Summer Sounds and Sonics in Poetic Form, July 22, 2025

Meet the Poetry Ambassadors! City of Vancouver Poet Laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner hosts a night of poems with poetry ambassadors Johnny Trinh, Kevin Spenst, and Marc Perez. These four poets with distinct craft practices invite you to consider the role of sounds and sonics within the framework of the poem. Vocalizations, modulations, polyphony, multilingualism, repetition, call and response are potential ingredients in this lively and festive introduction to the poet laureate team. We are delighted to welcome Poetry in Voice FutureVerser Rizwan Moonbow!

Free event, all welcome. RSVP here.

Kevin Spenst (he/him) is a poet, teacher, and reviewer, has published four full-length poetry collections, most recently A Bouquet Brought Back From Space (Anvil Press, 2024) and 17 chapbooks, most recently Windowful (Anstruther Press, 2025). He is one of the organizers of the Dead Poets Reading Series, has a chapbook review column for subTerrain magazine, and occasionally co-hosts Wax Poetic on Vancouver Co-op Radio. He is a Poetry Mentor at The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territory where he cohabitates with the one and only Cheryl Rossi.

Marc Perez is the author of Dayo, published by Brick Books in 2024. Perez observes and draws inspiration from the world around him. He believes that writing is a powerful political act, and he uses poetry to participate in the discourses that affect him, his communities, and the society in general. Through his poems, he offers the reader his inner self, imaginations, and worldview. He aims to create images that move hearts. In his free time, he likes to wander with his camera and capture fleeting moments in the city.

Johnny D Trinh loves making noise, making food, and feasting with people. Trinh has a long practice in spoken word poetry, theatre making, and community-engaged culinary art. Johnny’s work is focused on celebrating and unpacking the way we tell our stories and how we find identity and community through storytelling. Johnny is the artistic director for Vancouver Poetry House, interim executive director for Historic Joy Kogawa House, and founder of Stage to Page Performance Society. Trinh is also a resident artist with the City of Vancouver creating programs that bring multicultural and multigenerational communities together to share stories and celebrate cultural foods. “It takes a community to build an artist, whether we are nurtured by it… or resist against it.” johnnydavidtrinh.com

Rizwan Moonbow is a Grade 11 student from Surrey, BC. Whether crafting short stories, delivering speeches, or indulging in the occasional cheesy pop song, he loves all forms of writing. Of Iranian-Indian heritage, his work often navigates faith, culture, and desire with a touch of naive wonder. His poem “5 o’clock Shadow” was published in Poetry In Voice’s seventh issue of the Voices/Voix journal and he was selected as one of 16 students from across Canada for Poetry In Voice’s FutureVerse writing intensive workshop where he had the opportunity to work with celebrated poets, publishers, and activists.