Poetry Reading
Ba’oya Hubuk’esi (I Love Them By The Edge):
An Afternoon of Queer Indigenous Poetry
20 June 2026
2:00pm-3:00pm
Image courtesy of Vance Wright.
Please join us for an intimate poetry reading featuring artist Vance Wright and writers brandi brid and Justin Ducharme. Together the readers will explore Queer Indigenous expression, relating to oneself, to others, to land, and to desire.
Ba’oya Hubuk’esi (I Love Them By the Edge): An Afternoon of Queer Indigenous Poetry is presented as part of the Queer Arts Festival.
This free public program is co-presented by Or Gallery in partnership with SUM Gallery, and supported in part by First Peoples’ Cultural Council. All are welcome.
Participant Bios
brandi bird
Brandi Bird is an Indigiqueer Saulteaux, Cree and Métis writer from Treaty 1 territory. They currently live in Vancouver, the land of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh & Musqueam peoples. Pitiful is Bird’s second collection of poetry and details the author’s struggles with eating disorders. Their first collection, The All + Flesh, was a finalist for a 2024 Governor General’s Award and won the 2024 Indigenous Voices Award for Poetry. Brandi works as a freelance writer, workshop facilitator, and manuscript consultant but their most important roles are spouse, friend, sibling, daanis and dad to two troublesome daughter cats.
Justin Ducharme
Justin Ducharme is a writer and filmmaker from the Métis community of St. Ambroise on Treaty 1 Territory. He is an alumni of the 2022 Sundance Institute’s Native Film Lab, TIFF’s 2022 Filmmaker Lab and the 2024 TIFF Every Story Accelerator with his debut feature film project SEVENTEEN. Justin is the co-editor of Hustling Verse: An Anthology of Sex Workers Poetry published by Arsenal Pulp Press. His writing has been featured in Canadian Art, Room Magazine, Prism International and The Positive Side. He currently lives and works on the Unceded Coast Salish Territory colonially known as Vancouver.
Vance Wright
Vance Wright (they/them) is a reconnecting two-spirit member of the Tl’azt’en Nation, and was raised on the unceded territories of the Sinixt, Okanagan and Ktunaxa Nations in what is colonially known as Nelson BC. Currently residing in the occupied and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations in Vancouver, they are an emerging artist, curator and writer. They hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University.