Cecily Nicholson is a Canadian poet, arts administrator, independent curator, and activist. Originally from Ontario, she is now based in British Columbia. As a writer and a poet, Nicholson has published collections of poetry, contributed to collected literary works, presented public lectures and readings, and collaborated with numerous community organizations. As an arts administrator, she has worked at the Surrey Art Gallery in Surrey, British Columbia, and the artist-run centre Gallery Gachet in Vancouver.
Writing
The literary themes of Nicholson's writing include historic research, documentary poetry, and social justice. Her published works have addressed issues of environmental devastation, displacement, and dispossession as impacts of capitalism, industry, and settler-colonialism. More specifically, Nicholson explores Black diaspora and Indigenous displacement by examining historical legacies of use and ownership, racial oppression, and systemic racism while examining ways that racialized and Indigenous communities have, and continue to, work through trauma by bearing witness, sharing narratives, and resilience.
Poetry
Nicholson has published three collections of poetry.
Triage (Vancouver, BC: Talonbooks, 2011). From the Poplars (Vancouver, BC: Talonbooks, 2014). Wayside Sang (Vancouver, BC: Talonbooks, 2017).
Critical writing
Nicholson has contributed essays and poetry to publications such as Canadian Art and The Capilano Review.
A selection of her work includes: "Porch Light, A Window: How a neighbourhood storefront became a gathering place for Vancouver’s Black creative community," "'Before my book on New York, I was a painter'," "'They're all conjurors': A conversation with Deanna Bowen & Cecily Nicholson," as well as "summer barrels past," "the poem is a score."
As contributing author
Nicholson served as part of an editorial collective that worked in collaboration with educator Matt Hern and the youth community at Vancouver's Purple Thistle Center to produce an activism handbook for youth. It includes contributions by Noam Chomsky, Dan Savage, Grace Llewellyn, Astra Taylor, among others.
Stay Solid! A Radical Handbook for Youth (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2013).
Awards and recognition
2018: Nicholson received the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry at the 2018 Governor General's Awards for Wayside Sang. 2015: She was awarded the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize in 2015 for From the Poplars.
Her poetry collection Harrowings was shortlisted for the 2023 Pat Lowther Award.
Residencies
2021: Writer in Residence at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario. 2017: Ellen Warren Tallman Writer in Residence at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.
Select exhibitions
2020 The Pandemic is a Portal, SFU Galleries
Co-curated with Karina Irvine and Christopher Lacroix, this exhibition critically interrogated ideas around how community is formed and who it is formed with. In the midst of a global pandemic, participating artists considered how their responses to this time can prepare the ground for forms of community to come. The exhibition featured Sharona Franklin, S F Ho, Cecily Nicholson, Carmen Papalia, Jayce Salloum, and others.
2019 Estuary, Nanaimo Art Gallery
Co-curated by Christian Vistan and Jesse Birch, this exhibition explores estuary as a place of flux and process. The Nanaimo River Estuary, located on the traditional territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation, serves as a resource and sanctuary for its inhabitants. Legacies of industrial and colonial land practices also significantly impact this environment. Participating artists included Charlotte Zhang, Tania Willard and Steven Thomas Davies, Tau Lewis, Julia Feyrer, Elisa Ferrari and John Brennan. Nicholson's contribution to this exhibition was a poetry chapbook.
Dregs Plume (Nanaimo, BC: Nanaimo Art Gallery, 2019).