Monday, February 23, 2026
Doors at 6:30 PM
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM MT
Kensington Legion
1918 Kensington Road NW
Calgary

*Open Mic sign-ups for readings from banned books will begin at 6:30 PM after doors have opened.

Join us at the Kensington Legion this February during Freedom to Read Week 2026 where we will be joined by our featured panel guests Tracy Dawson, Uche Umezurike, and our moderator Rosemary Griebel to chat, followed by an audience open mic where we invite you to read from your favourite banned book! Books will also be available for purchase.

About our Guests

Rosemary Griebel is a poet and librarian who grew up in Treaty Six territory. In addition to her collection of poetry, Yes, her award-winning poems have appeared in The Best Canadian Poetry in English, as well as on CBC Radio, literary magazines, chapbooks, and anthologies. Through Rosemary’s work as a public librarian, she has been involved in monitoring censorship and coordinating Freedom To Read events.

Tracy Dawson is an award-winning actress, screenwriter and author and the current writer-in-residence at the University of Calgary. Her book, Let Me Be Frank: A Book About Women Who Dressed Like Men to Do Shit They Weren’t Supposed to Do was published in 2022 by HarperCollins. BuzzFeed called it “An entertaining, astonishing collection…wholly inspiring,” and actress and author Amber Tamblyn called it, “Fucking hilarious.” 
Dawson was both a writer and lead actor on the Canadian television series, Call Me Fitz and she won the Gemini Award and the Canadian Screen Award for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on that show. She currently has a variety of projects in development, while also working on her next book.

Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and the 2025-2026 Wayne O. McCready Emerging Fellow at the Calgary Institute for the Humanities, University of Calgary, Canada. He is the author of literary works, such as there’s more (2023), Double Wahala, Double Trouble (2021), Wish Maker (2021/2025), and a co-editor of Please Don’t Interrupt (2025) and Wreaths for a Wayfarer (2020). His latest poetry book, We Survived Until We Could Live, is out in April 2026.

This event is co-sponsored by The Writers’ Union of Canada and the Writers’ Guild of Alberta.