Seven poets held Here, Hearing residencies at host sites throughout the city of Vancouver in our first year. We’re so happy to have made space for poetry as a public presence!
Each poet was paired with a host site where they were in residence over the course of a two-month period for two hours a week. While plans varied from poet to poet, and place to place (some began in June others in November) we posted, and will continue to post, any events or engagements open to the public.
While in residence, Citizen Poets wear a button identifying them. The 2025 buttons use an image from a piece of art by Aileen Penner based on Elee’s book serpentine loop. Thanks to Gary Barwin for helping making them! We handed out these buttons as we informally “deputized” more Citizen Poets who can then deputize other people as Citizen Poets. So, if you see someone and they are wearing a button, too, shout “POETRY” as a greeting! As this inclusive poetic citizenship movement continues to spread, the buttons are on lapels throughout Canada, US, the Nordic countries and Western Europe and beyond.
During the year Citizen Poets kept in mind the sounds they heard around them and thought about the sounds in poems they read or wrote. They contributed to the playlist you can listen and see here.
We had a beautiful first year of workshops, readings, events, and quiet writing sessions and look forward to making new poetry connections in the next year!
Here is the 2025 cohort of Citizen Poets and Host Sites!
Adolfo Bermúdez (He/Him), is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on film and poetry. Originally from Durango, Mexico, has been living in Vancouver since 2019. He is undergoing a bachelor of Film and Screen Arts at Emily Carr University. Previously he studied creative writing but did not finish the degree. His poetry have been published in the Uruguayan Journal CasaPaís. As a photographer he has held an exhibit “Paralellisms” in Durango, Mexico, plus some group exhibits in Vancouver where he presented photography and a Happening. In this mini-residency, Adolfo would like to work on his first poetry chap book, while also immersing in the poetry of Bruno Dario.
El Mashup is a multidisciplinary artist collective with an eclectic mix of personalities à la Latin-style. Currently housed in the Clinton Park fieldhouse in East Van. Made up of emerging and established artists Adrian Avendaño (sound, experimental music), Daniela Rodríguez (experimental film, creative writing), Dora Prieto (poetry, interdisciplinary), Brenda Torres (multidisciplinary, animation, performance), and Valentina Acevedo (performance, cooking, curator), El Mashup Collective draws inspiration from our multiple layers of identities, interests and dreams of creating worlds of care and collaboration through the power of art and community.
With our beginnings in 2021 as a hybrid media arts and creative writing workshop for Latin/e/x youth in Vancouver, we are now growing and transforming. Moving to the Clinton Park Fieldhouse will allow us to expand our programming, deepen connections, reach even more youth in the region, and work with elders and communities we can’t even imagine yet. We are thankful for the incredible support of our partners—The Cultch, Vancouver New Music, and Echo Park Film Centre North—as well as everyone who has been part of our journey, helping us establish a much-valued dedicated space where the spirit of El Mashup can thrive and shine brightly for the next 3 years!
Instagram: @el.mashup
Tumblr: elmashupcollective.tumblr.com
Cabil (they/ellx) started writing poetry in their late teens and it soon became their favourite form of expression. They feel inspired by the tensions of the unspoken, the ambiguous and the tangled. Originally from what is colonially known as Mexico City, Cabil is currently a settler on Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh lands. They hope that this residency is an opportunity to bear witness to the voices and stories that remain in the living archive of the so-called city.
The Canadian Chinese Museum, opened in July 2023, honours Chinese Canadians’ history, contributions, and heritage. The museum is located in Vancouver Chinatown — permanently at home inside the Wing Sang Building. Originally built in 1889 by Chinese merchant Yip Sang for his business “Wing Sang Company”, the building is the oldest brick structure in Vancouver’s Chinatown. In October 2024, the museum was presented the Governor’s Award by the National Trust For Canada for its work.
https://www.chinesecanadianmuseum.ca
Dani Rodríguez Chevalier is an avid (word) eater passionate about film, comix, poetry & hybrid forms, art-making in community, translation, and independent radio. You can find her at El Mashup Collective in Clinton Park Fieldhouse and at the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. She loves Granville Island and cannot wait to become a Citizen Poet at Upstart & Crow. Look out! Dani is ready to juggle with words and bask in the beauty of their mystique.
Elana Brief has lived a double life of engaging with research — she holds a doctorate in physics from the University of British Columbia — and of dedicating herself to her wife and their son through a homelife of good food and togetherness. Music and poetry have been through lines in Elana’s life. During the Here, Hearing mini-residency, Elana plans to explore texts on metaphor, learn by heart poems she is studying, and consider threads of conversation overheard at the beautiful and generous Upstart & Crow bookstore. Elana is delighted to represent Vancouver’s commitment to poetry as a Citizen Poet.
Upstart & Crow is a not-for-profit creative studio and literary incubator that champions writers, readers and stories, and the role they play in shaping our lives. Our team includes experienced writers, editors, journalists and literary publishers. We develop original programs, support artists and revel in creative projects focused on Literature In Translation / Climate Solutions / Poetry / Civic Dialogue / Community & Skills Building all with the aim of elevating the role of literature and storytelling in our lives. Our work is partially funded by two independent bookshops of the same name, which privilege indie presses, underrepresented voices absent from big box stores, and ideas that celebrate who we are, where we came from and that shape where we’re going. These bookstores are a separate organization to our not-for-profit, but we share a name, an ethos, a physical space, and various team members.
Fiona Glen is a writer and artist from Scotland who moved to Vancouver in 2024. She is an emerging poet who writes about animals, under-appreciated beings like worms and algae, and interconnection within our biosphere. Along with Nina Hanz, Fiona is the co-author of Mycoglossia – a short poetry collection inspired by mycelium, fungi, and spores. Mycoglossia has been recorded as an experimental album with Modern Biology (Tarun Nayar) and friends, forthcoming in Fall 2025. Fiona recently started writing about acoustic ecology, and she can’t wait to listen to the layered sounds of people, plants, and elements as part of Here, Hearing.
The UBC Farm is the Centre for Sustainable Food System’s main research, teaching and learning space, located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the h?n?q??min??m?-speaking x?m??k??y??m (Musqueam) people.
Situated within a 90-year-old coastal hemlock forest, the 24-hectare UBC Farm was started by students in 2001 and since then our integrated organic farm and forest ecosystem has become a key part of UBC’s agroecology research and education as well as an important Vancouver food hub. The UBC Farm features cultivated annual crop fields, perennial hedgerows and orchards, pasture, Indigenous-led gardens, and forest stands. The Farm is organically managed, and UBC Farm produce is certified organic through NOOA. We cultivate over 200 varieties of fruits, vegetables, and herbs, and also feature honey beehives. The Saturday Multi-vendor UBC Farm Farmers’ Market at the UBC Farm runs 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. June 7 through November 29, 2025
It’s our biggest weekly event on the Farm, bringing in dozens of vendors selling local fruits, vegetables, meats, baked goods, beverages, mushrooms, coffee and food trucks, alcohol, treats, crafts and prepared foods, as well as – of course! – the certified organic, farm-fresh produce, fruits, and herbs from the UBC Farm. We also bring in local music groups for you to enjoy during your time at our market. Plus, join the by-donation tour at noon to learn more about the UBC Farm! https://ubcfarm.ubc.ca/food/#markets-section
Karen Parrish is a poet and grief group facilitator with the Vancouver Grief Society. In 2023 she was a writer-in-residence at the Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver, where she developed a haibun manuscript of prose and haiku on life with her husband of 36 years, his death in 2019, and her ensuing grief. Currently she is working on a poetry manuscript that examines traumatic childhood events that were difficult or impossible to process when they occurred. Looking at delayed or “catch-up” grief is the focus of her Citizen Poet residency at the SFU Belzberg Library, where she will sit with anyone who would like to discuss a loss that has gone un- or under-addressed. At the end of her residency she will write a found poem in which lines from these discussions are woven into a single poem, strands of memories braided into an anonymous voice both singular and communal in its expressions of loss, grief, discovery, renewal, and love here in Vancouver.
Located in busy downtown Vancouver, the Samuel and Frances Belzberg Library welcomes students, faculty, and members of the community. Our collections on contemporary arts, publishing and urban design support students and researchers in unique SFU Vancouver Campus programs and are open to the general public. Offering floor-to-ceiling views onto busy sidewalks, Belzberg provides a quiet oasis for study, research, and relaxation.
Lauren Peat is a writer and translator who works between English and French. She is the author of the poetry chapbook Future Tense (Baseline Press, 2024), and her poems, essays, and translations have most recently appeared in Asymptote, The New Quarterly, Only Poems, and The Seventh Wave. Her collaborations with composers are also featured in the repertoire of acclaimed vocal ensembles across North America. Drawing on her background in music and her history of travel, she attempts to write in dialogue with the acoustic environments around her.
Enabling Arts is a multidisciplinary arts space focused on wellness through the arts. We host community events and workshops for sustainable creative practices in addition to selling books, local/ curated art, natural products, and more. Our goal is to create a community art hub by curating a unique selection of artistic offerings and events. Our space is open to rent for community art events, creative projects and book launches. We’re dedicated to providing a cozy atmosphere and quality products while working with marginalized and emerging artists to showcase their work. http://www.enablingarts.com
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