When There Is No Fire To Gather Around
this poem came out of two community dinners on storytelling I had the honour of facilitating with the KGO community at East Scarborough Storefront. over plates of food and conversation, we talked about memory, gathering, surveillance, culture, young people, storytelling, and what happens when there are fewer and fewer spaces for us to simply be together.
big love to community leader and organizer Kim Lopez, East Scarborough Storefront, the KGO community, and the City of Toronto Cultural Hotspot IGNITE project for making space for these conversations and community care to exist.
thank you to everyone who trusted the room enough to share stories, reflections, frustrations, and memories. so much of this poem was shaped by those conversations.
“a story is a conversation when ears make space.”
#torontopoetry #spokenword #torontopoets #poetry #poetstoronto
3 weeks until the Verse & Vision Spring 2026 Showcase at @thedrakehotel@drakeunderground .
Now, you finally get to see the faces behind the voices. ✨
Our Spring 2026 artists have been building brave, tender, electric work over the past few months, and the stage is almost ready for them.
This year’s showcase is extra special. For the first time, three generations of Verse & Vision artists will share the stage. New voices rising, past V&V alumni returning, and a community that keeps growing louder together.
We’re also honoured to have Mo & Emani guiding the night as co-hosts. Big love to our @jayucanada Cohort 4 alum for holding the mic and the room. 🎤
The work you’ll experience moves through the things that shape us, challenge us, and bring us home to ourselves.
Expect:
🎤 Open mic to warm up the stage
🎨 A fusion of spoken word & visual art
✨ An intimate artist talk with the Spring 2026 cohort
🫂 Space to gather, reflect, and connect
🎟 Earlybird tickets: $10 until March 28 (link in bio)
🎟 $15 cash at the door
Bring your people. Bring your curiosity. Come witness what happens when story, art, and community share the same room.
If you have questions or access needs, reach out anytime:
📧 [email protected]
🎤PERFORMANCE ANNOUNCEMENT
🇯🇲 @jcaontario 26th Annual International Women’s Day Lunch & Awards Event
Long before I ever touched a mic, women like Sister Nancy were already stepping forward, making space where there wasn’t any.
To be Jamaican and a woman is a blessing. It means inheriting strength, resilience, and the immense understanding of community 🖤💛💚
I am so honoured to perform this International Women’s Day with the Jamaican Canadian Association, celebrating the women who inspire change, and the ones who made/make space for us to stand. 🇯🇲✨
Tickets are moving so grab yours ASAP. You don’t have to be Jamaican or a woman to attend. Just come ready to celebrate.
See you March 8th
Welcome spring 2026 with the 5th cohort of Verse & Vision at @thedrakehotel Underground Sunday March 29 from 1-3PM!
Over the past couple months, this cohort has been incubating some powerful performances and we are so excited to share with you~ Come join us in celebrating Black youth creativity, community, and storywork.
The evening will include:
🎤Open mic slots to warm up the stage (BIPOC social justice)
💕A fusion spoken word & visual art experience
✨️An intimate artist talk for V&V Spring 2026 cohort
🫂A space to connect
🎟 Earlybird Eventbrite tickets $10 until March 28 and $15 tickets (cash only) at the door, so grab yours ASAP and bring your friends. ✨
If you have questions or access needs, send us a message anytime at [email protected]🩷💚
Toronto poets… it’s a NEW YEAR, NEW SH*T kind of night! 🎤💥 We’re kicking off 2026 with an open mic all about fresh beginnings, final releases, and fearless sharing, led by two Canadian National Slam Poetry Champions.
📅 January 23 🕡 Doors 6:30 PM 💸 $20 entry 🎤 Open Mic with Toronto Poetry Project 🎙️ Co-Hosts & Features: Shelly Grace + Jennifer Alicia 📍 The Drake Hotel Underground, 1150 Queen Street West
Bring your first poems of 2026 or release those old pieces one last time or just share what you love.
We’ll also have:
📝 Writing prompts to spark new work 🎁 Giveaways (via draws) 📮 A Suggestion Box to shape what you want to see this year (Features • Workshops • Concepts • Themes)
Jennifer Alicia (she/they) is a queer, mixed Mi’kmaw and settler (German/Irish/Scottish) multidisciplinary artist originally from Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk (Bay of Islands, Newfoundland), now based in Toronto. She is a two-time Canadian National Poetry Slam Champion and her work has been featured in Canthius Magazine, NOW Magazine, and CBC to name a few.
Shelly Grace is an award-winning spoken word poet, multidisciplinary artist, and arts educator whose work explores Black identity, healing, and community care. A Canadian National Slam Poetry Champion, JAYU’s Emerging Artist recipient, and Toronto Arts Foundation Breakthrough Artist Award recipient.
Let’s start the year in creativity, connection, and collective power.
Bring your words. Bring your people. Bring your energy.
Sincerely,
Toronto Poetry Project 💜💛
#TorontoPoetryProject #TorontoPoetry #OpenMicToronto #SpokenWordToronto #PoetryCommunity #NewYearNewShit #YYZPoets #CanadianPoetry
Once In A Lifetime
Releasing old work, not because it still hurts,
but because it once mattered.
Some poems are scars.
All are proof.
“It’s easy to fall when someone feels like home,
but I forget some homes are just broken.”
Sharing more of my art, old, honest, and unpolished.
#toronto #torontopoetry #poetry #spokenword #spokenwordpoetry
JFA Day 1 🌟
Some stories don’t ask to be rushed.
They ask for a room.
They need space to be heard and held.
We kicked off the JAYU Festival of the Arts with the Verse & Visual Expressions Showcase: an all Black led and produced visual and poetic program rooted in curiosity, self-discovery, and care. The night invited us into the artists’ journeys, filling the space with powerful storytelling, beautiful artistry, and the loudest cheers from the community.
Thank you to every artist who showed up, showed out, and trusted us to hold their stories 💛
With gratitude, we acknowledge the support of the @ontarioartscouncil and @ongov for helping us provide the tools and space these artists needed to create and grow 🌱
Verse & Vision: Explorations returns for its fifth cohort of collective making and storytelling.
This spring, Jasmine Vanstone & Shelly Grace are honoured to co-facilitate a program rooted in community, artistry, and the power of reclaiming our narratives.
In partnership with Oddside Arts, and funded by ArtReach through the Toronto Arts Council, we’ll support 8 BIPOC artists as they explore the fundamentals of visual and spoken language. Together, we’ll build, shape, imagine, and grow — and by spring, each participant will complete an original collage series and perform an original spoken word poem.
✨ Program Timeline
• In-person Welcome: Sat Jan 24, 1–3pm
• Virtual Sessions: Tue Jan 27, Feb 3, 10, 17 @ 6:30–8:30pm
• Mentorship Sessions: Sat Jan 31, Feb 7, 21 @ 1–2pm
• Cohort Critique: Feb 28, 1–4pm
• March/April: Rehearsals
• Showcase: Date TBD
🗓️ Applications close Wed Jan 7 @ 11:59PM.
(Late applications will not be accepted.)
Rolling interviews.
Small honorarium provided to selected artists.
A Gmail account is required for program materials.
Questions? Email [email protected]
Here’s to another beautiful year of creation in community. 🌱✨
We’re back with another Verse & Visual Expressions showcase! This year, we’re honoured to share this offering as part of JAYU’s annual festival.
Our artists have been building, imagining, and creating toward something powerful… and we cannot wait to share the work they’ve been shaping with you.
🕡 Doors open at 6:45 PM 🕊️ Show begins at 7 PM 📍 401 Richmond St. W, JAYU Studio, Unit 380
The evening will include: — A poetry showcase — An intimate artist talk — Light refreshments & snacks
— Space to connect
Tickets are limited, grab yours ASAP (link in V&V bio!)
If you have questions or access needs, send us a message anytime. 🖤✨
Come join us in celebrating Black youth creativity, community, and storywork.
🗣️STORY TIME WITH SHELLY - DATING IN TORONTO 😩
Yall make sure to follow @thepmdesigns and head to their mix and mingle on Dec 12th! Do it for love and for the plot! 💜
#torontodating #torontodatingevent #torontosingles
Something new is coming!
Scratch That: Music That Moves — A Poetry Series.
Remixing the record into your own poetry.
We move beyond scratching the surface. We scratch further, deep diving into some of our favourite albums as a pathway to discovery, self-love, liberation, and community care through poetry.
Together, we listen with intention, reflect with honesty,
and rewrite what we hear into something that belongs to us.
Each session becomes a space for deep listening, gentle excavation, and creative becoming held in community and rooted in care.
If this speaks to you and you want first access when the workshop series launches,send a message or comment to let me know you are interested. These workshops will be online so you can participate from anywhere!
Each album will be a multi-session exploration, tackling 1-2 songs a session 🎶
More information coming soon!
Let’s listen.
Let’s write.
Let’s move with the music. 🎧✨
#ScratchThat #PoetrySeries #MusicThatMoves #PoetryCommunity #CreativePractice
KGO community! This gathering is close to my heart 💕
I’m honoured to be invited into this work by Kim Lopez, and to be partnering with the City of Toronto Cultural Hotspot, East Scarborough Storefront, and Ginakina Gatherings to hold space for something our communities have always known:
that ancestral knowledge, intergenerational relationships, and kin-focused storytelling are necessary to maintain, protect, and nourish us.
We’re interested in how people in KGO share stories, between elders and youth, between neighbours, between chosen family and friend groups. These two free community dinners are a chance for us to meet, eat, and talk about the practices that allow our stories to survive.
Because our stories deserve room to breathe, in our voices, in our bodies, and in the spaces we reclaim together. When we communicate openly and gather intentionally, we safeguard the knowledge our communities have held for generations.
📍 East Scarborough Storefront – 4040 Lawrence Ave E ⏰ December 12 & 15, 6:00pm–7:30pm 🍽️ Free dinner provided 👥 Attend one dinner + bring a guest 📲 Register via the QR code or call 416-208-9889
I can’t wait to sit with you, to listen, to share, and to honour the stories that continue to hold KGO together. 💛
