An Evening of Poetry & Reflection

Saturday, September 30, 6 pm
Atwater Library Auditorium

Witness the diversity of poetry at the NexGen MultiArts Festival: An Evening of Poetry & Reflections. Centred around the theme ‘Prejudice: Defying Expectations’ the event offers a unique multilingual, multicultural, multi-generational platform for poets and poetry enthusiasts to appreciate the art of poetry.

While shining a spotlight on emerging talents scouted from across Canada, the festival includes multilingual readings by both established and emerging poets and a panel discussion. Free event.

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Featured Poets

Aryan Aggarwal has always been captivated by the romanticism of poetry that reflects the beautiful synergy of Hindi-Urdu literature. His roots are deeply immersed in Bollywood’s sentimentality. Initially expressing his thoughts in prose, he eventually transitioned to writing Shayari.

Youtuber Johny Hans is a Punjabi hip hop rapper, spoken word artist, song writer and MC. He creates spoken word videos based on his own poetry. His passion is to express his emotions through words. He believes that language is a facilitator and not a barrier.

Born in Haiti, Claudel Jean-Mary moved to Montreal in 1986. He is a faculty member at the Children’s World Academy. In 2004, he co-founded a cultural organization now known as Les Productions Chemins Artistiques. He is also a cultural chronicler at Radio CPAM, and co-author of Blues à deux voies, a collection of short stories and poems.

Abhishek Koyalkar is an IT professional who is passionate about making the world a better place. He recently started a podcast named Perceptional Imprints and aims to spread the ideology of having uncomfortable conversations comfortably. He is exploring different realms of music and finds peace in simple things.  

Avleen K. Mokha, also known as Mirabel, was the 2019 winner of McGill’s Peterson Memorial Prize for Creative Writing. Her debut poetry chapbook, Dream Fragments, was published in 2020. Mirabel’s poems have appeared in carte blanche, Yolk Literary, Dream Pop, Glass: A Journal of Poetry among others. Her first full-length collection, The Vanishing Act (& The Miracle After), was published in June 2023. 

Yusuf Saadi’s first poetry collection Pluviophile was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2020. Saadi won the Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Award for Poetry in 2016. He is also an editor for The Ex-Puritan and was an editor for Watch Your Head, a climate change anthology.

Manikya Singh has been pursuing his professional interest in cyber security. Music has been his ultimate refuge. Rooted in profound values of Sikhism, singing, songwriting, and strumming melodies have been his fervent passions.