Jillian Christmas is MOA’s featured poet for National Poetry Month. She will be bringing MOA’s collections to life every Thursday evening in April with Sounding the Collection: The Power of Poetry, a sound installation that will be played in the Multiversity Galleries. Through a focus on anti-oppression initiatives in spoken word, Christmas has developed programs in partnership with the Toronto Poetry Project, UBC and the Vancouver Opera and has worked with youth and adults across Canada.

“When I teach workshops, I work on connecting and reminding youth and adults alike that their voices have value, power and are absolutely necessary. I hope that my classes bring people closer to themselves and each other.” ~Jillian Christmas

Born and raised in Markham, Ontario, Jillian Christmas serves as Artistic Director of Versəs Festival of Words. An enthusiastic organizer and activist in the Canadian arts community, Jillian’s focus is to increase anti-oppression initiatives in spoken word. Jillian’s work has been featured in numerous publications including the Huffington Post, and published in a number of collections, including Matrix New Queer Writing (issue 98), The Post Feminist Post, Plenitude Magazine, Room Magazine and celebrated anthology, The Great Black North. She has participated in, developed and executed programs in partnership with Toronto Poetry Project, Wordplay, Brendan McLeod’s Travelling Slam, University of British Columbia, Vancouver Opera, and the CULTCH Mentorship, and facilitated spoken word workshops for youth and adults across the country.

This exhibition by Kent Monkman takes visitors on a journey that reclaims and reinserts Indigenous voices into the collective memory of our country, challenging and shattering colonial notions of our history.

The artist’s gender fluid, time-travelling alter-ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, is the narrator of this story, told through the lens of Indigenous resilience. Miss Chief leads us from New France and Confederation to the urban environment of Winnipeg’s North End and contemporary life on the reserve.

Shame and Prejudice features nearly 80 pieces, including Monkman’s own paintings, installations and sculptures, in dialogue with historical artifacts loaned from museums and private collections across Canada. MOA is the final stop for this critically acclaimed travelling exhibition, which has been on a multi-year, cross-country tour to nine cities.

The artist will be in attendance at the Opening Celebrations.

The opening weekend programs also include an artist talk with Kent Monkman on May 8, at the Frederic Wood Theatre at UBC (separate paid tickets required, available here).

Free museum admission | 6 pm
Opening remarks | 7:15 pm

Monkman will delve into the background of his painting practice, and his research and curation of museum objects in relation to his own artworks. He will explore resounding themes from the exhibition: from Indigenous resilience, to the exclusionary Western art canon and colonial narratives of history.

Kent Monkman’s Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience (on view at MOA from May 8 to October 12) takes you on a journey through the past 150 years of Canada. It is a journey that reclaims and reinserts Indigenous voices into the collective memory of our country, challenging and shattering colonial notions of our history.

Venue: Frederic Wood Theatre at UBC | 6354 Crescent Road (5-minute walk from MOA)

She brings a unique combination of anthropology and theology to her own ceramics and her ongoing explorations of funerary art and practice. Before she became a potter, Holly earned an MA in anthropology and a PhD in the history of Christian spirituality. Holly enjoys sharing her passion for investing clay with personal sacred meaning.