SeeThruZoo is a shapeshifting, genre-bending, and freewheeling mixture of poetry, rock, jazz, and electroacoustic idioms. The band combines electronic drums and instruments with synthesizers connected via MIDI and control voltage signals to produce cohesive yet unique soundscapes, offering lyrical explorations of contemporary life as seen through the human zoo. They have recently returned from touring Mexico City and surrounding areas. Their albums, released as music videos, can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/@seethruzoo.
Location: HSBC Hall, UBC Robson Square
Sponsored by: Vancouver Public Library
Readers/Musician: Kedrick James | Derek Gladwin | Ernesto Peña
About The Readers/Musician
Derek Gladwin
Derek Gladwin is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he teaches in the Department of Language and Literacy Education and is a Faculty Associate in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability. He co-founded UBC’s Systems Beings Lab and the Collaborative Transdisciplinary PhD in Energy Transition. A former UBC Sustainability Fellow and Catalyst Scholar in the Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, his research explores how education can support societal transformation—through energy literacy, socio-ecological awareness, regenerative learning models, and arts-based inquiry. He is the author or editor of eight books, including Ecological Exile (2018), Rewriting Our Stories (2021), and Becoming Ecological (forthcoming, 2025). He also serves as Senior Editor for Environmental & Sustainability Education in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.
Ernesto Peña
Ernesto Peña is a Mexican-Canadian designer, researcher, and educator. He is currently an Associate Professor of Design at Northeastern University’s College of Arts, Media and Design in Vancouver. His work (both scholarly and creative) explores transmediation, glitch, noise, and other non-normative forms of expression and scholarship.
KEDRICK JAMES
Kedrick James is a poet, spoken word and multimedia artist, musician, and software developer. His projects include PhoneMe, a progressive web app for place-based spoken poetry and Singling, a text-sound sonification software. He works as a Professor and Director of the UBC Okanagan School of Education in the City of Kelowna, BC. With co-author Derek Gladwin, the book Becoming Ecological explores the role of language in addressing environmental sustainability, and is coming out in December 2025 from University of Toronto Press.
