In this episode of the Indigenous Brilliance Podcast, co-hosts jaye simpson and Karmella Cen Benedito De Barros explore the topic of Indigenous Brilliance in poetry and writing through interviews with a couple of Prairie Poet legends Brandi Bird and Billy-Ray Belcourt! 

Tune in to hear what Brandi and Billy-Ray are up to these days as we chat them up about work/life balance, career paths, writing tips, community care, creative inspiration, favourite media, pandemic life, futurisms and more. You’ll even get to hear each of these brilliant poets read some of their work. Thanks for tuning in and we hope you enjoy it! 

Brandi Bird is Cree, Saulteaux and Metis and grew up on Territory 1 territory in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They work, learn and live as an uninvited visitor on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. They are completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing. Brandi’s debut poetry chapbook I Am Still Too Much was published by Rahila’s Ghost Press. This chapbook addresses both place and family and takes inspiration from the landscape of the prairies.

Billy-Ray Belcourt is a writer and academic from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He is an Assistant Professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia. A 2018 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar, he earned his PhD in English at the University of Alberta. He was also a 2016 Rhodes Scholar and holds an M.St. in Women's Studies from the University of Oxford and Wadham College. In the First Nations Youth category, Belcourt was awarded a 2019 Indspire Award, which is the highest honor the Indigenous community bestows on its own leaders. 


Music by Edzi’u and cover art by Sylvey Sampson <3 

Timestamps: 
0:00 - Intro
1:55 - Brandi Bird 
19:37 - Billy-Ray Belcourt 
43:10 - Close 

[Audio transcription] available at 

https://roommagazine.com/the-indigenous-brilliance-podcast-episode-2-april-16-2021-poetry-with-brandi-bird-and-billy-ray-belcourt/

Episode 2: Indigenous Brilliance in Poetry

Stories hold the incredible power to heal wounds, connect people, and bridge generations. This is an incredibly important time to be centering the brilliance of our communities through Indigenous storytelling across diverse mediums. The Indigenous Brilliance Podcast is an important project of the larger Indigenous Brilliance Collective, and features innovative and exciting episodes, highlighting the multi-disciplinary voices of Indigenous women, Two-Spirit, and Indigiqueer artists as we discuss cultural resurgence in Indigenous arts. 

Hosted by creatives jaye simpson and Karmella Benedito De Barros, the Indigenous Brilliance Podcast carves out space for the celebration and witnessing of this beautifully visionary community.

In this episode of the Indigenous Brilliance Podcast, co-hosts jaye simpson, Karmella Cen Benedito De Barros and Emily Dundas Oke explore the topic of Indigenous Brilliance in poetry and writing through interviews with some recently published friends Selina Boan and Molly Cross-Blanchard!

Tune in to hear what Selina and Molly are up to these days as we chat them up about publishing tips, book tour FOMO, community care, creative inspiration, pandemic life, futurisms and more. You’ll even get to hear each of these brilliant poets read some of their newly published work. Thanks for tuning in and we hope you enjoy it! 

Selina Boan is a poet living on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam, Sḵwxwú7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. She has been published extensively in literary magazines across Canada, won the Gold National Magazine Award for poetry in 2017, and was shortlisted for the 2016 CBC Poetry Prize. She is currently working on a collection of poems exploring her Cree and European heritage. “Here we go” and “the plot so far” are poems included in this collection and appear in Room’s “Let’s Make Contact” issue 40.4. The love and genuine care that is so evident in Selina’s poems she also puts into the work of the people around her. She champions emerging writers and her friends, and she attends to strengthening community building at every opportunity. Her work is powerful, necessary, and utterly brilliant, and she is very much deserving of Room’s Emerging Writer Award.
 
 
Molly Cross-Blanchard is a white and Métis poet living on Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, and Squamish land. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and a BA in English from the University of Winnipeg. Her debut full-length collection of poetry, Exhibitionist, has just been published with Coach House Books this Spring 2021.


Music by Edzi’u and cover art by Sylvey Sampson <3


[Audio transcription coming soon]

Episode 3: Indigenous Brilliance in Poetry (round two)

In this episode of the Indigenous Brilliance Podcast, co-hosts jaye simpson and Karmella Cen Benedito De Barros the topic of Indigenous Brilliance in Youth Work and community care through interviews with some local community builders Hailey Bird Matheson and Taylor-Lee Knoble

Tune in to hear about some of the important community work that Hailey and Taylor are participating in, as well as some of the ways that we are caring for ourselves as we do community work. Thanks for tuning in and we hope you enjoy it! 

Hailey is Nehiyaw (Cree) from Peguis First Nation, Treaty One, on her mother’s side with mixed European ancestry on her father’s side. She was born on Ktunaxa and Sinixt territory in BC’s interior and grew up in Tonkawa territory in central Texas. Hailey came to stolen Coast Salish territory to study social work, swim in the ocean, and hike. As a guest on this land, she tries to be a good relative and support local Nations through activism and learning local languages and creation stories. Hailey’s passion for Indigenous-based research and land-based practices led her to intern at xʷc̓ic̓əsəm (the Indigenous garden at UBC) and engage in practicums supporting people who use substances in the Downtown Eastside. In her free time, you’ll find Hailey beading, drumming, and hanging out with her hedgehog, Henry.
Tawnshi, dishinikawshon Taylor, Niya Michif Nehiyaw Iskwew ouschi Saint Laurent De Grandin, Saskatchewan (Treaty 6 Territory). Hi I’m Taylor, I’m a Métis Cree Woman, and my ancestral homelands are in the Saint Laurent De Gradin settlement territory in Saskatchewan. I was born and grew up in East Vancouver on ancestral, unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. My friend Ryme & I started TakeOver Skateboarding, a women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ & 2s centred movement. Taking over skateparks, reclaiming space, and fostering art & community by diversifying the skate scene.


Music by Edzi’u and cover art by Sylvey Sampson <3 

Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro

1:48 - 29:11 Hailey

29:39 - 55:26 Taylor

55:27 - 56:14 End

[Audio transcription coming soon]

Episode 4: Indigenous Brilliance in Youth Work and Community Care

Stories hold the incredible power to heal wounds, connect people, and bridge generations. This is an incredibly important time to be centering the brilliance of our communities through Indigenous storytelling across diverse mediums. The Indigenous Brilliance Podcast is an important project of the larger Indigenous Brilliance Collective, and features innovative and exciting episodes, highlighting the multi-disciplinary voices of Indigenous women, Two-Spirit, and Indigiqueer artists as we discuss cultural resurgence in Indigenous arts. 

Hosted by creatives jaye simpson and Karmella Benedito De Barros, the Indigenous Brilliance Podcast carves out space for the celebration and witnessing of this beautifully visionary community.

Tune into our first archival episode for some highlights from our Indigenous Brilliance LIVE READING at Massy Books (June 21st, 2019)! This event was hosted by the wonderful jaye simpson and Emily Dundas Oke, and features readings by Cassandra Blanchard, Mackenzie Ground, Evan Ducharme, and Savannah Erasmus. 

Thank you so much to CJSF Radio for recording and supporting the production of this archival material. We hope you enjoy it! 

Music by Edzi’u and cover art by Sylvey Sampson <3 

Transcription on https://roommagazine.com/podcast/

Episode 5: Archives from Massy Books (June 2019)

In this episode of the Indigenous Brilliance Podcast, we celebrate the long awaited Issue 44.3 Indigenous Brilliance going to print (IN FULL COLOUR)! 

In honour of this special occasion for the Indigenous Brilliance team, co-host Karmella Benedito De Barros shares space with author and storyteller Crystal Harrison Collin for some storytelling and conversation. Just a taste of the brilliance you can find in Issue 44.3. Get your copy today! 
https://roommagazine.com/shop/indigenous-brilliance/

Partial Transcription available on the Room Magazine Website 
https://roommagazine.com/podcast/

Episode 6: Room Magazine Issue 44.3 Indigenous Brilliance

In this episode of the Indigenous Brilliance podcast, jaye and Karmella share space with tattoo artists Jaz Whitford and Jaime Blankenship. 

Together in this episode, we discuss themes of Indigenous tattooing as a cultural and ceremonial practice of gifting and community care. Jaz and Jaime share their thoughts on accountability to community as Indigenous tattoo artists, spiritual and holistic boundaries. As well, we discuss self care as tattoo artists, decolonizing and honouring traditional tattoo as sacred medicine and much more! 

You can find Jaime on instagram @intheforest.tattoo and Jaz @jaz.w.art + @dirt.n.dust

Episode 7: Indigenous Tattooing with Jaz Whitford and Jaime Blankenship

In this episode of the Indigenous Brilliance podcast, jaye and Karmella chat about all things Halloween. This episode is full of tricks and treats, featuring discussions of our favourite scary movies and reading recommendations. Decolonizing pumpkins as a sovereign and sacred Indigenous plant, reading a spoopy short story by jaye simpson, you won't want to miss this festive episode.

Indigenous Brilliance Podcast Episode 8: Happy Halloween!

In our second episode, we have the greatest pleasure of speaking with Jag Nagra. Jag is a nationally known Canucks logo designer, emerging artist, documentary film lead, and a mom of two beautiful children.
We talk about her life journey as an emerging artist, her commitment to provide representation for queer south asian women, and what it means for queer couples to have children.

Jag Nagra: Vancouver's Emerging Artist

To start off the new year, we speak with Jaspal Sangha, also known as Grandma J. Jaspal is Alex Sangha's mom who we spoke with in Episode 1.  She talks about her journey of accepting her gay son and how she turned to her Sikhi faith for support. Tune in to learn how Jaspal's journey has led her to become a strong and fearless advocate for the queer community.

Jaspal Sangha - A Mother's Journey of Acceptance

- Welcome to the Indigenous Renaissance - 

Tune into our first episode and witness the creation story of Indigenous Brilliance as a creative collective. We will be chatting about Indigenous Futurisms, Growing Room 2020, self-care, community care and celebrating the members of our collective through sharing poetry, laughter and talks around the kitchen table. 

*Turn your volume on blast and please excuse the sound mixing and mastering blips as we're still in the process of learning here. 

We hope that this story will help bring to light the history and future of Indigenous Brilliance as a community collective. As well, we hope to provide some quality entertainment, laughter and reflection for our listeners. 

Come out to our next reading at Growing Room 2020, or tune in next time to hear from more brilliant artists.

Timestamps: 
0:00 - Intro jaye and Karmella 
7:04  - Jonina (jaye and Karmella)
14:02 - Jessica (jaye, Emily and Karmella) 
32:56 - Emily (jaye, Jessica and Karmella) 
41:21 - Karmella on Patricia Massy
45:33 - Karmella on Growing Room
51: 50 - Karmella closing

Creation Story - Episode One (March 2020)

Indigenous Brilliance is a collective based on the tradition, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people. 

Made up of Patricia Massy, Jónína Kirton, Jessica Johns, jaye simpson, Emily Dundas Oke and Karmella Benedito De Barros, our collective holds the intention to celebrate and uplift the voices of Indigenous women, Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer's through our quarterly reading series, community workshops, social media engagement and Podcast series.

Stories hold the incredible power to heal wounds, connect people, and bridge generations. We believe that this is an incredibly important time to be centring Indigenous stories and to be shining the spotlight on the brilliance that exists in our communities. 

Tune in quarterly for a new episode and reading event at Massy Books!

Creation Story - Episode One (March 2020)

Indigenous Brilliance Podcast

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