On Tuesday, May 2nd at 6pm PDT, join Massy Arts Society and a collective of brilliant poet organizers for Under The Table Open Mic Series, featuring Kyla Jamieson. With Author & Featured Poet: Kyla Jamieson is a disabled poet who lives and relies on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She is the author of the poetry collection Body Count (Nightwood Editions, 2020) and the chapbook Kind of Animal (Rahila’s Ghost Press, 2019). Her work reimagines time, embodiment, care, and identity in the aftermath of a brain injury. Body Count was a CBC Best Poetry Book of the Year in 2020 and was shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Find Kyla online or on a rock next to a river, dreaming of systemic change, care-full futures, and disabled joy.
About Under The Table: Under the Table is an open mic series centering disabled and/or queer poets. This series was dreamed up out of a desire to share work, experience art, and connect with community in a covid safer, more accessible, and anti-oppressive space. Partnering with Massy Voices and Kickstart Disability Arts & Culture, Under the Table Open Mic Series will be on the first Tuesday of each month with some events in person at Massy Arts Society and others virtually on zoom.
Under the Table is a space where the richness that is queer and disabled life and art, flourishes and finds a home. It’s a space to share work that’s asking to be told, but might not be welcomed in other spaces, if you are able to access those spaces at all. It’s a space where being queer and/or disabled (whether or not those specific words resonate for you) makes your work a brilliant fit, regardless of how queer or disabled you think the poetry you wish to share is, how connected you are to disabled and/or queer community, and whether you feel disabled and/or queer “enough” to participate. It’s a space to witness and engage with the work of incredible artists, anywhere on their path of sharing their work–from the person who has never shared in front of an audience, to artists who have read or performed work many times. It’s a space where there’s room to be scared, and choose to be in community, share, and engage with others’ work. It’s a space where we don’t claim to know all the answers, but are willing to be in the messy, nuanced space of learning together. Come to “Under the Table” to laugh, cry, celebrate, sit in discomfort, feel understood, and be together. This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada, The League of Canadian Poets, and the Canada Council for the Arts. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.