Arienette Zak

A new challenge as St. Albert’s latest Poet Laureate

When Arienette Zak first went to a poetry open mic in the ninth grade she didn’t necessarily think she would be making a life-altering decision.

“I had written poems as a kid and my father was a poet, so I kind of had a bit of a background in it. It was nothing new. But standing there with a bunch of high school poets, something struck me. I decided to make up a poem on the spot at the microphone. I remember bits and pieces, and I’ll just say I’m really glad that smartphone recordings weren’t the thing back then.”

Arienette Zak

How times have changed. Zak now has to contend with smartphones and cameras whenever she steps out in her position as Poet Laureate of St. Albert, a position she took over in April of 2024, and which she’ll hold for a two-year term. As a cultural and literary ambassador for the city, Zak will be present at civic functions and public poetry events, adding a little verbal flair to the proceedings.

Having spent most of her young life in St. Albert, the 24-year-old poet is thrilled to represent the community. She points to the city’s rich history, architecture, and relationships with the arts as having a great effect on her. ln fact, she thinks of St. Albert as a city with a great deal of ambition in terms of how it sees itself, citing its city hall as an example.

“It was a very ambitious project and it had a kind of commitment to the arts because it has this multidisciplinary space with a museum, a performing theater, a pottery studio, and a city hall,” she says of the complex designed by renowned architect Douglas Cardinal. “It’s all contained in one building. I think that shows a vision that some other communities might not really have.”

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It’s a signal honor to be declared Poet Laureate, and Zak is well aware that the duties involved in the job will take her a little beyond the usual processes behind writing poetry.

“It’s certainly something that I feel is going to challenge me. The idea of writing to open city events and things like that is very different from my usual process and my usual kind of subject. I’m excited for that challenge. I’m also excited about the unfamiliar parts and also feeling fairly confident about the parts that I feel like I have some degree of mastery over. I think being Poet Laureate is a chance to kind of forcibly be taken out of the usual territory and that’s a good thing.”

Arienette Zak

Zak has certainly participated in the usual literary territory in her time. She’s been in the Edmonton Poetry Festival, Edmonton Fringe, Amplify, Illuminate, Skirtsafire, as well as the St. Albert Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts. She’s written a number of chapbooks, including one with former city Poet Laureate Julia Sorenson called “to love and to be loved,” but lately she’s been focusing on a synthesis between her words and music, which she started experimenting with back in 2020 with Sorenson.

A lot of my focus over the last few years has been ensuring that kids have that space where they can express themselves, When you live in a small community, the art scene is very dependent on just a few people making it happen.

                                                               Arienette Zak

“Mixing words with physical instruments was really, really a joy to do,” she says. “There’s also an electronic project I’ve been working on as well, plus a project with a double bassist that I’m looking ahead to in the future. I think that’s something that I’m very interested in moving towards as I go along.”

As much as Zak is feeling the pull towards music, she’s still very much a wordsmith, and words are where it all begins. When inspiration hits, she sets aside time to chase after the thought that’s just gone past, whether in actual writing or taking notes. That’s why, among the many iPhone reminders about passwords, groceries, or appointments, there are fragmented thoughts that she hopes to flesh out in the future.

“There’ll be stuff like ‘throwing darts, throwing 20s onto the dartboard of your ego.’ Things like that. And when you get kind of the wave where it’s like, ‘I need to write right now,’ and you have lines you can integrate as needed. Sometimes you hold onto the line for a really long time, and sometimes the line defines the poem. Sometimes the line is just kind of shoehorned in and just gives you a little direction. But generally, it’s a very spontaneous process. I usually have a first draft done the first time I sit down to write it, and then I retool. But I’ve been writing long enough that I feel like I have enough command over how
I write, and editing is fairly minor.”

Zak now lives and works in Edmonton, but she still feels the pull back home. She’s very much involved in the Paul Kane and Bellerose fusion that is STARK (St. Albert Rose Kane) Poets, where she mentors the younger generation of poets coming up, and she still works with Paul Kane instructor Karen May Healey, who gave Zak a great deal of encouragement when starting out. It’s a short drive up north for Zak to continue the work of growing a small but dedicated group of new poets. 

“A lot of my focus over the last few years has been ensuring that kids have that space where they can express themselves,” she says. “When you live in a small community, the art scene is very dependent on just a few people making it happen. When I started it was just in the library with Karen and I working on this project together, and now Karen and I are working alongside a few other people because we think this space needs to exist. It’s something that we had, and it’s something I want the youth who are coming up to have as well.” t8n