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The Kingston creative writing community came together at The Merchant on Monday, Feb. 13, to celebrate A Is for Acholi, a poetry collection by Queen’s Assistant Professor of Gender Studies and English Juliane Okot Bitek.

The 240 sq ft piece, titled  un/settled, can be found on the windows of Belzberg Library, at the intersection of West Hastings and Richards Street. un/settled by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek and Chantal Gibson (SFU) un/settled features poetry by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek and portraiture by Chantal Gibson, in collaboration with Mily Mumford and Adrian Bisek. Okot Bitek is the 2020 Ellen and Warren Tallman Writer-in-Residence with SFU’s Department of English while Gibson is an award-winning writer and artist, as well as a lecturer at SFU’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology. un/settled by ...

Otoniya Okot Bitek is a poet in the tradition of the Acholi from northern Uganda. Acholi poets, painters, singers and dancers bring people together through their art which usually involves social commentary. “The poet in the Acholi tradition, is not just someone who says the flower is beautiful because it's beautiful, but gathers people to think and talk about whatever it is they're doing and what’s happening around them,” she says. “For me, as an Acholi poet, the poem is the container, the space and opportunity for people to gather in community.” Okot Bitek began writing when she w...