May 28, 2026 (Zoom): Asian Heritage Month with Grace
Join the League of Canadian Poets to celebrate Asian Heritage Month with feature presenter Grace, reading from their forthcoming poetry book, Be Water (Anvil Press).
In addition to this presentation, the evening will include an open mic segment. Open mic signup will be first come, first served, and take place at the start of the event. While we encourage all poetry-lovers to attend this event, the open mic is reserved for Asian poets.
The League does not tolerate any form of hate speech or discrimination, and staff will be present to actively monitor the chat as well as readers' content. We encourage our members from equity-deserving groups to attend and participate, including Black, Indigenous, racialized, disabled, and LGBTQI2S+ poets.
Registration is required; the event will not be recorded.
Thursday, May 28, 2026 | 8pm ET
5pm PT, 6pm MT, 7pm CT, 8pm ET, 9pm AT, 9:30pm Newfoundland
Grace is a Hong Kong-born settler, recovering marketer, and poet based in Ontario on the traditional and Treaty territory of the Anishinabek people. Her debut collection, The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak, was a Lambda Award finalist. Find her online at @thrillandgrace.
Be Water is a meditation on change—on what happens when life pulls you from the city’s constant current into quieter, slower waters. In these poems, water becomes both vessel and mirror, reflecting how we adapt, how we hold grief and joy at once, and how we learn, finally, to flow.
Through its emotional clarity, wry humour, and precise lyricism, Be Water is an exploration of identity that is both culturally grounded and universally resonant. It is a collection about becoming and unbecoming, about the histories we carry and the futures we dare to imagine, and about learning to move through the world—like water—with strength, grace, and unstoppable persistence.
Asian Heritage Month is an opportunity for us to learn more about the diverse culture and history of Asian communities in Canada, as well as to acknowledge the many achievements and contributions of people of Asian origin who, throughout our history, have done so much to make Canada the country we know and love.