Electric Mermaid Live Reads Featuring: Wendy Donawa @Char's

Electric Mermaid Live Reads Featuring: Wendy Donawa @Char's

Wednesday March 25th 2026 doors 5:30pm open mic 6-8pm

Victoria poet Wendy Donawa was raised in Victoria, but subsequently spent almost four decades in Barbados, where she studied, taught, and worked as a curator at the Barbados Museum. Returning to Vancouver Island, her focus turned to poetry. Either way, the salty air off the Salish Sea and the Caribbean’s Easterly winds make equal claim on her spirit. She is a reader for ARC Poetry Magazine and active in Victoria’s Planet Earth Poetry.  The Time of Falling Apart is her third collection of poetry.

Arleen Pare says “If you care about language, if you care about story…a strong and engaging poetic narrative…fearlessly tracks what’s at stake for almost all of us.”

Susan Alexander speaks of  “…philosophical playfulness and rich vocabulary that teaches as it pleases….such sensual pleasure here, you can almost taste her poems.”

Please visit her at www.wendydonawa.com . She’d love to read for your bookclub.

What to Expect: Whether you join the Electric Mermaid in person at Char’s Landing or via Zoom, expect to enjoy an eclectic array of open mic readers sharing brief (5 minute max) samples from their literary, and sometimes musical, works, along with a longer reading from one or more featured reader(s) sharing published, or soon to be published, work. Come engage with a dynamic and inspiring literary event that welcomes and encourages writers at all levels of development.

The Electric Mermaid is a hybrid literary event that began over 20 years ago under the banner of Words on Fire. First organized by North Island College creative writing students Fran Thiessen, Vicki Drybrough, and Libbie Morin, monthly meetings took place in Smitty’s Restaurant on 3rd Avenue in Port Alberni with reader’s voices competing with the clatter of dishes emanating from the kitchen. After a brief stint in another café, Words on Fire graduated to Char’s Landing where it persisted for a few years before its resurrection into its current iteration as Electric Mermaid, named in honour of Luma, a mermaid sculpture that illuminates the hall at Char’s. Covid pushed the event onto Zoom, and it continues to thrive as a hybrid event enjoyed by audiences live at Char’s and across Canada and beyond on Zoom.

Electric Mermaid: Live Reads from Char's Landing, Port Alberni, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada and via ZOOM !

Spoken Word Open Mic, last Wednesday of each month, Char's physical doors open 5:30pm Pacific Time, Live Reads 6-8pm

Emcee: Derek Hanebury Moderator: Karl Korven ZOOM Producer: Charlene Patterson

We also welcome you to join us via ZOOM and click this automatic ZOOM link below:

https://zoom.us/j/93236999892?pwd=N2FLZkxGMUhyTk5ySGVOenhuZFcxdz09

PRE-REGISTER and sign up for a 5-minute spot at the open mic by emailing ElectricMermaidReads@gmail.com

OR CLICK => https://events.humanitix.com/electricmermaid-livereads-charslanding-portalberni-mar25

PayWhatYouCan cover in lieu of rental to help Char's Landing support the live arts gratefully accepted with our thanks.

OR eTransfer to electricmermaidreads@gmail.com please include the event date and your email address

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Char's Landing Hall & Hostel

4815 Argyle @5th, Port Alberni, BC

all ages listening venue Kids<=6 FREE

www.charslanding.com/events

call/whatsapp/text +1 (250) 730-1636

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