Care Of: Letters, Connection and Cures with Ivan Coyote
Join us for a talk with writer and performer Ivan Coyote as they read selections from over a decade of letters and correspondence that grapple with topics like family, redemption, forgiveness, and how art and letters hold the potential to connect and anchor us all.
Writer and performer Ivan Coyote has spent decades on the road, telling stories around the world. For years, Ivan has kept a file of the most special communications received from readers and audience members—letters, Facebook messages, emails, soggy handwritten notes tucked under the windshield wiper of their truck after a gig. Then came Spring, 2020, and like artists everywhere, Coyote was grounded by the pandemic; all their planned events canceled. The energy of a live audience, a performer’s lifeblood, was suddenly gone. But with this loss came an opportunity for a different kind of connection. Those letters that had long piled up could finally begin to be answered.
Please join Ivan as they read selections from over a decade of letters and correspondence that grapple with topics like family, redemption, forgiveness, and how art and letters hold the potential to connect and anchor us all.
When: Wednesday, February 16, 11:30am - 12:30pm
Location: Online via Zoom. Please register here to attend the event. After registering, you will receive a conformation email containing information for joining the event.
Biography
Born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, Ivan is the author of thirteen books, the creator of four films, six stage shows, and three albums that combine storytelling with music. Coyote’s books have won the ReLit Award, been named a Stonewall Honour Book, been long-listed for Canada Reads, and been shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Prize for non-fiction, and the Governor General's Award for non-fiction twice. In 2017 Ivan was given an honorary Doctor of Laws from Simon Fraser University. Coyote’s stories grapple with the complex and intensely personal topics of gender identity, family, class, and queer liberation, but always with a generous heart, and a quick wit. Ivan's stories manage to handle both the hilarious and the historical with reverence and compassion, and remind us all of our own fallible and imperfect humanity, while at the same time inspiring us to change the world. Ivan's 13th book, Care Of, was released in June 2021 by McClelland and Stewart.