Chrystalene Buhler

Chrystalene Buhler wrote her first poem at the age of eleven. It was stunning. Then she lost it. In an effort to recapture the genius of her youth, she joined the Vancouver Poetry Slam team in 2005, and has been involved in the spoken word community ever since. She was one of the founding members of WordPlay in 2005, and is a veteran workshop facilitator. Her curiosity about presence in performance led her to train as a clown under David MacMurray Smith. She brings elements of this training into her workshops, assisting participants in learning how to negotiate with stage fright to find great connection with the audience. Chrystalene has also worked as an editor of both spoken word and traditional poetry, most significantly Shane Koyczan’s bestselling Visiting Hours. When she isn’t coaxing punctuation into submission or making high school students think she’s weird, she’s also the Lead Storyteller and sometimes graphic designer at an online grocery store (best job title ever!).