As February is Black History Month, I thought I’d share some engaging and entertaining poetry videos about Vancouver’s local Black History for Black History Month.

Here are two terrific short videos interpreting local poet Junie Desil’s poem based on her dream about the famous Hendrix family (community leader Nora Hendrix and her iconic guitarist grandson, Jimi Hendrix) and the historic sites in the Black community in Strathcona. These wonderful poetry videos that are hyperlinked below were made last spring by post secondary students for the City Poems Project:

This was meant to be for Nora (SFU IAT 344 Moving Images) 

This was meant to be for Nora (Emily Carr University 2nd year animation)

On the Black Strathcona site, there is a map of Black Strathcona as well as two excellent spoken word performances (#1 about Vie’s Chicken and Steak House and #4 about Jimi Hendrix). 

The Black Futures Open Mic, a community celebration of local Black poets, playwrights, and writers of fiction, non-fiction or hybrid forms, featuring readings from both emerging and published writers is coming up on Thursday, February 15, 7:30-10 pm at the Progress Lab, 1422 William Street in East Vancouver. Harrison Mooney will be hosting. Neworld Theatre and Unbound Reading Series are the co-hosts. In association with Room Magazine, Wildfires Bookshop and Rise Up Marketplace, the event will include a giveaway, curated books for sale, and snacks available for purchase. You can get tickets here.

For those of you interested in reading more poetry by local Black writers, you can find three poets highlighted here in an article in The Tyee! For those wanting to read more about BC Black history, this site has a wealth of information.