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Wax Poetic Radio

Wax Poetic is your opportunity to hear poets in conversation talking about their poems and process and the strange world that lives in between. Johnny D.

Join hosts RC Weslowski. Trinh, Kevin Spenst, Lucia Misch. Sonya Littlejohn, Lisa Webster and Zofia Rose as we chat with Poet Laureates, Slam Champions, Poets new to poetry and many others week to week. Listen to free podcasts of previous shows here:
https://archive.org/search.php?query=Wax%20Poetic&and[]=year%3A%222021%22
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/wax-poetic/id327619435?mt=2

08/19/2026

Today on Wax Poetic we chat with clown, poet, educator, and much more, Heather McLean. Heather shares some excerpts/monologues from her upcoming Vancouver Fringe Festival show, "The Ivory Tower Power Hour." Join Heather and RC from 2-2:30 this afternoon at 100.5 FM or www dot co op radio dot org

"Heather McLean (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Human Geography at Athabasca University whose work bridges research and creative practice. As an arts-based researcher and performer, Heather creates comedic performances that use humour, satire, and embodied storytelling to explore themes of precarity, community, and belonging. She has performed at venues and festivals including the Glasgow School of Art, Edinburgh College of Art, Dirty Plotz Cabaret (Toronto), the rEvolver Festival, the Gutterclown Cabaret (Vancouver), and the rEmergence Festival of Performance (Kamloops, British Columbia). Through playful and surreal clown and comedy, her creative practice engages audiences in critical social and environmental conversation."

08/05/2026

This week and next we highlight the upcoming Filipino Canadian Book Festival and some of the poets from the "Gathering Our Breath" anthology including Nathalie De Los Santos, Sol Diana and Francis Arevalo. Join us 2-2:30 pm at 100.5 FM or www dot co op radio dot org

"Gathering Our Breath is a collaborative grief anthology created by a group of creatives—writers, artists, photographers, musicians, artisans, and educators—across Turtle Island. Through diverse forms of creative expression, this book’s contributors reflect on experiences of loss and mourning that touched the Filipino community in Vancouver and beyond following the Lapu Lapu Day tragedy on April 26, 2025.

This book is intended as living memory, an altar, and an offering to those we have lost. It seeks to preserve our grief beyond the fleeting nature of social media, providing a tangible space for remembrance that readers can return to again and again. It exists as both witness and companion—a testament to the power of storytelling, artistic expression, and shared mourning, reminding us that grief is not only personal, but collective, and that memory itself is medicine.

The anthology was brought together by artists committed to centering voices that are often marginalized or underrepresented. We prioritize inclusivity, social justice, and intersectional care in all our work.

We honour Indigenous sovereignty and the ancestral lands on which this book was created, and we extend solidarity to communities worldwide who have experienced displacement, violence, and loss.

Creators & Supporters

The anthology was created and self-funded by Dani Alcalde-Sidloski, Asia Alcalde-Sidloski, Nathalie De Los Santos, and Maria Bolaños, with support from Place to Be Books, Sampaguita Press, and the Filipino-Canadian Book Festival.

Contributing artists and writers include:

Nelli V. Agbulos, Mak Aruta Konefall, Dionne Co, Sol Diana, Francis Arevalo, Carlo Sayo, Shruthi Budnar, Elysse Cloma, Clara Sanchez, Neema Ejercito, Carmela Cruz, Asia Alcalde-Sidloski, JP Catungal, Michelle Uy, Chiara Susanto, Living Hyphen, Sid Thota, Alyssa Victorino, Nathalie De Los Santos, Adam Arca, Dani Alcalde-Sidloski, Maria Bolaños, Isa Carlin, Mariel Abella, Mary Poirier, Rina Malagayo Alluri, Kyle Doria, Glady K**a Guinto Lee, Bek, Christine Añonuevo, Jules PF, Marilynn Quigley, Anneliese Herbosa, Keana Aguila Labra, Arlene Biala, Lorenz Mazon Dumuk, Renato Gandia, and Lani Domaloy."

Photo by Bruce McPherson Photography

The website is https://www.filcanbookfest.com/festival-schedule
You can get the book at Iron Dog: https://irondogbooks.com/item/C4C6kBdMAYT1_-agCvtHbw

07/29/2026

Today on Wax Poetic, Kevin and RC chat with the all powerful, Cass King! It's been 30 years since the first official Vancouver Poetry Slam team went to Portland, Oregon for the National Poetry Slam and we wanted to catch up and reminisce a bit. Stay tuned for more 30th anniversary highlights with some of the other poets in the coming weeks/months

Join us today from 2-2:30 at 100.5 FM or www dot co op radio dot org

"Vancouver-based artist Cass King has forged a multifaceted performing career, from performance poet to musical comedian to rock and soul singer. She first gained attention as a member of the 1996 Vancouver Poetry Slam team, achieving fifth place at the 1998 US National Poetry Slam.

The Wet Spots went on to write and produce Shine: A Burlesque Musical, which Time Out New York called “Rent for our generation”.

With her writing-and-life partner John Woods, she traveled the world as one-half of the musical comedy duo The Wet Spots, exploring themes of sexual empowerment through humor and unabashed lyrics. Their work took them as far as London’s West End, the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and the Sydney Opera House. The duo is currently performing as Cass King and the Cassettes, delivering R&B-infused garage rock with engaging, honest lyrics. insta: "

07/22/2026

Today on Wax Poetic, Sonya and RC chat with The Writer's Studio Grad, Jónína Kirton, and listen to, Jónína share some poems from her new Talonbooks collection "Save Your Prayers, Send Money"
Join us from 2-2:30 pm at 100.5 FM or www dot co op radio dot org

"Jónína Kirton, an Icelandic and Red River Métis poet, was born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Treaty 1, the Traditional Lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples and the homeland of the Métis. One of the co-founders of Indigenous Brilliance, she currently lives in New Westminster BC, the stolen land of the Hul’qumi’num speaking peoples. Jónína graduated from the SFU Writer's Studio in 2007 and since that time has published three books with Talonbooks. She was sixty-one when she received the 2016 Vancouver’s Mayor’s Arts Award for an Emerging Artist in the Literary Arts category. Her second collection of poetry, An Honest Woman, was a finalist in the 2018 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize."

07/15/2026

Today on Wax Poetic, Altogether Lisa and RC chat with the author of "The Wiki of Babel" Kyle Flemmer. It's a fun conversation that talks about the impact of the internet on language and to play with it in a Dadaist, Surreal, and play filled way.

Join us from 2-2:30 pm at 100.5 FM or www dot co op radio do org

"Kyle Flemmer is a writer, publisher, and digital media artist based in Calgary on Treaty 7 territory. His multidisciplinary work explores the intersections of poetry, code, and visual design, drawing on traditions of concrete and conceptual art to examine how digital systems shape human expression and artistic possibility.

Kyle is the author of Barcode Poetry, Supergiants, TzAR: Pixel Art Anthology, and The Wiki of Babel. Kyle’s writing has been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry 2020 and featured in numerous print and online venues. He has performed for the Jasper Dark Sky Festival, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and at literary festivals and events across Canada.

In 2014, Kyle founded The Blasted Tree Publishing Co., an experimental small press that has published nearly two hundred writers and artists working in innovative literary, visual, and hybrid forms. His curatorial and editorial practice includes projects with the League of Canadian Poets, the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, filling Station magazine, and Art on Tezos, among others.

Kyle holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Calgary, where he researched digital poetics, and a BA Hons. in Western Society & Culture and Creative Writing from Concordia University. He currently works for Athabasca University Press as an Open Educational Resources Project Coordinator."

07/08/2026

Today on Wax Poetic, Kevin and RC chat with Renee Sarojini Saklikar about her brand new book, Brahma's Discovery. Join us from 2-2:30 pm at 100.5 FM or www dot co op radio dot org

"Renee Sarojini Saklikar is the author of six books, including the award-winning Children of Air India and Listening to the Bees. Her work has appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies. She was Poet Laureate for the City of Surrey (2015-2018), co-founded Lunch Poems at SFU, and teaches Creative Writing at Douglas College. Bramah’s Discovery is the third volume of her epic fantasy in verse series, THOTJBAP, with Nightwood Editionsns."
Find out more about the THOTJBAP Trilogy https://thotjbap.com/

07/01/2026

Today on Wax Poetic our guest is 2026 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion, Oma is Loud. Along with guest co host, Charlie Petch and RC they talk about Spoken Word theatre production, language and poetry slam strategy. Join us from 2-2:30 pm at 100.5 FM or www dot co op radio dot org

"Oma is Loud (the stage name of Nigerian poet and multimedia storyteller Iheoma Uzomba) is the 2026 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion. Known for her evocative blend of spoken word, dance, and theater, she explores deep, layered themes like womanhood, identity, and gender performativity.

Based in Calgary, Alberta, her writing has appeared in prominent literary spaces such as Rattle Magazine, Prairie Schooner, and Palette Poetry. She also serves as a staff writer at Open Country Magazine and co-founded The Sunday"

06/24/2026

Today on Wax Poetic our guest is Nate Nate Nainers who's new book "Smokin' Holy Spirits" comes out this September. Nate shares a couple poems and we chat about inspirations, clowning and writing and much more. Join Kevin and RC along with Nate Nate Nainers 2-2:30 pm at 100.5 FM or www dot co op radio dot org

Pre-Order Link
https://galleonbooks.ca/direct-orders/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/nate_nate_nainers/

Substack
https://substack.com/

Nainers Bio
Nate Nate Nainers (they/she) is a settler of Scottish and mixed European descent who grew up on Katzie and Kwantlen unceded territories (Maple Ridge, BC), and currently lives on Kwikwetlem unceded territory (Port Coquitlam, BC).

Nainers’ full-length collection of poems, Smokin’ Holy Spirits (Galleon Books, Fall 2026), explores themes on neurodivergence, queerness, and recovery from leaving the evangelical church. Inspired by the emotionally dynamic art of clown, this book is surreal and absurd, oscillating between poignancy and befuddlement.

In 2025 they wrote and produced two 40 minute spoken word shows with music, "Jerald the Space Bear" and "Berry Stained Teeth," which were showcased at North Vancouver's Arts in the Garden, and open.mic.night.1 @ DCTRL. In December of that year, they were a featured artist for SAD Magazine with their short story, "I Did It All For The Cookie."

Back of Book Write Up:
A multi-dimensional clown has popped the evangelical bubble she was indoctrinated in. By subverting the art of prophecy with profanity, transgressions, and crazy-talk, this clown takes us on a wild and careening ride through the fall-out of leaving the church in six simple steps to quit smoking. With each step, she moves closer to a generational redemption arc, making peace with demons and angels alike. She is Nainers as much as she’s not Nainers, and when she says she’s Nainers, she’s not at all. Proudly working-class (though mildly educated), neurodivergent (though heavily medicated), gay as f**k (though actually bisexual), and a bastion of all things weird and stranj (though pretty serious, ok?); Smokin’ Holy Spirits is Canada’s favourite sacrilegious pastime.

06/10/2026

Today on Wax Poetic we Kevin and RC chat with Gerald Lampart Poetry Prize Nominated Poet, Qurat Dar, who's book "The Non Prophet" has been shortlisted for the award, joins us to share some poems and talk about the Maza Arts Collective. 2-2:30 pm at 100.5 FM or www dot co op radio dot org

"Qurat Dar is the author of Non-Prophet (Goose Lane Editions 2025), winner of the inaugural Claire Harris Poetry Prize and a Lambda Literary Award finalist. She was the City of Mississauga’s Youth Poet Laureate from 2021-2023 and the 2020 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam National Champion. Qurat’s poems have appeared in Augur, EVENT, Arc Poetry Magazine, and across the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) network. "

Non-Prophet:
"Raw, reverent, and bursting with searing vulnerability, Non-Prophet canvases the electric tension between devotion and doubt to gods both personal and ubiquitous, and reflects on the natural and built worlds in their claims to the sacred. Winner of the inaugural Claire Harris Poetry Prize, Qurat Dar’s bold debut collection explores what it is to grapple with faith that’s “just another language you’re losing, or one you never learned to speak.”

Weaving through the boundaries of language and form, Non-Prophet meditates on things “just mundane enough to be holy / just holy enough to be mundane” — the death of a bird, the cries "of mid-nightmare prayers, the misplaced shame of what it is to bleed. Dar’s poems both rage and reconcile, holding gently the pieces of a fractured identity.

https://gooselane.com/products/non-prophet

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