Interactive Art Activity: The Whitty Wily Poetry Connection

The Whitty Wily Poetry Connection is a live, interactive performance installation where poetry is generated, performed, and playfully disrupted in real time. Audiences encounter Whitty Typo-Write (a mobile typewriter), Clairty the head Poetichanic, and the Wily Soapbox 2000, an animated speakers' box equipped with bells, cranky contraptions, and theatrical mischief. Poetry becomes tactile, and slightly unhinged in this participatory performance that is part clown ritual, part public experiment wrapped in enduring charm. Audiences are invited to participate in spontaneous acts of writing, composing poems from unexpected objects, co-creating absurd or sincere texts, and amplifying their voices through analogue spectacle. The work operates as an open flow installation with live performance sets that draw audiences into a shared, evolving environment. This work aims to enhance the accessibility of poetry by making it whimsical, vulnerable, communal and joyfully unpredictable.

Free. Family-friendly. All are welcome to drop in between 12 and 2 PM - No ticket required!

🎨 Led by artist Claire Davis

Claire Davis is a Vancouver based multidisciplinary artist working across live performance installation, immersive theatre, and poetic arts. Their work blends clown, improvisation, and participatory writing and immersive elements to create playful, open-flow encounters where audiences become collaborators.
They are a part of Dreamqueen Immersive Theatre, performing as the Star in The Last Resort (2024-2026) and as Bat Clown in Mr. Nowhere’s Disappearing and Reappearing Starlight Carnival (Fringe Festival Vancouver, 2025), while also serving as Prop master and Creative Producer. Their performance installation practice includes creating and producing This is Not a Protest, presented as part of the Democratic Set at PuSh Festival (2020) with Big Pond Arts Collective.
Claire’s broader work spans poetic installation and community-engaged projects, including Letters to the Lake (Deer Lake Artist Residency) and the Community Chronicles Zine Project: Stories of Home (CREATE! Arts Festival, 2024), as well as the eco-art installation RECIPROCITEA (Burnaby Blooms Festival Eco Artist Walk 2023). Their work has been recognized with the Poet’s Corner Reading Series Open Mic Listener’s Choice Award and the Royal City Literary Arts Society Poetry in the Park winner.
Claire approaches their work with the lure of possibility, imagination, and the enduring alchemy of the moment.

A BIG thank you to the East Village BIA for generously letting us use the plaza! We’re so grateful for your support in making this event possible.

Festival Concert in MacLean Park: Festival Concert in MacLean Park: Saturday, July 25 from 3pm - 8pm

Join us at MacLean Park for an afternoon and evening of live music, public art activities, food trucks, and a beer garden from 3:00–8:00 PM. Browse the art shop, take part in free all-ages creative activities, and enjoy performances throughout the day in the park. Come early and make a full day of it by visiting the neighbouring Strathcona Blocks Party from 12:00–5:00 PM on the 800 block of East Hastings, featuring local businesses, free activities, and live performances before settling in for the concert and evening festivities.

This is workshop is part of the vibrant celebration of visual and performing arts of the 6th annual Eastside Arts Festival, where creativity knows no bounds. The Eastside Arts Festival (formerly Create! Arts Festival) is a young and up-in-coming grassroots initiative, bringing together local artists and performers and the community to explore, learn and create art together in the Eastside Arts District.

Do you want to support us? Purchase a ticket to our Contemporary Art Raffle Fundraiser!

The 4th Annual Eastside Arts Society Contemporary Art Raffle features one-of-a-kind artworks generously donated by celebrated Vancouver artists, with proceeds supporting EAS programming, including arts festivals, the Eastside Arts District, and Studio 101 youth workshops.

Only 165 tickets are available. Tickets are on sale June 3–October 14, with early bird draws on August 7 and September 18, and the final draw on October 15.

Ticket Prices: 1 for $130 • 2 for $230 • 3 for $300

Purchase Raffle Tickets Here!

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