The Edmonton Poetry Festival welcomes internationally-acclaimed poets Shauntay Grant, Ahmed Knowmadic, and Alessandra Naccarato for ALCHEMY, a show that embraces the daring, magical potential that is revealed whenever poetry and music collide.
Shauntay Grant is a writer and storyteller from Halifax, Nova Scotia. She teaches creative writing at Dalhousie University, and as Halifax's third Poet Laureate she organized Canada's first national gathering of Canadian Poets Laureate. (click here to read more)
Africville now available for pre-order
Shauntay Grant's newest picture book, Africville (Groundwood Books), is available for pre-order from Chapters Indigo and Amazon.
When a young girl visits the site of Africville, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the stories she’s heard from her family come to mind. She imagines what the community was once like —the brightly painted houses nestled into the hillside, the field where boys played football, the pond where all the kids went rafting, the bountiful fishing, the huge bonfires.
Africville was a vibrant Black community for more than 150 years. But even though its residents paid municipal taxes, they lived without running water, sewers, paved roads and police, fire-truck and ambulance services. In the 1960s, city officials decided to demolish the community, moving people out in city dump trucks and relocating them in public housing. Today, Africville has been replaced by a park, where former residents and their families gather each summer to remember their community.
The Bridge set to premiere in 2019
Photo: Richard Chevolleau and Emerjade Simms. Photo by Stoo Metz Photography
On February 14, 2018, Neptune Theatre announced that Shauntay Grant's stage play The Bridge will premiere as part of its 2018-19 season.
Shauntay has been developing the play as Playwright-In-Residence at 2b theatre.
The 2019 premiere is a co-production between 2b and Neptune in association with Obsidian Theatre.
Ticket packs and subscriptions are on sale now; click here for details.
The Walking Bathroom book launch
The Bridge: a work-in-progress showing
February 7, 2016 – 2b theatre presents a work-in-progress showing of The Bridge, a new play in development by Shauntay Grant. Click here for more details.
Shauntay Grant announced as 2b playwright-in-residence
September 1, 2016 – 2b welcomes award-winning writer and educator Shauntay Grant as the company’s 2016-2018 playwright in residence. Over the next few years, Ms. Grant will work with 2b theatre company to develop her new play, The Bridge. Click here to read full announcement.Stitched Stories: The Family Quilts
Stitched Stories: The Family Quilts opens Thursday Sept 1 at 7PM at the Dalhousie Art Gallery (6101 University Ave., Halifax, Nova Scotia). The exhibition will be on display at the gallery until November 27.
Curated by Shauntay Grant, the exhibition features a handful of quilts selected by Grant from the heritage holdings of her family, prominently those of her grandmother, the Reverend Alfreda Smith. Grant’s own creative response to the quilts – and equally, the stories they keep – will produce a new ‘poetic patchwork’ developing inside the Gallery over the course of the exhibit.
Click here to read a Metro News article about the exhibit and to view some of the work on display.
Shauntay Grant writer-in-residence at Berton House
April 2016 – Shauntay Grant begins a three-month writing residency at historic Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon. Click here for more details.Previous events
Shauntay Grant reads from her poetic children's picture books in celebration of National Poetry Month.
Shauntay Grant reads from her children's picture book The Walking Bathroom.
Author Reading
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Cole Harbour Public Library, 51 Forest Hills Parkway, Cole Harbour, NS
Shauntay Grant reads from her children's picture book The Walking Bathroom.
"The Walking Bathroom" Author Reading
Keshen Goodman Library, 330 Lacewood Drive, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Join Shauntay Grant for a reading of her new children's picture book "The Walking Bathroom" at Keshen Goodman Library's Halloween Fest.
Book Launch, Author Reading, Activities, & Book Signing.
"The Walking Bathroom" Book Launch, Author Reading, Activities, & Book Signing.
Author Reading & Book Signing
The Medium & the Messengers: Local Artists, Globalized Genres, and Transnational Audiences
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Toronto Public Library (Lillian H. Smith Branch), 239 College St., Toronto
A roundtable presented as part of the 2017 International Research Society for Children's Literature (IRSCL) Congress. Canadian artists discussing how working in their chosen medium and genre has helped balance two, sometimes competing priorities: firstly, to expand assumed audiences for their work, partly to guard against being tokenized; and, secondly, to continue reaching underrepresented, misrepresented, or otherwise marginalized audiences featured in their work. The roundtable hopes to demonstrate why intersections between "the local” and "the global" demand diversifying how we imagine “diversity” when exploring cultures of childhood, children, and youth (Participants: Vivek Shraya, Rukshana Khan, Shauntay Grant, Zetta Elliott; Moderator: Gurbir Jolly)
Artist Talk in connection with Canada: Day 1 exhibition, currently on display at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21.
Shauntay Grant will read from her children's picture book "The City Speaks in Drums". All ages welcome.
Sauvé Fellow Shauntay Grant on Performance Poetry from Concept to Creation
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Fondation Jeanne Sauvé Foundation, 1514 Avenue du Docteur-Penfield, Montreal
Presented as part of the Sauvé Fellows Thought Leadership Series, Shauntay Grant combines performance and personal reflection to examine the moments, memories, histories, and social circumstances that have encouraged her creative response through words and music. Rooted in African Nova Scotian history and experience, Grant will share historic and contemporary narratives, and consider the artist’s way of translating observation and experience into art for advocacy and awareness.
Through poetry and stories, Grant explores the influence of quilting and community history on her work.
Shauntay Grant stops by Halifax Central Library's African Heritage Read-In program to share her picture books with children.
The Bridge: a work-in-progress showing
2b theatre company presents a work-in-progress showing of Shauntay Grant's new play in development, The Bridge.
Shauntay Grant stops by the Sackville Public Library's "Storytime and Play" program to read from her children's picture books.
Common Threads: Mayann Francis and Shauntay Grant in Discussion
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Dalhousie Art Gallery, 6101 University Avenue, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Dalhousie Art Gallery is pleased to present Mayann Francis and Shauntay Grant in conversation with Peter Dykhuis, Director of the Dalhousie Art Gallery. Peter will explore with Mayann and Shauntay the historic and modern day significance of textiles concerning their respective curated projects, The Dress: Mayann Francis and the Call to Serve, and Stitched Stories: The Family Quilts.
Admission is free and all are welcome.
Negotiating a Black Language in ELA (English Language Arts)
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Park Place Ramada Plaza Hotel, 240 Brownlow Ave., Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Shauntay Grant moderates this panel at the Association of Teachers of English of Nova Scotia (ATENS) Conference 2016. Featuring educators Melissa Downey, Tom Henderson, and Rachel Ross-Mantley. Two consecutive sessions beginning at 9am and 10:15 am. Visit the link below for conference details.
Poetry & Prose: Creative Writing Instructors Read
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Dalhousie University, McCain Building (6135 University Ave., Room 1198), Halifax, Nova Scotia
Dalhousie Creative Writing instructors Sue Goyette, Shauntay Grant, Carole Langille, Charlote Mendel, and Emily Pohl-Weary team up to present a reading of their works.
Stitched Stories: Shauntay Grant and Family in conversation
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"Stitched Stories: The Family Quilts" is on display at the Dalhousie Art Gallery until November 27. JJoin Shauntay Grant as she invites her grandmother and other family members to consider the themes of the exhibit, and pay tribute to their matriarch (Simmonds) and the life-giving work she performed with her hands. For more information on the exhibit visit http://artgallery.dal.ca/stiched-stories-family-quilts