20. The Spoken Word Showcase - The FOLD
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Home Festival & Events The Festival of Literary Diversity Registration 20. The Spoken Word Showcase

20. The Spoken Word Showcase

A School Group Event

Session Description

The Spoken Word Showcase features presentations from three incredible spoken word artists, followed by a short Q and A with the artists. With performances by artists from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences, the annual showcase reveals the power of oral story-telling traditions and provides an essential resource for young people who are exploring their place and purpose in a complicated world.

This session is sponsored by Penguin Random House Canada.

 

 

The logo for Penguin Random House Canada

How to Register

This is a School Group event. To register a class for this event, complete the School Group registration form.

This event is also available via an all-access festival pass. The festival pass costs $39 and gives you access to our virtual festival space, which includes an auditorium featuring forty virtual events and an exhibit hall with a live chat feature for communicating with vendors and other passholders.

The festival also includes a lounge to discuss thoughts before and after the events and chat spaces to create stories and connect with industry-specific professionals.

Passholders will also be able to compete in the space for incredible prizes and will have access to the platform and all of the recorded festival events, as well as bonus content, until May 30, 2021.

Featured Speaker(s)

A Black indigenous woman with lond dark hair stands against a muralled wall and looks off to her right side with her hand clasped under her chin. She wears a black baseball cap.
Mahlikah Awe:ri
Bio
A Black man with cropped hair. He wears a denim jacket over a white skirt and is standing against a white background.
Eddie Lartey
Bio
A young Indian man with a long beard and wearig a red scarf and a blackturban ;ppls pff to the left of the camera/.
Noyz
Bio
A young Black woman crosses her arms in front of her neck and looks into the camera.
Lamoi
Bio
A Black indigenous woman with lond dark hair stands against a muralled wall and looks off to her right side with her hand clasped under her chin. She wears a black baseball cap.

Mahlikah Awe:ri

Haudenosaunee Kanien’kéhà:ka & Mi’kmaw L’sitkuk, Canadian Poet Of Honor, Mahlikah Awe:ri is an Afro-Indigenous Artist For Social Change, “Shifting paradigms through Indigenized ways of knowing and being; while reimagining what it means to be “In-Relation”, to the Land and to each other”. Awe:ri is an acclaimed Spoken Word Artist, Arts Educator, Musician, Land Defender, Water Protector, Public Speaker, Performance Artist, Curator, Futurist Writer & Digital Artist. Mahlikah is a Paula Fund Awardee for her acclaimed solo work Tionnhéhkwen Tionnká:non, and a contributor for the first Black Canadian Afro-Furturism Anthology: Cosmic Underground Northside: An Incantation of Black Speculative Discourse & Innerstandings.

A Black man with cropped hair. He wears a denim jacket over a white skirt and is standing against a white background.

Eddie Lartey

Eddie Lartey is a Hamiltonian wordsmith who is dedicated to and equally in love with poetic performance, community building. Eddie graduated from McMaster in 2015 from Political Science and Labour Studies and from Sheridan in 2017 with a diploma in HR Management. He is a founding member of Hamilton Youth Poets and has presented literary work and facilitated workshops across Canada and beyond. His poetry is a blend of heartfelt storytelling and literary wordplay.

A young Indian man with a long beard and wearig a red scarf and a blackturban ;ppls pff to the left of the camera/.

Noyz

Noyz is an author, rapper, spoken word artist, and community organizer from Brampton, Ontario. In addition to headlining shows in the US, UK, and across Canada, Noyz facilitates hip hop & mental health workshops where he engages with youth through the healing and transformational powers of music and songwriting.

A young Black woman crosses her arms in front of her neck and looks into the camera.

Lamoi

The FOLD is a remarkable and wonderful event for authors and attendees alike. What an amazing community, dedicated to the vital need for inclusive stories and the critical role they play in building a better world.

Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her

Field Guide to the North American Teenager is my first novel and FOLD was my first Canadian literary festival. While American and Canadian culture overlap quite a bit, especially when it comes to bookshelves, Canadian literature is unique and I was very heartened by to be embraced by that community I consider home despite residing in the US. It was a homecoming I didn’t know I needed!

Ben Philippe, author of Field Guide to the North American Teenager

The Festival of Literary Diversity was an absolute joy–the organizers thought of *everything* and by anticipating authors’ needs, they freed us to focus on connecting with the audience and each other. There was no pretension, no posturing–just very genuine conversations with invested writers and engaged readers.

Zetta Elliott, author of Dragons in a Bag

I have been to a lot of writers festivals and the FOLD is definitely near the top of the list of those I want to be invited back to.

Harold Johnson, author of the memoirs Clifford and Firewater

Being part of such a clearly diverse, inclusive and mutually respectful group was thrilling and inspiring: a glimpse of a better world.

Kathy Page, author of Dear Evelyn, winner of the 2018 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize

Wherever I go in Canada and find another writer of colour, we eventually end up gushing about how great the FOLD is, how by normalizing diversity it liberates us to talk to audiences about craft. It’s hard to imagine the literary landscape returning to a prehistoric pre-FOLD era.

Ian Williams, Author of the Giller Prize-winning novel Reproduction

FOLD is a festival experience unlike any other I’ve had. The FOLD team strive to create a space that’s welcoming and engaging, while allowing for curiosity, ingenuity and the fostering of real community – and they succeed, every year.

Alicia Elliott, author of A Mind Spread Out On The Ground

The FOLD is one of the most important literary events on this continent. By focusing on diverse voices and giving authors space to share their stories and speak their truths, it is revolutionizing the writing and storytelling realm as we know it.

Waubgeshig Rice, author of Moon Of The Crusted Snow

Being part of the FOLD community has provided me with a strong sense of belonging. Sharing diverse stories and listening to different voices that broaden my understanding of the world has impacted me as a person and motivated me as a writer.

Ann Y.K. Choi, author of Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety

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