Jillian Christmas

The global theme for August is 'pride' and we are thrilled to host the queer, afro-Caribbean poet, creative facilitator, curator, consultant, educator, and arts community advocate, Jillian Christmas.

Christmas is the long-time spoken word curator of the Vancouver Writers Fest, and former artistic director of Verses Festival of Words. Utilizing an anti-oppressive lens, Jillian has performed and facilitated workshops across North America. She is the author of The Gospel of Breaking (Arsenal Pulp Press 2020), and the children’s book, The Magic Shell (Flamingo Rampant Press 2022) and the 2021 winner of the League of Canadian Poets' Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award for spoken word poetry. She lives on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam people (Vancouver, BC.)

Every month we like to ask our speakers a handful of probing questions to give us a deeper glimpse into their life and relationship with creativity:

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?
For me creativity is the ability to dip a spoon, or perhaps a palm into the pool of the universe, into the energy that connects us all, and pull up something beyond our own imaginations. For me, one of the ways I regularly access that space is to get very, very quiet. Quiet enough that I can hear beyond the world, beyond myself, into whatever is on the other side.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?
I spiral my mind around the things I know and love. I meditate. And when a question arises from within, I let my mind visit and explore and shift perspective, until the question itself also becomes a thing I know and love… even when there is no answer, there is still the desire to ask.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person?
There is nothing to “figure out”, just do and be, and cherish what you love. The rest is noise.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings?
Carmen Aguire

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
Literally lost my mind.

What was the best advice you were ever given?
Don’t take yourself too seriously - Dad

What books made a difference in your life and why?
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" taught me that we can change and grow in infinite ways..