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Derek Beaulieu is Calgary’s new poet laureate

Calgary’s new poet laureate is derek beaulieu a longtime Calgarian who has written several books of poetry and fiction published and edited literary publications and currently teaches at the Alberta College of Art and Design.

Calgary Arts Development and the Calgary poet laureate selection committee announced the two-year appointment at City Hall on April 28 with the city’s outgoing poet laureate Kris Demeanor speaking about his two-year term as the first person to hold the title and presenting his legacy anthology The Calgary Project: A City Map in Verse and Visual .

A special event to kick off the new term called Parting Words/Starting Words will be held on Tuesday April 29 at 7 p.m. at Telus Spark. The event will feature presentations from both beaulieu and Demeanor as well as other performers highlighting the diversity within Calgary’s poetic community. Tickets are free and be reserved online.

To celebrate beaulieu’s appointment his concrete poem “Prose of the Trans-Canada” will be projected onto the Calgary Tower on April 29 and 30 at 9 p.m.* (initially scheduled April 28 and 29 this was postponed due to technical difficulties). The 20-metre projection was adapted into an “illuminated light sculpture” by Wordfest in 2011.

*This story has been updated to include the confirmed dates and time.

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