By: Petra Chase, Arts & Culture Editor
Editor’s Note: This article was updated on November 9, 2022 to include information about the second stage of the City Poems Contest. The previous version of this article omitted this information.
On October 3, Strathcona Poems at the Garden brought emerging and established poets to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, Chinatown’s Ming Dynasty-era landmark. Built in 1986, the Chinese cultural sanctuary is the first classical Chinese garden built outside of Asia. It serves as a site for “cross-cultural understanding.”
The eight performing poets were finalists in the City of Vancouver’s poet laureate’s City Poems Contest, which set out to engage the public in writing poetry about the city’s ecological, cultural, and historical surroundings. Their poems interpreted the neighborhood of Strathcona.
The event was presented by Fiona Tinwei Lam and is Lam’s ongoing Legacy Project to “encourage the generation of new poems and poetry videos to foster greater understanding about significant historical, cultural and ecological sites on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.”
Upon entry, I was greeted by an ethereal landscape and complimentary jasmine tea. Held under a traditional wooden pavilion within the garden, the tranquil atmosphere set the tone for a beautiful homage to Strathcona’s rich cultural heritage. The poets’ thoughtful reflections about the complex history of Strathcona included themes of identity, belonging, gentrification, colonialism, and immigrant heritage.
Coming from various backgrounds, the poets’ unique interpretations of Strathcona showcased how their way of connecting to a place is impacted by their lived experience. Kelsey Andrews, who recently published a debut poetry book, opened the reading with a poem set in the garden, “To the Otter Who Snuck into the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden and Ate the Koi.” Based on a real event, Andrew relates to the “untrappable otter” as an outsider in the downtown eastside.
It was inspiring to hear from youth who are new to poetry alongside established poets. The second-place winner in the youth category, Isabel Hernandez-Cheng, was the youngest poet who performed. Her poem, “Lotus Flower,” uses the lotus as a metaphor for a “Chinese immigrant blossoming even in the harshest environments.” She said, “In a society where he is not welcomed / Chinatown embraces and empowers / He can find a clan amidst the run-down streets / Where in this foreign land he finally belongs.”
Donna Seto’s third place poem in the emerging category, “CONTRASTS,” paints a vivid juxtaposition between the Chinatown her “century-old grandmother” once knew as home and the gentrified environment it is now. Her descriptions are starkly accurate, right down to the hipster tourist with “designer jeans he claims are from Value Village / but he purchased on a whim from Nordstrom,” and the “$7 oat milk latte.”
The winner of the City Poems Contest’s youth category, Adrian Yue, ended the reading with a powerful recitation of his poem, “ending credits for an ending of ‘chinatown’.” He described his poem as a lament, and his emotional reading gave me goosebumps. Keep an eye for Yue’s upcoming chapbook.
The second stage of the City Poems Contest, which will begin in 2023, will involve the making of poetry videos based on these poems and other City Poems Contest finalists’ poems about various city sites.
“Poetry videos can allow a poem to be heard, of course, but most importantly experienced through visual imagery, colour, pattern, sound effects, music, narration, and more,” Lam wrote in a blog post on her website. “They expand the reach of poetry by making it accessible to people across borders and backgrounds.”
You can find all the shortlisted City Poems Contest poetry readings on Vancouver Public Library’s YouTube playlist.
