Cat

✨Happy birthday @poetgerby !!! ✨ Here’s to another year of poems, dance combos, event planning, and loud laughter. 🎤

✨Life lately✨ Spring. Celebrations. Satisfaction. Featuring: Lando, @_ashtone__ , Michael, @leaarngrimson , @_geannarae_ , @poetgerby Locations: @creativecityctr , teppanyaki, @skwritersguild , @fadadancestudio , The Nest, @globetheatrelive , Sask Book Awards

Thinking back to our autumn trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls. Jellyfish, big city coffee, art, amazing vintage and thrift stores, visits with a dear friend, and public transportation that made exploring so easy. @leaarngrimson and I fell in love with touring the city and can’t wait to go back in a few months. 🌃🌆

✨March Moments✨ 1. Ponyo making bread. 🍞 2. @poetgerby posing in front of their 3x Sask Book Award-shortlisted book, “How I Bend Into More”! Congrats to all writer-pals who are shortlisted! 🏆 3. @miguel_fenrich showcasing strong storytelling with many dystopian examples in his workshop at @festivalofwords annual LitCon in Moose Jaw. ✏️ 4. @fansofarch releasing his chapbook, “Dunes From the Sahara” at the @mackenzie.art.gallery in a mindblowing interdisciplinary book launch. I had the honour of interviewing Eric on stage. 🎉 5. Lando soaking in the heat. ☀️ 6. My brother, John’s bday cake. Gamers will get it. 🎮 7. 2026 Woodrow Lloyd Lecture with Timothy Caulfield. “The Knowledge Crisis: How did we get here and what can we do?” at the @uofreginaofficial . He is a highly engaging and hilarious lecturer. 🏥 8. Running the livestream at the @skwritersguild Talking Fresh festival @artesianon13th where @leah_blu taught me even more about AV. 🎛️ 9. Writing retreat sustenance in the form of soup. 🥣 10. Continued on with affirming dance classes @collectivestudiosregina . Pictured is a sign they hang by the front desk. 💃 11. Finally got to see Project Hail Mary with some dear pals. (The book is one of my favourite books of all time! I’m holding hope that Andy Weir’s “Artemis” will also be made into a movie!) 🤓 12. Healing massage time with @joshapperleyrmt . Pure magic. ✨ 13. Feature performance with @reginawordup and the @creativecityctr on my birthday. A night full of love, thoughtfulness, and healing. Top meaningful life experience. 🎤 14. Bday cake from my brother John and sister-in-law Kelsey. An ice cream cake tradition! 🎂 (Not pictured the immense thought @leaarngrimson put into my bday this year. 💛💛💛) 15. Facilitated a workshop playing with spoken word foundations and permission to work on our own schedules. 📓

I hardly took photos yesterday (thanks to @enbygeorge for photo 1!!!) as I was so immersed in experiencing my birthday in the most special ways. With my love, Léa who spoiled me (!!), my work colleagues who shared the nicest thoughts and cake, my besties and with the whole Regina Word Up community. Thanks to the @creativecityctr for helping to make this birthday so special. 🔥 @mariansaskatchewan for hosting and the most beautiful thoughtful introduction, @jessspac and @zoestardust_2004 for all your work in prepping and holding this space, @leah_blu for making the Artesian such a safe and welcoming space for gathering, and to the countless poets, friends, found family who filled my heart to bursting. I want to tag everyone for all interactions, personalized or just being in presence with each other. Dedicated poems by poets, incredibly kind words from people, and cupcakes for the crowd made this into a night I can’t forget. I am so grateful to be sharing new writing from my poetry collection about my love and loss of @ambrosiaftw and for it to be received so well. She was with me last night. 😭 Special thanks to @tamlynnmac aka Mama Tammy and Auntie Linda who brought me flowers and a heartfelt protective gift at the show. (Love and missed you too, @kimmer.a.b 💛) So many emotions. I am in awe of you all. Thank you for all of the birthday greetings and thoughts and love you’ve all given me. I am so appreciative of this beautiful life. 39 is another year to remember. ✨

Working Within Your Rhythms: A Workshop by Cat Abenstein @catabenstein Thursday March 26th, 2026 7:00PM - 9:00PM *Doors open at 6:30PM Location: Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre - in the upstairs Craft Room/Meeting Room Writing every day, while a useful process for some writers, can often feel tricky to accommodate and this pressure to be “productive” can backfire. How do you prioritize a regular writing practice amongst full time commitments, fluctuating energies, and competing interests? And, as poets, how do you work within your rhythms while bringing rhythm to your work? There may not be a rhyme or reason to what works for you, but we can give reason to our rhymes by taking the time to find out. Approaching this session from a neurodivergent lens that is often negotiating with the burnout cycle, Cat Abenstein will offer insights into her own process and perspectives she’s gleaned from the creatives in her professional life as an arts administrator and as a professional artist. Participants will leave this workshop having learned how to inject spoken word sensibilities into new poems and permission to write at a pace that works for you. This workshop is free to attend, but please register in advance so we can plan seating! You can find out more about Cat on our post for the open mic and our website event page!

✨ February ✨ 1. Brunch date with @leaarngrimson and the best mother-in-law, Luce at Fresh and Sweet. 🥞 2. Behind-the-scenes of co-coordinating the well-oiled machine that is the SWGs Virtual Facilitated Retreat. (Every year is magic! ✨) 3. Handsome almost-human (he thinks so) Lando 🐈‍⬛ 4. Ice-snow-rain-climate-change-winter vs. car scraper 🧊 5. Read at @reginawordup Open Mic and listened to incredible poets AND @poetgerbys brilliant set. Pictured is @mariansaskatchewan telling us exciting updates about the @creativecityctr renovations. 🎤 6. Attended @poetgerby workshop, “Poetics of Body-Grammar” offered by @reginawordup . Mind sufficiently stretched and blown and I’ll never look at a forward slash the same way again. / 7. Pictured exuberant @poetgerby at the workshop 📚 8. Loved the first progressive dance class at @collectivestudiosregina so am taking another! 🪩 9. Perpetually grumpy Ponyo 🐈‍⬛

🪩 January 2026 Glimmers 🪩 1. Shortlisted for Foster Poetry Prize from CV2 ✍️ 2. First dance class (ever) at Collective Studios 💃 3. Mind-blowingly good sound and lighting workshop at the @artesianon13th with Dana and Karen 🎛️ 4. Continuing to build recording skills in my home office for experimental hip hop projects 🎙️ 5. Polar vortex lunch time walks with @poetgerby ❄️ 6. Lando staying warm 🐈 7. Writing North (@skwritersguild and University of Saskatchewan.) Image featuring panel discussion with @_elenabentley_ , @lairdtoniawrites , Emily Riddle and my live-streaming setup. 🎥 8. Walking up the stairs to see Frozen at the Globe ✨ 9. Slow progress on a crocheted shawl 🧶 10. @leaarngrimson and I racing at Ballers 🏁

9 years sober today. The hardest and easiest thing I’ve done. But I couldn’t have done it without the support of my wife, Léa or all the people in my life. You know who you are. 💛

I could be more excited for our show on Friday in Moose Jaw, just not much more excited! #famouslastwords #deathridesaunicorn #saskatchewanfestivalofwords @s.ole.peace @khodidill @rc_weslowski @dashreimer @catabenstein @akadrewy @death_rides_a_unicorn_events @festivalofwords

📣Poetry! Watch six incredible poets share ✨new poems ✨ and absolutely own the stage. ➡️Tomorrow (Friday July 11) at the Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre in Regina at 1:15 pm. 🗒️ @fansofarch and I have been immersed in words and memories this week as youth have bravely created and rehearsed work. And we want to share it with you! 👏 Thanks to @skcommonweal for the support of “Own the Stage” through the @cifsask . #spokenword #youthpoetry #poets #newshit

Friends, in 10 days, some of the Death Rides a Unicorn crew are flying out to Saskatchewan to take part in the Saskatchewan Festival of Words. I couldn’t be more excited to work with some poet laureates and old friends. If you’re near Moose Jaw on Friday July 18th, please come by to say hi! And for those of you who have never been to a Famous Last Words…it’s a poetry reading/show with free chocolate, unicorn bubble guns, puppets and more. It is the silliest show in poetry. athridesaunicorn.com