National Poetry Month 2023

The Electric City Culture Council (EC3) is pleased to present a new series of virtual poetry projects by local poets and spoken word artists to honour National Poetry Month this April, including work by Justin Million, Sarah Lewis, and Peterborough's new Poet Laureate, Ziysah von Bieberstein.

National Poetry Month provides an important moment to remember and reflect on the power, beauty, and grace of poetry as a literary artform, and how it can shape the way we see the world and understand our lives.

The videos are being shared on EC3’s Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, and will be archived on EC3’s website. Audiences can access them any time, at no cost.

"You're at Home with Justin Million: 2023 Edition"

by Justin Million

Justin Million is a print and digital media poet, a performance artist, the founder of the Show and Tell Poetry Series, a co-founder and poetry editor at bird, buried press, and is the author of EJECTA: The Uncollected KEYBOARDS! Poems (2020) from Ottawa’s Apt. 9 Press.

"I See Red"

by Sarah Lewis

Sarah Lewis is an Anishnaabe Kwe (Ojibwe/Cree) spoken word artist, activist, musician, community organizer and mother. She has ancestral roots in Curve Lake First Nation, Ontario as well as Pukatawagon, Manitoba. She was appointed as Peterborough’s inaugural Poet Laureate in 2021-2022, and has been featured on CBC Arts, Global News, and stages across the world. She has been published in numerous anthologies and books and hopes to release her first collection of poems in 2023.

"Threat to the Cis-tem"

by Ziysah von Bieberstein

Ziysah von Bieberstein is a parent, poet, community cultivator, and unsettled settler who works to connect us to our imaginations, our responsibilities, and each other. Ziysah co-founded Take-Out Poetry, which offers made-to-order typewritten poems from a bicycle-drawn cart. Ziysah's writing has appeared in various magazines and anthologies as well as in their self-published collections, Hineini (2007), Ayd (2015), and consents+/=/- severances (2020). Co-founder of the Peterborough Poetry Slam, multiple-year team member and Peterborough poetry slam champ, Ziysah has competed and represented Peterborough at national poetry slams in Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon, and Toronto. In addition, Ziysah has performed and facilitated workshops across Turtle Island. Past director of New Canadians Centre Peterborough, Kawartha World Issues Centre, ReFrame Film Festival, and the Trent Queer Collective, Ziysah is currently working as an editor, coach, and consultant while completing their next poetry manuscript. Ziysah is grateful to queer, genderqueer, activist and Jewish communities and ancestries that give their life meaning, and to the Indigenous Elders, teachers, friends, and more-than-human life who have profoundly re-shaped their worldview. Ziysah lives in Nogojiwanong on Michi Saagiig Anishinaabe territory.