Date: Saturday, October 17
Time: Doors: 6:30, Program: 7:00 pm
Venue: Rice Theatre @ The Citadel
Tickets: $20, $10 (student/low income)

Hosted by: TBC
Featuring: Yasuko Thanh, Louise Bernice Halfe, Zena Sharman, and celist Nicholas Yee

LitFest’s Saturday-night cabaret event, Books and Beats, will showcase readings from Yasuko Thanh, Louise Bernice Halfe, Zena Sharman, and Naomi McIlwraith, alongside the musical stylings of Nicholas Yee. This special event features performances of music selected by the authors that reflects on their writing in a personal way. This year’s Books and Beats event will take you on a journey from some of the darkest places in our contemporary world to a gathering place of gratitude and generosity.

In Pizza Before We Die, with Yasuko Thanh, Hassan Kanafani’s missives are a vivid, heartbreaking account of war and its toll—on families, on children, on innocent civilians. These are stories of hunger, survival, and death. These are stories that demand to be heard. And yet, stories like these are not being told: Mainstream media has largely remained silent. Foreign journalists are barred from Gaza. Local journalists are being killed. In this vacuum, Hassan’s voice breaks through out of the darkness and into the light.

In never-before-collected essays and new poems, poet and kêhtê-aya (Elder) Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer tells the story of how she woke up from the trauma of separation and found the source of her inspiration: her culture and the land. In Cree, inspiration is described as a sudden insight. It can come from visits from spirit, from the charged reciprocal experience of being taught by Elders and teaching the next generation, from speaking Cree, which allows the poet to “somersault into memory,” and from the practice of observing and being in relationship with the land as it “constantly gives birth to itself.” wîhtamawik/ Tell Them is a stunning love song to nêhiýaw ways of knowing—ways which Halfe has spent her life working to reclaim from the violence of colonization—to celebrate their survival and share their enduring teachings with future generations.

Staying Power: On Queerness, Inheritances, and the Families We Choose by Zena Sharman is a beautiful and honest memoir of care work, grief, parenting, and chosen family in the wake of intergenerational trauma. It recounts the author’s experiences of raising three children in a four-parent queer family after her mother’s death and a divorce drastically reshaped her life. Staying Power asks, “If leaving has helped you survive, how do you learn to stay?” It finds answers in queer kinship, femme erotics, Leatherdyke lineages, and the radical possibilities inherent in doing motherwork outside of motherhood, recognizing that sometimes you fight the thing you want most.

The stirring and lyrical story, The Great Gathering Place, by Métis author Naomi McIlwraith, based on her poem of the same name, is a moving tribute to Indigenous values and the meeting places that are special to each of us. Luminous illustrations by Cree and Métis artist Onedove evoke a sense of the sacred with each colorful spread. This is a beautiful picture book that honors the importance of gratitude, generosity, kindness and love for both nature and people, and could serve as a gentle discussion starter on these topics. It’s also a reminder that the places where we gather are special and deserve our protection. It provides an excellent introduction to Indigenous concepts and teachings. Cree words and phrases are featured in the text and are supported by a glossary and pronunciation guide.