Poetry Month is upon us. For 2019 Edmonton Poetry Festival I’m honoured to be performing at 3 events, sharing the stage with some very fine wordsmiths. If you’re in Edmonton, come on out (I can’t promise I won’t ask you to sing along) – CKUA Studios on the 23rd, 6 PM, CBC Centre Stage at Noon on…
Tag: indigenous presence
Another Podcast Up, at CBC
Here’s another great podcast series; this one’s about Indigenous languages. Each guest is interviewed about our relationship to/use of our Indigenous language(s), and asked to share 3 words for the audience to learn. Have a listen! First Words There is so much more I’d like to say, and of course, so much more we discussed,…
Hear the WORD
Tomorrow night, I get to spend an hour with Michael James and Thea Bowering, talking about words, music, religion, sex and politics. What’s more fun than campus radio? Indie, intellectual and evolving. Check it out! Word on CJSR
Life + 70
So, the word in trade negotiations today is that the new agreement for North America, whatever else it may entail, affirms copyright as extending for the life of the author, plus 70 years. Life + 70 I find myself wondering what that means for Indigenous communities, where the concepts of copyright are stringent in their…
Ode to Allan R
Another perfect day. A great day for madcap rehearsals for the massive community theatre show. But was it the power or the water utility responsible? I don’t remember, and the people i’d ask are either dead or otherwise out of touch. Anyway, the town had no water. No water is no big deal as far…
St. Eugene: Not a Poetry Video (yet)
Here are the gates. Beside them, an image from an older time, another purpose. Here is the gorgeous architecture. And beside it, tribute to the children brought here. Building and children face East, where the sun rises steadfast over blue mountains. Here is the message, the new mission. And here, the window of the room…
Gala: Gliding as Prophecy
Young women glide in hanbok, with hand drums and dance. This is their country, and they sway, decorated in flowers. I remember horror and indignation from embassy staff, but i see it still, undeterred: In their endurance, in their 5000 years of absorbing invasion, immigration, subjugation and some alchemical fermentations fed by the earth i…
Keep on Dancing
Today, I’m watching this film: Dancing Around the Table My aim was just to show my kid her grandpa, there among the indigenous delegations; but of course, start watching, and it is remarkably clear that, despite what the champions of derivative, tragedy porn works like ‘Secret Path’ would have us believe, the truth has been…
2004: Breach of Manners
it’s 2004 the year i forget when i am due at a studio to judge a poetry contest, ’til the dear friend who set this up phones me, afraid something might have happened apart from what did, my thoughts gone indwelling as my belly swells. this is the great mystery of woman become galaxy spinning…
Survivor Poem: Unreconciling
Today, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation opened in Winnipeg. Here’s a poem for the occasion, fresh from my fingers, inspired by reading about Phil Fontaine’s speech tonight. Survivor Poem: Unreconciling They said they were bringing God, but they brought Demons, who chase us down the generations. We fight with love and light. We…
Prairiepomes 