St. Albert Announces the New Poet Laureate ›

Arienette (Ari) Zak's journey as a poet started years ago, when she first took the stage at a local open-mic event. Now the art form has brought her to City Hall for a very official title: the City of St. Albert's newest Poet Laureate.

At her recent appointment, Zak read a piece to commemorate the moment. "I typed it out for the occasion on an old typewriter, just for fun," she says of the work, which was delivered to a larger-than-anticipated audience.

"I had read at a Council meeting a couple years ago, and it was [in] one of the smaller boardrooms with the Council," Zak says. "This was the full room, packed crowd. I was not expecting that, but it went really well."

The Poet Laureate role, which Zak will hold for the next two years, positions her as a local cultural and literary ambassador. She'll read poetry at civic events, and act as a torchbearer for the arts and culture in the city.

Given those responsibilities, it's easy to see why she's been awarded the title: Zak's been doing important work in the community for years. She's run open mics and mentored the St. Albert Rose Kane Poets-a high-school club she once belonged to and who, in her time with them, were winners of the 2016 Alberta Poetry Slam-in addition to performing at festivals and the St. Albert Mayor's Celebration of the Arts. Zak's also written chapbooks and released recordings of her work, both solo and in collaboration with other artists.

"It feels like some recognition of the work that's been put in, but also a platform in which to better conduct the work I've been doing-and also new work, new roles, things like that," Zak says. "I think it's going to be a great platform for that. Open some doors."

Zak is the city's fourth Poet Laureate, following fellow poets Zach Polis, Julia Sorensen and Lauren Seal. In her time as in the role, Zak is hoping to expand the number of all-ages open mics in the city, among other plans.

"I think open mics just give a place for poets to gather and give a place for poets to connect with one another," she says. "I think it's very important to engage with other people's poetry as a method of furthering your own understanding of the medium."

After all, the poetry community here is a tight-knit one-which Zak notes means they can't take opportunities like open mics for granted. In a larger community, it'd be easy to assume something like stage time would just be available somewhere-but especially in a smaller place, someone needs to be the one to actually make it happen.

"There's a real sense of dependency on one another and a real sense of community," Zak says. "When I was coming up in St. Albert, the open mics that I went to and then later ended up hosting, that was all there was, at least geared specifically for poetry. So it's that drive to be that change that you want to see."

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