As another year draws to a close Doc & I want to wish all our
Fabulous Friends the best of the Festive Season!
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa
and Sigóowu Kíswas from the Yukon!
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Read more: https://www.yukonpoetlaureate.com/copy-news/
As another year draws to a close Doc & I want to wish all our
Fabulous Friends the best of the Festive Season!
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa
and Sigóowu Kíswas from the Yukon!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read more: https://www.yukonpoetlaureate.com/copy-news/
Doc & I wish our Friends the best of the Festive Season
Merry Christmas - Happy New Year from the Yukon!
Sigóowu Kíswas! ~ Sigóowu Yées Táakw!
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A new poem written February 20 2020
dwight
My brother and I ended up in the system and the system wasn’t kind. Only one of us survived.
dwight
dwight was born bi-racial
at a time
when it wasn’t alright
to be bi-racial
dwight was born gay
at a time
when it wasn’t alright
to be gay
dwight’s mother
abandoned him
because she didn’t want
a bi-racial child
dwight’s foster parents
ridiculed him
because they didn’t want
a gay son
dwight's friends
beat him
because they didn't want
a fag for a friend
dwight jumped off a bridge
in vancouver in 1969
because he didn’t want
to live
he was my big brother
his name was dwight
all lives matter
©PJ Yukon February 15 2020
Today I came across an old video of an interview I did on CTV filmed in Whitehorse Yukon in 1993 the year before my formal investiture as the Yukon's first official poet laureate. *Screenshot.
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Honoured to feature in my hometown Whitehorse Yukon performing my song "Colour Me Canadian" on my 25th anniversary as Poet Laureate during Canada 150 celebrations. Thanks to: 1,000 Towns of Canada celebrating our beautiful country! https://1000towns.ca/
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December 5 2020:
Published in last night's Whitehorse Star, December 4 2020.
I wrote this poem 40 years ago and my good buddy & partner in crime Jim Robb published it in his Colourful 5% Magazine.
*The last four lines of this poem are engraved on Harry Fieke's tombstone in Whitehorse Yukon. #Yukon #Whitehorse
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December 8 2020:
Introducing my new video called FOOTPRINTS.
This song is for anyone who's ever loved a dog.
*Best viewed in full screen.
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October 15 2020:
October 7 2020:
So....
Perhaps you can’t expect to be a controversial animal rights advocate without a little blow-back. It’s clear that the Yukon doesn’t take kindly to animal rights advocates. At least not this one. Most recently:
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My initial sled dog petition signed by 2,000 people in good faith was hacked.
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The Yukon commissioner tried to pressure me into relinquishing my title as Canada’s first and longest-serving poet laureate.
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My book “it’s howlin’ time!”, dedicated to the plight of the northern sled dogs has been blackballed because I am a recognised animal rights advocate.
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The Yukon Quest 1,000-mile Death Race has announced the cancellation of the Yukon sector of the 2021 sled dog race.
And....
FACEBOOK has imposed a BAN on my official website blocking all access to and from this website from Facebook - likely due to false claims being made against me by Yukon Quest supporters. - Censorship.
I'm calling on my friends and fellow writers, artists, and animal rights advocates to support me by SIGNING & SHARING this PETITION to have the unjustified ban that Facebook has imposed on my official website removed!
*Please sign the petition telling Facebook to remove the unfounded BAN on this website!
~~> www.change.org/p/facebook-facebook-is-banning-the-yukon-poet-laureate
So they’re watching me. Let them - I know who I am. They cannot silence me. I will always serve as a voice for the sled dogs. My words will live beyond me
I remain PJ Yukon Poet Laureate ~ Animal Rights Advocate
In other news: The Yukon Quest 1,000-mile sled dog race has recently announced the cancellation of the Yukon sector of its 2021 race citing Covid-19.
But the truth is that the cancellation is more likely due to the fact that the Yukon Quest is on its knees and struggling as board members resign, sponsors drop out, prize purses shrink, and the number of participating teams continues to dwindle. The Yukon Quest is up to its ears in debt and still insisting the race will be back in 2022.
This is a small victory. The Americans are hell-bent on running the race on the Alaskan side in February calling it the ’the Summit Quest’ - subjecting the animals to some of the roughest terrain in the world, forcing them to climb over staggering mountain ranges in extreme sub-zero temperatures tackling both Rosebud Summit, a 3,640 feet peak, and Eagle Summit, a 3,652 feet-tall gap through the White Mountains of central Alaska.
The petition asking the Yukon Government to stop funding the Yukon Quest has been signed by over 141,000 people from 170 countries on all 7 continents around the world yet – the Yukon Government continues to fund this barbaric event. Please sign & share the peition. ~~>bit.ly/30IzP7n
Long distance sled dog racing will be CONDEMNED by future generations. These barbaric events need to be BANNED globally. Too many dogs have died.
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My Work in Print
September 2020: Two of my poems "Set Not Your Face in Grief" and "dwight" were recently selected to be included in the Canadian Issue of Time of the Poet Republic.
September 2020: My poem 'because i am a sled dog' and the lyrics to my song “The Heart Never Says Goodbye” have been translated into Polish and published in the latest edition of the Bez {Kres} Magazine! The lyrics to my song "The Heart Never Says Goodbye" have also been translated into Greek.
On YouTube The Heart Never Says Goodbye and because i am a sled dog.
#Yukon #SledDogs #YukonPoetLaureate #Poland
It had to happen one day!
My New Book it's howlin' time!
Treat yourself to a savory slice of Yukon straight from the Land of the Midnight Sun and a taste of the true north! it's howlin' time! chronicles the life & times of Canadian Poet Laureate PJ Yukon. Available at Mac's Fireweed Bookstore in Whitehorse: https://www.macsbooks.ca/ and on Amazon. #Yukon #Sleddogs #BanIditQuest #AnimalRights
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