BÄNOO ZAN

Poet, translator, teacher, editor and poetry curator, Bänoo Zan, landed in Canada in 2010. She has published more than 120 poems, translations, biographies, and articles around the globe.
 
Her book, The Song of Phoenix: Life and Works of Sylvia Plath, was reprinted in 2010. Her poetry collection, Songs of Exile, was released by Guernica Editions in 2016.
 
She founded Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night), the most diverse poetry reading and open mic series in Toronto, in November 2012. The series bridges the gap between poets from diverse ethnicities, nationalities, religions (or lack thereof), ages, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, poetic styles, voices and visions.
 
Twitter: @BanooZan
 
@ShabeSherTO
 

Valentino Assenza

Valentino Assenza has been writing and performing poetry for over the last two decades. He has published four chap books of poetry and has had numerous individual pieces published in various journals such as “Labour Of Love,” & “Descant Magazine.”
 
From 2003 to 2009 Valentino ran his own series Cryptic Chatter. Valentino was a member of the 2009 & 2010 Toronto Poetry Slam teams performing his poetry respectively at the Canadian Festival Of Spoken Word and the National Poetry Slam in the United States. Valentino was a founding member of the Toronto Poetry Project, and a former board member of the ArtBar Poetry Series.
 
Since January 2015, Valentino has been one of two cohosts on the radio program HOWL Tuesday nights on CIUT 89.5FM from 10pm – 11pm where he has gotten to interview the likes of George Elliott Clarke, Nino Ricci, & Sook-Yin Lee.
 

SHOW STARTS at 7:30 with the open mic…