A Day of Delight | Jillian Christmas in conversation with David-George Morgan

Join the Gallery’s first-ever Poet in Residence Jillian Christmas for a conversation with artist David-George Morgan about archiving and documenting Black art and artists in Vancouver through the 1990s.

In a city where histories can fall within the cracks, Morgan’s practice involves immortalizing Vancouver’s Black art scene through the documentation of events and exhibitions, alongside building a collection of pamphlet announcements and publications featuring this vibrant arts community. Through his personal archive, Morgan is working to ensure that the fragments of this art scene are not forgotten.

Christmas and Morgan’s conversation will be followed by a poetic tour of the exhibition Denyse Thomasos: just beyond at 7:15 PM.

Free for Gallery Members or with admission. Capacity for this event is limited. Registration is required.

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If cost is a barrier for you to attend, please reach out to Kika Memeh, Public Programs Assistant, at kmemeh@vanargallery.bc.ca.

A Day of Delight is being presented as part of Celebrating Black Futures, a series of special programming focusing on the intersection of art, film and poetry. Find out more »

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Jillian Christmas is a queer, Afro-Caribbean writer, educator, curator and consultant. She is the first Poet in Residence at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Christmas has previously served as the spoken word curator of the Vancouver Writers Fest and Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Verses Festival of Words. Among her notable achievements, Christmas made history as the first Canadian to reach the finals of the World Poetry Slam in 2015, performing her slam poem Black Feminist, and, in 2021, she was the recipient of the League of Canadian Poets’ Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award for spoken word poetry and the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Canadian writers. Christmas has also represented both Toronto and Vancouver at 11 national poetry events. Her debut collection, The Gospel of the Breaking, was published in 2020. Christmas lives on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam people (Vancouver).

David-George Morgan is a visual multimedia expressionist who is based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. His explorations take us on journeys across the politics of history, language, community, family and the identities of selves. While his work can be found across the globe in private collections, he is also an invaluable community builder, who works within communities documenting and collaborating.