Their evening fundraising event promises a “celebration of the community” — and plenty of poetry
Photo of Sheri-D Wilson by Andy Nichols, via Calgary Arts Development.
In a night of poetry and celebration, the Victoria Poetry Project (VPP) will commemorate their 20th anniversary on Dec. 4 with a showcase featuring local and award-winning poets.
Held at the Vic Theatre, the evening will fundraise on behalf of the VPP, and will be hosted by local poet Missie Peters.
“This is a very accessible space to play and explore, and to get involved with other community members,” said VPP Executive Director and Event Coordinator Hoélune Hernandez. “So, get excited about it.”
The anniversary show is modeled after VPP’s weekly Thursday open mic series, called “Tongues of Fire,” featuring 13 open mic slots which fill up minutes after the sign-up period opens, followed by a feature poet for the evening, who performs for 30 minutes.
Instead of featuring burgeoning poets in the upcoming show, the spots will be filled by poets who have contributed to the past 20 years of Tongues of Fire.
“We reached out [to the poets] immediately, [and] because they are so closely connected to the community anyways, it was an easy yes,” said Hernandez about the evening’s featured performers. “It’s kind of a reunion show … but also a celebration of the community.”
Hernandez, who was a long time Tongues of Fire attendee before getting involved herself, is “thankful [she can] take the torch from here,” and give back to the spoken word and slam poetry community who began the tradition 20 years ago.
Although it has only been a non-profit since 2015, the VPP has “existed as a community” for 20 years now, and seeks to uplift spoken word art through Tongues of Fire as well as their annual “Victorious Voices” spoken word arts festival.
Headlining the event is previous Poet Laureate Emeritus of Calgary, Sheri-D Wilson, who inspired the creation of Tongues of Fire.
“It’s got a whole new life now. And, it carries the history,” said Wilson. “It’s so exciting to see old friends and to share with them.”
Other performers include Jeremy Loveday, Tharani Balachandran, and the sixth Poet Laureate Emeritus of Victoria, Marie Metaphor.
The variety of speakers, both at the celebration and the weekly open mics, are part of what keeps Hernandez coming back to the community. “You’re really listening to the voices of your neighbors, your colleagues, your friends, people in your community, and what they’re thinking about and what they’re talking about,” she said. “It’s a space to really understand [true] experiences from different perspectives.”
Both the Tongues of Fire series and VPP broadly seek to “challenge conformity” and uplift voices through performance experience, Hernandez said, and to give a platform to those who may not get a chance otherwise.
“I believe … that the [number of] people that are interested in poetry, or walking that path of poetry, has grown, and there’s a lot more of us now than there used to be,” said Wilson. “We have a power together, and we have the opportunity to bring bigger change to the world as a group. That’s exciting to me for sure.”
Looking forward to the next 20 years, the VPP hopes to extend their programming to bring in more youth by way of their partnership with Story Studio — a Victoria-based charity that works to educate and empower youth through storytelling practices. They hope to offer youth opportunities to learn slam and performance techniques, and put them into practice at the annual Victorious Voices festival, and maybe even publish their own work.
“I’m looking forward to honour[ing] all of the people who have made this possible for the last 20 years,” said Hernandez.
“I’m always thinking about [the questions], how has this taken place? Who are the generations before me to thank? And, how do we take care of the next generation as well?”
The VPP showcase is an all ages event, and tickets will be sold by donation at the door.
“It’s really wonderful and sweet to be around other people who have that openness and generosity of their heart,” said Wilson of the other poets. “It’s the community, it’s our family.”
