Barbara Adler poet, performer

Barbara Adler doesn't faze easily. In her ten years of touring, she has told stories, performed poetry, and played her accordion all over North America and Europe. She's appeared in every conceivable variation of bar, night club, high school, coffee shop, theater, folk festival, hockey rink, living room, elementary school classroom, and converted art gallery\church\tattoo-parlor. Quick-witted, warmly funny, and charmingly adventurous, Barbara Adler travels well.

Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Barbara first started writing and performing for the Vancouver Poetry Slam. She's been a Canadian Team Slam Champ, a CBC PGI Laureate and a CBC Poetry Face Off Winner. She also tied with Allison Boyce and Katie Marsh to win the "Be the Best You Can Be" award in Grade 7. As a founding member of the critically acclaimed folk band, The Fugitives, Barbara has helped bring spoken word to musical audiences around the world. She continues that work with her own band, Fang, which combines disastrously energetic word and song mash-ups, with an idiosyncratic take on accordion playing meant to make you forget anything Polka has ever done to you.

Barbara performs and teaches spoken word in schools across Canada, and works extensively with literacy organizations in British Columbia to bring poetry to teens and adult learners all over the province. She is the schools liaison and lead presenter of the B.C. Schizophrenia Society's ReachOut Psychosis concert tour, which has shared its message with over 85, 000 high school students in British Columbia. She has led workshops at the VPL Book and Writing Summer Camp, and is a mentor for the Vancouver East Cultural Center's Youth Spoken Word Intensive. Her latest storytelling project, The B.C. Memory Game, collects, creates and shares stories from her travels.

For more information about Barbara and her work, visit: www.badler.ca

For more information about the Vancouver Poetry House, visit: vancouverpoetryhouse.com

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