Events Schedule

Are you fascinated by poetry, languages, and art? Are you curious to witness Indigenous language reclamation and revitalization through creative self-expression? Then please join us for The Polyglot’s launch of our double issue—nimitêyaniy and nitêh. These issues were curated by Naomi McIlwraith and Dorothy Thunder, and feature 36 brilliant Indigenous poets and artists. This launch showcases sixteen of our contributors read their poems or talk about their art, weaving their insights on language, culture, and Indigenous identities. The Polyglot would like to acknowledge and deeply thank the Edmonton Arts Council for their support and funding of this project. A special mahsi cho to the Edmonton Poetry Festival for supporting us with this launch. The covers of the issues feature art by Lana Whiskeyjack (nimitêyaniy) and Jade Roberts (nitêh). The words of the issues correspond to tongue and heart in nêhiyawêwin (Cree).

Venue

Online

What does it mean to translate home? How does the concept of “home” change when you identify as multilingual/multicultural? What are the connections between the languages we speak and the lands we have inhabited? Ten poets from The Polyglot’s latest issues, Lunch Box and Unfaithful, explore multilayered meanings of home through poems in Arabic, Italian, Irish, Nêhiyawêwin, Portuguese, Romanian, Somali, Spanish, and Tagalog.

Whether this land has been your ancestral home for generations or you have settled here after leaving your home behind, the need to “code-switch” between languages and lands results in the constant re-examining of our maps of meaning. Home becomes the place where our life experiences get lost (and found) in translation, as we simultaneously make new connections between past and present. Multilingual poetry then becomes the ideal vehicle to safely “break the code,” building a more spacious home, with room for the old and the new.

As the closing event for Edmonton Poetry Festival 2019, The Polyglot will serve up an unforgettable reading by ten multilingual poets who will be reading and performing work from the magazine’s latest issues, Lunch Box (a poetry and art issue about food, guest-edited by Mimi Okabe) and Unfaithful (a multimodal issue of poetry in translation).

Venue

CKUA Performance Space

9804 Jasper Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T5J 0C5 Canada

This event is sponsored by Robert Less-Miller.

The Edmonton Poetry Festival is throwing it’s annual poetry party and volunteer appreciation night, with internationally acclaimed poets and local superstars to show what the power of poetic performance is all about. This exciting event brings in some of the most powerful voices active in poetry today. Join us as we welcome the renowned Buddy Wakefield as well as Lady Vanessa, Nasra Adem, Ahmed Knowmadic, and musician Selassie Drah to celebrate poetry at its most vivid form.

Venue

The Matrix Hotel

10640 100 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T5J 3N8 Canada

Homebody invites prominent queer poets from across Canada to showcase their work in an exploration of the way home, and their place in it, manifests in themselves. Bringing in Victoria poet Arleen Paré, queer Peranakan poet Natalie Wee, editor of Glass Buffalo Matthew Stepanic, and local author Jason Purcell, this event will hopes to highlight the cross-section of poetry and queerness in today’s world and what it means for these authors.

Venue

The Matrix Hotel

10640 100 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T5J 3N8 Canada

The ever-popular Wine and Wild Women Wordsmiths is back! And this year’s readers amplify the power of the female voice. Like poetry, there is a sea of wine styles and types to choose from. Just like Women, the anthocyanins in wine have great heart-health benefits. It’s Friday night and we invite you to enjoy distilled words, quality grapes, and the company of women who speak up, and make their voice heard. This event is hosted by S.G. Wong.

And the price of admission includes a sample of four wines to match our distinct female poets. Thank you to our friends at Prestige for sponsoring our wine samples tonight.

Venue

The Matrix Hotel

10640 100 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T5J 3N8 Canada

Alchemy is the name of the expansive, diverse and dynamic poetry party being curated by local spoken word artist Brandon Wint as part of this year’s festival. The event will welcome the remarkable talents and perspectives of internationally-acclaimed poets Alessandra Naccarato, Shauntay Grant, and Ahmed Knowmadic. Alchemy will be a show that embraces the daring, magical potential that is revealed whenever poetry and music collide. Beyond this, the show will revel in the strength, authenticity, candour and emotional poignancy each of these poets brings to the stage. Alchemy is an event that will showcase and celebrate the social, spiritual and emotional potency of poetics, by inviting this group of accomplished writers to take what they do best and push it into new territory.

This event is generously sponsored by Dr. Kim Solez.

Venue

The Matrix Hotel

10640 100 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T5J 3N8 Canada

In partnership with Metro Cinema, the Edmonton Poetry Festival is pleased to present this experimental film about iconic poet Allen Ginsberg. Starring James Franco, this 2010 movie explores the forming of the Beat Generation, reconstructing and moving between Ginsberg’s early life, a re-enactment of his poem “Howl”, and his obscenity trial in 1957. Prior to the screening, local poet Michael Gravel will regale the audience with his beat-inspired riffs and lyrics.

Venue

Metro Cinema

8712 109 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T6G 1E9 Canada

Join Trinidadian-Bahamian poet, essayist, and cultural critic Christian Campbell in this invigorating two-hour workshop. His debut collection, Running the Dusk, was shortlisted for several awards and won the Aldeburgh Prize for Best First Collection. Christian will lead the class through an analysis and discussion of model poems and then guide them in exercises to help craft exquisite beginnings to their own poems.

Register in advance as this workshop is limited to 16 people. Space for this event is generously supported by the Canadian Literature Centre.

Venue

Rudy Wiebe Room (HC-459) @ University of Alberta

Humanities Centre, University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB T6G 2E5 Canada

How does one speak their own truth? Join this eclectic group of poets, who each have cultivated a unique voice and an honest perspective in their work. Expect a moving evening of diverse poetry that will have you seeking your own true voice!

• Ali Blythe: A winner of the Vallum Award for Poetry, Ali’s first book of poems, Twoism, was a finalist for the BC Book Awards. He is also the recipient of an Honour of Distinction from the Writers’ Trust of Canada for emerging LGBTQ writers.
• Christian Campbell: Winner of the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize for Running the Dusk, Christian has also received numerous awards and fellowships.
• Patrick Friesen: With more than a dozen collections of poetry, Patrick co-translated Ulrikka Gernes’ Frayed Opus for Strings & Wind Instruments, which was shortlisted for the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize. His most recent book is Songen.
• Ahmed “Knowmadic” Ali: An award-winning Somali-born spoken word poet, entertainer, and educator, Ahmed serves as the current Poet Laureate of Edmonton.

Venue

Allard Hall @ MacEwan University

11110 104 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T5J 4S2 Canada