Internationally recognized award-winning poet, Ahmed Knowmadic Ali, is a full-time writer, actor, public speaker and youth worker who inspires with his dynamic, thought-provoking and humorous poetry. He was the seventh and current Poet Laureate of Edmonton, Alberta Canada. Ahmed was the co-founder and current artistic director of Edmonton’s only spoken word collective: Breath In Poetry. Ahmed is an outspoken proponent of public education; he is a registered vendor with the Edmonton Public School board and provides students with interactive lessons on the importance of resilience, empathy, community engagement and equity. In addition to the school board, Ahmed presents on diversity and inclusion for the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s International Educational Exchange program. Ahmed is a dedicated youth worker and community builder who sit on boards like the Law Enforcement Review Board of Alberta, The Discipline Board of Alberta, The Somali Canadian Women and Children Association and regularly works with youth in correctional facilities. More than an accomplished poet, Ahmed uses his talents to inspire and uplift the local community. He encourages Edmonton’s aspiring poets and youth to use the medium as a positive form of self-expression and exploration of identity. A poet and community builder, Ahmed brings a contagious positivity and inclusivity to everything he does. You can find more information about Ahmed at AhmedKnowmadic.com or @Aknowmadic on all social media platforms.

Lady Vanessa Cardona is a mestiza, Colombian, first generation immigrant artist, poet, theatre practitioner, community organizer, dance instructor and photographer.

She started her spoken word career in Windhoek, Namibia and currently lives in Amiskwaciwȃskahikan (Edmonton), Treaty 6 territory. Lady Vanessa is the 2018 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion. She graduated with a BFA and specialization in Theatre and Development from Concordia University. She has written and performed her own one woman show called “Three Ladies” at the Edmonton Found Festival of 2017. She is also a co-creator and performer of “Whiteface” produced with Mile Zero Dance, Hip-hop in the Park, Winnipeg and Edmonton Fringe Festival. Lady is a mentor of a refugee youth leadership group called, “Newcomers are lit,” officially known as the Canadian Council for Refugees Youth Network. She is the founder of “Fiesta y Resistancia” Alberta’s interdisciplinary Latinx Art Festival. Lady has toured and competed around Canada and the United States promoting her art as an Edmonton local artist and proud member of the Breath in Poetry collective. She features in the chapbook, “Water” published by Glass Buffalo. Lady is currently working on her upcoming book “La Sangre Llama.” Lady believes in the healing powers art provides for our community. Healing is not polite, art allows us to be the frankest versions of ourselves so that we may strengthen our souls, minds and the community around us. Art is where we come together through unity of purpose.

An award-winning broadcaster, Giselle Lemire worked for Radio-Canada for many years. A Spoken Word poet, she was the 2013 Edmonton Slam Champion. A seasoned bilingual actress, director and producer, she founded theatre company, Théâtre du Coyote, where she wrote, directed and produced plays for children and adult audiences and toured in schools. For the French theatre l’Unithéatre, she led workshops in schools through out the province: improvisation, commedia del arte and Spoken Word.

A mentor, coach and facilitator, over the years she has offered many custom designed workshops. In 2016 she was facilitator at the Festival théatre jeunesse, a provincial theatre and battle of the bands festival of francophone high school artists from across the province. In 2014, she was guest artist and mentor at the Regina Nouvelle Scène festival of emerging music artists, offering a week of workshops in song writing, interpretation and staging. Since 2015, she has coached the performers of the annual Franco-Albertan singers contest, Polyfonik.

When not performing in Festivals and venues throughout the western provinces, Giselle mentors poets, singers and song writers, acts, produces and directs theatre or poetry events, and leads writing, memorization and performance skills workshops for youth and adults. Giselle Lemire’s workshops allow students to tap into their innate talent as storytellers, writers and performers. They learn concrete techniques and exercises to help them express themselves authentically. Giselle has experience working with all ages and experience levels. She specializes in unleashing the inner creative genius, releasing writers block, memorization, performance skills and dealing with stage fright.

Mary Pinkoski, 5th Poet Laureate of the City of Edmonton (2013-2015), is an internationally-recognized poet. She has performed on stages across North American and at the 2015 Winter Lights Festival in Reykjavik, Iceland. Her work has appeared in multiple anthologies. She is the 2011 Canadian National Spoken Word Champion and a winner of the 2008 CBC National Poetry Face-off. In 2015, Mary was recognized as an Edmonton Top 40 Under 40 and also awarded a University of Alberta Alumni Horizon Award for her poetry work in the Edmonton community, in particular for facilitating poetry workshops and her creation of the City of Edmonton’s Youth Poet Laureate role. Mary’s workshops bring the basics of free verse poetry, performance elements, and word play to allow students to tell the stories that are important to them without constraint. Mary facilitates workshops for participants of all ages and abilities. Mary has also facilitated workshops on writing for social change and has worked with organizations to help write their story creatively. Her workshops specialize in poetry/spoken word/storytelling.

Pierrette Requier, Edmonton’s 6th Poet Laureate, (July 1st 2015 – July 1st 2017) is a child of les Grandes prairies canadiennes, a bilingual poet, playwright, performer, producer and mentor. Although her work constantly brings her to new places, her pieces come from some deep core of home in her, a rising up of words, of a rhythm, through the ears, like a heartbeat; a surging, like the August wind in the leaves. Wherever she finds herself she plants her feet in the sustaining earth and absorbs. As a writer/performer collaborator, her deepest interest is in sharing the delight of La langue vivante, language in motion; language that is constantly evolving, thus lends itself to new artistic creations. Pierrette believes that poetry is an inexhaustible resource and loves to share this wealth.

Pierrette Requier est fille du vent et des vastes prairies de l’Ouest canadien, et femme de la ville. Depuis plus de 20 ans, elle est très active dans le milieu littéraire d’Edmonton. Nommé poète officielle de la ville d’Edmonton, en Juillet 2015 pour un mandat de 2 ans, son rôle a été d’être l’ambassadrice des arts littéraires dans le cadre de divers événements, un rôle qu’elle jouais en tant que personne liaison entre le RAFA (Regroupement artistique francophone de l’Alberta) et la Edmonton Poetry Festival Society. En s’engageant dans la réalisation et la production de plusieurs collaborations littéraires bilingues, et parfois multilingues et multi arts, elle a découvert que ce qui emballe c’est la langue vivante. Puisque la langue est toujours en émergence, elle se prête à la créativité, à l’invention de nouvelles formes qui incitent la rencontre avec l’Autre, un partage authentique et profondément intime.

Brandon Wint is an Edmonton-based writer and poet who has graced stages and captured the attention of audiences across Canada with his unique spoken word performances since 2008. Through his insightful performance pieces, Wint encapsulates the subtle and remarkable beauty of the human condition. As a poet who has been part of two Canadian Festival of Spoken Word championship teams, and as one who has traveled the country performing poetry for diverse audiences, Wint has been exposed to many styles of poetry, many ways of relating, and many different artistic aesthetics. By now, he is a veteran of the Canadian spoken word community, having performed all over Canada as both as a solo artist and as part of The Recipe Poetry Troupe. His spoken word pieces have been recorded and included on four compilation albums, and his poetry has been published in national anthologies. Brandon is also the author of the collection Love, Our Master (In/Words Press, 2014). Brandon is a poet of unique national distinction and renown whose love of the stage and authentic connection orients his performance-style and makes his an unconventional, necessary voice within the spoken word landscape.

As an experienced facilitator of poetry-writing tutorials and workshops, and a former student of Carleton University’s English program, Brandon brings practical know-how and authenticity to his pedagogy. As an arts-educator, Brandon is most interested in helping other poets find the voice of their deepest sincerity and most resonant inner-truth; he encourages his students to use the story-telling potential of poetry to help them better know their personal stories, ambitions, needs and challenges. By creating spaces of warmth, honesty and trust as a facilitator, Brandon has helped many poets across Canada better understand the powerful healing potential that poetry possesses when it is married to an authentic, soul-searching intention.