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Poetry Walk 2025 Recordings & Artist Info
Here you will find information on the artists who have participated in Poetry Walk 2025 with the Downtown Courtenay Business Improvement Association.
These talented individuals have poured their inspiration into the art created for our event and we celebrate them and their efforts. Each artist has recorded their creation, and provided us with a short biography so you know more about them. Please take a moment, have a listen, and learn about those who have brought this spectacular event to life.
Artist Biographies, Recordings, and Sponsoring Business
Josh Klassen – Safe
I have been creating art my whole life. Art for me is a way of life, a way to see the world, navigate my time on Earth, create beauty and community with those around me. I enjoy painting, music and many other forms of expression. I grew up in rural Black Creek
and I currently live with my wife and daughter in Courtenay.
Scott Lawrance – Cortes Island 3
Scott Lawrance is a Cascadian poet of the Salish Sea, currently residing in Cumberland and on Cortes Island. Recent work appears in Winter in America (Again). A new collaboration with artist Gregg Simpson entitled “In the Shade of the Ancient Temple” will appear soon from Carboniferous Press.
Delia Anderson – Family
Elisha Almeida – Mothertongue
Elisha’s poetry is inspired by being with the river, trees, and soil. She writes about heart and ancestral re-connection. She attempts to describe the journey of soul that is tender, intimate and evolving. She finds writing to be the soul’s balm and is relieved when the words have found paper. She has been reveling in human connections lately, especially communal song and dance spaces that bring her heart joy.
Kristina Campbell – La Liberte
Kristina Campbell is an artist, counsellor, and creativity facilitator whose home base is Artful : The Gallery in Courtenay, BC. Since 2022, her gallery’s popular monthly Artful : The Poets series has been inspiring poets and singer/songwriters to share their wordcraft.
Campbell’s Norse roots are evident in her work as she explores themes of mythology, memory, archetypes and biography. Her work utilizes a unique aesthetic of emotionally evocative, sensual, playful and haunting imagery across her multi-media practice.
Diana Kolpak – DNA Party
Diana Kolpak is a story-teller who uses photography, poetry, plays, theatre and music as her media to create work that merges artistic disciplines in unexpected ways and is also full of heart. Published works include the children’s book Starfall; the play Bedtime Stories, poetry in several online magazines and photos in Conscilience and Counterflow magazines. Her current theatrical work, BLUE, is an interactive musical odyssey through the ocean of love guided by former-mermaid-turned-lounge-singer Sally Siren. www.dianakolpak.ca
Myron Shutty – Family
Myron Shutty is or has been a canoeist, jug hound, derrickman, motorcyclist, university student, house painter, writer, husband, father, office assistant, book editor, book designer, business owner, movie-theatre manager, skier, grandfather, newspaper-ad salesman, life-labs driver, truck driver, thrift-store manager, and backpacker. He lives in the Comox Valley.
Ocean Lawrance – Early Mornings
My name is Ocean Lawrance, I am 12 years old and have lived in Cumberland my whole life. I love playing basketball and soccer and hanging out with my friends. I like turning my memories into poetry and collaborating with my Grandpa Scott Lawrance in writing poetry.
Kaya Leslie – Raindrops of Memory
Kaya Leslie is a poet, artist, and Indigenous English teacher based in the Comox Valley. She spends her time in the woods, on her gravel bike, or road-tripping to climbing crags. Writing since the age of 14, they have cultivated a deep love for words, nature, art, and the raw honesty that poetry embodies. Their work explores the quiet beauty of the world, the depth of human connection, and the unspoken truths that shape our lives.
Margaret McKenzie – HeARTful Clan
Writing poetry has been a continuous part of Margaret’s journey with early works dating from high school days.
Margaret is an educator, writer, therapeutic arts practitioner offering Art Play at the Silver Bowerbird Gallery on 4th Street.
She is a member of The Comox Valley Writers Society and has had her poems published in Quills, Van Isle Poetry Collective, on the International Expressive Arts website, and has published 2 of her own booklets of poems.
Steven J. Thompson – Gathering
Steven J. Thompson is a poet and spoken word artist who participated in the CBC Poetry Face-Off. His poetry has appeared in publications such as MuseMedusa, A member of the Victoria National Poetry Slam team, Steven has performed at events including Vancouver’s Word on the Street and The Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. He is a graduate of the Spoken Word Program at the Banff Centre for the Arts and the co-founder of the Tongues of Fire spoken word series.
Anne Farrer – In Your Bones
Anne Farrer is a local writer of poetry and prose. A keen observer of the human condition, her work reflects the beauty and humour of everyday life. Her essays have appeared in the Globe and Mail First Person section, and she has two self-published chapbooks. She lives by the sea and dreams about a certain crow. Experience more of her work at www.annefarrer.com.
Dan Kirk – Kith and Kin
Sprouted in Vancouver, grew to full size in Burnaby and Dollarton, spent time getting overwatered at UBC, blossomed into something unrecognizable on Cortes Island and now happily going to seed in Courtenay. Along the way worked on boats, on beaches, in the bush and gardens, alone at night and in schools. Author of a book on critical thinking and the chapbook, Hard Things and the forthcoming chapbook My Father Our Father. Co-editor of Drift: Anthology of CV Poets.
Lorin Medley – We, Songbirds – 5th Street Florist
Lorin Medley is a counsellor and writer from Comox, BC published in The New Quarterly, subTerrain, The Puritan, Many Gendered Mothers and various anthologies including Drift: Poems and Poets from the Comox Valley, Sweetwater: Poems for the Watersheds, Refugium: Poems for the Pacific, Cascadian Zen: volume two, and Winter in America (Again. Lorin has a poetry chapbook forthcoming from Watershed Press.
Geo Cash – We Sit Beside Each Other – Repeat Boutique
When pressed, Geo Cash will admit that the rumours are true: They’re an artist. On her off days, Cash’s favourite pastimes include travelling by train and eating plant-based bolognese. Geo’s poem “We Sit Beside Each other”, written for this year’s Courtenay Poetry Walk, is about her mother. You can find more of Geo’s artwork on instagram @beef_creature_
Ashten Leverick – Mother
An author. A spoken word artist. A truth teller.
Through his writing, reviewed as both “raw and visceral”, Ashten Leverick shares the dichotomy of the beauties and the brutalities of life. In his debut full-length work, “Excruciate”, he frames an experience of deep anguish and betrayal with poetry and vulnerability. He has a silly number of dogs in his happy home in the charming village of Cumberland, BC. In their good company, he delights in the forests and the ocean waves.
Sandra Viney – Family
Sandra has been co-owner of Atlas Café in Downtown Courtenay since 1995, creating a space where people feel welcomed, nourished, and connected. Serving her community has been her heart’s work, from fostering a caring environment for her team to making every guest feel at home. Family is at the center of all she does, and poetry is the thread that weaves meaning into her days. Through work and words, she celebrates the beauty of belonging.
Carys Owen – All of Me
Carys Owen is a poet, artist, community builder and nature-lover who respectfully lives on the unceded territory of the K’omoks First Nation on Vancouver Island, Canada. Her office is on the beach, by the river, in the forest, near a mountain.
She once published a collection of poetry along the Community Centre Trails of Quadra Island- posting a poem at every fork in the path. It was called ‘Lost in the Woods’. Some people reported being unable to locate all of the poems…
Instagram: @carysowenpoetry
Claire Gordon – Scots Pine – Laughing Oyster Bookshop
Claire is an artist based in Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ (Ucluelet). She traces connection to place and self through language & texture, film photography, & collage. Claire was the recipient of Arc’s “Award of Awesomeness” in July 2024 and her work was nominated for the CBC Poetry Prize (2024). She is one of the founding members of the Cumberland Film Club, and you can find her photography featured in their upcoming show at the end of April at the Cumberland Studio.
Kim June Johnson – Vitamin – Soul Star Metaphysics
Kim June Johnson is a singer-songwriter, writer, and spiritual trauma coach living on the unceded territory of the Komoks First Nations. Her latest album, “Songs For a Quiet Day” is a collection of small songs praising quiet things. She hosts an online writing community called “Cozy Sunday Write-Ins” and writes on Substack at “Notes On Being Here”.
Natalie Nickerson – The Cat Burgler – Graham’s Jewellers
Natalie Nickerson lives in a small town surrounded by rainforest on an island off the west coast of Canada. From 2017 to 2019, she served as Poet Laureate, an experience that shaped both her words and her connection to place. Alongside her cat Bennie, she shares her life with a daughter whose name nods to an artist renowned for her exploration of form and space through the lens of nature. A teacher by trade and a visual artist by passion, Natalie’s currently learning to play the cello—because, as with her poems, she believes in continuous discovery and the art of listening.