Events › Saturday Showcase: Disabled Voices and Advocacy

Celebrate disabled voices and advocacy in this special reading followed by a panel discussion. Authors Keiko Honda, Rachelle Rasolofo-Czerwinki, and Jennie Chantal Duguay will each read from their work and take questions.

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Saturday Showcase is an ongoing series at the Vancouver Public Library that features local talent from equity-denied groups. At Saturday Showcase we aim to celebrate diversity, build community, and to lift up the voices that need to be heard. To be considered for a Saturday Showcase, please send an email to programs@vpl.ca.

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Keiko Honda is a scientist, writer, community organizer and painter. She holds a PhD in international community health from New York University, but when she suddenly contracted a rare autoimmune disease that confined her to a wheelchair for life, she had to leave her career in research at Columbia University in New York. She is the author of Accidental Blooms (Caitlin Press, 2023).

Jennie Chantal Duguay's poetry and creative non-fiction has appeared in ARC, PRISM, Vallum, Contemporary Verse 2, Plenitude, The Capilano Review, the anthology Against Death and more. Jennie lives in Vancouver on land unceded by the Tsleil-Waututh, Skxwú7mesh, and Musqueam. Jennie writes towards life, towards being alive and living in a body disabled by chronic pain, the gender binary, and ableism.

Rachelle Rasolofo-Czerwinski was born in Madagascar, partly raised in France, married a German-Canadian and followed his international career with the United Nations through six countries over 20 years. They have two sons who live and live in Vancouver, British Columbia.  She is the author of The Life That's Chosen Me.