The world’s a bit of a mess right now, but for one afternoon, let’s trade in our existential dread for some deep belly laughs.
Join comedic powerhouses Sasha Mark, Savannah Erasmus, Tin Lorica and Myriam LaCroix as they serve up wit, whimsy, and just the right amount of chaos. Hosted by Word Vancouver’s resident giggle wranglers: Kayla MacInnis and Candie Tanaka.
Location: Room C400, UBC Robson Square
Sponsored by: Word Vancouver
Moderators: Kayla MacInnis, Guest Indigenous Curator and Candie Tanaka, Guest LGBTQIA2S+ Curator
Readers: Sasha Mark | Savannah Erasmus | Myriam LaCroix, How It Works Out (Penguin Random House) | Tin Lorica, Soft Armour (Rahila’s Ghost Press)
About The Moderators
Kayla MacInnis
Kayla MacInnis is a Métis storyteller with Red River roots on her father’s side, and Scottish through her maternal grandfather, and Ukrainian/Polish through her maternal grandmother. Born in the prairies and raised by the sea, her work lives at the intersection of the visual and the written, exploring how stories dwell not only in words, but in the body, in colour, in fabric, and in the land. She is currently completing her Master’s in English at Simon Fraser University with a focus on print culture, and hopes to pursue a PhD and eventually teach. Alongside her academic work, she is a freelance writer and photographer and a research assistant with The People and the Text. Rooted in a phenomenology of seeing, Kayla’s work considers how experiences shape our perception of the world and how storytelling can recreate those impressions beyond language. Her practice moves across journalism, academia, poetry, sound design, film, and other experimental forms that translate memory and embodiment into sensory experience. She is currently working on her first poetry collection, The Deepest Blue, a mixed-medium book blending poetry with photography, indigo dyeing, sashiko embroidery, cyanotype printing, and tactile texture. In all her work, Kayla moves toward stories that are not only read, but felt.
Candie Tanaka
Candie Tanaka is a multiracial trans writer, artist and librarian challenging the binaries continually reconstructed between self and other while exploring archive and memory in a socio-political context. They are a creative writing graduate of The Writer’s Studio program at Simon Fraser University and have a BFA in Intermedia from Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design. Their first YA book, Baby Drag Queen was published with Orca Books in April 2023 and was a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. They’ve also published work in Resonance: Essays on the Craft of Life and Writing with Anvil Press and This Will Only Take A Minute: Canadian Flash Fiction with Guernica Editions. Forthcoming publications include an essay in the Queer Country Crossroads Anthology with Caitlin Press in October 2025.
About The Readers
Sasha Mark
Sasha Mark (he/him/they/them) is a Cree-Métis stand up comedian from Treaty 1 territory, but now is residing on so called “Vancouver”. He has done work with the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, OutTV, Just For Laughs Vancouver and is most known for their work on APTN. He is the host of the Sasha Ha Ha Show and also co hosts Camp! Comedy a comedy and drag cabaret show.
Savannah Erasmus
Savannah Erasmus (she/her/hers) is an Indigenous comedian and writer based in Vancouver, from Kikino Metis Settlement and Cold Lake First Nation, in Treaty 6 Territory. Her Indigenous perspective creates a fresh and unique stand up persona that audiences adore. She co-hosts and co-produces Camp Comedy and Millennial Line and has appeared at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, Just For Laughs Toronto, and Just For Laughs Vancouver.
Myriam Lacroix
Myriam Lacroix is the author of How It Works Out. She has a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and an MFA from Syracuse University, where she was editor in chief of Salt Hill and received the New York Public Humanities Fellowship for creating Out-Front, an LGBTQ+ writing group whose goal was to expand the possibilities of queer writing. She currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Tin Lorica
Tin Lorica is a queer non-binary comedian and writer based in Vancouver. They have been featured on Season 2 of CBC's The New Wave of Stand-up, Season 1 of Killjoy Comedy on OUTtv, as well as on Just for Laughs Originals' comedy compilation album, Stand-up BC: Grossly Underfunded Circus. They have opened for their queer icon faves Bob the Drag Queen, Joel Kim Booster, ALOK, and others.
