Grant is a performer who has been writing and singing as long as
she can remember. After high school she did a music degree at Dalhousie
and a journalism degree at King’s. She now works at the music
department of the CBC and hosts the CBC Radio One program All The
Best. Her children’s book Up Home recently won two Atlantic Book
Awards and she is now Halifax’s third poet laureate.
The Coast: When you’re away from Halifax, what do you look
forward to seeing when you return?
Shauntay Grant: My family, definitely. We’re very close, and
we spend a lot of time together, but the summertime is when we get
outside and get to do stuff. The Public Gardens: I spent a lot of time
there as a kid. My mom used to take me and my sister to the parks all
the time. We used to feed the ducks, which you can’t do anymore. I
remember putting nuts in my hand and holding them out, and the pigeons
would come and eat them out of my hand. I spent a lot of time with my
dad at the playground at the commons. I was never really into baseball
growing up, but I used to love going to watch the games with my dad.
And I was in day camp growing up—a lot of time playing with
friends.
TC: Now that you are poet laureate, are there events or
duties—related to your work or otherwise—that you will be doing
this summer?
SG: I haven’t been asked for specific things from the city
just yet, but I am performing all the time. I do have some specific
performances coming up this summer, one of which is a series I’m doing
with Jazzfest: a marriage of spoken word and music. I’m a poet but I’m
also a musician and I’ve tried to fuse the two together. “Words +
Music” will be a four-night series that will run from July 12 to 15.
I’ll be collaborating with Marinda and Solari, and Andrew Abraham,
Hermit of the Woods—who is spoken word and heavily into hip hop—and
the other poet will be Ardath Whynacht. The poets will do a set, a band
will do a set and then they’ll have a couple songs to get together and
improvise and figure some stuff out.
TC: Will you spend your summer in town?
SG: Most of it. I’m doing a bit of a girls’ trip with
friends. We’re going to New Orleans. The other thing I love about
summer is spending more time with folks, and road trips. Definitely
looking forward to that. And a family reunion. I have three cousins
getting married, and a good friend of mine is getting married.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2009.