It's National Poetry month and the city of Barrie is celebrating.
The city's poet Laureate Damian Lopes presented a poem at Council Monday night and a popular annual writers' conference is happening at Barrie North Collegiate next week.
"This is a conference that the English department and the faculty at Barrie North puts together every year," said Mayor Jeff Lehman. "It's one of those litte festivals that attracts incredible tallent to our community."
Lopes is one of the participants, along with headliner Shane
"It's such an important conference…one of the largest literary events in the community," Lopes said.
The 9th annual L3: Writers’ Conference will welcome world-renowned authors, poets, novelists and activists to Barrie North Collegiate on April 21. This year’s theme is youth mental wellness and ‘Poetry is Therapy’ is the motto.
Shane Koyczan, Canadian spoken word artist and national anti-bullying advocate, will headline the conference with his poetic performances. Koyczan was previously on the Blue Dot Tour with David Suzuki and is now touring North America.
Koyczan's poems, books, videos, tedX Talks, CD’s and Spoken Word performances have inspired audiences around the world. His stance on anti-bullying and his creative approaches to helping youth cope with mental health and bullying issues has also made him "asocial justice champion and pioneer."
Lopes is Barrie's Poet Laureate for current council term.
In addition to appearances at various civic events, his job is to promote poetry, arts, literacy and the culture of Barrie. The position must be held by an active poet.
"As laureate, I hope to inspire everyone to tell their stories in their own ways," he said. "Otherwise, we will remain defined from outside. If we don’t nurture our own talent, we will continue to lose creativity."
Local festivals such as the L3 Conference, Carnegie Days at the MacLaren Art Centre and Word Up reading series are proof that Barrie's arts are culture intitiatives are growing.
"My role is to support ongoing efforts to promote the local, both talent and audience, in the celebration of ourselves and to encourage everyone to play with language and story'" Lopes said.
"I’m currently researching a possible poetry project that would span my term as Poet Laureate and hopefully engage residents with our unique heritage."
Other artists and authors participating in the conference at Barrie North include: Ian Keteku Holly Painter, Ian French and Tom Earle.
Students will participate in workshops during the school day and public readings and book signings are scheduled for the evening.
Evening readings for the public start at 7 p.m. at Barrie North, 110 Grove Street East.
Admission is $25 for adults, $20 for students. Tickets are available at Rivendell Books, 165 Wellington Street West, Unit 2B in Barrie.
Learn more at l3writers.ca.
