Events Schedule

Close out the Edmonton Poetry Festival 2022 in great fashion with our EPF Poetry Party feat. Rayanne Haines, V. Guzman, Mad John and Tzadeka & Murder Hornettes.

Authors & Presenters

Mad John     Rayanne Haines     Tzadeka and the Murder Hornettes     V. Guzman

Venue

Latitude 53

10248 106 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T5J 0J2 Canada

The Sublime Feminine is an event hosted by Sublime Intervention Collective to honour and celebrate local, influential, feminine identifying people. This night will feature poetry readings, musical performances, live visual art and more! There will also be a silent auction at the event to fundraise for S.I.C’s future events and endeavours. The items in the silent auction have and will be curated from local female owned businesses. S.I.C hopes to uphold a safe and welcoming environment to amplify the voices and stories of all the local sublime feminine creatives.

Authors & Presenters

Dwennimmen     Sublime Intervention Collective

Venue

The Aviary

9314 111 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T5G 0A3 Canada

Join Poets for Ukraine Chapbook contributions reading. There will also be an open mic and music by Roylin Picou. Proceeds from the chapbook will be donated to the Second Front Ukrainian Foundation.

Authors & Presenters

Poets for Ukraine     Roylin Picou

Venue

Yianni's Taverna Kasbar (Downstairs)

10444 82 Ave NW
Edmonton, AB T6E 2A2 Canada

Edmonton Poet Laureate Titilope Sonuga in performance for WORD*LAB in the CO*LAB. With Sampler Cafe, a local beat making collective, for Boyle Street Arts Night. Hosted by Dwennimmen (aka Shima Robinson). Join for this Edmonton Poetry Festival Kick-Off event!

COVID-19 Safety:
CO*LAB requires masking while indoors at all times. 

Authors & Presenters

Dwennimmen     Sampler Cafe Collective     Titilope Sonuga

Venue

CO*LAB

9641 102A Ave NW
Edmonton, AB T5H 0G3 Canada

Join the Edmonton Poetry Festival and New Music Edmonton for Sonic Confluence Collective: Sounds Like Words Like Sounds on Sunday, December 19, 2021 @ 3:00PM online or in person @ Co*Lab (9641 102A Ave NW).

Tickets are $20 for in-person or $15 for live stream access.

Sonic Confluence Collective: Sounds Like Words Like Sounds brings together 3 artists each from the spoken word and sound worlds who have combined their talents to create a joint performance.

The artists include:

• Maigan Van der Geissen
• Ryan James Summers aka Some Sum Cay De Dios
• Afarin Nazarijou
• Louis Bouchier
• Biboye Onanuga

This is the first-ever collaborative project between the Edmonton Poetry Festival and New Music Edmonton. Three spoken word and three sound artists are coming together to create a collective performance. The collaboration highlights the magic of mixing or mashing genres to create a unique sonic experience.

The Edmonton Poetry Festival thanks Canadian Heritage Grant for funding support towards this project. New Music Edmonton thanks our funders: The Edmonton Arts Council, The Canada Council for the Arts, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, SOCAN Foundation, The City of Edmonton, and AGLC.

Venue

CO*LAB

9641 102A Ave NW
Edmonton, AB T5H 0G3 Canada

Alive! Is a heavy-hitting, multidisciplinary poetry experience curated and performed by nationally-celebrated poet Brandon Wint as well as an accompaniment of dancers and musicians who have created a one-of-a-kind showcase. Brandon will be accompanied by Justin Khuong, Rebecca Parsons, Mpoe Mogale, Jane Berry, Bhuyash Neupane, Jeannie Vandekerkhove and Amy Voyer. Following Alive! will be award-winning poet Titilope Sonuga’s internationally-acclaimed poetry and musical showcase, Open, which recently hit the world stage on tour before being brought back home for new enthusiasts and old friends alike to take in and enjoy. Open is backed by local favourites MelAfrique.

Venue

The Matrix Hotel

10640 100 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T5J 3N8 Canada

Presented in partnership with the Canadian Authors Association.

Arleen Paré will explore rhyme, rhythm and repetition in poetry through this extended workshop, presented in part with the Canadian Authors Association. This intensive workshop will guide participants through an understanding of musicality and how it affects the word, shaping the form and cadence of our writing and how it meets the open air when spoken out loud.

Venue

The Matrix Hotel

10640 100 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T5J 3N8 Canada

Drone & Words is a collaborative showcase featuring spoken word poets paired with the soundscapes of experimental musicians. It sets an intention of creating a space for experimental poetry, connecting artists of different disciplines and showcasing the diversity of spoken word. Come and explore the emotional space that can be found when drone & noise is added to poetic performance.

This is a BYOV event. Admission to this event (if applicable) is not included in a festival pass.

Performers

• Durell Smith is an Edmonton based poet writing on the anxieties and frustrations of everyday life. Accepting negativity and using it for fire.
• Shima Aisha Robinson is an amiskwaciy-wâskahikan(Edmonton)-born poet and spoken word artist who embodies, with every literary and scholarly effort, the ancient meaning of her chosen pen name. Dwennimmen is the name of an ancient African Adinkra symbol, which means strength, humility, learning and wisdom. It is no surprise, then, that this veteran of the Alberta poetry community uses a searing intellect and dynamic precision-of-language to create poetry which ushers her readers and listeners toward greater understanding and poignant reflection.
• *Georgia-Rae’s* words are a well-placed throat punch. Stopping you in your tracks. She will be collaborating with local musician Andy June.
• *Tab C.A.* is a poet, experimental performance artist and community activator residing in treaty 6 territory. They strive to create honest, heartfelt connection and bring their audience into shared catharsis.
• *Kelly Ruth* is a textile and new media artist activating her textiles and tools with electronics and sound. Her installations and improvisational sound performances explore the shifting relationship that humans have with technology and the land.
• *Ethan Bokma* is an Edmonton-based improviser known for colliding together influences from free-jazz legends and drone music alike.

Venue

The Sewing Machine Factory

9562 82 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T6C 0Z8 Canada

Join Jan Zwicky for a three-hour workshop focussing on the musical aspects of poetic language. The workshop aims to heighten awareness of rhythm and sound through close readings of sample poems by established authors and through exercises that participants can take home. It will occur in the Ozawa Pavilion, an authentic Japanese Tea House.

Jan Zwicky has published eleven collections of poetry, most recently The Long Walk. Her books of philosophy include Wisdom & Metaphor, Lyric Philosophy, and Alkibiades’ Love. Her collection, Songs for Relinquishing the Earth, won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry.

Register online at the ticket link below or call 780-987-3054 × 2227. Directions will follow registration.

This event is sold out!

Venue

University of Alberta Botanic Garden

51227 AB-60
Spruce Grove, AB T7Y 1C5 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

Drone & Words is a collaborative showcase featuring spoken word artists paired with the soundscapes of experimental musicians. This event marks the 4th edition of this format, created and curated by Durell Smith and Tab C.A.

Performers

• Brandon Wint is an Edmonton-based poet, spoken word artist, teacher, and national slam champion. He is a passionate lover and advocate of poetry who believes that poetry is a form of magic that brings us closer to truth.
• Durell Smith is an Edmonton based poet writing on the anxieties and frustrations of everyday life. Accepting negativity and using it for fire.
• For Liam Coady, artistry – like life itself – is about bringing forces together and making meaningful connections. A national team poetry slam champion and former finalist of the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam, he has been a featured performer at festivals and showcases throughout the country. His newest work This Love Is Mad Reciprocal was recently published by Glass Buffalo and is available for purchase.
• Nisha Patel is an Indo-Canadian spoken word poetry author, artist, public speaker, and writer in Edmonton, Alberta. She is the inaugural 2018 Nook Café Artist in Residence.
• Savannah Schultz is a poet from the Canadian prairies. You can find her work in Bad Pony, Moonchild Magazine, and in her forthcoming release with spoken word and ambient drone collaboration, Limina.
• Tab C.A. is a poet, performance artist and community activator in Edmonton, Alberta. They strive to create honest, heartfelt connection and bring their audience into shared catharsis.

Venue

The Sewing Machine Factory

9562 82 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB T6C 0Z8 Canada

Prepare yourself for a night of rousing music and poetry inspired by the songs of the late Leonard Cohen. Local singer-songwriters will perform covers of their personal favorites by the Bard of the Boudoir, as poets Kaz Mega, Dwennimmen, Morgan Smith, Nanise, Alison Clarke, Lady Vanessa, Tab CA, and Mary Pinkoski compose original poems inspired by Rock’n Roll’s Lord Byron. Take a perch on the electrical wire and get wooed by the sultry undertones of the Prophet of Pathos. Hosted by Edmonton’s Liam Coady.

This event is open to members of The Edmonton Poetry Festival and their guests. Memberships are available at the door.

Venue

Studio 96

10909 96 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T5H 2K4 Canada