SONNET L’ABBÉ: MY BLACK HISTORY IS POETRY, IS JAZZ
FRIDAY, 20 FEBRUARY 2026 | DOORS AT 19:30, SHOW FROM 20:00
THIS IS A GIFT ECONOMY EVENT
Growing up with mixed Guyanese and Québécois heritage, poet Sonnet L’Abbé learned much of their Black identity through music and literature. They perform some of the Afro-diasporic music and poetry that shaped them into the writer and vocalist they are today. Nick Peck plays piano as Sonnet performs both covers and their own work.
About Sonnet
Sonnet L’Abbé is a mixed-race Black writer, professor, organizer and emerging musician of Afro-Guyanese, Indo-Guyanese, and Québecois ancestry, and the author of three collections of poetry: A Strange Relief, Killarnoe, and Sonnet’s Shakespeare. Sonnet’s Shakespeare was a Quill and Quire Book of The Year for 2019, was shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Raymond Souster Award, and longlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Their chapbook, Anima Canadensis, won the 2017 bp Nichol Chapbook Award. In 2000, they won the Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award for most promising writer under 35. In 2014, they were the guest editor of Best Canadian Poetry in English. L’Abbé lives on Vancouver Island and is a professor of Creative Writing and English at Vancouver Island University.
About Nick
Nick Peck is an award winning composer, pianist and organist from London UK. After graduating with a Master’s from London’s prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama Nick was increasingly active as a sideman, gaining valuable hands-on experience accompanying UK Jazz heros including Peter King, Derek Nash & Paul Booth in and around London and the South of England. After moving to Canada he established a new presence on the west coast, appearing clubs and festivals across the country. Along the way he has performed with Peter Bernstein, Joe Magnarelli, Nick Hempton, Terell Stafford, Oliver Gannon & Cory Weeds amongst others. He has also recorded for the Cellar Live Label. His playing is marked by his ability to shift from hard-swinging jazz to pastoral serenity to elements of the 20th/21st century piano tradition at the drop of a hat, both hands equally creative on the keyboard, in a manner that is both constantly engaging and accessible.
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