Every studio or small business has a story behind it. As I prepare to close the doors to 9 Creative Lives Studio, I’d like to share the brief story of how this studio began, flourished, and then eventually closed — which was not a failure, but simply an ending. Part of writing this recap is my way of respecting that ending, fully and completely.

How it Began

Although I opened this studio in 2020, shortly after the start of the pandemic, my interest in poetry facilitation began about six years earlier.

A shy writer with big ambitions, in 2014 a couple friends gave me an opportunity to facilitate a creative gathering they were putting on at their home, and I said yes. At that point, I had no idea how to facilitate writing or teach mindfulness… I wasn’t terribly mindful myself, to be honest. I knew even less about poetry, other than that it was a form of creative writing that I had loved since I was a pre-teen.

Despite all this, designing that first experience was incredibly fun. I wrote several freewriting prompts and an accompanying meditation on the topic of voice. I invited participants to notice their breath and imagine that their voice had not yet arrived and was in a state of waiting. I wanted folks to move through the entire writing and mindfulness exercise in silence. The first time they’d speak was when they read their poetry out loud to one another. It was a thrilling experience. I still have my copy of that very first workshop design in a small memory box I add to every year

Over the following six years, from 2014-2020, I was pulled in lots of different directions. I studied Breathexperience for 3 1/2 years, eventually becoming certified as a teacher. I began a copywriting business, worked as a children’s entertainer, wrote grants for United Girls of the World Society and their event G Day, and began working as a speech arts teacher.

At the same time, I was getting myself up on stage and regularly performing original poetry at the Vancouver Poetry Slam. In 2018, I had the privilege of being the featured poet on their stage, performing a 20 minute set which included the first spoken word poem I ever wrote: Between the Lines.

9 Creative Lives Studio Launches

I started this studio after taking a leap, applying for, and then receiving a Creative Spark grant from artstarts to facilitate an 8-week series for teens on writing and reading poetry for self-reflection. That first workshop was called Poetic Disruptions. After the series, students shared that they’d learned to approach writing with a spirit of discovery, rather than with a desire to get it right. They also shared that it had expanded their awareness to include experiences other than their own. “I feel like I learned a lot about the soul of poetry,” said another. 

After that series, several of you requested a workshop for adults. I built one for you, and then I built another. From there, well, you kept registering for my workshops and supporting me to grow both as a facilitator and a writer.

Together we developed a writing ritual, explored poetry’s relationship to the body, read and wrote poetry to reflect on our relationship to authenticity and our voice, and wondered about the ways finding new metaphors to describe our experience could renew and invigorate us.

You left my classes and wrote books, entered (and won) literary contests, and made poetry a part of your life.

Beyond the Classroom

While running this studio, other opportunities to facilitate, teach, and share my own work as a poet arose. On two occasions I had the great pleasure of being flown to Terrace BC to adjudicate the Speech Arts segment of the Pacific Northwest Music Festival, sharing feedback with young performers on the delivery of their poetry, stories, scenes, monologues, and speeches. During my second visit in 2024, I sold out a workshop offered through the festival on bringing your imagination to how you present text when public speaking. I had been warned to keep my expectations low and that workshops generally did not do well at the festival… and then proceeded to blow both the organizers and (honestly) myself away with the positive reception and interest.

In 2022-2023, I responded to an invitation from filmmaker Garima Soni who was looking for poets in the community who had used poetry to facilitate their own healing. I was selected for episode 1, which later led to a grant from STORYHIVE to feature a total of eight local poets who had used writing to move through and process grief, trauma, depression, and more. The series was called Heal Through Poetry and it is a series I am immensely proud to have been a part of.

My work on this series seemed to expand on a short film I co-produced in 2019, which explored the experience of anxiety using poetry, improvised piano, and dance. Left Opened is a project I have hemmed and hawed about officially releasing — always busy with other priorities — but now that some spaciousness is being reclaimed in my life, I feel myself growing ready to bring both closure and completeness to this project as well — giving it a home on the internet where it can be stumbled upon and enjoyed.

In the final two years of running this studio, I had the delightful opportunity to work with Downtown Van to activate Lot 19 with community poetry writing workshops. It started with just one writing experience in 2024. The reception was so enthusiastic, that in 2025 they allowed me to facilitate four separate workshops including an open mic and poetry performances featuring new and established poets in the community. Large groups of 25+ people joined me to write odes to their lost hobbies and to wonder about different metaphors for uncertainty that emphasized hope rather than fear.

For that final workshop with Downtown Van, I took a leap and attempted an idea I had been dreaming about for awhile. I guided participants to write single and then collaborative poems in small groups about their relationship to belonging. Pianist Georgy Manterola joined us for the event and supported each group to speak their poetry to music, outside on a beautiful day with passerbys stopping to witness. It was an experience I will never forget.

A Ritual to Close This Studio

As part of my own ritual of closing this studio, I created a series of four wrap-up posts to honour both my and your work and attention — all of which was so important to what made this studio such a nurturing place to learn and grow:

1. A Love Letter to My Writing Students
2. Poetry Books I had the Privilege to Edit
3. In Recognition of my Speech Arts Students: Their Awards and Personal Triumphs

Although in October 2025, I closed the doors to this studio, I am not done facilitating writing. Just for now. To stay connected to this studio when it reopens in its new form, you can subscribe to my mailing list here.