Sheri-D Wilson

Sheri-D Wilson
Originally uploaded by random acts of poetry

Sheri-D Wilson
www.sheridwilson.com

The Mama of Dada – Sheri-D Wilson
Poet, playwright, performer, film-maker, essayist, teacher, producer, and activist

She has six collections poetry: Bulls Whip & Lambs Wool (1989), Swerve (1993), Girl’s Guide to Giving Head (1996), The Sweet Taste of Lightning (1998), Between Lovers (2002), and Re:Zoom (2005,Frontenac House) which won the 2006 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry.

Sheri-D has two Spoken Word CD’s – both arranged by Russell Broom - sweet taste of lightning (2001), Re:Cord (2007). She is well-known for her VideoPoems produced for BRAVO! TV. Airplane Paula (2001), Spinsters Hanging in Trees (2002 – Won Gold at Houston Film Festival, three ACE awards, and the 2003 AMPIA for best short or vignette), and Surf Rave Girrly Girrl (2004).

Of the beat tradition, in 1989 she studied at Naropa (The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics). Sheri-D Wilson won the first CBC Poetry Face-off for Alberta and her work is featured on CBC’s Word Beat, Sounds like Canada, Canada Reads and ZED TV. In 2003 she won the title Heavyweight of Poetry for the USA in a Bumbershoot Bout against Andrei Codrescu. In 2005, she was invited to present her work in Ottawa as part of the Alberta Scene celebration to commemorate Alberta’s 100 year centennial. In 2006 she presented her work at the Human Rights Symposium in Victoria, was honoured with Global TV’s Woman of Vision award, and was a featured poet in the Heart of a Poet documentary series.

Reading highlights: Bumbershoot 2003, 2000, 1996(Seattle), The World Poetry Bout 2002 (Taos, New Mexico), Poetry Africa 2001 (South Africa), 2001 Shakespeare and Co. (Paris), Vancouver International Writers Festival (‘02, ‘00, ‘95, ‘93, ‘90), 1990 Small Press Festival (New York), 1993 Harbourfront Reading Series (Toronto).

Sheri-D Wilson is an innovator and activist who seeks to give voice to all people; those who have been silenced, under-represented and all cultural groups whose stories must be heard. From 1988-1990 she co-founded and organized the Vancouver Small Press Festival, and the Commercial Street Art Festival for the Normal Art Society. In 2003 she formed the Calgary Spoken Word Society, which produces the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival and other Spoken Word Activities. With direct instructions from the great Lillian Allen, in 2005 Sheri-D initiated the first Banff Summit Meeting of Spoken Word (with 16 artist/producers), which led to the formation of SWAN (Spoken Word Arts Network). This year she heads the organizational faculty for the first Spoken Word Pilot Program at the Banff Centre, and the second SWAN meeting. Her essay, “FIRST TIME EYES: Unearthing Spoken Word,” will appear in the upcoming issue of Canadian Theatre Review.