SpokenHeard with Jillian Christmas and Susan Dobbe Chase

Jillian Christmas was born and raised in Markham, Ontario.  She currently lives in Vancouver, BC., where she serves as co-director of Vers?s Festival of Words. She has won Grand Poetry-Slam Championship titles at both the Vancouver BedRocc poetry-slam (2011), as well as the Vancouver Poetry Slam (2012).  An enthusiastic organizer within the Canadian poetry community, Jillian has developed and executed programs in partnership with Toronto Poetry Project, Wordplay, Brendan McLeod’s Travelling Slam and the CULTCH Mentorship, and facilitated spoken word workshops for youth and adults across the country.  

She is the founder of Toronto’s acclaimed Peace Pipe Poetry Sessions on Bloor, former Artistic director of the East Van Culture Awards, as well as past and present Volunteer coordinator for Hullabaloo: Youth Spoken Word Festival.  She is the former Secretary and current Member at Large for Spoken Word Canada.  As her most recent personal, artistic endeavour; Jillian tours the west coast, experimenting with music/poetry fusion, collaborating with the likes of The Recipe,  C. R. Avery, and powerhouse vocalist Chelsea D. E. Johnson.“