The Cascadia Poetry Festival is an international event which seeks to bioregionally animate and culturally construct Cascadia by gathering writers, artists, scientists and activists to collaborate, discover and foster deeper connection between all inhabitants and the Cascadia region itself.
[Image: American poet Joanne Kyger at the 2014 Cascadia Festival in Seattle]
The annual Cascadia Poetry Festival is held over four days and includes academic, democratic and performance components, late night readings, a small press fair and several workshops. Some of the best poetry minds in the bioregion will gather, discuss and begin to better understand Cascadia and our role here. The festival was founded by SPLAB, a Seattle-based non-profit organization founded in 1993 and the first iteration happened in 2012. Cascadia III will happen in Nanaimo, BC, in 2015.
Cascadian Poetics panel at Cascadia Poetry Festival 2014: Innovation from Here, with panelists Stephen Collis, Jeanne Heuving, George Stanley, Joanne Kyger (Photo © Kim Goldberg)
Cascadia is a distinctive bioregion
David McCloskey, professor emeritus at Seattle University, founder of the Cascadia Institute and the “father of Cascadia” says: “Cascadia is a real place! A quick tour of the latest images and understandings of Cascadia’s geography and ecology making it a distinctive bioregion with its own character and context.”
Poetry is “the skin of our city”
Nanaimo will be filled with poetry during the 2015 Cascadia Festival, from April 30 to May 3, 2015. But the city is also filled with poetry year-round — “It’s the skin of our city,” local poet Kim Goldberg says. Goldberg and other mid-Island poets are working together to host this extraordinary event. More than forty poets from the bioregion will gather, and many more participants will join them in performances, discussions, and workshops.
The first event of the festival is the Living Room on Thursday, April 30 from 3 to 5 p.m. hosted by Mary Ann Moore at the Nanaimo Museum.
The Living Room will be a daily opportunity for everyone (including students and members of the public) to read their own poetry to an audience in a democratic poetry reading circle. That’s downtown at the Nanaimo Museum daily, April 30 to May 3, from 3 – 5 p.m.
Panel discussions, spoken word bout, workshops
Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning (May 1 – 3) will be filled with panel discussions at VIU in Bldg 355, Room 203. Evenings will include multi-poet poetry readings at the same location. A Small Press Fair will be running throughout in the lounge across from the lecture theatre.
The Marmot Spoken-Word Bout will be held on Friday, May 1 at 10 p.m. at the Globe Bar and Grill at 25 Front Street. Cascadia poets will compete for the right to be crowned the Cascadia Marmot Champ. Dan Raphael, Anastacia Tolbert, Amber Dawn, Missie Peters, Sara Brickman, Robert Lashley and Sebastien Wen will be performing at the Marmot Bout.
And there are workshops! Anastacia Tolbert and Missy Peters are offering a Spoken Word, Writing and Staging workshop on Friday, May 1 from 1 to 4 p.m.at VIU Bldg 355, Room 103. Another workshop with Brenda Hillman, Barry McKinnon and George Stanley takes place on Saturday, May 2 from 2:15 to 5:15 p.m. also in VIU Bldg 355, Room 103. Workshops are $60.
The 30 + poets reading at the After Party on Saturday, May 2 from 10 p.m. on at the Globe Bar & Grill at 25 Front Street in Nanaimo includes Mary Ann Moore, David Fraser, Christine Lowther, Kim Goldberg, Stephen Collis, Ann Graham Walker, Susan McCaslin, Leanne McIntosh, Kim Clark, Philip Gordon and Paul Nelson and many others.
One of the panels at VIU in Bldg 355, Room 203 is On the Margins. Mary Ann Moore will be hosting on Sunday, May 3 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. It features Nadine Maestas, Joanne Arnott, Janet Marie Rogers, Susan Musgrave and Renee Sarojini Saklikar.
You can find the schedule online here.
Nanaimo poets Leanne McIntosh (left) and Mary Ann Moore (centre) speak with People First Radio’s Kevin Midbo
We speak with Nanaimo poets (and Cascadia Poetry Festival 2015 organizers) Mary Ann Moore and Leanne McIntosh.
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twitter, video
audio: #Nanaimo poets preparing to host the 2015 @cascadiapoetry festival April 30 to May 3 http://t.co/eE53a6ABXe pic.twitter.com/pZy7KYdAvT
— People First Radio (@peoplefirstrad) April 9, 2015
Watch an 18-min video abt our upcoming festival https://t.co/CKyKYzOGE6 Thx to @peoplefirstrad on @CHLYRadio for producing this! #Nanaimo
— Cascadia Poetry Fest (@cascadiapoetry) April 15, 2015
