Meet our newest Youth Poet Laureate
When the City of Victoria recently announced the news that recent Writing / English double-major Eli Mushumanski had been chosen as the 2022 Youth Poet Laureate, we here at Fine Arts were justifiably proud. Mushumanski is the third YPL to come out of UVic’s Writing program in the past 10 years (see our stories on previous youth poets Aysia Law & Ann-Bernice Thomas), so we were eager to sit down for an interview with this thoughtful, introspective non-binary poet.
How did you get your start in poetry? What difficulties have you encountered with writing poetry?
I started writing actually as a three-year-old, and I know this because we have this little cardboard book that has two pages pasted out that my mom typed up for me. It’s complete nonsensical gibberish. But I remember wanting to be a writer, and then I wrote all the way through elementary school, all the way through high school, and then I got to UVic and I ended up getting into poetry.
I used to write a lot of fiction and kind of stayed away from poetry, so I’ve really only been writing poetry for four years. I was a very self-conscious teenager . . . . I don’t like seeing my feelings in written form. It really took my being in workshop and having to write poems [before I thought], “Oh! This is really hard: I like this.” I think poetry is more abstract [than fiction]. In a sense, it’s bigger than my own personal problems.
How do you see your role as YPL? What do you want to accomplish? I understand that you want to tackle the issue of climate change with your poetry. Could you tell me a little bit more about how you want to do that?
I’ve talked in some of my other interviews about making climate change just a little bit more manageable. Obviously, it’s never going to be manageable—it’s this massive, massive problem [with] so many different components—but it’s so big that it feels unreal. Poetry is a way to sort of connect people more to the natural world and make them really love it and care about it. The only way things are going to get better is if we feel more connected to the natural world.
I don’t think poetry on its own is going to change the world or change the environment. It’s about helping fit people feel that they could turn outward, and that it would be safe to do so . . . enabling that process is potentially something poetry could do. It’s important to feel those things: avoiding [them] is obviously not helping. I think the only way out—to use a cliché, which as a poet maybe I shouldn’t—is to feel our way through it in order to make change.
I see the current poet laureate, John Barton, is also a Writing grad: how much will you be working together? What might you learn from interacting with a more experienced poet like him—especially one who foregrounds the queer experience in his poetry?
allow the slow sprawl.
the insects will help your glide,
tendrils of you that will root.
trees are all feeling.
you will not have sound or smell
to distract you.
—Eli Mushumanski
He is going to provide mentorship—I can ask opinions and get a little feedback, which is really nice—and I actually worked with John last April for the City’s Resilient Muse series for National Poetry Month. But being able to read other queer poets like John is a really exciting thing that, 100 years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to do, and just having the voice of someone older in the queer community is really powerful.
I think we lost a lot of those voices between the AIDS crisis and with hate crimes happening, so I think having those other voices is really powerful to show there is a way to get older in the queer community. I know a lot of young queer people, but I don’t really know a lot of older queer people. It’s great to have the opportunity—he’s organizing some Pride readings, and he’s invited me to be part of some of those—so even just having the opportunity to stand in solidarity has been really exciting.
Where do you see yourself going after you complete your term as YPL? What are your hopes for the future?
For me, I don’t want to be a full-time writer—that may be sacrilegious to say as a poet laureate—but there are so many other parts of myself I want to bring out. I really want to go into psychology long-term: with everything that’s going on right now, people need more support in their lives.
But I am really excited to keep writing and working on longer projects . . . even just starting the position has given me the opportunity to feel this is something I can do. Ideally, I’d like to do something in psychology and then write a lot alongside that. Both of those things are very important to me.
I used to be very passionate about the idea that I was just a writer, that it was my whole identity, [but] during the pandemic, I had to let go of that. I have so many different parts of myself that I can explore, and it’s okay to explore those things; I don’t have to be tied to any one thing. I feel very lucky that I’ve had this opportunity so early on and it’s proof that, yes, [poetry] is something I can do alongside everything else.
—Story & photos by Tori Jones
2016 Youth Poet Laureate Ann-Bernice Thomas speaks her mind
Ann-Bernice Thomas doesn’t even hesitate when asked the most surprising aspect of being named the City of Victoria’s 2016 Youth Poet Laureate. “All the attention,” she says with a quick laugh. “Considering I didn’t really hear anything about last year’s poet, it’s been really surprising . . . but nice.”
2016 Youth Poet Laureate Ann-Bernice Thomas
A second-year double-major in the departments of Theatre and Writing, Thomas was announced as the new Youth Poet Laureate in January and quickly received a flurry of attention from nearly all of Victoria’s media outlets, with interviews in the Times Colonist, Victoria News, Martlet, and the Nexus. Her one-year term, jointly funded by the City of Victoria and the Greater Victoria Public Library, ends on December 31, for which she will receive a $1,750 honorarium and $1,000 in special project funding.
With a mandate to create and present new works to both Victoria City Council and Youth Council, conduct poetry readings at City and Greater Victoria Public Library events, and organize a community youth poetry event—in addition to her regular studies—Thomas will definitely have her hands full in the year ahead. “I’m excited about it, but I’m also planning to do a lot during the summer when I’m not in school,” she says. “I’m really hard on myself and want to do a good job. I can only be as good as I can be, so I’m totally motivating myself.”
As part of the annual Victorious Voices youth spoken word festival, Thomas will present an introduction to spoken word workshop from 4-6pm Tuesday, April 12, at the Greater Victoria Public Library downtown. Details here.
Born in England, Thomas has lived in a Toronto suburb since she was seven and specifically moved to Victoria to attend university. “UVic is the only school in Canada that offers a double-major in creative writing and theatre, and it also has the best writing program,” she says. “UVic is special—it was a very good choice. I love it here!”
Thomas is the third UVic student to hold the position. Then-writing undergrad (now alumna) Aysia Law was named the City’s inaugural Youth Poet Laureate in 2013—the first position of its kind in Canada at the time—and women’s studies major Zoé Duhaime held it in 2015. Victoria’s inaugural Poet Laureate was writing instructor Carla Funk, who held the position from 2006-08, and current Poet Laureate Yvonne Blomer is also alumna.
Thomas has already made her debut as Youth Poet Laureate at a Victoria City Council meeting, and will be mentored by Blomer in the coming months. “I need to sit down and plan what I want to do,” she says. “For example, I was just interviewed by a poetry radio show in Edmonton; it’s such a cool idea, so now I have to talk to CFUV about whether it’s possible to do a show like that. But I’m also putting together a blog for myself and for local youth to post to, and I want to host a few poetry/theatre workshops as well.“
Thomas performing at an out-of-town poetry slam
Already an accomplished spoken word artist, Thomas is also passionate about the impact poetry can have on a young person’s life. “As an out-of-towner, I don’t really know the ‘youth’ of Victoria,” she admits, “but I’m very excited about sharing poetry with them. It made such a big impact in my life.”
Having performed at social justice events like the AIDS Walk for Life and a Ferguson Rally back home, Thomas has seen the power of poetry first-hand. “I grew up in a pretty non-multicultural town, so it makes a big difference being a minority . . . so many people are raised with micro-aggressions and subtly racist ideas, and the only way to unlearn those it is to talk about them. Poetry is a surprisingly evolving art form and a very good medium for social awareness, because you can be honest and entertaining and punchy and make people think, all at the same time. And once you get people thinking, you can get them learning.”
And does the latest Youth Poet Laureate have a motto, any words to live by? “Everything is poetry!” Thomas laughs. “So do poetry. That’s about it.”
Click here to listen to Thomas perform one of her pieces, “The First Time I Saw God.”