Readings & Events

Poetry, Art and All the Brightness in-between: Jane’s Walk in Mount Pleasant

About the walk: On our annual Jane’s Walk through Mount Pleasant, we’ll be looking and listening with the assistance (and insistence!) of poetry. While the bulk of the walk will take us through several art galleries, poetry will be read by some of Vancouver’s most engaging poets who will explore art on and off the page in the broadest sense possible. How much is a poem like a piece of art? What is the relationship between visual art and literary arts? How can poetry help us observe our world more closely? Join us to hear poetry and the many types of connections it fosters.

Acknowledging that Mount Pleasant is on the traditional, unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, it’s important to be mindful of this deeper sense of history and the ways it shapes our current world. Colonial violence that occurred in the past has a very real impact on the present and we encourage you to learn about this through articles such as Christopher Cheung’s “Snapshots of Vancouver’s Many Mount Pleasants” at the Tyee, which touches upon some of this history, or a more embodied experience can be found through “Land Acknowledgement (For Mount Pleasant)” at https://thescore.ubc.ca/ Some of this will be drawn upon for the beginning of our walk.

Poetry offers the potential for fusion and vision. Come join us for our 2-hour walk to see what you think and feel!

About the walk leaders: 

Kevin Spent (organizer) is keen to connect with neighbours and strangers, a chatty way of being which often fuels his writing. He’s  the author of four full-length books of poetry and 19 small books of poetry (chapbooks!) An assortment of my lyric essays, interviews with neighbours, and personal accounts from others make up Stanley Park Manor: a Collective History, out with Anvil Press in 2026. This will be his fifth year leading a poetry-themed Jane’s Walk.

Elee Kraljii Gardiner is the author of three poetry collections, most recently sometimes, forest from Talonbooks as well as editor of two anthologies. A frequent collaborator, she works across disciplines and administers the Warland Award for hybrid literature. She also directs Vancouver Manuscript Intensive and is the seventh poet laureate of Vancouver.

Laura Farina is the author of two books of poetry, This Woman Alphabetical and Some Talk of Being Human, as well as the picture book This is the Path the Wolf Took. Her third poetry collection, Behold!, is forthcoming from Coach House Books. Laura is the recipient of the Archibald Lampman Award, and has been long-listed for both the Relit Award and the CBC Poetry Prize. She’s very temporarily the associate director of the Writer’s Studio at SFU.

Alyssa Sy de Jesus is an avid indoor-hiker who is very grateful to be walking with fellow lovers of art and words. A museum-worker by day, she is also a poet of in search of the worded-artefacts of her family’s five-generation settlement in the Philippines from China, and eventual migration to Canada. Her work has been featured in: Chinatown Stories, Living Hyphen, Ginger and Smoke, Liars of Orpheus, and the Jade Music Festival. She was co-editor of de-comp Journal’s “Translate Me Not” issue. She is a proud graduate of the SFU Writers Studio.

Lauren Peat is a writer, lyricist, and translator from French. Her debut poetry chapbook, Future Tense, was published by Baseline Press in 2024, and her lyric prose has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her writing appears in local city buses and international magazines, and her many collaborations with composers are featured in the repertoires of acclaimed vocal ensembles across Turtle Island. In 2025, she served as Poet-in-Residence of Enabling Arts, a multidisciplinary creative space in the Downtown Eastside. Beyond the page, she co-organizes the Dead Poets Reading Series and facilitates low-barrier creative writing workshops throughout the city. She lives in Vancouver on the traditional, unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Learn more at laurenpeatwrites.com.

Hope Lauterbach is a Zambian Canadian writer and poet, founder of the Unbound Reading Series and graduate of The Writer’s Studio at SFU. Hope’s work has been commissioned for the Fraser Valley Literary Festival, and appears in Contemporary Verse 2, emerge 21 and Pearls. Hope currently resides in that place between sleep and awake.

RC Weslowski is a spoken word poet and storyteller, a clown performer, a playwright, workshop facilitator, event MC and a professional voice over artist. RC has performed at poetry and spoken word festivals around North America and Europe doing featuring presentations and leading performance/writing workshops.

How to identify the walk leader: Walk leader will be wearing a “Make Money With Poetry” t-shirt

Travel Tips: There is some parking by THIS gallery but cycling via 10th would be best.

Free, all welcome, no registration required

Talonbooks Spring Launch

Join us at the Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall for the launch of the Talonbooks spring 2026 titles! Come help us celebrate this season’s authors and books. Here’s the lineup! It’s going to be an amazing evening.

Taryn Hubbard will read from Beautiful Unknown Future
Jenn Ashton (attending digitally) will read from Growing My Way Home
George Bowering (attending digitally) will read from Pearl
Jónína Kirton will read from Save Your Prayers – Send Money
Elee Kraljii Gardiner will read from sometimes, forest
Nicole Raziya Fong will read from SUBTEXT and
Danielle LaFrance will read from Verbal Violence!

The launch will be hosted by the author of Future Works, Jeff Derksen!

A live stream will be available on the Talonbooks YouTube page. Light snacks and drinks will be provided. Hope to see you there!

Talonbooks Spring Launch
Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall
1955 McLean Ave, Vancouver, BC
May 1, 2026
Doors at 7 p.m., readings begin at 7:30 p.m. PDT

Un-Closing Captions: possibilities for descriptive text

Un-Closing Captions: possibilities for descriptive text

Join us for a workshop in the Verses Festival!

Closed captions are an important accessibility feature for many viewers. But, as artist Christine Sun Kim points out, descriptive subtitles for the musical soundtrack in videos often default to something unspecific such as [MUSIC PLAYING]. How can we, as poets, explode the form of the subtitle and open meaning for people who rely on captions? In this participatory, creative, and generative workshop facilitated by Vancouver Poet Laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner and Citizen Poets Elana Brief and Dani Rodriguez, we will experiment with creating closed captions that transmit mood and flavour and perhaps open new pathways into poetic practice. We will play with associative language, surrealism, and other tactics as we respond to samples of live acoustic fiddle and recorded sound. This playful and positive workshop is for anyone curious and willing to share knowledge.

More info here.

Forest/Weather: A Climate Justice Walkshop

Join us on a WALKSHOP at Smoke Forecast,  a one-day gathering that foregrounds artistic, embodied and community-engaged practices to approach fire and climate justice, at the Belkin Gallery at UBC. Forest/Weather: A Climate Justice Walkshop will take place at 11:30am with facilitators Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Astrida Neimanis, χʷəy̓χʷiq̓tən/ Audrey Siegl and Ruby Singh. Please dress for the weather; while the walk will be slow and gentle, it will be outdoors. More info here.

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.