Author Jasmine Sealy sets the mood at Summer Open Mic by Neworld Theatre and Unbound Reading Series, July 29

BIPOC writers to share their work in event hosted by Harrison Mooney

Jasmine Sealy and Harrison Mooney (David Markwei photo)

Neworld Theatre and The Unbound Reading Series present Summer Open Mic on July 29 at 7 pm at Progress Lab, 1422 William Street in the outdoor parking lot

NONFICTION AUTHOR HARRISON MOONEY hosts an outdoor Summer Open Mic of BIPOC writers, care of Neworld Theatre and Unbound Reading Series on July 29.

The featured guest is Jasmine Sealy, the Vancouver-based Barbadian-Canadian writer whose short stories have been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, the CBC Short Story prize, and included in Best Canadian Stories. In 2020 she won the HarperCollins/UBC Best New Fiction Prize for her debut novel, The Island of Forgetting, which went on to be published in 2022 and won it won the Amazon Canada First Novel Award; set in Barbados and Canada, it spans 60 years of a family convinced it’s haunted by a past secret trauma.

For the rest of the evening, Neworld and Unbound extend an invitation to BIPOC writers to step into the spotlight at the open mic—and for literary fans to grab the opportunity to hear new voices. Each reader has five minutes to share a section of their work, spanning everything from poetry to prose, nonfiction or fiction. Both established and emerging writers are welcome.

The event also includes a curated collection of books by BIPOC writers, available for purchase at the Wildfires Bookshop booth, along with food from Riseup Marketplace.

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