The City Poems Project commenced in 2022 during Fiona’s three-year tenure as Vancouver’s sixth poet laureate (January 2022 to December 2024). It aimed to stimulate public engagement and interest in poetry about historical, cultural and ecological sites within the unceded, ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples that we now know as Vancouver:
- Stage 1: 2022 poetry contest for youth, emerging and established poets to write poems about local historical, cultural or ecological sites.
- Stage 2: 2023 poetry video contest for post-secondary student teams from pre-selected courses to make short poetry videos based on Stage 1 shortlisted and supplemental poems.
- Stage 3: Development of a Locative Audio App with UBC CEDaR for the public to access audio-recordings of selected site-based poems via cell phones.
Here is a trailer with clips from all the poetry videos that were made for the City Poems Project, including those made by two of shortlisted high school poets:
More information about the shortlisted poems and poetry videos can be found in the free City Poems Project publication. A curated selection of some of the poetry videos made during 2023-2024 is included in a teachers’ resource list with links to selected poems and poetry videos about diverse local sites.
Find the 33 post-secondary poetry videos submitted to the 2023 contest on the VPL’s YouTube 2023 Playlist for the City Poems Contest, and the 11 additional videos made after the contest on the VPL’s YouTube 2024 Post-Contest Playlist.
SCREENINGS
- Mount Pleasant Community Arts Screen: Program of 14 City Poems Project poetry videos screening three times daily on weekdays on a rotational basis at the public outdoor screen at Kingsway and East Broadway from April 2024 – March 2025
- VPL Screening April 4, 2024 of 9 new non-contest post-secondary poetry videos made by SFU IAT 344
- REELpoetry Houston 2024 (US): Online screening of “Moving Words in the City,” a curated program of 12 poetry videos for the online festival on April 3, 2024.
- Word Vancouver Festival 2023 at UBC Robson Square Theatre: a selection of two secondary and 11 post-secondary poetry videos from the City Poems Project on September 16th, 2023. Recorded and available for viewing here.
- Museum of Vancouver: Poetry Video Contest Award Ceremony and Screening, June 11, 2023
- All Souls Event at Mountain View Cemetery (Vancouver): “Found,” a commissioned City Poems Project poetry video (November 2023)
- Award Ceremony Screening at Museum of Vancouver/Planetarium, June 11, 2023
SUCCESS STORIES
- Aotearoa Poetry Video Festival 2023 (Wellington, New Zealand): animated ECUAD poetry video, “This was meant to be for Nora” (Award-Winner: Best student poetry video)
- Cadence Poetry Video Festival 2024 (Seattle): ECUAD’s animated poetry video,”This was meant to be for Nora” and SFU IAT 344’s “Postcard Home from English Bay”
- Duemila30 Festival 2023 (Milan, Italy): first year ECUAD team’s poetry video, “What do I remember of the evacuation?” shortlisted for this festival for young filmmakers focused on sustainable development and social inclusion
- Canadian Roots Exchange (CRE) 2023: UBC FNIS 454 video, “Know who you are, know where you come from” selected as one of 8 videos screened in Banff, Alberta for a national Indigenous-led youth organization
- Resonans Nature & Culture Poetry Film Festival 2024, Copenhagen: SFU IAT Kenneth Karthik’s “Our Punjabi Market“
- Drumshanbo Written Word Poetry Film Festival, Ireland 2024: SFU IAT Kenneth Karthik’s”Our Punjabi Market” and SFU IAT team’s poetry video “Ad Hominem“
- Whistler Film Festival 2023 (Whistler, BC): UBC MFA student Vivian Li’s poetry video, “The Garden“
- Bloomsday Film Festival 2023 (Dublin, Ireland): UBC MFA student Vivian Li’s poetry video, “The Garden“
- So Limitless and Free International Film Festival 2023 (Montreal, QC ) UBC MFA student Vivian Li’s poetry video, “The Garden” (Award-Winner)
- Poetry Film Festival 2023 (LA, USA) UBC MFA student Vivian Li’s poetry video, “The Garden“
- Living With Buildings 2024 (Coventry, UK) SFU IAT team’s poetry video “Ad Hominem”
- Midwest Video Poetry Fest 2024 (Madison, Wisconsin): SFU IAT team’s poetry video “Ad Hominem”
- International Migration & Environmental Film Festival (IMEFF) 2024: SFU IAT team’s poetry video”Take A St. And”
- Chinatown Storytelling Centre: animated ECUAD team poetry video, “Contrasts” (Fall 2023); Analee Weinberger’s “Ode to Vivian Jung” selected for daily rotational screening (Fall 2024)
- Poetry in Motion 2023 (Colorado Springs, Colorado): “Gravity, Gravitas“(Spring 2024) shortlisted
- REELpoetry Houston 2025 (Houston, TX): SFU IAT Kenneth Karthik’s “Our Punjabi Market“
- Zebra International Poetry Film Festival 2025 (Berlin, Germany): SFU IAT team’s poetry video “Ad Hominem”