The Poetry Extension. Bringing poets and dancers together from around the world, one face-melting gig at a time. Our sixth event is online-only, and FREE. Join us here from 2 p.m. Toronto time (EST) and 7 p.m. UK time (GMT) on Thursday February 22nd, 2018 for live streaming of the event. We celebrate Black History Month with these fine poets. (Photo courtesy modernmechanix.com)

Natalya Anderson (founder/curator) is a writer and former ballet dancer from Toronto, Canada. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England, and a Bachelor of Journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto.

She won the 2014 Bridport Prize for her poem, 'Clear Recent History', and the poem was highly commended at the 2015 Forward Prizes. Natalya was also one of four finalists for the 2015 Ballymaloe International Poetry Prize for her poem, 'Dance Therapy'. Her poetry and feature writing has appeared in Poetry London, Prac Crit, The Moth, The Forward Book of Poetry 2016, and other fine publications. Natalya founded The Poetry Extension in 2015, within which she aims to forge cross-Atlantic relationships between poets and dancers from Canada, Ireland, the UK, and the US through live events. She is currently working on her first full collection of poetry.

Join us here from 2 p.m. Toronto time (EST) and 7 p.m. UK time (GMT) on Thursday February 22nd, 2018 for live streaming of our Black History Month reading.

Ifrah Hussein is a poet and artist educator from Toronto. Ifrah started writing at age 12 and began spoken word and performance art at 14. Ifrah speaks mainly about her experiences, aspirations and world affairs. Ifrah became Burlington’s Grand Slam Champion in 2016, came in 5th of 96 Women at the Women of the World Poetry Slam in Dallas, Texas and was crowned the 2017 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion.

Jericho Brown is the recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His poems have appeared in The New York Times and The New Yorker. His first book, Please (New Issues 2008), won the American Book Award. His second book, The New Testament (Copper Canyon 2014), won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. He is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing and the Director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University in Atlanta.

Lorna Goodison is a multi-award-winning poet. She divides her time between Jamaica and Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she is a professor at the University of Michigan. In 2017 Lorna was appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica, succeeding Mervyn Morris.

Paulina O' Kieffe is a spoken word artist, producer, and artist educator. Paulina has performed, produced and hosted shows across the City of Toronto and beyond for the last 13 years. Her poetry appears in print in Guerrillas of the Word and If I Ran the School. Her work has also been featured on CBC News, Metro Morning, AfroGlobal TV and Bell Fibe TV. Paulina was a member of the Up From the Roots Poetry SLAM Team who were finalists at the 2015 and 2017 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word and is the producer of the Words by the Water Literary Festival. Paulina has been using spoken word to teach young people in a number of communities about self-education, expression and empowerment. She continues to teach workshops working with many schools and community organizations.

Rabbit Richards is a New York born performance poet currently based in Vancouver. Their stories and poetry blend the politics of race, love and gender with the emotional grounding of lived experience. A member of the Kalmunity Vibe Collective and a practiced improv artist, Richards is also the two time captain of Montreal’s Throw Poetry Collective and the 2015 winner of the Underground Indies poetry slam. They currently serve on the board of SpoCan and as the chairperson of their Anti-Oppression Committee.