This event will be taking place on the unceded, traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Wautuh peoples.
4 different workshops presented by World Class poets, Janice Joe Lee, Chris Tse, Patrick de belen and Johnny Trinh lead students through Adventures in Poetryland. Each workshop offers a unique perspective into a different writing approach for students to expand their practice. Pre registration for each workshop is required. Open to highschool students who are not taking part in the competition as well. email hullabaloo@vancouverpoetryhouse.com to register
Workshop A with Janice Jo Lee
Ancestor Song
Tell me about your people. Do your people come from the mountains? The river? The forest? What do your people gather around? Music, fire, elders? Are your people diggers, or athletes, or travellers? In this workshop we will look into the archive of our memory of where we come from. Where our knowledge ends, our imagination begins in writing stories of our ancestors. Your people can be your familial ancestors, or the artists whose tradition you follow, your closest friends, or the community that raised you. We will honour our roots and write anthems of ourselves. Dress in clothes you can move in. All bodies and abilities are welcome and will be accommodated.
Workshop B with Christopher Tse
Writing ourselves into our stories
Thomas King says that stories are all we are, so then why does so much popular art seem devoid of the artist these days? In times of whack politics and divisive rhetoric targeting people for their identities, the need for art to act as resistance is urgent and timely. Writing ourselves into our stories is celebrating our identities in all their diverse and beautiful dopeness, about speaking truth to power and claiming our space(s) in an artistic landscape that has far too long been dominated by the same kinds of stories. Let’s figure out how to write poetry and tell stories that unsettle, that disrupt, that say, “I’m here and this is why my story matters.”
Workshop C with Johnny D. Trinh
Workshop D with Patrick de Belen
“White Knuckle Narrative”: Exploration of Empathy, Mental Health and Healing through Spoken Word.
“White Knuckle Narrative” is an entertaining and interactive storytelling workshop facilitated by award-winning Spoken Word Artist, Patrick de Belen. It is designed to guide participants through the exploration of PDB’s process of writing and performing spoken word, and it’s impact on his mental health, youth work and life growing up as an angry, broke and mouthy Filipino-Canadian kid in Toronto. Find out more about his workshops at www.PatrickdeBelen.com
ACCESSIBILITY:
The VPL Central Branch has elevators to reach the downstairs rooms where the Hullabaloo events are being held. There are wheelchair accessible bathrooms. For more details, refer to their list of facilities (http://www.vpl.ca/location/
This event is a scent-reduced space. To assist us in our goal of increased access, please be aware of our attempt to reduce the impact of personal scented products (perfumes, scented oils, etc) in our festival spaces.