Celebrating Indigenous Feminist Poets

REGISTER HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-indigenous-feminist-poets-tickets-1985320280402?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

Join us on Zoom for the 4th annual National Poetry Month reading organized by the Feminist Caucus of the League of Canadian Poets!
This year, we’re honoured to feature 11 outstanding Indigenous feminist poets. Each will give a 5-minute live reading. There’ll be a short break in the middle and a question period at the end.
Buy tickets on Eventbrite today! Please pay what you can, as a limited number of tickets are available at each price point: $0, $5, $10, and $20. All the money goes to the poets!
To request a need-based free ticket (if the $0 tickets sell out), please email feministcaucus@leaguepoets.com

Poster by Mary Simmerling
Original artwork by Nathalie Coutou
This event is sponsored in part by the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council for the Arts

Reader Bios (Alphabetical)

Karrie Auger is a nêhiyaw-ayisiyiniw (Cree person). She is a member of Bigstone Cree Nation, and lives and loves with the land called amiskwaciy. Her poetry is a practice of relational dream-weaving. Through an embodied non-linear Indigenous poetics, she dreams herself and her relations, into collective experiences, where relational possibility emerges for all our relations.

Leah Baptiste is a Sahtú Dene and Ukrainian poet. She is a member of Délı̨nę First Nation (Treaty 11) living in Edmonton (Treaty 6). Her work has been included in Room Magazine, oteh nîkân, and she has received an Indigenous Voices Award for Unpublished Poetry. 

Cassandra Blanchard was born in the Yukon and is a part of the Selkirk First Nation. Her book of poetry “Fresh Pack of Smokes” won the 2020 ReLit Award. She resides in Duncan, Vancouver Island.

Molly Cross-Blanchard (she/her) is a white and Métis writer, editor, and teacher born in Treaty 3 (Fort Frances, ON), raised in Treaty 6 (Prince Albert, SK), and currently living in Treaty 1 (Winnipeg, MB). Molly’s full-length book of poetry is “Exhibitionist” (Coach House Books, 2021).

Metis poet, writer, and Professor Marilyn Dumont teaches for the faculties of Arts and Native Studies at the University of Alberta and is proud of Metis family lines from her Mother’s - Vaness / Dufresne families and her father’s - Boudreau/Dumont families.
She was awarded the 2018 Lifetime Membership from the League of Canadian Poets for her contributions to poetry in Canada. In 2019, she received the University of Alberta Distinguished Alumni Award and the Alberta Lieutenant Governor’s Distinguished Artist Award, and in 2022 was Awarded the Alberta Queen’s Platinum Jubilee medal for public service.
Her four collections of poetry have won provincial or national awards: “A Really Good Brown Girl” (1996); “green girl dreams Mountains” (2001); “that tongued belonging” (2007); “The Pemmican Eaters” (2015). A fifth collection surrounding Indigenous history of Edmonton, called “South Side of a Kinless River” was published by Brick Books in 2024.

Liz Howard is a settler/Anishinaabe poet, editor, and educator. Her critically acclaimed works include the Griffin Poetry Prize winning Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent and Letters in a Bruised Cosmos. Born and raised in Northern Ontario on Treaty 9 territory, she now lives in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal.

sakâw laboucan (they/them) is an amiskwaciywaskahikan-based poet, singer, and member of the Woodland Cree First Nation. They are a PhD student in Indigenous Studies at the University of Alberta studying nehiyaw queer feminist governance. They are named after the deep green of the northern forest aka the bush.

Carley Lizotte (she/her) is a nêhiyaw-otipemisiwak storyteller, poet, creative and educator. She was born and raised in Fort Vermilion, and is currently based in amiskwâciwaskihikan. Her poetry is a reflection of who and where she comes from. She sees writing as a form of ceremony.

Wiingashk Wâhkôôm “Sweetgrass Lodge” (Government name: Jen Murphy) is an enrolled member of the Chippewa-Cree Nation of Rocky Boy, Montana, and brings a powerful cultural and systemic perspective to Building Blue’s work. She holds a degree in Communications and a Master’s Certificate in Native American Studies, and has spent her career working in child protection, adult parole, and Indigenous advocacy. Jen began her career as a Child Protection Specialist, later serving as an ICWA Expert for the State of Montana. She went on to work in Adult Felony Parole, gaining hands-on experience in rehabilitation, accountability, and public safety. A passionate advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People (MMIW/P), Jen leads Tveraa Photography, a project that brings visibility to MMIW/P through a national photo series of Native women featured on billboards across the country. The project has been showcased on NBC’s Today Show and CBS’s 48 Hours, and inspired her award-winning short film “Not Afraid,” which she executive produced. Jen serves by appointment of the Montana Attorney General on both the Native American Domestic Violence Fatality Review Commission and the State Domestic Violence Fatality Review Commission.

annie ross is a teacher/painter working in/with/along the Canadian west

Délani Valin is a Métis writer. Her first book was “Shapeshifters” (Nightwood Editions, 2022). Her poetry has been awarded The Malahat Review’s Long Poem Prize and subTerrain’s Lush Triumphant Award, and has appeared in PRISM International, Adbusters, Room, and elsewhere. She is on the editorial board of The Malahat Review.

FEMINIST CAUCUS MISSION STATEMENT
Adopted November, 2022
The Feminist Caucus of the League of Canadian Poets strongly and uncompromisingly champions the rights of those who identify as women and/or feminists in Canada and worldwide. Our mandate is to celebrate, promote, and support women’s creativity within the League and beyond. We oppose systemic misogyny, anti-feminist traditions, and rights-restrictive cultural relativism and commit to take action against any infringement of women's rights and their creative work. The Feminist Caucus respects and advocates for equality and freedom of expression in its practices and membership.