A Night for Giving: A Special Poetry Reading and Fundraiser
Schedule
Wed, 17 Dec, 2025 at 07:00 pm
UTC-08:00Location
Celebration Hall at Mountain View Cemetery 5445 Fraser St, Vancouver, BC V5W 2Z3 | Vancouver, BC
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A Night for Giving: A Special Poetry Reading and FundraiserWednesday, December 17th, 2025
Poetry Readings as a part of Pandora’s Annual Fundraiser
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Location: Celebration Hall at Mountain View Cemetery5445 Fraser St, Vancouver, BC V5W 2Z3
Please register at: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/pandoras-collective-a-night-for-giving-a-poetry-reading-and-fundraiser-tickets-1963590675569?aff=oddtdtcreator
Free
Host: Lorraine White-Wilkinson
Poets: Kevin Spenst, Junie Désil, Rina Garcia Chua and special guests Fiona Tinwei Lam and Elee Kraljii Gardiner
The Fundraiser. Since 2006 Pandora’s Collective has run a fundraiser for the youth and their families in need from Musqueam over the holiday season. That is nearly 20 years. For over 10 years Executive Director Dr. Bonnie Nish worked with Mary Roberts to make this happen. Sadly in 2016 Mary passed away. Mary was an Auntie to all the children she supported through her work and in her community. It is an honour to now be working with her granddaughter Jocelyn to make this happen. Mary would be so proud of her.
We are excited to be returning with a wonderful lineup of poets who will be sharing their time, talent, and words. Please join us with open hearts—and be ready to have yours touched in return. We are grateful to Mountain View Cemetery for the use of their beautiful Celebration Hall. This year we are gratefully accepting both cash and new gift donations, all of which go directly to the families we serve. If you would like to contribute a new unwrapped gift, please see the list below. A donation box will also be located at the entrance for convenience.
Age. Size
12 Boy Mens
9 Boy unknown
6 Boy unknown
12 Boy Mens large(shirt pants) 8shoe
11 Girl Womens small (shirt pants)6-7shoe
11 girl Womens large (shirt pants)9.5 shoe size
8 BOY Youth largh (shirt pants)4 shoe
4 girl 6/7 shirt and pants10c shoe
1 Girl 18/24 moth size 5 diapers
16 Boy Mens Large head to toe
9 Boy Big kid Kids xl 12/14
7 Boy Kid 10-12 shirt pants feet size1
13 boy Mens large
7 Girl Shirts6/7pants medium small socks
10 Boy Xl kids shirts and pants 10/14 socks
2 Boy 3t head to toe
3 BOY 5t head to toe
1 MONTH and 2MONTH DIAPERS,WIPES
16 girl Ladys Shirts long sleaves medium, Sweater lg and socks lg (Tights)
And please, remember to support the poets who make this evening possible. If you cannot be at the event please consider sending a cash donation through Pandora’s website at https://www.paypal.com/donate?token=diJ131DIJ8kIymTQg1LxX0B_FGIX56cXCZZFt9zRxExfji09Ed2U2sdnEVVR3qCR3lU4ax9xTigS9kug or a gift by getting in touch with Bonnie Nish at [email protected]
Kevin Spenst is the author of three full-length books of poetry plus the upcoming A Bouquet Brought Back from Space (Anvil Press, 2024) along with sixteen chapbooks including Surrey Sonnets (JackPine Press), Recto Verso Chez the Devil’s Printers (co-written with Joshua Pitre for Collusion Books) and the most recent Hymned Data (Pinhole Poetry). He is one of the organizers of the Dead Poets Reading Series, has a chapbook review column for subTerrain magazine, teaches poetry at Simon Fraser University, and lives in Vancouver on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territory.
Junie Désil is a poet and writer living on the territories of the Homalco, Tla’amin, and Klahoose First Nations. Her debut collection, eat salt | gaze at the ocean(2020, Talonbooks), was a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Her second collection, allostatic load (2025, Talonbooks) is out.
Rina Garcia Chua (she/her/siya) is a creative and critical scholar from the Philippines who is currently based in unceded tm̓xʷúlaʔxʷ (lands) of the syilx Okanagan peoples. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of Net awards, and have been previously published in many anthologies, magazines, and journals worldwide. Her forthcoming poetry collection, A Geography of (Un)Natural Hazards (Sampaguita Press, 2025), is a self-reflexive visual response to socio-environmental injustices in liminal migrant cultures.
Fiona Tinwei Lam is the author of three poetry collections, Intimate Distances, Enter the Chrysanthemum, and Odes & Laments. Her poems, nonfiction and fiction appear in over 40 anthologies, including The Best Canadian Poetry (2010, 2020 and the 2017 Best of the Best Anniversary Collection). Her work has won TNQ’s Nick Blatchford prize and been shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Award and has been thrice selected for BC’s Poetry in Transit. Besides editing The Bright Well: Contemporary Canadian Poems About Facing Cancer, she has co-edited two anthologies of nonfiction. She has also authored a children's book, The Rainbow Rocket. Her award-winning poetry videos made in collaboration with animators and filmmakers have screened at festivals locally and internationally. She served a three year term as Vancouver’s 6th poet laureate 2022-24.fionalam.net photo credit: Sophia Hsin
Elee Kraljii Gardiner is the author of two poetry collections and the editor of two essay collections. A frequent collaborator with choreographers, musicians, sound and visual artists, Elee is currently collaborating with nature via a series of durational art installations that investigate cultural ideas regarding the passing of time. Her new book, sometimes, forest, arrives in the spring. Elee codirects the Whole Cloth reading series with Bronwen Tate ( for which an author reads their entire book in one go) and she is the 7th poet laureate of Vancouver. She continues learning in community via the sound-based legacy project Here, Hearing which you can follow along with at versevancouver.ca
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Where is it happening?
Celebration Hall at Mountain View Cemetery 5445 Fraser St, Vancouver, BC V5W 2Z3, CanadaEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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