Poets Not Pipelines | Show soon after 7:30 p.m.
https://www.facebook.com/events/315543492296444/
Café Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive, Unceded Coast Salish Territories
7:30 PM - 10:30 PM
PLEASE NOTE: Show starts soon after 7:30 p.m.
Join emcees Jen Currin and Christine Leclerc for Poets Not Pipelines at Café Deux Soleils on unceded Coast Salish territories. This evening of poetry and music by DJ Slade is a community gathering and fundraiser to support the First Nations legal challenge to Kinder Morgan pipeline and tank farm expansion.
We will be joined by Elder Kat Norris, who will perform a traditional welcome. Featuring Tawahum Justin Bige, Joseph A. Dandurand, Amber Dawn, Mercedes Eng and Jónína Kirton! All funds raised go to RAVEN Trust. Suggested donation: $10 - whatever you can afford.
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Kat Norris is Coast Salish from the Lyackson First Nation. Her traditional name Zucomul’wat is from her Musqueam great great great grandmother. Kat is a survivor thriver of the Kuper Island Residential School, and is on her healing journey. Her formative years were spend in Los Angeles California. After moving back at 19, Kat joined the American Indian Movement where she learned of the depth of genocide her people experienced. Eventually she formed the Indigenous Action Movement, and has organized against media bias, police brutality, for example, Frank Paul, ambulance neglect re: Curtis Brick. Now, Kat is a cultural educator, doing contract work in Lower Mainland elementary, high school and universities. She is a grandmother and finds that taking care of sharing knowledge with the next generation is a form of activism, still learning the importance of her role in this capacity.
Tawahum Justin Bige budding Lutselk’e Dene poet, resides on unceded Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish territory colonially-known-as Vancouver. Published by Red Rising Magazine, Oratorealis and Pulp Magazine, Tawahum’s poetry stokes the sacred fire of Indigenous resistance and decolonization on Turtle Island. He’s performed at Talking Stick, Verses and The Drum-is-Calling festivals.
Joseph A. Dandurand is a member of Kwantlen First Nation located on the Fraser River about 20 minutes east of Vancouver. He resides there with his 3 children Danessa, Marlysse, and Jace. Joseph is the Director of the Kwantlen Cultural Center. Joseph received a Diploma in Performing Arts from Algonquin College and studied Theatre and Direction at the University of Ottawa. He has recently published three books of poetry: I WANT by Leaf Press (2015), HEAR AND FORETELL by BookLand Press (2015), and The Rumour by BookLand Press (2017).
Amber Dawn is a writer and creative facilitator living on unceded Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver, Canada). She is the author of four books and the editor of two anthologies.
Mercy Eng teaches and writes in Vancouver, unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories. She is the author of Mercenary English and Prison Industrial Complex Explodes. Her writing has appeared in Jacket 2, The Downtown East, The Volcano, on the sides of the Burrard and Granville Bridges as contributions to public art projects, and in the collectively produced chapbooks, r/ally (No One Is Illegal), Surveillance, and M’aidez (Press Release). She is currently working on a women’s prison reader and a detective novel set in her grandfather’s Chinatown supper club, circa 1948.
Jónína Kirton a prairie-born Métis/Icelandic poet, lives in the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples. Her first collection of poetry, page as bone – ink as blood was released to wide acclaim by Talonbooks in 2015. Her second collection of poetry, An Honest Woman, was published in 2017.
From the smooth groove of neo soul to the intense bass of funk to electric current dance tunes, DJ Slade has been bringing music to a wide range of audiences since 2015. Whether it be weddings, parties or opening for bands like Queer as Funk, DJ Slade loves igniting that spark in a crowd's soul and boosting it higher and higher, bouncing and often mouthing along with the song lyrics. She loves to bring the fun and just wants you to shake it and have a great time!
Jen Currin is a writer and teacher living on the traditional territories of Qayqayt First Nation (New Westminster). She has published four collections of poetry, most recently School (Coach House, 2014). Her book of stories, Hider/Seeker, is forthcoming from Anvil Press this spring.
Christine Leclerc lives, works and studies in Burnaby, B.C. / Unceded Coast Salish Territories. She is the author of Counterfeit and Oilywood as well as the recipient of a bpNichol Chapbook Award. An aspiring climate scientist, Leclerc studies Physical Geography at Simon Fraser University.
