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The Powell Street Festival takes place on the traditional, unceded and occupied territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.
Illuminations: a celebration of seventeen-syllable poems and musings (June 18 live event)
June 18 – 9:00 PM (Doors 8:00)
Café Deux Soleils
Sliding-scale cover charge ($5-$10, no one turned away for lack of funds)
Entry at the door only; no advance tickets
Powell Street Festival Society, in association with DKAM, is excited to announce Illuminations: a celebration of seventeen-syllable poems and musings—9:00 PM (Doors 8:00) June 18, 2022 at Café Deux Soleils. Entry by sliding-scale cover charge at the door. Hosted and curated by Jillian Christmas, this intimate evening will blend short poems—haiku and beyond—art, a participatory activity, and good company with readings from celebrated local poets Brandon Wint, jaye simpson, and Anjelica Solomon at one of the Vancouver Literary Scene’s favourite hangouts.
Don’t miss this special event blending short poems from across cultures. Entry at the door only; show up early to avoid disappointment. Can’t make it out? Watch online from the Powell Street Festival Society YouTube channel.
To help protect those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19, wearing a mask in the venue is strongly encouraged when possible. Audiences are also asked to be mindful of their use of strong or chemical fragrances.
Powell Street Festival Society gratefully acknowledges the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage for this event.
Jillian Christmas (Host & Curator) is an artist, creative facilitator, curator, consultant, and advocate in the arts community. She is the long-time spoken word curator of the Vancouver Writers Fest, and former artistic director of Verses Festival of Words. Utilizing an anti-oppressive lens, Jillian has performed and facilitated workshops across North America. She is the author of The Gospel of Breaking (Arsenal Pulp Press 2020), and the forthcoming children’s book, The Magic Shell (Flamingo Rampant Press 2022). She lives on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam people (Vancouver, BC.)
jaye simpson is an Oji-Cree Saulteaux Indigiqueer from the Sapotaweyak Cree Nation. simpson is a writer, advocate and activist sharing their knowledge and lived experiences in hope of creating utopia.
they are published in several magazines including Poetry Is Dead, This Magazine, PRISM international, SAD Magazine: Green, GUTS Magazine, SubTerrain, Grain and Room. They are in four anthologies: Hustling Verse (2019), Love After the End (2020), The Care We Dream Of (2021), and the forthcoming Queer Little Nightmares (2022). Their first poetry collection, it was never going to be okay (Nightwood Ed.) was shortlisted for the 2021 ReLit Award and a 2021 Dayne Ogilvie Prize Finalist while also winning the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for Published Poetry in English.
they are a displaced Indigenous person resisting, ruminating and residing on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-waututh), and sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) First Nations territories, colonially known as Vancouver.
Anjalica Solomon is a genderfluid Desi poet, spoken word artist, organiser and multi-disciplinary performer based in what is colonially known as Vancouver, BC on the stolen and unsurrendered territories of the Coast Salish, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Nations.
Their poetic work often seeks to proclaim the possibilities of love and resilience. Anjalica is a poet of startling emotional intellect and candour whose work testifies to a deep faith in beauty, the power of nature, and ultimately, the human capacity to salvage integrity, radiance and joy from moments of struggle. In this way, Anjalica Solomon’s poems and performances offer robust visions of hope, tenacity, and love.
You can watch their most recent poetry film production “Honey Queen” and “Fruiticana On Fraser Street” which recently premiered on YouTube and all streaming platforms! Follow @Anjalicrush on Instagram to learn more about upcoming poetry collections, short films, experimental fringe productions, new music and virtual workshops, #brownhistory and for #birdoftheday features!
Brandon Wint is an Ontario born poet and spoken word artist who uses poetry to attend to the joy and devastation and inequity associated with this era of human and ecological history. Increasingly, his work on the page and in performance casts a tender but robust attention toward the movements and impacts of colonial, capitalist logic, and how they might be undone. In this way, Brandon Wint is devoted to a poetics of world making, world altering and world breaking. For Brandon, the written and spoken word is a tool for examining and enacting his sense of justice, and imagining less violence futures for himself and the world he has inherited. For more than a decade, Brandon has been a sought-after, touring performer, and has presented his work in the United States, Australia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Jamaica. His poems and essays have been published in national anthologies, including The Great Black North: Contemporary African-Canadian Poetry (Frontenac House, 2013) and Black Writers Matter (University of Regina Press, 2019). Divine Animal is his debut book of poetry.