Cowichan Performing Arts Centre and Gee Dan Productions present
Shane Koyczan is an award-winning Canadian poet, writer, and artist. He is the winner of the US Slam Poetry Championship and the Canadian Spoken Word Olympics and is an extraordinary talent who has blown the dust off of the traditional designation “poet,” known for tackling social and political issues with fierce honesty and tender humanity.
There seems no shortage of adjectives to describe a Shane Koyczan show. Moving, hilarious, challenging, provocative, or inspirational. Take your pick. Here is a writer that takes you on a tour of your own feelings in a way that leaves you grasping for your own heart just to make sure it’s still in your chest. His work has become a staple in schools for both its impact and reach. Shane curates a kind of art gallery that displays sculptures of the human experience each time he speaks. Lauded for his sold out live performances Koyczan has carved out his own artistic path and taken his work beyond the conventional.
With a performance from Alessandra Naccarato
Alessandra Naccarato is the author of Imminent Domains: Reckoning with the Anthropocene (Essays) and Re-Origin of Species (Poems). Born and raised in Tkaronto (Toronto), she is the recipient of numerous recognitions, including the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award and the CBC Poetry Prize, and her work has appeared widely in publications such as The New Quarterly, Room Magazine, Arc and Event. The founding poetry editor of Write Bloody North Publications, she has toured nationally and internationally as a spoken word artist, and works with emerging authors from across the country.