June 22: Beckoned by the Sea, A Book Launch

Beckoned by the Sea is diverse, powerful, raw—words that describe both the ocean itself and the collective voices of two dozen women whose compelling stories Taylor brings to life in this vivid work. Taylor adeptly purses her prose to let the voices of these accomplished women drive the narrative and enrich our portrait of Cascadia. It’s an important book casts light on the long overlooked role of women in maritime industries and will hopefully inspire the next generation of female seafarers.”

—Eric Enno Tamm, author of Beyond the Outer Shores

I’m delighted to have written the foreword to this rich and beautiful book by Sylvia Taylor. Join us in celebrating the launch of Beckoned by the Sea: Women at Work on the Cascadia Coast at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

Author Sylvia Taylor will illuminate the myriad ways in which women have contributed to the marine industries that sustain the people and shape the culture of North America’s west coast. Enjoy musical entertainment, marine photography on display, author readings from the book, book sales & signings, and light refreshments.”

– Event details

Date: Thu, 22 June 2017
Time: 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Location: Vancouver Maritime Museum – 1905 Ogden Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6J 1A3
Admission is free, but seating is limited.

RSVP Here

Surrey Stories Connect: Teens and Seniors Write Surrey Photos

Friday May 12, 2017: evening, up in Room 418, Surrey City Centre public library, writers and friends celebrated the launch of this book: a time-capsule of Surrey, Autumn 2016, through the writings of seniors and youth from the Cloverdale, Strawberry Hill areas of Surrey as well as at Historic Stewart Farm. Co-edited by Meghan Savage and Renee Sarojini Saklikar:

My Poetry Foundation Interview with Paolo Javier

Image by J Janzen

Now live, my interview on Poetry Foundation’s blog “Harriet” with guest editor Paolo Javier, former poet laureate of Queens, NY. Here’s an excerpt:

PJ: …Could we talk about your formative years in Surrey/New West? Specifically, when did you start writing poetry, and who were your early inspirations? I imagine living in New West, which is a stone’s throw from the Fraser River, must have some influence in terms of your notion of, well…I’ll let you take it from here.

RSS: I love that phrase, “formative years”: they seem to take the long view with me. Heh. I’ve always had this chronicle-compulsion, just didn’t realize for a long time, that my addiction to writing things down was part of a writing practice, was what defined me as a writer: images, sounds, rhythms, always these were in-coming to me and I took them, language-bits: held, rubbed, stored, taken-out again. My father reading me Mother Goose Nursery rhymes, me, a copy-cat, inventing my own. Scribbling.

So, early inspirations: fairy-tales, nursery rhymes, TV adverts, street signage, dictionaries, the sound of my parents’ speaking/arguing in English-Gujarati (my mother’s mother tongue); the sound of how Other People spoke.

New West when I grew up there, was a well-settled place in the sense of its relation to the colonial history of the province, The Royal City, and as the daughter of a United Church Minister, I settled into place, if that makes sense. My first book, children of air india, un/authorized exhibits and interjections (Nightwood Editions, 2013), explores this idea a fair bit…

And yes, always, the river: I can’t get away from it. Every time I cross The Fraser into/out of Surrey, I have to look up, look at those grey waters, effluent-filled, that deep undertow current: I grew up hearing stories about the grasp of that current, how she’d take you in…”

Read Our Conversation Here

Tripwire 12 * AKA Vancouver: Writings from the Unceded Territories

My long poem, THOT-J-BAP, appears in Issue 12, of Oakland, CA’s Tripwire (David Buuck, editor) in a feature on Vancouver writers, including…

Jordan Abel, George Bowering, Louis Cabri, Jeff Derksen, Amy D’Ath, Mercedes Eng, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Sonnet L’Abbe, Danielle LaFrance, Christine Leclerc, Donato Mancini, Rolf Maurer, rob mclennan, Cecily Nicholson, Lisa Robertson, Stephen Collis, Fred Wah, Rita Wong, and others…

…along with a special tribute to Peter Culley. Thrilled to keep this company and Unceded.

Issue Available Here

July 1: Dominion Days Festival at Historic Stewart Farm

As Surrey Poet Laureate, I’ll be celebrating this July 1st at Historic Stewart Farm. Details below:

Click Here for Details

Lunch Poems at SFU: Ali Blythe and Garth Martens

Lunch Poems connects the city with poets – a great place to bring your lunch and your questions about poetry. There’s always a Q & A after the reading.

The light in the Teck Gallery at SFU’s Harbour Centre Campus is beautiful, the vibe is friendly and relaxed.

And we always end on time.

Where: Teck Gallery, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hasting Street, Vancouver

When: June 21 at 12:00pm

Learn More Here

May 25-27: Surrey Children’s Festival and Sanja

In between running Erasure Poetry workshops at the Surrey Children’s Festival, I had the chance to see an incredible show called Sanja:

Sangja takes the audience on a remarkable journey from Korea to Canada, and all of the imaginative places in-between. We follow a boy as he strives to find his unique place in the world and come to terms with the incredible loss of his birth family, language, and culture, while navigating the tensions that occurs when families (and people) don’t fit within our cultural expectations.

Featuring two renowned theatre companies from South Korea and Canada, this play is a dynamic blend of physical theatre, breathtaking puppetry, an extraordinary musical score, and theatrical elements from East and West! Sangja, the Korean word for “box,” explores identity, race, cultural diversity and conformity, non-traditional families, international adoption, and the boxes we put people in.”

The Surrey Children’s Festival runs from May 25-27 at the Surrey Arts Centre and Bear Creek Park. 

Ticket Information and Schedule Here