Queen Gallery Poetry Night XIII
Open Stage night of poetry and music 

Feature: Patrick de Belen 
Host: Bänoo Zan 

Time: Tuesday, December 17th, 2013 
Place: Queen Gallery, 382 Queen Street East, Toronto

Doors open: 6:15 p.m. 
Sign-up for the open mic: 6:30 p.m.
Start: 7 p.m.

Donations: PWYC ($5 & up)


We are very excited to announce our thirteenth feature, Patrick de Belen, a talented young poet and poetry organizer: 

Patrick de Belen is a speaker, storyteller, youth worker, spoken word artist and a lover of words.

Patrick’s experiences in the spoken word community and the urban culture are unparalleled. At 16, Patrick first emerged into the music scene, playing acoustic guitar, vocals and harmonica at various venues across Toronto. Through writing and preforming his own music, and his ongoing love for urban literature, he’d taken a particular interest in lyrics and poetry. Just a year later, he had competed at a local poetry slam; “Up from the Roots” organized by Dwayne Morgan, and earned a spot to represent Toronto at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW). In the following two years, Patrick has gone on to represent Toronto for 3 straight years, became the alternate slam champion of CFSW 2011, and was a finalist in biggest slam poetry competition in Toronto, “TIPS: Toronto’s International Poetry Slam”. 

Today, Patrick is now currently the youngest Canadian Spoken Word Poet to carry the National Championship title (CFSW 2012), the Up from the Roots 2012 slam poetry champion of Toronto, The YouthCanSlam 2013 Poet of Honour, studying arts and music management at Harris institute for the arts, an administrator for the Fundamental Learning Academy for Girls (F.L.A.G), Owner and CEO of The Process Education, Creator and Youth Leader for Viewpoint Youth, a member of the “Up from the Roots” Production team under Dwayne Morgan, a member of Toronto Poetry Project, Director of BAM! Youth Poetry Slam, teacher of the PSL (Poetry is our Second Language) course held at Kapisanan Centre for Filipino Arts and Culture and a lead facilitator of his by-weekly drop-in writing workshop for youth “The Process”. 

Catch him touring high schools, spreading his lecture series, hanging with youth at Viewpoint, or performing his favourite pieces in venues all across the dot.