Verses Festival of Words 2021 goes online, celebrating spoken word, poetry, and stories
Canada’s largest alternative literary festival features a poetry workshop with Indigenous author Lee Maracle
Festival of Words is back, coming to online stages for 2021 from April 22 to May 1.
Canada’s largest alternative literary festival brings together spoken word and page poets, storytellers, singer-songwriters, and improvisers as it celebrates its 11th year.
Verses 2021 will include some beloved classics like Mashed Poetics and new additions such as Stage to Page, all to be enjoyed from the comfort of your living room. Many events will be broadcast on POETV.
As we adapt to our new world, the art of spoken word continues to strengthen our communities and ourselves. The Verses Festival celebrates spoken word with a good heart and a good mind. Together, we will share poetry that guides us and allows us to rejoice in our creations.
Isabella Wang, the Northwest Kid, and El Jones are among the many artists who will be sharing their work. Each will explore the Verses theme of having a good mind and a good heart. This is such a simple teaching and one that audiences will feel from all of the artists who are participating.
Collective and Individual Poetry Creation with Lee Maracle is a free workshop taking place April 29 from 3 to 5 pm. (Register here.)
One of the first Indigenous people to be published in the early 1970s, Maracle is one of the most prolific Indigenous authors in Canada and is a recognized authority on issues pertaining to Indigenous people and literature. She is an award-winning poet, novelist, performance storyteller, scriptwriter, actor, and keeper/mythmaker among the Sto:lo people.
Maracle is a critic of the treatment of Indigenous people by the Canadian state, and she highlights in particular issues relating to Indigenous women. She has given hundreds of speeches on political, historical, and feminist sociological topics related to Indigenous people and conducted dozens of workshops on personal and cultural reclamation.
Her newest poetry book, Hope Matters (2019), was written in conjunction with her daughters, Columpa Bobb and Tania Carter.
Vancouver Poetry House is the largest spoken word organization in Canada. In addition to Verses Festival of Words, VPH oversees Vancouver Poetry Slam, a weekly community stage with a headlining performer, and WordPlay Poets, an outreach program that offers workshops and performances in schools and communities around B.C.
For more information, visit Verses Festival of Words.
This post was sponsored by Vancouver Poetry House.