By: Alex Masse, Peak Associate
Released on January 14, Poets+ is the creative brainchild of the Arts Council of New Westminster, Fifth Chord Studios, and Tawahum Bige, the project’s curator. It’s a one hour showcase of emerging poets of colour that takes on “themes of identity, oppression, and reconciliation.” True to form, the event held a land acknowledgement in its video description, honouring the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the QayQayt (qiqéyt) Nation, as well as all Coast Salish Nations.
“I wanted to highlight BIPOC artists in the scene that not only are brilliant poets, but do so much more beyond that — whether comedy, music, community advocacy — and to give them the space to exemplify it,” Bige said.
Four poets performed back-to-back, sharing a variety of stories in a spectrum of styles. The piece opens with works from Justin Percival, a Nisga’a poet, who was born and raised in Vancouver but considers himself a visitor to the land. His poems touch on living in Vancouver, addiction, and hope. His style is rhythmic and driven, his natural flow undoubtedly a product of his background as hip-hop artist EnigmaDaPoet. As the grandson of a residential school survivor, Percival is personally connected to the themes of oppression and reconciliation, and his poetic repertoire holds memorable intensity.
Up next is Tin Lorica, a queer Filipinx comedian who’s brought laughter all over the local scene, co-hosting comedy shows and even featuring on a Just For Laughs stand-up compilation album. They’re no stranger to poetry, having released a chapbook, Soft Armour, in 2020. In Poets+, their vivid imagery and cool flow paints pictures of diaspora, familial trauma, mother tongues, mental health, and — at one point — “the mistake of hooking up with a white boy.”
Third on the roster is Tawahum Bige. As a Two-Spirit Łutselkʼe Dene, Plains Cree poet, spoken word artist, and hip-hop musician, they’ve taken on stage and page alike. Bige shared music and poetry, including their debut single, “Shedding,” a hip-hop track with an energized flow and lyrics that snapshot both righteous emotion and beautiful, anti-colonial imagery. Bige’s words are born from life experiences, be that going through the court system as a land protector or growing up Indigenous in a colonized land.
The showcase closes with Jillian Christmas, a queer creative facilitator and award-winning poet. Her body of work covered intimacy, healing, mental health, living as a woman of colour, and the racism she and others — family and strangers alike — have dealt with. She also brought some music to the stage, a one-woman symphony of a ukulele and drum kit. Christmas’ poetry is a lush, full-body experience, and some of the work showcased can be enjoyed in print in her poetry collection, The Gospel of Breaking.
The whole piece is worth watching, and shows just how much can fall under the umbrella of what poetry is. Bige claims a major inspiration for Poets+ was to break down barriers between art forms. Poets+ may be just the beginning.
“I hope it makes a big splash into the local scene and encourages more work like this! And truthfully, the intersections of poetry with other art forms is always an interest of mine and so it was really wondrous to get to move my own creative ethic forward,” Bige said.
Poets+ is a beautiful look at the future of poetry in the Lower Mainland and the potential it has to uplift diverse voices and perspectives, because they have plenty to give and a beautiful way of doing so. It’s a medley of talent and names to keep an eye on.
View Poets+ on the Arts Council of New Westminster’s YouTube channel.
