Undi lands parliamentary poet laureate gig
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/02/2025 (422 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Winnipeg poet Chimwemwe Undi has been named Canada’s 11th parliamentary poet laureate.
Undi, who is also a lawyer at Thompson Dorfman Sweatman, served as Winnipeg’s third poet laureate in 2023-24; she was announced as the 2025-26 parliamentary poet laureate on Jan. 29 by Raymonde Gagné, the speaker of the Senate, and Greg Fergus, the speaker of the House of Commons. She takes over from Quebec’s outgoing parliamentary poet laureate Marie-Célie Agnant, whose two-year term concluded at the end of 2024.
According to the Parliament of Canada website, the parliamentary poet laureate’s duties may include writing poetry for use in Parliament, sponsoring readings, advising the parliamentary librarian on the library’s collection as well as other duties.
Undi’s debut poetry collection Scientific Marvel, published in April 2024, won the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry.
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The MHC Gallery (600 Shaftesbury Blvd.) is hosting a show called The Poetry of Painting, which opened on Jan. 31 and runs through to March 22.
The exhibition features visual art by, among others, Mavi Blake, Angela Lillico and Genevie Henderson as well as poetry by Duncan Mercredi, Joanne Epp, Liz Kornelson, Brenda Sciberras and Jody Baltessen.
The goal is, as noted on social media, “to create integrated and enhanced art experiences that will involve and enrich the whole community.”
The exhibition’s official opening takes place on Saturday, Feb. 8 from 1-3 p.m.; admission is by donation. For more information see wfp.to/ANY.
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Syrian-Canadian novelist Danny Ramadan will share insights from his 2024 memoir Crooked Teeth, in which he details life as a queer Syrian refugee, on Thursday at 7 p.m. on the second floor of The Forks Market.
Ramadan will be in Winnipeg as part of the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation’s International Development Week, and will be joined by Faith Fundal of CBC’s Up to Speed.
Doors open at 6 p.m.; tickets are $20 and are available at wfp.to/ANm. Light snacks and refreshments will be served, and Whodunit Mystery Bookstore will be selling Ramadan’s books as well as a handful of other titles.
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Speaking Crow, Winnipeg’s long-running open-mic poetry night presented by Plume Winnipeg, resumes on Tuesday with the featured reader offering work in both English and French.
The featured poet for Tuesday, Feb. 4 will be bilingual poet Seream, who will read from his work starting at 6:30 p.m. at the St. Boniface Library (100-131 Provencher Blvd.). Those interested in reading a few minutes of their work can contact host Angeline Schellenberg at speakingcrow@thinairwinnipeg.ca.
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On Thursday at 7 p.m., Winnipeg poet Melanie Dennis Unrau launches a book offering poems by workers in the Canadian gas and oil industry at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location.
The collection The Rough Poets: Reading Oil-Worker Poetry, published in October 2024 by McGill-Queen’s University Press, features work published between 1938 and 2019, all of which has been edited by Unrau and features musings on “how to make and unmake worlds that depend on fossil fuels.”
The free event will be hosted by Winnipeg’s Josiah Neufeld, author of The Temple at the End of the Universe.
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On Friday at 7 p.m., University of Ottawa professor and editor Christina Clark-Kazak launches the collection Forced Migration in/to Canada: From Colonization to Refugee Resettlement, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press, at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location, where she’l be joined in conversation by University of Winnipeg professor (and contributor) Shauna Labman.
The collection features 38 authors reflecting on migration and how it is shaped by intersecting identities and structures, and the discussion will focus on how the book and supplementary resources came together.
The free event is being co-presented by the publisher and The University of Winnipeg Global College.
books@freepress.mb.ca
Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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