Thursday, October 5, 2023

Doors at 7 pm / Readings at 7:30 pm

Free Admission

In-person at Western Front (RSVP on Eventbrite here)

Virtual attendance by livestream (link here)

Dear Friends, 

The Capilano Review and Western Front are pleased to invite you to the next event in our monthly reading series, Dear Friends &. Please join us at 7:30 pm on Thursday, October 5th, 2023 at Western Front for an evening of poetry by Klara du Plessis, Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi, and Sonnet L’Abbé. The evening will be hosted by Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross and Kiel Torres.

Admission is free, but registration is required for in-person attendance. The event will also be available to virtual audiences by livestream. 

Special thanks to Western Front for collaborating with us on this series and to the Kootenay School of Writing for its additional support. 

We can’t wait to see you, 

The Capilano Review

Readers’ Biographies

Klara du Plessis is a poet, scholar, and literary curator. Her debut poetry collection, Ekke, won the 2019 Pat Lowther Memorial Award and her critical writing received Arc Poetry Magazine’s 2022 Critic’s Desk Award. Klara develops an ongoing series of experimental and dialogic literary events called Deep Curation, an approach which posits the poetry reading as artform. She holds a PhD in English Literature from Concordia University.

Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi was shortlisted for the 2021 Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence, the 2022 Arc Poetry Magazine Poem of the Year Award, the 2023 PRISM Open Season Awards, and they are the winner of the 2021 Vallum Poetry Award. They have released two collections of poetry with Gordon Hill Press. Their collection of experimental dream-poems, Daffod*ls, is forthcoming from Pamenar Press. 

Dr. Sonnet L’Abbé is a mixed-race Black writer, professor, organizer, and performer of Afro-Guyanese, Indo-Guyanese, and Québecois ancestry, and the author of three collections of poetry, A Strange Relief, Killarnoe, and Sonnet’s Shakespeare, and the chapbook Anima Canadensis. L’Abbé lives on Snuneymux’w territory, where they teach at Vancouver Island University.

COVID-19 Safety

To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, we strongly encourage the use of masks at this event. Masks will be available free-of-charge at the venue for anyone who would like one. The windows of the Grand Luxe Hall will also be open for this event.

Accessibility 

The Grand Luxe Hall is located on the second floor of Western Front, which is accessed by a flight of 26 stairs. While plans for a full building upgrade to facilitate access for wheelchair and scooter users are still underway, all events in the Luxe are made available virtually via high-quality livestream (see link above). Further details about accessibility at Western Front can be found here. Please feel free to contact Western Front directly at info@westernfront.ca or +1 (604) 876-9343 for specific access requests in advance of your visit. We are grateful for your patience as we work towards securing the long-term accessibility of this historic space.