My love for creative writing began in grade school in the form of poetry. I carried a small bag with me everywhere I went, containing my favourite notebook, a couple of pens and a copy of Tupac’s “The Rose that Grew from Concrete”. Any chance I could get to write a poem, I would take it, whether at lunch break, during class, in the corner at a family party or in the middle of the night.

Later in high school, I’d immerse myself in theatre, acting lead in a few plays. This exploration turned into falling in love with spoken word, right at the intersection of written poetry and the performing arts. I found the perfect medium for me to explore my relationships with love, identity, struggle, existence, and feelings I had yet to have the language for.

This love led to learning about poetry slams, competitions between spoken word poets. I channeled all my creative energy into this space during these years. I was the champion of the inaugural Vancouver Youth Poetry Slam in 2009, and went so far as to be a finalist in the 2011 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam.

While my poetry has mostly transformed into songwriting, and my focus on winning competitions has shifted, I still continue to write poems to this day, often in response to a feeling or experience that I need to process.

I released my first poetry chapbook This, That and Whatever in 2009, and a compilation of the first decade of my writing called Moments in Rhyme, Volume One: 2009-2019.