Young Artists Spotlight: Spoken word poet Kelsey Klip

“She thirsts for a communal upheaval,” reads Kelsey Klip’s poetry, describing, what she calls, “the words that she needs to hear.”

Klip is a spoken word poet, performance artist, social justice activist, and singer who has a mixed background, Chilean and Dutch. She moved to Moncton from Alberta in late 2019 but grew up in rural Northern British Columbia.

In this video, Inda Intiar with Woven Cultures Tissées speaks with Klip about her poetry.

In the video, Klip reads some of her poem-songs and discusses her background and work. Her previous recitals have been largely in Alberta where she was a very active performer and presence in the literary and musical performance scene.

Although she felt the rural stigma of speaking another language, Klip now sings in “beginner level Spanish.” She feels her songs are fuller in her mother’s first language: “it hits a different chord inside.”

Klip expresses that there is “a lack of creative spaces for artists” in Moncton. Klip announced that she very recently received a #RisingYouth community service grant to start a Petitcodiac Poets Society in the fall of 2020, a creative space for spoken word artists: “an intergenerational space for all ages, really fun.”

Sophie M. Lavoie is a NB Media Co-op editorial board member and writer on arts and culture.

The NB Media Co-op will be showcasing more of the Young Artists Spotlight videos by the Woven Cultures Tissées.