Perdita Felicien s mom Catherine was a poor young woman in St. Lucia when she was given a seemingly random, but ultimately life-changing, opportunity: to come to Canada with a wealthy white family and become their nanny. But when she gets to Canada, life is tougher than she expected, as she endures poverty, domestic violence and even homelessness. However, she still encouraged and supported her youngest daughter s athletic dreams. Felicien would go on to be a world-class hurdler and one of Canada s greatest track athletes.
My Mother s Daughter is the story of these two women, and how their love for each other got them through difficult times and changed their lives.
Louise Bernice Halfe, Canisia Lubrin and Steven Heighton to judge 2021 CBC Poetry Prize cbc.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cbc.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Renowned writer Sky Dancer, otherwise known as Louise Bernice Halfe, is Canada’s ninth parliamentary poet laureate. “It is a privilege to bring the First Peoples’ voices and stories, poetry and whatever genre they are bringing to life to the forefront,” Halfe said in a statement. The role of the parliamentary poet laureate is to write poetry for parliamentarians or for special occasions, to hold poetry readings, and to help curate the Library of Parliament’s poetry collection. The position, created in 2001, comes with a $20,000 stipend, $13,000 for travel expenses, and a budget for planning programming and translation services. An award-winning writer, Halfe won the Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize in 2017 where she was described as “an extraordinary storyteller, okihcihtâw-iskwew (a warrior woman): one whose voice emerges from profound solitude, and simultaneously opens to a vast polyphony of voices.”
Louise Bernice Halfe is appointed Canada s ninth Parliamentary Poet Laureate theturtleislandnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theturtleislandnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Louise Bernice Halfe is the type of person who remembers simple acts of kindness, such as the Grade 2 teacher who sent home a bag of high-heeled shoes for her mother – even though she and her family lived in a log shack in the bush.
Ms. Halfe, who was given a Cree name by an elder that loosely translates to “Sky Dancer” in English, also remembers the Coke she was offered by a stranger who spotted her in a hotel lobby when she was a child – a gesture that followed a painful incident with family that saw Ms. Halfe running to try to report violence to police.