Readings & Events

Pandora’s Collective Presents TWISTED POETS LITERARY SALON

Hosted by: Daniela Elza and Natasha Boskic, Pandora’s Collective & Britannia Library

Readings by three poets laureate: Kyeren Regehr (Victoria),
Elee Kraljii Gardiner (Vancouver), and Janet Kvammen (New Westminster). Join us for open mic!

Here, Hearing: an Evening with Citizen Poets

open two

Allison Lang’s series: open two.

A two performance evening at KW Studios!

“Katy Perry in Space” by Nathan Coburn and Elle of Paper Rabbits

This a dance piece exploring questions of our relationship to each other, the world, and the cosmos. We are fascinated by astrophysics principles, the vast and ever expanding spacetime of the universe, and black holes. Anything can become a black hole if it is compressed enough. Theoretically, even the earth could become a black hole if it were compressed to the size of a gumball.

The second half of the program features a cocreational text score with Elee Kraljii Gardiner and c.o.valenza.

Social milling about afterwards!

Pandora’s Collective: A Night for Giving: A Poetry Reading and Fundraiser

Planet Earth Poetry with Four BC Poets Laureates

Four BC Poets Laureates read at Canada’s longest running reading series, Planet Earth Poetry. Join Elee Kraljii Gardiner (Vancouver), Neil Surkan (Nanaimo), Janet Kvammen (New Westminster) and Kyeren Regehr (Victoria). Open mic sign up at 7pm!

A sister event will be held in Vancouver with Twisted Poets on January 21, 2026

Free Verse: a reading at WORD

Free Verse seeks to bring the voices of incarcerated writers to the Vancouver community through a public presentation of their writing in an effort to expand the literary community, build empathy, and leverage the power of storytelling to instigate change. Work is from writers in Mission Medium (men) and Fraser Valley (women) Institutions. Free Verse is a project of Pandora’s Collective. Supported by the City of Vancouver’s Communities and Artists Shifting Culture (CASC) and UBC PRE Fund.

Location: Room C440, UBC Robson Square

Sponsored by: Pandora’s Collective, The City of Vancouver and UBC Library

Moderator: Kaile Shilling

Readers: Johnny Trinh | Sophea Heang | Elee Kraljii Gardiner

8east’s 3rd Thursday improvised music series

8east’s 3rd Thursday improvised music series presents:

Elee Kraljii Gardiner – poet
Aysha Dulong – electronics
Cindy Kao – violin
Johanna Hauser – clarinets
Torsten Müller – bass

By donation $20/10/free

The 8EAST social space for new culture is a project of the NOW Society, located on the Territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and səlil̓wətaʔɬ Peoples, in Chinatown, in the DTES, in Vancouver. We are committed to making 8EAST a safe(r), welcoming and more accessible space.

Details here.

Tiny Desk Concert–Vancouver Public Library Edition

Vancouver Public Library’s Tiny Desk Concert is a live music and literary performance where artists play music or share verse in a small, intimate setting. It emphasizes the authenticity of music and storytelling rather than grandiose production values.

Join us for VPL’s first TDC featuring Chris Bose, the 2025 Indigenous Storyteller in Residence, The City of Vancouver’s Poet Laureate for 2025-2027, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, and special musical guest, Graham How with How Sound.

If it’s a nice day, we’ll be out in the rooftop garden space just outside the Yosef Wosk Poets’ Corner on Level 9!

Details and info here.

DTES Writers Festival

Join us for the DTES Writers Festival opening event, Thursday, May 22: 1-2:30pm in the Carnegie Community Centre Theatre at 401 Main St (at Hastings) in Vancouver. Everyone welcome! Elder in Residence, Les Nelson will offer a welcome, Vancouver’s Poet Laureate Elee will do a short reading, as will DTES Writers Collective leader, author and reporter Gilles Cyrenne. paula luther (Typewriter Tales) will read from last year’s collective story. Come mingle with fellow poets, authors, and storytellers (and eat cake)!

Program guides available from Carnegie Community Centre. Info also available on Instagram.

Lunch Poems

Reading with Rob Taylor

Celebrating Elise

A National Poetry Month reading to celebrate the work and life of Elise Partridge (1958-2015) on the tenth anniversary of her passing. A number of Elise’s friends will read poems by or about her, or poems she loved.

Stephanie Bolster, John Donlan, Mary Gomez Fonseca, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Christopher Levenson, George McWhirter, Barbara Nickel, Bonnie Nish, Rachel Rose, Rob Taylor, and Fiona Tinwei-Lam will be reading. Elise’s and participating readers’ books available for purchase.

Thanks to the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts for their support.

Doors at 6:30 pm, event starts at 7:00 pm; free to attend and all are welcome.

Strips and Remnants: A Short Poem Workshop with Vancouver’s Poet Laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner

Using the idea of fragments (visual, sonic, or otherwise) this poetry workshop explores how small pieces become part of a whole.

We will experiment with physical materials on site, perhaps generating new materials in the form of sounds and word lists, and consider how assembling new patterns creates associative energy in the small poem.

This playful workshop is open to writers and non-writers of all experience levels who are curious about new methods of composition. Please bring pen and paper. Digital devices are welcome but not required. Participants will leave with short poems and with strategies for editing.

This is a free-by-donation event. To help us continue hosting workshops such as this one, the suggested donation is $10. RSVP here!