Speaking Crow In-Person! Holiday 2023 edition featuring Paul Friesen

After 40 months of all virtual events (which will continue on most First Tuesdays), we’re pleased to announce that Speaking Crow will be reincorporating occasional in-person events at our old home in the Carol Shields Auditorium at the Millennium Library, 251 Donald St, Winnipeg!

Due to the library’s new hours, these pop-up events will be Saturday afternoons, beginning with December 9. The afternoon will run like Speaking Crows of the before times, with the addition of holiday cookies and tea, and optional masks available.

Polish up your new poems for your 3 minutes of fame at the open mic! A sign-up sheet will be available when you arrive.

Note: This event will not be livestreamed. and we will not meet on Zoom on Tuesday, December 5, but will reconvene online Tuesday, January 2 for an all-open-mic Zoom event.
If you have any questions regarding the event please send an email to: speakingcrow@thinairwinnipeg.ca

Speaking Crow is a space that values diversity, creativity, and encouragement. Whether you do spoken word or page poetry, whether you’ve published widely or just started writing, we can’t wait to hear your poems.

Featured Reader: Paul Friesen
Plagued by a history of “forgetting himself” (for both good and for ill), Paul has a vague recollection of evolving from occasional pulpit orator at the church in which he was raised to beginning his avocation as a spoken word performer – interspersed with a paltry few attempts to submit his work in written form [“whaddaya mean: ‘show your work’??”] – in the mid-90s, via the more secular auspices of Heaven Art & Book Café (1995-99), although he was ofttimes introduced as the University of Winnipeg Library’s “resident poet” and, on one occasion, had the label of “occasional poet” applied to him by a literary luminary. Besides an occasion or two on CBC’s Poetry Face-off, he remembers representing a few times on the Winnipeg Poetry Slam team. When not mangling or mongreling words, photography provides a glimmering balm for an increasing self-awareness of his neurodivergence.

Speaking Crow is funded and facilitated by the Winnipeg International Writers Festival (WIWF) which is committed to creating safe and respectful opportunities for writers, volunteers, audience members, and workers to share knowledge, explore ideas, and build community.