Readings & Events

Poetry in Parks

Come to the field house at Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and write!

Keys, Openers, Openings

In this 2hr playful creative writing session, we will read short bits of published writing and do our own writing on the theme of keys, openers, and openings. Participants will have a chance to share their work aloud and are welcome to work in any genre: memoir, poetry, fiction, etc.

The History of Hogan’s Alley with Wayde Compton and John Atkin

The Vancouver Police Museum & Archives is pleased to be hosting author Wayde Compton and local historian John Atkin as they unravel some of the myths and histories of this neighbourhood and its importance to Black identity 50 years later.

The Downtown Eastside was one of the first places in Vancouver settled by European, African, and Asian people. This historic neighbourhood, which includes Gastown, Strathcona, and Chinatown, was once the thriving business and cultural centre of Vancouver. Over the decades, gentrification, a lack of affordable housing, and the forced displacement of people had a devastating effect on many communities. Join us for the first event of our “Hidden Histories” 2023 Speaker Series: The History of Hogan’s Alley.

Hogan’s Alley was the unofficial name for an alley that ran through the Strathcona neighbourhood in Vancouver. It was home to Vancouver’s Black community, alongside a wider immigrant community. The alley was known for its famous musical guests, great food, gambling, and bootlegging joints, but it was also home to many hard-working families. The construction of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts ploughed through the community, displacing the families that called it home and obliterating any evidence that it ever existed.

Community tickets are available. Partial proceeds to Hogan’s Alley Society.

Storied: Books and Writing as Tools for Change with Harsha Walia and Ian Williams, hosted by Elee Kraljii Gardiner

On Tuesday, December 13th, Harsha Walia, author of Border & Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism, and Ian Williams, author of Disorientation: Being Black in the World will discuss books and writing as tools for change with Elee Kraljii Gardiner, author of Trauma Head. Border & Rule is the winner of the 2022 Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes, and Disorientation was a finalist for the 2022 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize.

The event begins at 7 pm (PT).
This is a free event, but registration is required.

Tree Reading Series

Join us for the next event of Tree Reading Series for 2022-2023 season.

20:30 EST On Tuesday,November 29th, Tree is excited to welcome featured readers  Elee Kraljii Gardiner and Dilruba Ahmed.

Elee Kraljii Gardiner is an author, editor, and creative mentor whose award-winning books of poetry include Trauma Head, which investigates the experience of vertebral artery dissection and stroke through textual interventions, and serpentine loop, which considers gender and physicality through the idea of ice. She is the editor of the anthologies Against Death: 35 Essays on Living and V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. A frequent collaborator with choreographers, musicians, and visual artists, Elee is currently collaborating with nature via a series of durational installations that investigate the law of thermodynamics and cultural ideas regarding the passing of time. Originally from Boston, Elee lives in Canada where she directs Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, a program pairing authors with mentors. eleekg.com

Dilruba Ahmed  is the author of Bring Now the Angels (Pitt Poetry), with poems featured in New York Times Magazine, The Slowdown, and  Poetry Unbound. Her debut book, Dhaka Dust (Graywolf), won the Bakeless Prize.Her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, & Virginia Quarterly Review. She has taught with Chatham University, Hugo House, and workshops across the U.S. In January 2021, Ahmed joined the faculty at Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers. Classes & consultations: https://www.dilrubaahmed.com/writing-lab

—-

19:00 workshop by Dilruba Ahmed

20:00 EST open mic.

20:30 and Elee Kraljii Gardiner & Dilruba Ahmed.

This event will be hosted on Zoom. We recommend you install the latest version to ensure the best security and experience.

Confirmation of registration and online meeting details will be emailed on the day of the event. Registrations received after the workshop starts at 7PM may not be answered. For questions or concerns about your registration, please email treeliterary@gmail.com

Best Canadian Poetry: Celebrating the 2023 Edition

Join Massy Arts Society, Massy Books and Biblioasis to celebrate the 2023 edition of Best Canadian Poetry. Selected by guest editor John Barton, this collection showcases the best poetry writing published in 2021.

The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver. Register here.

Registration is free, open to all and required for entrance. Masks are mandatory. The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.

Covid Protocols: Attendees must wear a mask (N95 masks are encouraged and recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly

POETS, WRITERS, MENTORS & MENTEES, IT’S COMPLICATED!

It’s never been easy to be a poet or a writer and in these quickly changing times, writers need to create a hub of support with their peers. Today’s conversation questions: how to make connections, how to support Downtown Eastside writers more, how to get known outside of the DTES? In these times, how do you take care of yourself? How do you keep moving forward? How do you find support? Where are we now and where are we going? As the scene changes, established writers spend more time with emerging writers, and that needs a formal structure – and then how does that affect the environment again? It’s complicated!

Guests: Fiona Tinwei Lam, author, poet, mentor, collaborator and Vancouver’s Poet Laureate – “the people’s poet” – for 2022-2024; Henry Doyle, DTES warrior-poet-janitor and winner of the 2022 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (BC Book Prizes) for his poetry collection No Shelter; and Elee Kraljii Gardiner, author, poet, editor and founding director of Thursdays Writing Collective.

Moderated by Betsy Warland, a leading writer, teacher, and manuscript mentor/editor. Throughout her career, Warland has been dedicated to emerging writers; from initiating the Toronto Women’s Writing Collective in 1975 to the design and direction of SFU’s The Writer’s Studio in 2001, leading to Thursdays Writing Collective in the Downtown Eastside.

SOME Journal Launch

Reading from a collaboration with Chris Turnbull with Hamish Ballantyne, Jeff Derksen, Clint Burnham

Where From Here: Canadian Literary Culture Conference, Poetic Transformations Panel

Klara du Plessis (Concordia) – Interlacing Texts Towards the Relational Poetry Reading: Deep Curation’s We’ve Weave

Kiera Obbard (Guelph) and Dani Spinosa (Gap Riot) – Reflections on Future Horizons research in the pandemic

Gary Barwin and Elee Kraljii Gardiner – 1 Solitude + 1 Solitude ≠ 2 Solitudes

Conference schedule here.

MUSE at Medical Museion

A one hour reading from Trauma Head and discussion about medical/textual tactics in the poem.

Write on Bowen

12:30pm Luncheon Panel: Seeking Truth in Story—a panel discussion exploring how we write and perceive truth in poetry and prose

2pm Workshop: Silencing Your Inner Critic. This event has limited enrolment so register quickly!

if on a clear day

if on a clear day, a reading with Shin Yu Pai and Ken White, whose respective poetry books Virga and Middlemost Constantine debuted in the early pandemic, hosted by Elee Kraljii Gardiner. This reading is both launch and reunion, and though their poems travel on their own, interplay on the themes of power, gender, magic, and time may occur. RSVP and details here.

21st Virtual Gathering #COVID-19

A recorded program and a LIVE Watch Party on YouTube where it is later added to Surrey Muse channel

Author Hannah Macready, Poet Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Poet/Performer RC Weslowski, Open Mic Opener J.G.Chayko, Featured Art by L.Roche

Host Jovian Radheshwar, and Open Mic.

Live Watch Party on Surrey Muse Channel on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZbc4p_Z7H0powudI18ePhg