Amplify: Spoken Word Intensive

Amplify is our new program run in collaboration with Vancouver Poetry House, and special contributor, Calgary Spoken Word Society.

It should be noted that Historic Joy Kogawa House does not currently have a ramp, and steps are required to access the house. There are a number of workshops and activities that are hybrid, and thus folks can participate virtually.

Program Schedule:

Faculty:

Sheri-D Wilson

Sheri-D Wilson is an award-winning performer and author of fourteen books, four short films, three plays, and four poetry & music albums.

Her work has received many awards and honours, including the Order of Canada, an honorary Doctor of Letters – Honoris Causa from Kwantlen University, Poet Laureate Emeritus of Calgary, the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry, and the Women of Vision Award.

A strong advocate for social change & community building in 2003 she founded The Calgary Spoken Word Society and remains the Artistic Director today. For 11 years the society produced a very large Spoken Word Festival and sidekick School Program. In 2005 Sheri-D founded The Spoken Word Program at The Banff Centre and was Director/Head Faculty until 2012.

Sheri-D splits her time between Calgary & Vancouver with her dog Willow – where she’s as busy as the water-table-controlling Emblem of Canada.

Brandon Wint

Brandon Wint is an Ontario-born poet, spoken word artist, educator and filmmaker based in western Canada. For more than a decade, Brandon has been a sought-after touring performance poet, having shared his work all over Canada, and internationally at festivals and showcases in the United States, Australia, Jamaica, Latvia and Lithuania.

Brandon is ever-grateful for the power of poetry as a spiritual technology and social force. He is devoted to using poetry as a tool for refining his sense of justice, love, and intimacy.

Brandon Wint’s poems and essays have been published in The Ex Puritan, Event Magazine, Arc Poetry Magazine, and Black Writers Matter, among other places. Divine Animal (Write Bloody North, 2020) is his debut collection of poetry. In recent years, his films have screened at  DOXA documentary film festival and Reelworld Film Festival and Vancouver International Film Festival Centre.

C.R. Avery

Here is film maker C.R. Avery

what men do with their mouths
Bio for c.r avery
By P. Smith

cue the frenzied combo of molar and spit.
his tongue touches every chroma on its way to blue.
he’s been rinsing with gravel, flossing with wire
and chewing brick again, he’s been a bad, bad boy.
but he is crackerjack conjurer of washboards and
rubber, even suburb girls welcome the twinging. i
want to nibble yesterday’s corona from his chin, rub
my index finger along the surface of his laugh, pull
the maw open to check the slick road of his throat.
there’s something illegal going on down there, the
sweet keening of ancient instruments. the orchestra
is fidgety, click-hipped, steaming inside that skin.
the boy opens the beauteous and, in gut rendering,
words become both otherwise and everything.

Johnny D Trinh

Johnny D. Trinh is an interdisciplinary artist, award-winning playwright, and spoken word poet based in Vancouver, British Columbia. As the Artistic Director of Vancouver Poetry House and Interim Executive Director of the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society, Trinh is a key figure in Vancouver’s literary community. His leadership focuses on elevating the voices of marginalized communities and creating spaces for spoken word artists to thrive. He integrates spoken word, music, video, movement, theatre, and creative technology to create immersive experiences that reflect the complex, multi-layered realities of our world.

Trinh’s practice is deeply rooted in socially engaged, community-based art, with a pedagogy aimed at fostering empowerment, agency, and compassion. He believes that art has the power to unite and create solidarity, and he continually works toward accountability, integrity, and fostering inclusivity in his practice. A member of the League of Canadian Poets, Trinh holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies: Theatre & Creative Technology. His research focuses on auto-ethnographic performance and spoken word as a primary method in community-engaged art.

With several chapbooks and the audio album #undeniable released in 2017, Trinh’s contributions extend beyond performance, fostering the growth of emerging voices in the arts. His work is driven by the belief that it takes a community to build an artist, whether through nurturing or resistance.

Supported by: