Shab-e She’r Poetry Night LV

Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night) LV

The most diverse poetry reading and open mic in Toronto

At Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night) we don’t just wait for diversity to happen: we actively invite it.

Please spread the word through social media and any other way you know. Let our event become as diverse as we are.

Featured poets: Janet Marie Rogers & Cole Forrest

Host: Bänoo Zan

Time: Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Place: Church of St. Stephen in-the-Fields, 365 College St, Toronto, Ontario M5T 2N8

Doors open 6:15 p.m.

Open-mic sign-up 6:30 p.m.

Show 7 p.m.

Admission: $5

Janet Marie Rogers is a Mohawk/Tuscarora writer from Six Nations. She was born in Vancouver British Columbia, lived in Stoney Creek, Hamilton and Toronto Ontario and is living as guest on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people (Victoria, British Columbia) since 1994. Janet works in the genres of poetry, spoken word performance poetry, video poetry and recorded poetry with music. Janet is also a radio broadcaster, documentary producer, media and sound artist.

Her literary titles include; Splitting the Heart, Ekstasis Editions 2007, Red Erotic, Ojistah Publishing 2010,Unearthed, Leaf Press 2011 and “Peace in Duress” Talonbooks 2014 and Totem Poles and Railroads ARP Books 2016. You can hear Janet on the radio hosting Native Waves Radio on CFUV fm. Her radio documentaries “Bring Your Drum: 50 years of Indigenous Protest Music” and “Resonating Reconciliation” won Best Radio at the imagaineNATIVE Film and Media festival 2011 and 2013.

Janet Rogers and Ahkwesase Mohawk poet Alex Jacobs make up the poetry collective Ikkwenyes, which produced the poetry CD Got Your Back and won the Loft Literary Fellowship prize 2014. 2Ro Media Inc is the production company she and Mohawk media artist Jackson Twobears own and operate which produced the short experimental documentary NDNs on the Airwaves about CKRZ fm Six Nations radio. Janet produced and launched a 6-part radio documentary series titled NDNs on the Airwaves focused on the current history of native radio in Canada, in February 2016.

Cole Forrest is an Ojibwe artist and spoken word poet based out of Nipissing First Nation in North Bay, Ontario. He strives to bring his understanding and compassion for arts to a level that is perpetual. By always seeking new horizons and pushing to be the best he can be, Cole is forever learning new techniques to hone his craft.

Cole has trained and honed his craft at the “Big Medicine Studio” while working with the group Aanmitaagzi. Cole has worked with the group Aanmitaagzi for several years on various performing arts pieces at the local, provincial, and nation-wide levels. Cole has written, directed, and acted in various student short films as well as fringe festival theater pieces, and musicals. Cole is a recipient of the Ken and Ann Watts Memorial Scholarship of “Sears Drama”. Cole’s play “Speaking Mind Spoken Word” was shortlisted for the Wayne Fairhead New Play Award. Cole is also a recipient of the James Bartleman Indigenous Youth Creative Writers Award. Currently, Cole works with the nation-wide music education group Coalition for Music Education in Canada as an ambassador for their Youth4Music Program, sits as a co-chair on their National Youth Council, and leads their First Nations, Metis, Inuit Projects. As a film student, Cole continues to write, direct, create, and work on independent and student short films.

Cole Forrest is regarded as an emerging cultural leader of Northern Ontario. He is proficient in movement, theater, media, music, and most notably, writing.

Both Shab-e She’r and St-Stephen-in-the Fields strongly support freedom of expression and encourage our features and open-mic’ers to use any language they wish.

This event is partially sponsored by St-Stephen-in-the Fields Church.

St-Stephen-in-the Fields accessibility information:

The venue has a wheelchair ramp entrance and is all on one level; however, the wheelchair ramp door does not yet have a pushbutton, so someone needs to hold the door open. There is one fully barrier-free washroom.

All washrooms are gender-neutral.

@BanooZan

@ShabeSherTO