Poetry in Motion: Tawahum Bige + Stages of Tanning Words and Remembering Spells Part 1: Scraping Lungs Like Hide

Hi y’all, I’m Tawahum, I’m a poet and spoken word artist. I grew up in Surrey but I am Lutselk’e Dene, Plains Cree and Métis on my mum’s side and Hungarian, British and Heinz 57 on my dad’s. I love electronic music, hip-hop, playing video games and most of all, performance. Anywhere with a stage is somewhere I want to witness and speak at. Anywhere with a dance floor is where I want to break it down. I’m unsure how to describe my poetic style. It’s what you see and hear. This book explores how my voice developed and the many inspirations that have coalesced to make my artist journey possible. 

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Tawahum Bige is a Łutselk’e Dene, Plains Cree poet with a B.A. in creative writing from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Bige has performed at countless festivals and had poems featured in numerous publications. His land protection work against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion led him to face incarceration in 2020. Bige’s debut poetry collection, Cut to Fortress, was published by Nightwood Editions in 2022, and his second collection, Stages of Tanning Words and Remembering Spells, will be released in April 2025. They reside on unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territory (Vancouver, BC).

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Stages of Tanning Words & Remembering Spells is available now, here or from your favourite indie bookstore.

For more Poetry in Motion, click here.