Poetry

Poetry Video Celebrations!

Fiona Tinwei Lam

National Poetry Month in April was incredibly busy this year, with the launch of nine new City Poems Project poetry videos, as well as an online screening of last year’s poetry videos at REELpoetry Houston 2024, plus the inclusion of a program of 14 poetry videos from last year’s City Poems Project with the Mount Pleasant Community Arts Screen (MPCAS)!

NEW SITE-BASED POETRY VIDEOS

The brand new batch of 9 site-based poetry videos were produced with Professor Kate Hennessy’s SFU IAT 344 class this term. You can watch all nine of them on the VPL YouTube Playlist here. Despite the wrap-up of the 2023 poetry video contest, Kate had enjoyed the challenge and structure it offered, and wanted to dive in once again. I couldn’t say no to the opportunity to have more site-based poetry videos created by her talented students. Thank you to the terrific local poets who gave permission for their poems to be turned into poetry videos and who were consulted by the students. These are the new site-based poems the students could choose from:

“Lost Lagoon” from Flint and Feather by E. Pauline Johnson, an iconic Mohawk poet from Six Nations who lived in Vancouver and is buried in Stanley Park.

“Gravity, Gravitas” from Falsework by Gary Geddes, about the Second Narrows bridge disaster in 1958.

“Take a St. And” from Undercurrent by Rita Wong about the St. George Greenway and local lost streams

“Ad hominem” from With/holding by Chantal Gibson about the colonial legacy of explorer Simon Fraser, whose name adorns several institutions and buildings around the City of Vancouver.

“Our Punjabi Market” by Kuldip Gill, about a vibrant neighbourhood in East Vancouver.  This poem and many more can be found in A Verse Map of Vancouver edited by George McWhirter.

Last fall, Vancouver’s historic cemetery, Mountain View Cemetery, commissioned another poetry video, “Found” (based on a poem of the same title, “Found” by James Wang that was submitted to the City Poems Contest Stage 1) for the annual All Souls event there October 25-November 1, 2023. The poem is about the unknown Chinese workers buried there long ago. The poet worked with videographer Analee Weinberger to produce a lovely meditative poetry video that integrates archival photographs.

MOUNT PLEASANT COMMUNITY ARTS SCREEN

MPCAS curator, Alger Ji-Liang chose 14 of last year’s poetry videos for screening as part of a special program (Poet Laureate’s City Poems Project) which will be shown three times every weekday alongside other programming for the next 12 months until March 2025. The screen is located on the southwest side of Kingsway at East Broadway opposite Kingsgate Mall. (Screening schedule here.) We held a celebratory Watch Party (with popcorn and doughnuts!) at the grunt gallery with students, teachers and poets to celebrate this momentous event.

OTHER SCREENINGS

I also want to congratulate all those student poetry teams and poets whose poetry videos have been selected for screening elsewhere–either in town or at festivals around the world! Here are some of the places where they’ve been selected for screening, with more possible selections for festivals to come:

  • Chinatown Storytelling Centre: animated ECUAD poetry video, “Contrasts” based on a poem by Donna Seto selected for rotational screening
  • Aotearoa Poetry Video Festival 2023 (Wellington, New Zealand): animated ECUAD poetry video, “This was meant to be for Nora” was screened and won 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” selected for online screening
  • Duemila30 Festival 2023 (Milan, Italy): first year ECUAD team’s poetry video, “What do I remember of the evacuation?” was shortlisted for this festival for young filmmakers focused on sustainable development and social inclusion.
  • Canadian Roots Exchange 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.
  • Other festivals: Vivian Li’s poetry video, “The Garden” has been selected for screening at the Whistler Film Festival (Whistler, BC), Bloomsday Film Festival (Dublin, Ireland), So Limitless and Free International Film Festival (Montreal, QC, Award-winner), and Poetry Film Festival (LA, USA).

COLLABORATION WITH VANCOUVER HERITAGE FOUNDATION

One of the purposes of the City Poems Project was to provide resources for elementary, secondary and post-secondary instructors who wish to teach their students about Vancouver’s historical, cultural and ecological sites, as well as about poetry generally. It’s wonderful that the Vancouver Heritage Foundation is interested in including a list of several of the poetry videos in its Heritage Study Guide for Teachers! Long live City Poems Project poetry videos!

Poetic Surprises!

Fiona Tinwei Lam

At last Sunday’s Places That Matter Community Fair at Heritage Hall that is held annually by the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, I came across haiku written by grade five student, Felix Chong-Walden for his exhibit about the Asahi baseball team, a local Japanese Canadian team formed in 1914 which was voted Vancouver’s most popular baseball team in 1926 and which won several Pacific Northwest Championships in the 1930s prior to the internment of 22,000 Japanese Canadians by the Canadian government during World War II. The team was split up into different camps, but players taught baseball to their fellow internees to lift their spirits. I also loved the baseball cards Felix made for each of the team members.

Tonight in the corridors of Le Crocodile restaurant, I came across a framed Ode to Vancouver written and signed by former French Consul-General Jean-Yves Defay. The 30 year career diplomat apparently read the poem to Vancouver City Council in 2004. I love the poem’s fabulous wordplay, employing the “ver” of “ Vancouver” to create delightful combinations such as “Vancouversify”, “Vancouvertical”, “Vancouvertiginous”, “Vancouverdant” and “Vancouverversailles” among others.

(You can find an English translation of the poem by Lissa Cowan in a scanned version of The Province article here.)

I often look out for Poetry in Transit cards, usually placed near the front of the bus. Earlier today I came across Ian Thomas’ lovely poem about the quality of light in BC’s Great Bear Rainforest. An evocative sliver of nature in the middle of the city!

I heard more Vancouver-themed poems last Wednesday from award-winning local poet Onjana Yawnghwe who read poems from her handmade chapbook, Vancouver City Map, as well as from her upcoming collection, at the terrific Lunch Poems reading series held at SFU Harbour Centre. Ottawa poet Sneha Madhaven-Reese read moving poems about her father and their family’s adjustment to the west after emigrating from India.

Poetry can be found all over the city in unexpected places and at unexpected times!

Poetry for Black History Month

Fiona Tinwei Lam

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.

Greetings from the New Poet Laureate

Fiona Tinwei LamLeave a comment

When I started preparing for my role as Vancouver’s sixth poet laureate late last year, it became apparent that not everyone is familiar with what a poet laureate is……..read more in today’s Tyee.