Amanda Eagleson, Director

She/Her Pronouns

Amanda Eagleson grew up in Dubuque, Iowa (with brief stints in San Diego, California and Arnhem, Netherlands). she currently lives, works, and writes on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam people (Vancouver, B.C.).

Her favourite things in nature are the smell of the earth right before a thunderstorm, lightning bugs (or fireflies if you must), hedgehogs, and octopuses.

It was the inspiration and support of individual poets, organisers, and volunteers within Vancouver’s slam community that kept her writing, reading, publishing, and sometimes breathing.

She hopes to contribute to the community that gave her this gift.

amanda_eagleson@vancouverpoetryhouse.com

Amanda is the secretary.

Leslie Stark, Board Chair

Leslie Stark is a playwright, poet, performer, dancer, mom, high school teacher (Burnsview Secondary), founder of the Elegant Ladies Collective, small business owner/hoopmaker (Serenity Hoops) and is in a band (The Appetizers). She has a BA in Drama (U of Manitoba) and an MFA in Creative Writing (UBC), as well as a BEd (UBC).

Leslie Stark has been attending Vancouver Poetry House events since 2010 and has been a board member since 2013.  She is also on the board of Touchstone Theatre.  After taking a year off from the VPH board, she is back and thrilled to be a part of such a great team.

Leslie has performed at CIPS three times, has featured at the UBC Slam, and has coached the Burnsview team at Hullabaloo for the past 8 years.  In 2018, at Hullabaloo, she was the proud recipient of the Zaccheus Jackson Spirit of the Slam award.  She teaches Drama and Creative Writing, and has a special place in her heart for supporting youth engagement in poetry and spoken word.

Lesley is the treasurer.

leslie_stark@vancouverpoetryhouse.com

Nicolas Côté  Director

 

Nicolas is a poet, musician, researcher and policy analyst in the sustainability sector. He has worked with the federal government as well as several research centres, think tanks, and political parties on topics like clean tech policy, fracking regulation, or climate education.

Often in parallel to his climate work, poetry has remained close to him for a decade, helping him stop, move, and remember parts of the world that are so easily forgotten in policy. He is grateful for the Vancouver Poetry House creating a recurrent space for the language arts in the city. As a Director, he hopes to advance arts and culture policies to support the organization and all those engaged with it.

Nicolas grew up in Paris, France, before settling in Toronto for seven years (traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Missisaugas of the Credit) and lately moving to Vancouver (unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and the Tsleil-Waututh). He holds a BSc. in physics, an MA in socio-cultural anthropology, and is working towards a Master of Public Policy at the University of British Columbia.

Karla Laird,Director

Born on the beautiful island of Jamaica, Karla is a dynamic, media-savvy senior communications specialist with over 9 years of demonstrated experience working in the Canadian and Caribbean business, nonprofit, legal, and film and television sectors. She is also an attorney-at-law under the jurisdiction of Jamaica and currently serves as the Director of Member Services and Communications at UBCP/ACTRA.
An advocate in every sense of the word, Karla is also President of the Jamaican Canadian Cultural Association of BC, serving as an ambassador for her home country, by actively supporting the Jamaican immigrant community in the province. Karla holds a Bachelor of Laws degree with honours and a graduate diploma with distinction in public relations from the University of the West Indies and recently completed her Masters in Intercultural & International Communication at Royal Roads University.
Karla is passionate about governance and is a proud member and supporter of Synergy Executive and boards Consulting Group and the work they do placing Indigenous, Black and People of Color (IBPOC) on boards and connecting equity seeking and equity advancing groups with IBPOC candidates.

Parv Sachdeva, Interim Director

Parv Sachdeva, (Quinn – He/Him) is a Vancouver based artist in the written, film media and music space who has been involved in the city’s artistic scenes at various capacities. He holds an undergrad in Electronics engineering and a Masters in Management from UBC Sauder School of Business and works in the financial world in his 9-5, and everything outside that is for artistic breathing and inspiration. He boasts an extraordinarily simple life that he leads, and takes absolute delight in walking and meeting people.