Photo credit
Michelle Darby

Biography

Dane Swan is a Bermuda-born, Toronto-based spoken word artist, former slam poet, musician, author, and emerging editor. A former remedial English student, he is now an author of both fiction and poetry. Dane's second poetry collection, A Mingus Lullaby, was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry in 2017.

 

Preferred poetic styles: Lyrical page poetry, contemporary page poetry, dub poetry, and spoken word

Preferred subjects: Social justice, music, history, and popular culture

Influences: Saul Williams, Richard Wright, Wanda Coleman, Walt Whitman, Richard Pryor, and Lenny Bruce

Micro-interview

Did you read poetry when you were in high school? Is there a particular poem that you loved when you were a teenager?

No, I didn't read much poetry in high school. The most influential poems in my environment while in high school were rap and reggae song lyrics. Whenever I was bored in school, I would pull out a notepad and try to write my own song lyrics. I was always writing something.

When did you first start writing poetry? And then when did you start thinking of yourself as a poet?

I started writing poetry in elementary school. I was probably five or six. I didn't realize that I was a poet until I was in my twenties.

What do you think a poet’s “job” is?

A poet's job is to create a mental picture of the environment that they're in for their readers, or audience. That can be the physical space of the poet, or their mental space. Poets have historically informed the public of political turmoil, emerging issues, or even been used to create propaganda. Words have power. Being respected for your skill with words has value. An important part of being a poet is understanding that, and figuring out how you want to create spaces and conversations through the medium that you use.

If you have a poem in our anthology what inspired you to write it?

I remember seeing this moment and thinking, "Isn't protest supposed to be uncomfortable? Why do people not understand  something so simple?" So, I wrote a simple poem.

If you had to choose one poem to memorize from our anthology, which one would it be?

Kay in Summer” by Claire Harris

Poems

Publications

Title
Bending the Continuum
Publisher
Guernica Edtions
Editors
Elana Wolff
Date
2011
Publication type
Book
Title
A Mingus Lullaby
Publisher
Guernica Editions
Date
2017
Publication type
Book
Poem title(s)
Fugue
Title
Rampike Vol 19/ No 1 "Visual Poetics"
Publisher
Rampike
Editors
Karl E. Jirgens, Marissa Reaume
Date
2010
Publication type
Periodical/Magazine
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