Events & Workshops

The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild and Willow Country Restaurant & Lounge are pleased to present Poetry & A Pint, an evening of celebrating poetry with Saskatchewan’s Poet Laureate, Peace Akintade and guests! They include local poets Danielle Richardson, Louise Halfe, Taidgh Lynch & Erica V. Lee.

 

Food and drinks are available for purchase.

This event is free and open to the public (please note there is limited seating; first-come, first-served).

 

Presenters

 

Peace Akintade-Oluwagbeye is an African-Canadian Interdisciplinary Poet, Public Speaker, Chorus-Poem Playwright, and Thespian residing in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Organically from Yorubaland, Nigeria, Peace explores the intersectionality of the artist community from an explorer's perspective, dipping her honey-stained fingers into poetry, dance, performance art, critical research, and the theatre world. She is the 11^th Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan from Aug 1, 2024, and runs until July 31, 2026.

 

 

 

 

Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer was raised on Saddle Lake Reserve and attended Blue Quills Residential School. Louise is married, has two adult children and three grandsons. She graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Regina. She also completed two years of Addictions Counsellor Training at St. Albert’s Nechi Institute, where she also facilitated the program. She served as Saskatchewan’s Poet Laureate for two years and has travelled extensively for her poetics and to present at numerous conferences. Her books include Bear Bones and Feathers, Blue Marrow, The Crooked Good, Burning In This Midnight Dream, Sohkeyihta, and awasis-kinky and dishevelled. She has received numerous accolades and awards, including honorary doctorates from Wilfred Laurier University, the University of Saskatchewan, and Mount Royal University. She currently serves as the national Parliamentary Library Poet Laureate.

Louise also serves as an elder or knowledge keeper at the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Health Authority, Virtual Hospice, Opik, and others. She actively participates in cultural and ceremonial activities relevant to her Plains Cree culture.

 

 

Danielle Richardson is a queer spoken word poet, Canadian national poetry slam champion, independent theatre creator, and community organizer. A graduate of the University of Saskatchewan's MFA in Writing program, her writing can be found in untethered, oratorealis, Folklore, and Poetry All Over the Floor. Richardson, with three collaborators, published Prairie Girl Collective with Party Trick Press in 2020, which was also released as an audio album with American Radio Cassette. She lives with her spouse, child, and cat in Saskatoon

 

 

 

 

Taidgh Lynch is from Killarney, Ireland, and now he lives in Saskatoon. He’s a tall, white, cis man, but his life has been more interesting than you might have guessed … he lived in eight countries before the age of twenty. He’s an ESL teacher, zinester, mail artist, gardener, caregiver, and vilomah. Taidgh's poetry has appeared in TNO, Prairie Fire, Untethered Magazine, The Waxed Lemon, and elsewhere. He is also the current poetry editor for Grain and a sessional lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Erica Violet Lee is a nehiyaw poet from the west side of Saskatoon. Her first book of poetry, On the Prairies We Will Live Forever, is forthcoming with Penguin Random House Canada in 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Funding provided by:

 

               

 

In proud partnership with: