Arts Education & Writing Mentorship

Hello teachers, professors, youth program facilitators, and other people  interested in my literacy and/or arts education skills. Below are the activities in which I am currently engaged:

• Yes! I come to secondary schools! I perform regularly at secondary schools, either by myself, with The Fugitives, or with performance poet Barbara Adler. Thus far, I have performed at over 100 secondary schools and universities across Canada, Europe, and the United States. My aim is to make poetry fun, cool, accessible, and enlightening to youth. Get in touch with me if you’re interested.
• Yes! I teach writing workshops to youth! All the time, with aims similar to the above, though with a focus on the tools needed to write keen creative poetry and fiction. I do everything from one class workshops to week long residencies at secondary schools to bi-monthly workshops at community centres. Again, please get in touch.
• I am the co-founder and instructor of FreeWrite!, which is the only free intensive creative writing mentorship program with a broad focus available to students in Vancouver. It is completely volunteer based and runs on in kind donations. It is just finishing its pilot year, which has been remarkable. We’re doing it again next year!
• I am a writing mentor at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. This past year I was fortunate enough to mentor young high level spoken word artists and teach them the professional tools of the trade. They rocked.  
• I am an active member of the Vancouver Poetry in Schools program, which places performance poets into Vancouver classrooms to SLAM!ify them.
• I am a writing mentor at the Purple Thistle Community Centre, where I run monthly writing workshops for youth. The Purple Thistle is rad. Check it out: www.purplethistle.ca
• I serve as a writing instructor for the Writer’s Guild of Alberta summer writing camps. These also rule.

For a more complete list of my writing and literacy credentials there is a downloadable CV available at the media page. The gist is that I am super passionate about youth and writing mentorships. Yes!