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Tawahum Bige is a Łutselkʼe Dene, Plains Cree poet and spoken word artist from unceded Musqueam, Squamish & Tsleil-waututh Territory (cka Vancouver). Their Scorpio-moon-ass poems expose growth, resistance & persistence as a hopeless Two Spirit Nonbinary sadboy on occupied Turtle Island. In typical Aries-sun fashion, Tawahum completed the first-ever Indigenous Spoken Word residency at the Banff Centre in 2018 while completing their BA in Creative Writing from KPU in 2019.
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Tawahum’s long-awaited debut album, Bottled Lightning, emerges May 5th. His single, Connect2Spirit charted #1 on Indigenous Music Countdown in June 2022. He’s performed at Talking Stick Festival, Verses Festival of Spoken Word, Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, and at over 50 different venues from Victoria to Toronto with his mixture of poetry & hip-hop. Past the stage and onto the page, Tawahum has been published in over a dozen different lit journals & magazines including Red Rising Magazine, Prairie Fire, CV2, Arc Poetry Magazine and in the anthology, Beyond Earth’s Edge: the poetry of spaceflight! A prolific word-artist, Tawahum has three self-published chapbooks with poetry collections on the way including a collection-in-progress funded by the Canada Council for the Arts. Nightwood Editions is published Tawahum’s debut collection of poetry, Cut to Fortress, in 2022.
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Beyond the page, Tawahum has battled the (in)justice system of BC and was eventually incarcerated for a 28-day sentence after a 2-year battle for his land protection work against Kinder Morgan/Trans Mountain’s pipeline expansion. Of course, this doesn’t stop him from grabbing a boom mic to amplify his words of resistance & resurgence at front-line rallies, street performances and more. Follow Tawahum on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook: @Tawahum.
Contact Tawahum: tawahum.bige [at] gmail [dot] com
Now, for some of my art~
First Single on the road to debut album, Bottled Lightning coming out May 5th!
Full-Length 20 Minute Performance
Debut collection of poetry Cut to Fortress with Nightwood Editions
Debut music video
Tawahum’s music:
Tawahum’s best poems at Vancouver Poetry House:
Tawahum’s poetry-playlist at Vancouver Poetry House:
Tawahum 