Inspirational Canadian spoken word performer Shane Koyczan in Revelstoke Oct. 23

Metaphorical genius Shane Koyczan has a way with words, weaving a fascinating tapestry that has revived and realigned the spirit of poetry in a modern, techno-focused world.

Poetry should make you think, feel, and be inspired and Yellowknife native Koyczan, does that well. His art is multi-dimensional with videos and background music put to his searing verses.

Revelstoke will have a chance to see this internationally renowned master on Friday Oct. 23 at the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre.

Koyczan’s work comments on a number of current cultural, societal and political happenings. An example of this is his poem released just before the Canadian election, which is a damning summary of prime minister Stephen Harper’s reign in Canada.

Titled The Cut, Koyczan’s poem rips into the Harper government’s policies of ignoring climate change and introducing expensive distractions with pandas.

Koyczan has recently released his latest album Debris with his band The Short Story Long. The single For Many answers the question: if you could change anything about your body, what would it be?

Check out the video:

Koyczan reflects on our cultural fascination with one idealized concept of beauty and said he was inspired to write For Many after receiving a letter from an eight year old boy.

“Over the course of my life I’ve seen that we attach ourselves to standards,” he said.

“That in itself is not a bad thing. Standards are important. They’re part of how we learn to elevate ourselves above ideas that we’ve outgrown. The problem is that those same standards can become anchors. They can be what holds us back from evolving further.

“So we must be constantly resetting our standards so we can pull ourselves forward and help ourselves move away from concepts that no longer serve us. Beauty has always been a strange standard. How can we make uniform something that everyone has their own opinion of? The danger in allowing beauty to continue being a standard is that it then becomes the way we assign value to people. I wrote this piece as a way to speak to that.”

Box Office: Tickets: $30. Buy tickets online and access online discounts here. Enter promo code revmountaineer for a special online-only 5% discount.

Check out the Revelstoke Mountaineer’s guide to the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre’s loaded winter season of events.

The Revelstoke Mountaineer and the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre have partnered to provide two free tickets to the show! Click ‘Enter Now’ on the box below to enter before Oct. 21!