Canada's Poet Laureate to Host Unique Valentine's Night Celebration

What do you do with your sweetheart after a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner?

There will be a once-in-a-lifetime attraction in Nanaimo this year, as Canada’s first Poet Laureate, George Bowering, headlines a Valentine’s Day celebration of love in music and poetry.

“A Celebration of Love,” on Friday February 14 will feature Bowering in his first appearance on Vancouver Island since his appointment as Canada’s first official poet. The prolific novelist and poet, who is widely appreciated for his humor and irreverence, will be joined on stage in the Malaspina University-College theatre by prominent local actors, musicians and singers. They will present a program of classic and contemporary music and poetry that will delight anyone who has ever experienced love and romance in all their joyful, sad, sentimental and lustful phases.

The “Celebration of Love” will also include a champagne-and-chocolate reception after the performance. Curtain time is 8 p.m..

Tickets will be $25 each and a tax receipt for $15 will be issued for each ticket.

The net proceeds from this event will go to the Ralph and Betty Gustafson Endowment to support the Ralph Gustafson Chair in Poetry, which each year brings a noted poet to Malaspina for part of a semester as Poet in Residence.