Jillian Christmas, the artistic director director of the Verses Festival of Words (21 April-01 May 2016) joins Joseph Planta to talk about Canada’s largest alternative literary festival, as well as slam poetry and more.

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

The Verses Festival of Words begins Thursday, 21 April and runs until 01 May 2016. Its artistic director Jillian Christmas joins me now. I’ll get her to tell us about Canada’s largest alternative literary festival held in and around Vancouver’s Commercial Drive. A lot of noted writers including Ivan Coyote, Richard Wagamese, Wayde Compton, Amber Dawn, and Rachel Rose will participate. As well, Verses will host Hullaballoo: BC’s Youth Spoken Word Festival, which features 80 youth poets from across British Columbia who will participate in events and workshops. The Canadian Individual Poetry Slam championship is also a much anticipated event. Visit www.versesfestival.ca for the events and information. Jillian Christmas is an acclaimed spoken word poet, who has served on the board of Spoken Word Canada since 2012. She also founded the Peace Pipe Poetry Sessions in Toronto in 2009-2010. This is the sixth year of the festival. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, in Vancouver today, Jillian Christmas; Ms. Christmas, good morning.

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