Our Spoken Word event series, curated and hosted by award-winning poet and spoken word artist Jillian Christmas, is a varied, powerful highlight of our youth programming every year. This Word! features three exceptional performers, sharing poems about love, art, justice, and more. D Fretter has been described as “…like a hip-hop Andrea Gibson” or “a philosophical Shel Silverstein.” fanny kearse fuses her experience as a social worker and her lived experiences as a marginalized human to express activism through poetry and storytelling. Em Nimetz is known for their vulnerability and authenticity, and magnetic presence, in their performances as an actor and a poet. Grades 8–12. Hosted by Jillian Christmas.
Event Participants:
JILLIAN CHRISTMAS is an artist, creative facilitator, curator, consultant, and arts advocate. She is the long-time spoken word curator of the Vancouver Writers Fest, and former artistic director of Verses Festival of Words. She is the author of The Gospel of Breaking, The Magic Shell, and My Sweet Baby Book.
D FRETTER is a poet/spoken word artist living and operating on the unceded territory of the Semiahmoo Nation. His adoptive mother jokes that he’s had a way with words since before he could talk. D has been described as a hip-hop Andrea Gibson or a philosophical Shel Silverstein.
fanny kearse is a Black-Jewish-Sapphic settler working towards land & relational justice. fanny wrote and self published their first book of poetry & prose, umi's prayer, which was released June 2023. fanny facilitates literary art workshops, sits on the Curtain Razors arts boards and produces events with Vines Art Society.
EM NIMETZ is a multi-talented interdisciplinary artist, renowned as a poet, playwright, actor, singer, and movement artist. With a career on the stage, page, and screen, their work has been witnessed internationally. Em has published 5 chapbooks of poetry with a 6th to be released in 2024.
