Shane Koyczan
#SpokenWord at the Pepper Canister Church
Internationally recognized wordsmith Shane Koyczan is a legend on the global spoken word scene.
His anti-bullying video“To This Day” is one of the most viewed poems on Youtube with 23 million views. Koyczan has given a TED Talk on bullying and went on to create a free anti-bullying smartphone application as part of his To This Day Project.
His debut collection, Visiting Hours (2005), was chosen by the Guardian and Globe and Mail as one of the Best Books of 2005. His autobiographical novel in verse, Stickboy (2008), has been adapted for the stage by the Vancouver Opera. Koyczan is also the author of the collections Our Deathbeds Will Be Thirsty (2012) and A Bruise on Light (2014).
Koyczan was born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, to a French mother and a father of First Nations heritage. He grew up in Penticton, British Columbia, with his grandparents and was educated at Okanagan College. He has won the National Poetry Slam and the Canadian Spoken Word Olympics.
For his social justice work, Koyczan received a BC Civil Liberties Award for the Arts. More recently he has launched Places a spoken word piece Commissioned by the Non-Profit Housing Association.
Koyzcan’s performances have brought audiences to their feet in numerous venues, from stadium sized events like the Vancouver Olympics Opening Ceremony to the peculiar streamed intimacy of the prestigious TED Conference. He stands at the forefront of a new wave of 21st century poetry that flies on the page and screen and soars on the stage.
