Koerner’s Pub, on a regular Thursday night, sees bargoers sitting at table booths with friends, beer in hand, chatting over the live music organized by Blank Vinyl Project (BVP), UBC’s independent music club. Last Thursday night I experienced a different scene. There was still the movement of faces, both familiar and unfamiliar, between the bar and the packed patio, the loud group around the pool table, but the audience milling around the semi-circle of chairs set up around the stage area acted differently, less like friends relaxing after classes at a pub, and more like a group getting ready to watch a formal show.
That night, BVP, in collaboration with the UBC Indigenous Student’s Society (ISS), had set a theme in order to amplify and provide a space for Indigenous musicians and artists. Unlike usual Thursday night shows, the performances at the Indigenous song and poetry night included not only music but also spoken-word readings.
The ISS were the ones to reach out to BVP about hosting a collaborative event. They sent out “a big callout” to multiple clubs, introducing who they were and opening up the possibility of working together, said Sophie Rolfsen, media co-director and events coordinator at BVP. The club’s artist booking coordinator, Logan Cheung, added that the ISS handled the callouts for the poetry part of the night while BVP booked the musical artists.
The ISS posted the call for poetry on their Instagram. Though this wasn’t initially limited to poetry, all the accepted submissions were for poetry “so it turned out to be a poetry night plus music that I booked,” said Cheung.
Though the organizers weren’t sure how the poetry would be received in a high energy space like Koerner’s, Rolfsen said it was “nice to see [the audience] sitting down and listening to the poetry,” especially since this was the first time the club had branched out to include non-musical acts. Cheung added that “at some points, Koerner’s can be full of people moshing,” but at the Indigenous song and poetry night, it became a place where people sat quietly on the floor to listen.
That quiet, attentive energy in the audience is a testament to the success of the poetry sections. The lineup might have benefited from a few more of those calmer moments. As the subsequent musical artists played their sets I couldn’t help looking forward to when we would shift back to the poetry, and was disappointed when that shift never came.
ISS president and singer-songwriter Ethan Lyric opened the night with the folksy melodic sound of his acoustic guitar. His songs were centered on lyrical storytelling, including one he introduced as a sappy love song inspired by the Netflix show, Heartstopper.
Olivia Davis read two pieces, the first of which was Jeff Buckley’s “A New Year’s Eve Prayer,” a poem partly about allowing yourself to take up space. The second poem Davis shared was an original about the grief of losing her aunt. Toryn Avery followed Davis, reading two of his original poems. One was inspired by a fallen leaf he saw on the ground, turning a seemingly mundane object into a retrospective and beautiful reflection on one’s place in life.
After a break from the music for the poetry, local musician No.1 Special performed. Their music charged the atmosphere of the room with an electric guitar and loud vocals, layering well written and ear-catching pop-punk inspired lyrics over simple, but effective chord progressions.
Francis Baptiste closed the night, bringing back the acoustic sound with sincere musical storytelling about topics like his divorce, being a father and his connection to his Indigenous identity and language. Some of his songs are sung in Nsyilxcən, and Baptiste shared that learning his ancestral language has been a way to break the silence surrounding Indigenous history and especially residential schools.
The wonderful Charliee Greenbank MC’ed the night and really brought the event together. Wearing a pair of flashy overalls and huge, funky glasses, they confidently commanded the crowd and guided the audience through changing artists. They even read one of their own poems about queer sex and taught us some Michif words during the spaces between sets.
BVP doesn’t often have themed nights — most Koerner’s Thursdays feature the more traditional Vancouver lineup of indie-rock and punk bands — but the success of the Indigenous song and poetry night might lead to more events aimed at platforming certain groups of artists. Rolfsen said that many BVP members are “aware of the fact that the music scene can be intimidating for people … when they don’t see themselves represented” in musical spaces. February’s build-a-band social, where participants met in hopes of forming bands or jamming groups, was specifically for women and gender diverse people, and this year’s Guateque marked the third annual party in collaboration with UBC’s Latin American community. Rolfsen and Cheung both look forward to continuing to hold events that make Korner’s a “space for everyone.”
