Episode 5: Fiona Tinwei Lam on Poetry as Ritual, Film, and Public Art
The Poet Laureate Podcast with host Kyeren Regehr

In this episode, former Vancouver Poet Laureate Fiona Tinwei Lam joins Kyeren Regehr to explore poetry’s power to honor history, heal collective wounds, and engage the public in fresh and unexpected ways.

Fiona begins with her moving poem “Gift”, which commemorates the Uda family’s donation of 1,000 cherry trees to Vancouver—most of which were only planted after the family’s forced internment during WWII. From there, the conversation blossoms into questions of memory, reconciliation, and poetry as a kind of ritual or ceremony.

We also dive into Fiona’s groundbreaking City Poems Project, which brought poets and student filmmakers together to create poetry films woven into Vancouver’s public spaces and a geolocated app. She shares her vision for poetry videos as an accessible art form that combines word, image, and sound to tap into a poem’s unconscious resonance, and she reflects on her own award-winning work in the medium.

Listeners will also hear “Splash”, a collaborative poem written with Grade 5/6 students about Vivian Jung, the first Chinese Canadian teacher hired by the Vancouver School Board, whose courage helped desegregate public pools. Fiona speaks about the role of ancestry, migration, music, and climate concerns in shaping her poetic voice, and she closes with “Covenant”, a searing erasure poem that reclaims language from a racist property covenant.

This conversation is a testament to poetry’s ability to cross mediums, uncover buried histories, and create spaces of beauty, justice, and connection.

We acknowledge with gratitude that this work was created on the unceded homelands of the lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples.

The Poet Laureate Podcast is recorded in studio at Haus of Owl: Creation Labs—supporting artists to create the best work of their careers. Original music by Chris Regehr. To learn more or reach out, visit www.thepoetlaureatepodcast.com or find us on Instagram @poetlaureatepodcast & poetlaureatepdcast@bsky.social.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. / Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. 

This podcast is The Canada Council for the Arts mandate is to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. Through its grants, services, prizes, initiatives, and payments, the Canada Council supports a dynamic and diverse arts and literary scene. These activities generate a meaningful cultural, social and economic impact for over 2,000 communities in all parts of the country and beyond. The investments and leadership of the Council help advance public engagement in the arts from coast to coast to coast while also contributing to the international recognition of artists and arts organizations from Canada.