Duckweed 浮萍 ** Chinatown Book Launch ** with Kathryn Lennon, Donna Seto & Alyssa Sy de Jesus
Book Launch!
Join us for a special Chinatown launch of Kathryn Lennon's debut poetry collection, Duckweed 浮萍 (NeWest Press) at the Mon Keang School. Kathryn will be joined by Donna Seto and Alyssa Sy de Jesus for readings and conversation about diasporic language relationships and Chinatowns.
October 25 @ 1pm to 3pm.
Mon Keang School
3rd floor, Wongs' Benevolent Association
123A East Pender Street
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6A 1T6
With readings by Donna Seto and Alyssa Sy de Jesus
Moderated by Johnny Trinh
Accessibility note: Please note stairs are required to access the venue in this 1923 heritage building.
This event is free to attend. Books will be available for sale at the event (and proceeds will go to the Mon Keang School). You can also purchase them from a local bookshop like Massey's Books!
If you can't make this event (or if it is sold out), you can also catch Kathryn at a double launch along with Nisha Patel (For the Record) on October 29 at Enabling Arts (doors at 6pm, event at 6:30pm). More details here.
Alyssa Sy de Jesus | 施麗莎 is a poet of Chinese heritage in search of the worded artefacts of her family’s five generation settlement in the Philippines and eventual migration to Canada on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Previous publications: Chinatown Stories, Living Hyphen, and Ginger and Smoke. She has performed her work at various local events and festivals.
Donna Seto is an author, artist and academic from Vancouver, BC. Growing up, Donna accompanied her parents on regular ventures through the bustling streets of Vancouver’s Chinatown, where they bought groceries, ate dim sum, purchased newspapers, and visited her poh-poh. Her childhood, heritage, and long-lost passion for art influenced her new book, Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History (House of Anansi, 2025). She holds a PhD in political science and international relations but dreams of being a poet.
Johnny D Trinh is an interdisciplinary, spoken word artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Johnny is the Artistic Director of Vancouver Poetry House, Executive Director at Historic Joy Kogawa House, and Founder | Artistic Producer of Stage To Page Performance Society. Johnny’s pedagogy is rooted in the constant goal of fostering a sense of empowerment, agency, and compassion through socially engaged, community based art. Johnny recognizes that many of us are uninvited settlers on this Indigenous Turtle Island, and continually works to negotiate that through accountability, solidarity, and integrity of practice. Johnny holds a MFA Interdisciplinary Studies, is member of the League of Canadian Poets, and alumni of the Banff Spoken Word Residency and Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre Summer Intensive. “It takes a community to build an artist... whether we are nurtured by it, or resist against it.”
Kathryn Lennon 姚君妍 is a writer, editor, and community planner.
While living in Vancouver some years ago, she was pulled into Chinatown work and friendships, where she met June and Doris Chow and was a founding member of the Youth Collaborative for Chinatown. She worked with Zoe Lam and Centre A to test out an earlier iteration of the Mon Keang School's survival Cantonese classes. Kathryn is the co-founder and co-editor of Hungry Zine, a food-focused publication that centres voices missing in mainstream food media. She holds a MA from the University of British Colombia’s School of Community and Regional Planning. She has Cantonese and Irish heritage and lives in Edmonton, amiskwacîwâskahikan, within Treaty 6 Territory.
kathrynlennon.ca