The Festival is pleased to present two extraordinary Canadian voices in conversation and performance.

Chantal Gibson is interested in art, colonization, social activism and the overlap between literary and visual art. Her multimedia art projects have been shown at various galleries across Canada. They call attention to the imperialist ideas that are embedded in everyday things—from text books to souvenir spoons. Her first book, How She Read, is an innovative collection of poems that tackle representations of Blackness, womanhood, betrayal and freedom.

Chelene Knight, a graduate of SFU’s Writer’s Studio, has been published in numerous publications and anthologies, including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Making Room and Black Writers Matter. She is the author of the poetry collection Braided Skin and the creative nonfiction memoir Dear Current Occupant, winner of the 2018 Vancouver Book Award, where she explores ideas of home and belonging by writing letters to the current occupants of her former residences.