02. Word! 1

Our Spoken Word event series, curated and hosted by award-winning poet and spoken word artist Jillian Christmas, is a highlight of our youth programming every year—and so popular and quick to sell out, that this year we’re offering three chances to catch it. This Word! Event features three exceptional performers: Brandon Wint, a sought-after performer who has presented across Canada and in Australia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Jamaica; poet and producer fanny kearse, who fuses her experience as a social worker and lived experiences as a marginalized human to express her activism through art; and Ayda Niknami, whose work explores Iranian diasporic subjectivity, love, and relational autonomy. Grades 8–12.

More information about the Festival:
Venue Map and Addresses | Box Office | Accessibility

Event Participants:

Jillian Christmas

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.

fanny kearse

fanny kearse is a Black, Queer, Jewish, Disabled Artist & community tender whose performance, writing, and curation explore self-reclamation, grief, joy, and community through transformative, interdisciplinary practice.

Ayda Niknami

AYDA NIKNAMI (she/they) is a Qashqai-Irani queer femme residing in so-called "Vancouver". She was the Poetry Editor for PRISM international (2024-2026), a finalist for The Bridge Prize (2024), shortlisted for The Malahat Review’s Open Season Poetry Award (2025), and published in an anthology by Guernica Editions (Woman, Life, Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution, 2025). Her writing explores Iranian diasporic subjectivity, love, and relational autonomy. Ayda holds an MFA in Creative Writing at UBC, and an MA in Philosophy from UC San Diego.

Brandon Wint

BRANDON WINT is an Ontario-born poet, spoken word artist, educator and multi-disciplinary storyteller based in western Canada. For more than a decade, Brandon has been a sought-after touring performance poet, having shared his work all over Canada, and internationally at festivals and showcases in the United States, Australia, Jamaica, Latvia and Lithuania. Brandon Wint's poems and essays have been published in The Ex Puritan, Event Magazine, Arc Poetry Magazine, and Black Writers Matter, among other places. Divine Animal (Write Bloody North, 2020) is his debut collection of poetry. His debut film, My Body Is A Poem/The World Makes With Me screened at DOXA documentary film festival and Reelworld Film Festival in 2023.