Shauntay Grant is a writer and storyteller from Halifax, Nova Scotia. A descendant of Black Loyalists, Jamaican Maroons, and Black Refugees who came to Canada – Shauntay’s love of language stretches back to her storytelling roots in Nova Scotia’s historic black communities.

She is a multidisciplinary artist with professional degrees and training in creative writing, music, and theatre, and her home grown artistic practice embraces African Nova Scotian folk tradition as well as contemporary approaches to literature and performance.

As Halifax’s third Poet Laureate (2009-11), Shauntay organized Canada’s first national gathering of Canadian Poets Laureate. She is one of four Canadian authors selected by the Writers’ Trust of Canada for its prestigious Berton House Writers Retreat in 2016. Her awards and honours include a Best Atlantic-Published Book prize from the Atlantic Book Awards, a Poet of Honour prize from Spoken Word Canada, and a Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in Writing and Publishing from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Prismatic is excited to bring Shauntay Grant’s original and thought provoking performance art piece to the national stage.

WORD

WORD is an intimate listening experience for one audience member at a time. Where conventional spoken word performances are staged for moderate to large crowds, WORD plays with the expectation of audience and performer in a brief but ardent 8-minute presentation.