Our first in-person opening reception is finally here! Join poets Ian Cognitō and Pat Smekal for a lively talk about friends, family, shaping relationships, and how we can reimagine experiences through poetry. 

This is a free event, please remember to social distance from others and masks are strongly recommended. 

After the artist talk, enjoy the art. 

Registration is not required, but you will receive a email reminder the day before the event if you do.

About the speakers:

Pat Smekal lives by the sea in Nanoose Bay, B.C. She fills her life with family, friends, travel, laughter and, of course, words. Since 2003, Pat’s poetry has won a number of prizes and has appeared in more than seventy publications in Canada and abroad. In 2009 her chapbook Praise without Mortar was launched. In 2012 Small Corners (2012), and in 2013, Maybe We Could Dance, in collaboration with David Fraser, were published. Another collaboration with fellow poet Ian Cognito resulted in the books flora fauna & h. sapiens (2019), and Much Ado about Nothing (2020). A long-standing member of The WordStorm Society of the Arts and the B.C Federation of Writers, Pat has frequently read her poetry at spoken-word events on Vancouver Island and beyond.

Ian Cognitō is a poet from Yellow Point, BC. He is the author of 3 collections of poetry including Animusings, Much Adieu about Nothing, and flora, fauna & h. sapiens (the latter two, co-authored with Pat Smekal). Ian recently produced and edited an anthology on the topic of Ageing (again with Pat). “Old Bones & Battered Bookends” unites poets from across Canada to explore this lofty topic in poetic form. This Fall, Ian will publish Interchange, a poetry/prose exchange, with Ontario prose writer Anne Marie Carson. Ian is the producer/artistic director of “15 Minutes of Infamy”, a word-craft cabaret based in Nanaimo and runs an independent publishing company, Repartee Press. For more information about Repartee Press, contact repartee@telus.net or go to http://www.reaprteepress/facebook.com

Recent proust questionnaire HERE