The Vancouver Poet Laureate’s City Poems Project aims to stimulate public engagement and interest in poetry about historical, cultural and ecological sites within the area that we now know as Vancouver and the UBC Endowment Lands

The project commenced in January 2022 with Stage 1, a poetry contest organized for youth, emerging and established poets to write poems about historical, cultural or ecological sites within the City of Vancouver. Stage 2 of the project in 2023 involved student teams from three pre-selected local public post-secondary institutions making short poetry videos that were based on poems shortlisted from the previous year’s contest and a few added site-based poems. Stage 3 involves the development of a Locative Audio App for the public to access audio-recordings of selected site-based poems via cell phones. Stage 4 involves periodic writing retreats for the poet laureate to generate her own Vancouver-themed poems. More details about the background of the City Poems Project can be found here. 

There was a screening of a selection of several of the poetry videos for the City Poems Project on Saturday, September 16th at the Word Vancouver Festival at UBC Robson Square Theatre. (Two high school poetry videos made by shortlisted youth poets and 11 poetry videos made by post-secondary teams.)

Twelve of last year’s City Poems Project poetry videos were screened as part of “Moving Words in the City,” a curated program for the online festival with REELpoetry Houston (US) on April 3, 2024.

A program of 14 of last year’s City Poems Project poetry videos will be shown on a rotational basis on the Mount Pleasant Community Arts Screen at Kingsway and East Broadway from April 2024-March 2025.

One of the animated ECUAD poetry videos, “Contrasts” based on a poem by Donna Seto, is currently being screened on a rotational basis at The Chinatown Storytelling Centre. Encouraged to submit to international festivals, student teams have had their City Poems Project poetry videos selected for screening in Banff, Seattle, Milan and Wellington, New Zealand.

Although the poetry video contest is over, a brand new batch of 9 site-based poetry videos based on other local poems has been produced with SFU IAT 344, which screened at the Vancouver Public Library on April 4, 2024, and which will be posted on the VPL YouTube Playlist soon, and screened at Word Vancouver 2024 this fall.

Poetry Video Contest Winners

The winners of the Vancouver Poet Laureate’s City Poems Contest 2023 (Stage 2: Poetry Videos) were announced and screened at a ceremony at the Museum of Vancouver on Sunday, June 11th, 2023. (Photos below from the June 11th award ceremony were taken by Jay Tseng and Ted Belch.)

You can watch any or all of the poetry videos submitted to the contest by referring to this chart OR by watching the videos on the VPL’s YouTube Playlist for the Contest.

FIRST PLACE: “Contrasts” Based on a poem by Donna Seto about gentrification in Chinatown. Student Team: Brian Baldueza, Nanop Yansomboon, and Wilson Pham. (SFU IAT 344 Term 2)

SECOND PLACE (TIE):  “What do I remember of the evacuation” Based on a poem by Joy Kogawa about the forced evictions and internment of Japanese Canadians in 1942. Student Team: Kris Reyes, Poppy Suro, Hoang Son Vu, and Sodam Hong. (ECUAD Foundation 160 Core Media Studies)

SECOND PLACE (TIE): “An Existence That We Can Call Home” Based on a poem by James Kim about the displacement of First Nations and racialized communities in what is now known as Stanley Park. Student Team: Xinran Han, Delai Gao, Minyang Zhang. (SFU IAT 344 Term 1)

THIRD PLACE:“This Was Meant to be for Nora” Based on a poem by Junie Desil about Hogan’s Alley, the site of a historic Black community in Vancouver. Student Team: Yenan Huang, Dongmei Han, Hanako Oba and Joanne Kim.  (SFU IAT 344 Term 2)

BEST DOCUMENTARY STYLE POETRY VIDEO: “Welcome” Based on a poem by Sadhu Binning about the infamous Komagata Maru incident in 1914. Student Team: Kais Neffati, Bhalinder Oberoi, Ishmael Togi and Minh Truong.  (SFU IAT 344 Term 2)

BEST ANIMATION: “This Was Meant to be for Nora” Based on a poem by Junie Desil about Hogan’s Alley, the site of a historic Black community in Vancouver. Student Team:  Emilio Terrazas Rocha, Deanne Angelina Emery, Carola Campa Garcia, Rachel Christina Kearney, Luna Davies, Lingjun Mi, and Mingyang Pan. (ECUAD 2DN 211 Animation)

BEST VISUAL STORYTELLING: “Know Who You Are and Know Where You Come From” Based on writing by Debra Sparrow about her grandfather taking her family to visit historic Musqueam village sites. Student Team: Robert Burns, Delanie Austin, Bea Lehmann, and Rachel Williams (UBC FNIS 454)

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

“The Stone Artist” Based on a poem by Theresa Rogers about a stone artist in English Bay. Student Team:  Grace Yang, Jalene Pang, Brandyn Chew and Erin Yeonjae Choi  (SFU IAT 344 Term 1)

“Entertainment” Based on a poem by Jeremy Chu about the former Marco Polo nightclub in Chinatown. Student Team:  Christy Fang, Vito Fan, Cici Tan, and Calvin Lin  (SFU IAT 344 Term 2)

“Know Who You Are and Know Where You Come From” Based on writing by Debra Sparrow about her grandfather taking her family to visit historic Musqueam village sites. Student Team: Madison Harvey, Cass Minkus, Olivia Carriere McKenna, and Sofia Bergman (UBC FNIS 454)

AUDIENCE CHOICE PRIZES (one per university)

“Diaspora” Based on a poem by Jeremy Chu about the former Marco Polo nightclub in Chinatown. Student Team:  Kayla Canama, Tingting Liu, Andrea Huang, and Eleonora Shive  (SFU IAT 344 Term 2)

“This was meant to be for Nora” Based on a poem by Junie Desil about Hogan’s Alley, the site of a historic Black community in Vancouver. Student Team:  Emilio Terrazas Rocha, Deanne Angelina Emery, Carola Campa Garcia, Rachel Christina Kearney, Luna Davies, Lingjun Mi, Mingyang Pan (ECUAD 2DN 211 Animation)

 “Know Who You Are and Know Where You Come From” Based on writing by Debra Sparrow about her grandfather taking her family to visit about historic Musqueam village sites. Student Team: Madison Harvey, Cass Minkus, Sofia Bergman, and Olivia Carriere McKenna (UBC FNIS 454)

Poet and media artist Heather Haley was the Contest Judge for the City Poems Poetry Video Contest (Stage 2). First Prize $1000,  Second Prize $500, and Third Prize $300 were funded through the Vancouver Poet Laureate program by an endowment by Dr. Yosef Wosk to the Vancouver Foundation, overseen by the City of Vancouver (Cultural Services), Vancouver Writers’ Festival and the Vancouver Public Library.

Prizes for Best Documentary-Style Poetry Video, Best Animation, Best Visual Story-Telling, Honourable Mentions, and the three Audience Choice Prizes came from the Museum of Vancouver (donated museum passes), TransLink (cash prizes), the Vancouver International Film Festival (vouchers to attend films at VIFF), and Vancouver’s Poet Laureate.

City Poems Project Stage 3

The exciting next stage of the City Poems Project is the development of a geolocative app in 2023-2024 by the team at CEDaR Space (Community Engaged Documentation and Research) at UBC’s Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies, overseen by Professors David Gaertner and Daisy Rosenblum with Research Project Manager Olivia Chen, CEDaR Lab Supervisor Dante Cerron, and CEDaR Coordinator Sara MacLellan, with design and development support from students and faculty in the Centre for Digital Media.

Once the project is completed in late 2024, members of the public will be able to find and listen to audio-recordings of selected poems from the City Poems Contest related to Vancouver sites using their cell phones.

Please stay tuned for further updates!