The roster at this year’s free, public Word Vancouver Festival was brimming with numerous tantalizing events covering multiple genres. The festival worked well at the new venue of UBC Robson Square and drew lots of people to check out the literary and musical offerings.
Poetry Inspired by the Archives
I was especially intrigued by the panel on poetry based on research material from UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections. The poems were brilliant: resonant, powerful and true. I encourage you to watch the full recording below, but the two poets kindly agreed to let me post excerpts of the poems they presented.
Responding to the Jim Wong-Chu fonds and the Chinese Canadian Research Collection, Rina Garcia Chua performed three visual and aural poems from her upcoming poetry chapbook, “A Geography of (Un)Natural Hazards”. The Word Festival program describes her work as “counter-narratives of migrant labour, migration, and environmental extraction that resist and negate Canadian ‘multiculturalism.’” The effect of simultaneously hearing (both regular and whispered tones were used) and seeing these visually arranged words and phrases made for a haunting and electrifying experience.
Letters from the Joan Gillis fonds that were written by teenaged Japanese Canadians to their former classmate Joan after their forced uprooting from the British Columbia coast in 1942 were the source of inspiration for Carolyn Nakagawa. She presented a poem sequence that highlighted individual voices as well as shared experiences of young people going through the loneliness, struggle and injustice of dislocation and internment. Here’s a very moving excerpt from “please write home” by Nakagawa that distills the longing and heartache of that period:
Moving Words in the City
In the afternoon, I was pleased to do a brief presentation about the four-stage City Poems Project alongside a curated screening. Poetry videos made by two of the high school poetry finalists from last year started the set, followed by eleven of the poetry videos made by post-secondary teams. All of the videos were based on poems inspired by historical, cultural or ecological sites within the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, also known now as Vancouver.
Haiku Challenge
I chuckled and murmured in recognition while enjoyed watching the Head-to-Head Haiku Challenge emceed by Sean McGarragle and organized by the Death Rides a Unicorn Team. Subversive, irreverent, or serious, the 17-syllable poems presented by the diverse poets to the enthusiastic audience were wide-ranging and often thought-provoking. The group has organized another event that will be sure to also entertain, Famous Last Words, coming up on Friday evening, Oct. 27 at SFU Woodwards as part of the Heart of the City Festival.
Poetry in Transit
Poetry in Transit is a cherished public poetry program in BC cities. In partnership with TransLink, Books BC has produced sets of poetry cards for display on transit which have highlighted the work of emerging and established BC poets every year since 1996. I loved how the poetry bus was parked right on the pedestrian plaza on Robson Street by the art gallery steps for the festival. Many folks entered the bus to read and take photos of the newly selected poems on display. There was a full audience attending an outdoor poetry reading by the selected poets, hosted by one of the Poetry in Transit judges, the ever gracious and eloquent Evelyn Lau. Many passers-by stopped to listen too. This outdoor event was not recorded, but do look out for these poems next time you are on the bus or SkyTrain. You can also read them here through Books BC.
Kudos to Executive Director Bonnie Nish and her committed team of staff and volunteers for organizing an accessible, welcoming, and family-friendly festival that celebrates literacy, local writers, literary magazines and publishers, and other local performers. If you missed a session or want to know more, check out the recordings on Word’s YouTube playlist.