Medgine Mathurin named the City of Edmonton's 11th Poet Laureate
July 2, 2025
The City of Edmonton, Edmonton Public Library and Edmonton Arts Council are pleased to announce Medgine Mathurin as Edmonton’s next Poet Laureate.
Haitian-born spoken word artist and advocate, Medgine is someone for whom the love of language and the alchemy of words comes naturally. Her multilingual upbringing (French, Creole, and English) not only encouraged her to explore the potential and magic of language but also nurtured a deep love of poetry. Her works are driven by her personal experiences, reflecting life as an immigrant, a woman with chronic illness and a voice for marginalized communities.
“Twelve-year-old me, sitting in ESL classes, would’ve never believed she’d one day become the Edmonton Poet Laureate,” said Mathurin. “I came to Edmonton 19 years ago in search of my voice — and along the way, poetry found me. It showed me that I had a voice, and that it had power. I’m incredibly honoured to give back to the city that nurtured me and to share that gift forward.”
Medgine’s work has been featured on CBC, Global TV, at SkirtsAfire Festival and at the Edmonton Poetry Festival. She received the 2023 Edmonton Artist Trust Fund Award, is a two-time award recipient from the National Black Coalition of Canada (NBCC), and the author of multilingual chapbook Waiting in the Land of the Living / Attendre dans le monde des vivants. Fueled by her commitment to merge storytelling with patient advocacy, particularly for those living with chronic illnesses, she urrently serves as Chair of the Patient and Family Advisory Committee with Health Quality Alberta, a provincial committee that promotes patient-centered care across the health system.
“For more than two decades, Edmonton’s Poet Laureate program has given voice to our collective experiences. As we look to the future, Medgine’s work reminds us that language is more than words. It’s culture, identity and a force for change,” said Mayor Amarjeet Sohi.
The role of Edmonton’s Poet Laureate is to reflect the life of the city through readings and poetry. As an ambassador for the literary arts, the Poet Laureate brings poetry into a range of official and informal city events.
Medgine will serve a two-year term as Edmonton’s Poet Laureate beginning July 2, 2025. You can learn more about the Poet Laureate program on the EAC website and at edmonton.ca/PoetLaureate. Keep informed about Medgine’s work and events by following @medginespeaks on Instagram and Facebook and by visiting her website www.medgine.ca.
At the announcement Medgine shared her poem On est toujours là (Still in Edmonton) which you can read here:
On est toujours là (Still in Edmonton)
On est toujours là, nous
Nous, qui avons la peau trop saupoudrée
du soleil d’Afrique et des Caraïbes
Nous qui avons pu emporter dans nos valises en surpoids
Notre langue française et nos souvenirs Béninois, Ivoiriens, Camerounais, Congolais et
Haïtiens
Dans un nouveau Edmonton
We arrived with overweight suitcases full of sun
Aggressively carrying memories of the red soils of the Motherland
And our Mother tongue
Still tied
Still Braised
In French, and Lingala
Français et Swahili
French and Kinyawand
Français et Créole
French and Home
Lakay
It was in this city that a new friend from Benin shared with me that she and her country celebrated the Haitian Independence because
We shared the same ancestors.
Pour le pays et nos ancêtres
That’s a story I never learned in Histwa d’Ayiti
L’em te lakay pam
L’em tap lekol primè
L’em te mete unifòm mwen
A sweet gift from the diaspora
We took as much home as we could to arrive here There were no roadmaps but
we found a way to unpack our spices
We tucked our dried hibiscus between our folded shirts To taste sorrel and bissap near Bonnie Doon
We smuggled cassava
To enjoy our Cassava Cake and Fufu Nou bwè soup joumou nou.
Près de la cité Francophone, les oncles congolais et toute leur sapologie ont trouvé un moyen de se multiplier
No liquids were allowed in our carry-on
but in our magic
We brought our palm oil
we dared to leak
Past the French Quarter to play and dance in Heritage Days, Kompa and Zouk at the Cariwest Parade
Il n’y avait pas de cartes routières, par contre, On a gardé un courage audacieux
We brought our soul to this city to make it home.
STILL in Edmonton
Still finding gems in unassuming walls
Still sitting in a park bench somewhere
Watching new families make their nest out of Edmonton sunsets
Still pretending to to feel my legs after early morning stair sessions
Near the River Valley
Still waiting for these potholes to make sense out of our taxes
Still in the un-shovelled restless roads digging ways to create Forts
To keep the ambers of our daydreams flicker
Still in Churchill Square watching B‑boys coin drop their bodies
Near the life-size checkerboard to be the change they want to see in their Edmonton worlds
Still listening to the sounds of steelpan reverberate City Hall
To remind this frozen city that there are many islands who made their homes
Here too.
Still watching African uncles gather around the fires of Tim Hortons
To tell their stories
Still in Belvedere and Abbottsfield witnessing the ways trees embrace
Each other from across the street
The same way unfamiliar hands reach the open mics
To share their voice while the crowd yells out “Breathe”
Still finding small joys in the skies with evergreen blues.
Still discovering ways to make the most out of a long temporary
Still searching for God who placed me here on purpose
Still feeling safe enough to fail forward in a city generous in second chances
