Third Poet Laureate

Thank You Janet Rogers
Victoria's Third Poet Laureate

We would like to thank Janet Marie Rogers for her literary contributions to the community while serving as Victoria's Poet Laureate for the past three years. Her term ended on November 30, 2014.

Janet Marie Rogers was announced as Victoria's Poet Laureate at a Victoria City Council meeting on Thursday, January 19, 2012. Selected by nomination, the Poet Laureate serves as Victoria's literary and cultural ambassador for a three-year term.

As Victoria's third Poet Laureate, Janet created opportunities for the community to come together in celebration of poetic voices on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people. She also had the opportunity to work with two Youth Poet Laureates, Morgan Purvis and Aysia Law who were appointed for one-year terms by the City of Victoria Youth Council.

We wish Janet all the best in her future initiatives to bring poetry to the people!

Poetry Events

"Change-Makers" [PDF - 9 KB] is the poem read by Janet Rogers at the Victoria City Council meeting on Thursday, January 19, 2012.

Janet developed the LitARTCity event in 2014, the Pop-up Poetry event series in 2013, and the Poetry Picnic in the Park event in 2012 at Beacon Hill Park.

Janet also wrote the poem "Lekwungen Land" [PDF - 53 KB] to mark Victoria's 150th anniversary, which she read aloud at a Special Council meeting on August 2, 2012 at Victoria City Hall. She read it once more at the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize Awards Gala on October 15, 2014.

Below are three poems that Janet Rogers wrote while serving as Victoria's Poet Laureate:

Janet is a Mohawk/Tuscarora writer from the Six Nations band in southern Ontario. She was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and has been living on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people (Victoria, BC) since 1994. Janet works in the genres of poetry, spoken word performance poetry, video poetry and recorded poetry with music and script writing.

Janet has three published poetry collections to date: Splitting the Heart, Ekstasis Editions (2007), Red Erotic, Ojistah Publishing (2010), Unearthed, Leaf Press (2011). Her newest collection Peace in Duress was released with Talonbooks in September 2014. Janet's poetry CDs Firewater (2009), Got Your Back (2012) and 6 Directions (2013) all received nominations for Best Spoken Word Recording at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards, and the Native American Music Awards. You can hear Janet on the radio as she hosts Native Waves Radio on CFUV fm and Tribal Clefs on CBC Radio One fm in Victoria. Her radio documentaries Bring Your Drum (50 years of indigenous protest music) and Resonating Reconciliation won Best Radio at the imagaineNATIVE Film and Media festival 2011 and 2013. Ikkwenyes or Dare to Do is the name of the collective Mohawk poet Alex Jacobs and Janet created in 2011. Ikkwenyes won the Canada Council for the Arts Collaborative Exchange award 2012 and a Loft Literary Prize in 2013.