An Evening with Indigenous Authors: A National Aboriginal Day Celebration

In Person Poetry

Admission

Free

Tuesday

Jun , 2016

8:30pm

Eastern

NCC's Urbanism Lab

40 Elgin Street • Ottawa

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An Evening with Indigenous Authors: A National Aboriginal Day Celebration

Louise Halfe has listened with reverent attention to the beautiful, strong voices of her Cree grandmothers, and has allowed her own voice to dance with theirs. Exuberant, disturbing, and always deeply moving, the resulting poems roar, whisper, shout, and sing on the page.

Jane urquhart

In celebration of the longest day of the year and National Aboriginal Day, the Ottawa International Writers Festival along with the National Capital Commission host an evening of exceptional literary talent featuring your Parliamentary Poet Laureate, George Elliott Clarke of the Eastern Woodland Metis Nation of Nova Scotia. Joining him is Algonquin Elder, poet and artist Albert Dumont, Cree poet Louise Bernice Halfe (Skydancer), Tuscarora poet and playwright Daniel David Moses and Mohawk poet and spoken word artist Janet Marie Rogers. All are welcome.

The Authors

Albert Dumont

Albert Dumont is a Poet, Storyteller, Speaker, and an Algonquin Traditional Teacher. He was born and raised in traditional Algonquin territory (Kitigan Zibi). He has been walking the “Red Road” since commencing his sobriety in 1988. He has published four books of poetry and short stories and one children’s book, written in three languages. He works as Elder for the Parole Board of Canada at Elder Assisted Hearings and was employed by Correctional Services Canada for three years as a spiritual advisor for the Aboriginal men incarcerated at Millhaven Institution located near Kingston, ON. In recognition for his work as an activist and volunteer on his ancestral lands (Ottawa and Region) Albert was presented with a Human Rights Award by the Public Service Alliance of Canada in 2010.

Daniel David Moses

Playwright and poet, Daniel David Moses, a trailblazer among Canada’s First Nations writers, hails from the Six Nations Grand River. His most recent poetry collections are River Range (a CD with original music by David Deleary) and A Small Essay on the Largeness of Light and Other Poems (2012). His plays include Coyote City (a nominee for the 1991 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama), The Dreaming Beauty (a winner of the 1990 Theatre Canada National Playwrighting Competition) and Almighty Voice and His Wife, now included in The Norton Anthology of Drama, 2nd Edition, Volume 2: The Nineteenth Century to the Present.

George Elliott Clarke

George Elliott Clarke was the 4th Poet Laureate of Toronto (2012-15) and the 7th Parliamentary/ Canadian Poet Laureate (2016-17), George Elliott Clarke is a revered artist in song, drama, fiction, screenplay, essays, and poetry. His publications number titles in Braille, Chinese, Italian, and Romanian.Born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, in 1960, Clarke is a matrilineal descendant of African-Americans and Cherokee (peoples transported to Nova Scotia during the War of 1812) and a patrilineal descendant of an African-American great-grandfather and a Jamaican grandfather. He be Afro-Métis. Educated at the University of Waterloo, Dalhousie University, and Queen’s University, Clarke is a pioneering scholar of African-Canadian literature. The inaugural E. J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto, Clarke has taught at Duke, McGill, the University of British Columbia, and Harvard. He holds eight honorary doctorates, plus appointments to the Order of Nova Scotia and the Order of Canada at the rank of Officer. Also he is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. His recognitions include the Bellagio Center Fellowship, the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellows Prize, the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry, the National Magazine Gold Award for Poetry, the Premiul Poesis (Romania), the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction, the Eric Hoffer Book Award for Poetry (US), International Fellow Poet—Encyclopedic Poetry School Trophy (China), and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award. In 2021, he was named a Life Member of the League of Canadian Poets. Clarke’s work is the subject of Africadian Atlantic: Essays on George Elliott Clarke (2012), edited by Joseph Pivato, as well as a substantial entry in Contemporary Literary Criticism, volume 459 (2020), also overseen by Professor Pivato.

Janet Marie Rogers

A Mohawk/Tuscarora writer from the Six Nations territory in southern Ontario, Janet Marie Rogers was born in Vancouver British Columbia and has been living on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people since 1994. She began her creative career as a visual artist and started writing in 1996. Her literary passions are her native heritage, feminism, historical territories, human love, sexuality and spirit. Janet has many anthology credits as a writer and receives many invitations to share her performance poetry all over North America. Her first collection of poems, Splitting the Heart, was published by Ekstasis Editions in 2007. Her most recent accomplishments include the creation of a video poem entitled “Rightful Place” and hosting Vancouver Island’s only native radio program on CFUV 101.9fm in Victoria called “Native Waves Radio.” Her poetry CDs Firewater, Got Your Back and 6 Directions all received nominations for Best Spoken Word Recording at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards and the Native American Music Awards.

Louise Bernice Halfe

Louise Bernice Halfe was born in Two Hills, Alberta, and was raised on the Saddle Lake Reserve. Her Cree name is Sky Dancer. She was Saskatchewan's Poet Laureate for 2005-2006. Louise has a Bachelor of Social Work and received an Honorary Degree of Letters (Ph. D) from Wilfred Laurier University. Louise, a finalist for both the Governor General's Award for Poetry and the Pat Lowther Award, has four book publications to her credit. Her latest is Burning in this Midnight Dream. She currently works with Elders in an organized called Opikinawasowin ("raising our children"). She lives outside of Saskatoon with her husband.