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Over the past four months, I’ve been working with the terrific editor, designer and producer, Blaine Kyllo to put together a final report about the City Poems Project, my three-year Legacy Project as poet laureate. Blaine worked for ten years as the managing editor of Arsenal Pulp Press and produces the Emerge anthology every year for The Writers’ Studio at SFU.
All 27 shortlisted poems by youth, emerging and established poets from the City Poems Contest are showcased, along with 10 notable poems by award-winning local poets. Several of the poems served as the inspiration for poetry videos made by post-secondary student teams from SFU, ECUAD and UBC. All of the poems and poetry videos relate to historical, cultural and ecological sites within the unceded, ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples that we now know as Vancouver.
The publication includes links to the VPL YouTube Channels featuring the 44 poetry videos, plus additional resources about Vancouver poetry and local history. Most importantly, it includes a special resource for teachers with links to specific poems and poetry videos about diverse sites that will serve as an invaluable educational tool for years to come.
My hope is that the City Poems Project will inspire poets and filmmakers, nascent or seasoned, to collaborate in future, and reinforce how poetry can be relevant and meaningful to people of all ages and backgrounds.